charlie (ky)

fire off the last shot or pull the ball?

cayugad

I am not sure I understand... if you mean during the hunting season can you leave the rifle loaded.. sure if you take steps to make sure condensation does not form in the barrel and kill the powder charge. If your not sure of how to do this, shoot it off every night and clean it.

If you mean hunting season is over and the rifle is still loaded... Of course I shoot the rifle off, clean it, and put it away until the next time I want to shoot. I would never leave my rifle loaded after a hunting season or for that matter a day of hunting if I did not need to....

roundball

I'm from the school which believes in unloading a rifle after every day's hunt...and I never 'fire' off the rifle to do that...I either pull the ball or blow it out with compressed air

bigbuck15

id say fire it off ...regardless on if i would get a deer or not..i still clean it at the end of each hunting season..

Triple Se7en

Charlie

The only safe way to pull the bullet is dousing the powder in water beforehand if you don't own a CO2. Doing so creates a cleaning mess so you may-as-well fire it off. Don't leave it in for next year... too risky for moisture that may have settled-in while you were hunting.

Ruger-Redhawk

Our BP season is 6 days. I hunt in Georgia.I'll load mine the night before and keep it loaded the entire 6 days,unless I'm lucky enough to get a shot.At the end of the short season,I'll shoot the charge out and throughly give the rifle good cleaning.Last season I did make a big mistake.It was raining most of that week. The first day I shot a 5 point. I reloaded before coming out of my climber without cleaning it.It was a combination of a couple things.Not cleaning it after the shot and removing the Red Jacket when putting it in my 4 wheelers gun case.When I went to shoot it out, 4 or 5 209's later I pulled the breech plug and has a gooey mess.I have since taken a half dozen Red Jackets and filled the primer pocket with RTV Silcone to seal the rifle after removing the live primer.I will never reload before cleaning the rifle after a shot in the field.

Ruger Redhawk

rick_reno

Unload it. This year I didn't get to fire mine during our short ML elk season and I unloaded it using compressed air. I'd never used the air gizmo, and I figured that little compressed air cylinder wasn't going to push that big bullet (54 caliber Maxi-ball) out. Stepped outside, hooked it up and WOW - the bullet not only came out it shot across my lawn and flew about 20 feet before hitting a small hill I'd pointed it at. I'm impressed.

roundball

Regarding the reference to pulling a ball...I've probably pulled a couple dozen balls per season for 15 years...I have the vent (or nipple) sealed so there's no possibility of an external ignition source, I use a non sparking ball puller made for this very purpose, to remove a non sparking lead ball, so there's no possibility of an internal ignition source either.

Pulling a ball is at least no more dangerous than loading a ball, and actually less dangerous because you're not in the process of compressing powder like you do when you load a ball, so there's not even the piston effect involved.

IMO, when we read vendor statements about having to soak a load with water, oil, etc, for 30 minutes before pulling a ball, it's nothing more than a manufacturer's liability disclaimer statement...there's simply no source of ignition and the stuff doesn't just go off by itself...sits on store shelves, in garages, in powder horns, in speedloaders, and inside rifle barrels all the time...never goes off without an ignition source being introduced to the powder charge.

Other's mileage may vary...

Ruger-Redhawk

[quote]ORIGINAL: roundball

I agree with you there Roundball. In today's world with all the hungry Lawyers these compainies need to Cover their A$$.

Ruger Redhawk

Triple Se7en

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Roundball

Ever hear a horror story or two about lit cigarettes and loading/unloading muzzleloaders? I have! Even heard about a dummy who set his gun next to him & decided he needed several matches to start a campfire on a windy day. One match blew away as he tore the pack of matches - right down his bore about 10 feet away it went. Not long later, he decided to pull the ball in his bore. Kaboom!

It happens every couple of years... in different ways too! Just because you & I have common sense doesn't mean everyone does.

That's why you see me type words pre-precautionary!