Leaving Muzzleloader Loaded for a week?
 

I plan to go up opening weekend and if I want to leave the gun loaded for the next week, Can I do this without any problems, or should I just removed the bullet and pellets? The gun is a TC Omega with two pellet charges.

You can leave it loaded for a year if it was loaded on a clean barrel. If the bore was fouled before loading, I wouldn't leave it loaded for more that two or three days in dry weather, or one day in damp weather.

If you can keep the rifle where there will be no temperature changes it should be ok, however, if the temp changes from warm to cold or vise versa there is a good chance the barrel will sweat, making your powder wet and making a problem to unload and reload. I just saw this happen with a guy who had left a load in his percussion rifle, we were on a hunt and the day before he went out to make sure it was still on target and all he got was caps going off. He removed the nipple and he had mush in the barrel. Better to shoot it, clean it and reload the day you hunt than to take a chance.

I usually sight in, clean thoroughly and shoot a primer then load and leave it for the whole 9 day season unless I have to shoot it. It has never given me any problems.

I use BH209, leave it loaded all season, but I leave it in the truck so there is no temp fluctuation. Never had a problem.

Thanks for the tip guys. The only temp change will be from outside to inside, but then once left in the house for a week the temperature will be fairly steady.

let you gun acclimate to the out side temp run a patch down the barrel then load it and don't bring it back into the warm house or even car leave it where it will stay a consistent temperature or it will get condensation in it and the barrel will probably rust. if your not sure it's best to unload and clean it.

All it would take to have a problem is what you mentioned. I have an older percussion cap 50 caliber rifle and once I load it to go hunting the gun stays loaded in my unheated garage since MI considers it unloaded as long as the cap is removed before transport in a vehicle. I've left it loaded for a month in the garage and have had no problem with it firing. I use 95 grains of loose Triple 7. Taking yours into your heated house while it's loaded is just asking for trouble the next time you take it out.

If you take that gun from the cold outside to the warm inside it will sweat and you may just end up wet powder. What is the big deal about shooting out the load and cleaning it so you start with a fresh load? It isn't like it is strenuous work. But then if you want to take the chance, it is your call.

My loaded and unprimed ML stays in an unheated garage or cellar between hunting trips. I have never had a misfire other than once with an old TC 54 with #11 caps that I didn't run a cap through after a field cleaning on the range.

My .58 was loaded back on Oct 15th or so. Still loaded and I will be taking it out hunting about the 20th of this month. Not worried.

I load my gun on a clean barrel and leave it loaded until I either shoot a deer or the season is over. Never had an issue with ignition or rust, even with pyrodex and #11's.

And fwiw, I'm not saying that you couldn't have a problem going from cold to hot... but in my experience its a non issue - at least in my knight inlines w/ss barrels.

I used to think that going from cold to warm (or hot) was taboo because it was all I'd ever heard in the 25+yrs of ML'ing. But after an unofficial experiment I conducted a couple years ago and doing this dozens of times over a couple month period, I had no rust or ignition issues. And this was going from sometimes single digits outside, into my woodstove heated basement (prob 75* or more). Personally, it doesn't worry me one bit anymore. I couldn't get a more drastic temp range, and if that didn't cause a problem, I don't know what will. And it wasn't one or two times... it was ALOT.
I'd always heard everyone say... never do that, its almost a guarantee of either ignition issues, or rust. Interestingly, I never had anyone tell me they actually HAD an issue doing this.

I'm not saying do what I do...but wanted to let you know my experience. My .02 fwiw

unofficial test thread

WV, higher humidity areas succumb to "sweating" problems with temperature variations. I've brought rifles in after being out in the cold (and around here it gets freaking COLD!) and could sit there and watch the water bead up on my barrel. It's also a problem if you are running a humidifier in the house.

Id unload it if it were me. The temp change from going outside to inside is going to make the barrel sweat, which could foul your charge.
Would it be fine? Maybe but do you really want to take the chance if the buck of a lifetime walks in front of you and your gun misfires?

