Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles tape to protect muzzle???

I’ve been taping rimfires since the ‘60s. Figured if it blew up a 22 in my face it wouldn’t be as dangerous as blowing up an ‘06 in my face. For a few years after I still didn’t want to tape a higher power centerfire simply because I figured all that extra pressure under the tape would make it more likely to blow. After the war I was all depressed and didn’t care if I lived or died and so I started taping the muzzles if the big stuff then- figured if god or the devil wanted me they could have me. After I didn’t blow up for a few years the depression started wearing off. But I still tape.


Did I win?

No- none of that was true- I tried taping rimfires up but they didn’t have the umph to get the bullet going with the tape on the muzZle. Too much pressure. It would cycle the bolt real Real hard on my marlin 66 and my ruger 10/22 I mean it would fling the empty 40 feet- but the bullet would just be stuck up against the rifling


Then you got all that airpressure built up between the tape and the bullet to contend with when you try to clear it.




Tape is where it’s at. If you don’t like bore obstructions, or having crud in general sneak into your bore. The only thing I’m particular about with tape is pulling it off the muzzle when I bring a cold
Rifle into a warm house. Bolt gets opened and tape comes off the muzzle

I have carried a primed unloaded cartridge and fired it to clear barrel debris. Have also pulled the bullet and dumped powder in the field to blow the barrel out

I don't bother with tape ever since I was told on here that "you'd need a co-signer just to afford the tape". I figure the stuff must be too rich for my blood.

There's good evidence blue tape increases muzzle velocity:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/sports/olympics/fastest-color.html

I use them because your wife LOVES the mini-van, 1 in the front and 5 in the rear

Ain’t got nothing on the other thread I take it?

Next time you're at the range, shoot a few into a target without tape, and then a few with tape.

only couch commandos use electrical tape.

Hard Charging Real Men either Duct it or Fuct it.

I get better knock down power with green tape.

It was your advice that has me taping barrels for well over ten years now. Thanks never go in the bush without muzzle being taped.

Me too...grin

Never had the need to tape a barrel - I just make sure I know where the muzzle is and keep chit out of it..

Thought the same way till the day I tripped and fell face first in muskeg bog. Up till that point I was 20yrs easy without the tape and no incident.

That’s ‘cause it’s a scientific fact that the green tape makes you pull harder on the trigger.
I’ll have to get some of that stuff.....

Ya, but you haven't shot anything since then either...

Black electrical tape here. Over the muzzle, and a couple of spare wraps around the barrel, and usually a roll of it in my hunting pack. Had the muzzle of my 30-06 taped up most of the time when I was bear hunting in Alaska last spring. Rained pretty much every day. Shot through the tape no problem, as always.

I don't think I ever tried it on a .22 rimfire though.

I need to try some of that green stuff for better knock-down power!

Guy

With no concomitant rise in chamber pressure! Talk about a win-win.

They make a pill for that, ya know......

Last time I planted a muzzle was going head over heels with a fully-loaded pack on a steep-ass muddy slope that had been rained on for three straight days, leading down to the Copper River, returning from a sheep hunt. It was the only way down.

If you've never taken a spill with a rifle on board, you're not trying hard enough.

Actually that's not bad.... Made me laugh