In heavy freezing-rain type conditions, which I will admit are rare but I have spent the day hunting in them... wouldn't a muzzle-taper have to worry about water getting in the bore from the breech end, being prevented from escaping by the tape, and freezing into a "plug"?
Uh No. The breech end is pretty well sealed by the bolt and chambered round......................DJ
Sealed against WATER!? All day in the rain? With gravity assisting it (I carry muzzle-down)?!
With all due respect... no WAY, hoser!
We aren't talking about scuba diving here. If you think that bolt lugs a properly fitted bolt face and 2+ inches of a brass gasket called a cartridge case don't do a better job of sealing rain water than an open hole at the other end you probably are stupid enough to have voted for Obama.
Hint, Hint, Try actually looking how different bolts seal up against the chamber. Bolt action rifle actions are designed to divert gas in case of a case rupture or primer piercing, you can't possibly think they don't help a bit to seal out running water do you?............................................DJ
Well, first, there are plenty of guys who hunt without a round in the chamber, no? And to your point about how cartridges seal gas- cartridges expand and seal AFTER powder ignition. They obviously are not sealed to the chamber when just sitting in it unfired.
Next, if you think that stuff makes a water tight seal, I don't even know what to say here because, it doesn't! I'm not trying to be a jerk here but what you are saying simply isn't true. When I take cartridges out of my rifle- from the CHAMBER I mean- after hunting in the rain, they are soaked. The brass is wet, the bullet is wet, everything is wet.
I'll grant that a chambered cartridge and closed bolt are somewhat water RESISTANT but they absolutely, postively are not waterproof.
Maybe we hunt in different rain. Here it's often just this all-day drizzle that gradually soaks everything. Not a thunderstorm that blows through in an hour or whatever.
This is easy to test. Maybe tomorrow I'll test it. Or tonight even.