I hear ya super_hunt... and I won't say we are super high humidity where I live (VA) but we are definitely an avg to moderately humid area. I'm sure the woodstove heat which is drier, helps. But.. many times I have done this over the years when my woodstove has not been running, and still have not had an issue. It will flash up immediately when I walk in, but never had any beads of water form like you said.
We aren't typically as cold as some area's...in Dec often in the colder winters we get down into single digits. The past two winters has been quite cold for our area. I'm hoping this year is a "normal" year.

Like I said, not advocating anything...just reporting what I've seen where I am.

I agree with WV Hunter and share the same thoughts about the subject. This thread has opened my eyes to the issue and I will certainly be cautious about temperature variations in the future. There is a ton of experience in this forum and I would be foolish to just ignore it.

I fire 3 primers and dry swab before laoding up. It stays loaded all season unless I get the opportunity to fire. I also leave the gun in the garage once exposed to cold air. If you are going to bring it in the house, definetly unload. As long as it stays cold enough that condensation will not form (garage, cellar, truck, etc...) you should be fine. If you unload, do not attempt to reuse the same pellets.

I learned the hard way. Single digit tempuratures for a Michigan morning hunt and was so cold I brought the gun into the warm mud room. Went out for the evening hunt, pulled the trigger on a big doe and... delayed fire, bullet went 15 yards and it looked like fireworks came out the end of the barrell. Condensation corrupted the powder. Old quote: "keep your powder dry".

there are many different thoughts about the moisture going from cold to hot or hot to cold.
My thought is that the moisture comes from the air circulating against metal that is a different temperature. I seal my barrel with saran wrap and a rubber band and rub a small amount of beeswax on the 209 and use Teflon plumbers tape on the BP threads.
I hunt or have hunted many different parts of the country and Canada and I have had to wipe off the out side of the guns when moisture beaded on them. But have never had a problem with ignition.
P.S. I keep a fired 209 to seal it when in car or building.

What moisture?
 

OK, I suppose I'm going to ruffle a few more feathers, but just how is moisture supposed to get to the powder charge? Moisture collecting on the outside of the metal will have no effect on what's going on inside the barrel! The powder is sealed by the bullet and sabot, or patch, or whatever, at one end, and by the cap at the other. Some folks go as far as to seal the cap with bullet lube. A flintlock can be sealed at the flashhole with a toothpick, which also serves as a "loaded gun" indicator.

Whatever moisture is in the powder can't get out, nor can any more get in.

OldBob

Hold a bullet/sabot in a barrel upto a light sometime. Its hardly sealed. You would need a hammer to load a sabot that measured full groove diameter.

What he said.

Pull your breech plug and ram home a sabot and bullet. There are perforations all around the sabot. There is nothing sealed about it,

Someone did some Testing with BH209 on one of the boards where they soaked a load in water. Towel,dried it and loaded it, it went bang with zero problems.

You can load BH209 and shoot it all season and leave it dirty and clean it at the end of the season, with most muzzleloading seasons lasting no more than 2 or three weeks there is NOT a better smokeless substitute muzzle loading propellant made.

Oldbob, take a piece of pipe, put pipe caps on it if you like, put it in the freezer for a day, then take it out and let it sit in a heated room for a couple of hours, take off the caps and look inside the pipe, you will see moisture. Moisture is in the air, there is air inside your barrel unless you live in a vacum. when warm temp hits cold steel, moisture is the result.

I would not leave BH209 fouling in the bore for long periods. Under the right conditions it will cause rust. Ive done it for a couple days in SS bore with no ill effects. In high humudity, no way. You are asking for a rusted bore.

Unfired, no problem. Ive left BH209 loaded for weeks on a clean bore. Never seen even the slightest amount of corrosion.

I've used BH209 in stainless Encore platform rifles since BH came out. I've fired two primers, fired to fouling shots, then loaded the rifle for up to two (2) weeks, in weather that could change from 50° and downpours, to the next day 25° and 6" of snow. Not a single time, never, notta, did I ever have a speck of rust inside any of my barrels. Taking a rifle inside and then outside can be a problem for many, especially using other propellants. Leave your case in the cold, then put the rifle in the case (after wiping down the rifle with an oiled rag), then put it into the case before taking it into the garage. The cold case will help protect the rifle and it will warm slowly. I know many shooters who foul and then leave their rifles loaded for up to two weeks, with no rust problems.

