RE: Covering the end of the muzzle
 

I think I can tell wthout hesitation - water will make it by your sabot and into the powder if given enough time. It runs right down the rifling, it has happened to me in both my inlines and side hammers...

I to use the finger cots and have found them to be excellent... "Quickdotoo" has suggested that he doesn't use them because brush can pull them off - it can but, I have been real forunate and it hasn't happened to me (knock-on-wood). Recently my Remington spent 3 weekends in the worst Idaho weather I can thinks of - except for freezing- at the end of the 3 week, the end of regular Elk season with the same load in the barrel, I touched her off becuase i need to switch loads to my whitetail and "wala" went off just fine broke the heck out of a basalt rock at 75 yards.

RE: Covering the end of the muzzle
 

The foam ear plugs have less tension than tape would. You can blow them out of the barrel with our mouth with almost no effort. I'm not talking about sticking a rubber plug in the the end of the thing. I balloon would work better at keeping moisture out though.

And I hunt out of a weather tight blind any way, the foam plug is only in the gun until I get in the blind, then I take it out until I'm ready to leave again.

Has any one had any trouble with the balloon melting to the end of the barrel after you shoot? Or is it gone before the muzzle blast get there?

Paul

RE: Covering the end of the muzzle
 

CVA makes a black rubber condom for the end of muzzleloaders, but that might be for when you are just out screwing around. ;)

RE: Covering the end of the muzzle
 

No, they're burst/blown off, usually leaving the "end rim" of the muzzlemitt still around the barrel an inch back from the muzzle.

(when you unroll a muzzle-mitt (fancy finger cot) over the muzzle, they have sort of a thicker end-edge like the end of a balloon does...and after a shot, the violence has blown the body of the muzzlelmitt apart so fast the end-rim is left still sitting there