I shot my Hawken tonight after leaving it loaded for 3 days. When I shot it it had almost no kick and I have no idea where the conical went. I am shooting 80 gr pyrodex FFG pushing a maxi hunter. Why would this happen? I shot 4 more loads and they where normal (unfortunately my shooting was normal and in need of practice as well). It rained light to first day out and snowed lightly the next day out.

I know there is a big discussion about leaving loads in but this may be a reason to unload every night.

Thanks in advance for your assistance
Eric

It is possible that part of the powder was contaminated. You will know more if when you clean the rifle the barrel has a lot of unburned or chunk powder in it....

And that is why a lot of us unload every night and then clean them. I know tonight when I came out of the woods I thought... should I leave the charge or shoot it and clean it... Well it did not take much to clean have only one round put through it. I clean them every night.

Interesting...what you described sounds like there was no conical in there at all.

Thanks guys

there was a conical in there and I had taped over the muzzle. but because of the rain and the snow I believe it may have been contaminated powder. After the extra shots there was not excessive powder in there but that may have shot out in the next rounds.

Have a great hunt

It's likely the powder on the muzzle-end below the bullet got wet.... like a large portion of it -- due to probably having the muzzle slightly tilted upward or open to the weather while sitting.