I will say this, do what you feel is right for yourself and your rifle.

Smokeless in a savagel MLII you can go as long as you can go with any center fire without cleaning.

with BH209 a couple of weeks of Hunting season is not going to have any ill effects from condensation or moisture.

I would NOT try that with any other propellant on the market, NONE!

True, oh so true.

The good thing about the pitting the Blackhorn fouling causes, is it doesn't seem to affect accuracy much.

Is it real?
 

Gm54-120,

I dunno if this simulates an actual loaded condition, or even if you can simulate such a condition. The possible compression of air within the barrel, plus the eventual compression of the powder, might flare the very edge of a sabot enough to cause a seal. This would be more possible with shallow rifling, of course. But if you did this, then removed the breech plug and powder, this might allow the sabot to "relax." Its plastic, after all. I can't think of a way to prove this.

OldBob

Another theory down the drain.
 

Oldtimr,
There's an experiment I can do! I'm about to reroute some plumbing. All I need is an end cap. I won't seal the threads. I need to do some measuring before final assembly, anyway. Might do it this weekend, I'll report back.

OldBob

Leave it in the warm air long enough for the steel to change temp. All you have to do though to prove it is take a look at an air conditioner condenser, warm air on a cold surface makes moisture, that is why your air conditioner produces water.

I shoot my MLs every day. Not because I find it necessary to keep innards dry. It's because I love to shoot my MLs.

Only thing is...... don't shoot it within a mile or two of where you park your butt in the woods. Here in northern lower Michigan, open state land is everywhere. Hardest part is finding a thick, damaged tree to shoot at. I never shoot at small, live animals or if at-all possible, hang a target on live, healthy trees.

Lastly, the nice part of having Birchwood-Casey 2 In 1 Bore Scrubber is, besides it being relatively odorless, is that it contains a small portion of rust inhibitor in it. So all that's necessary when swabbing it at camp, is 3-4 patches for cleaning and drying the barrel for the next day's hunt.

I will not trust Blackhorn 209 to keep my barrel corrosion-free either, not here in high humidity Great Lakes region...... no sirreee.

My wife rusted the heck out of a M96 by bringing it inside on a very cold day and leaving it in the case. I pulled it out of the case the same day and we were able to restore its original state with lots of elbow grease and oil. If left any longer than that the effects would most likely have been tragic.

I am currently purchasing some very nicely figured MINT stocks that came off of a 760. The gun was purchased and stored in the cab of a truck for an entire season. Although the donor rifle was barely used the barrel is completely rust pitted.

I would not discount the effects of condensation on a firearm.

unless you end up in a place that doesn't allow you to shoot i don't fully understand what is wrong with just discharging the firearm between hunts?? most people don't shoot enough to begin with.

post not intended for Pyrodex users....

I'm with you Johnny. But every shot only costs me less than a dollar. Some folks buy expensive bullets and use expensive pellet powder. Costs them 3X more per shot than me. That's a reason why they prefer to stay loaded day-to-day.

Other folks feel they must do a complete cleaning after shooting at the end of the day. If we use the less corrosive powders and proper wet patch-spray that contains a small amount of rust inhibitor in it, you can do it in two patches....... one wet and one dry. No need to do a complete cleaning.

I shoot my MLs everyday, sometime for an entire week without a tear-down, having used 777, American Pioneer, real black and now currently Blackhorn 209. Plus I hunt in the humid Midwest. The only time I go beyond one wet patch per day is if it's snowing or raining.

all the answers to this may or not be correct it just depends on each circumstance. usually you can get away with not cleaning and i try it more often out here in the west but not as much in the north east !! i have no problem taking the time to clean my guns and they are all spotless the only bad part is i shoot whites and we all know about the squib load issue and i hate having to shoot a couple of primers off and then the squib load at 4am that's the only thing that prevents me from cleaning every night !!

I hunt from dark to dark and don't clean my inlines bore unless I have shot the load at game. If I'm not hunting again the following morning, I pull the breach plug and retrieve the bullet/sabot for later use.

a reasonable excuse right there.
i generally hunt first light and i'm too picky so there's plenty of time for me to work on shooting paper later in the day lol.