Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Leaving Your Muzzleloader Loaded , How Long?

How long would you guys leave your side lock muzzle-loader loaded after it has been fired one time with TRIPLE-7 FFFG loose powder and patch round ball before shooting it out when using # 11 caps while Hunting Deer ? Would you trust it for more than two days without a new load and rust forming in the barrel?

Corrosion doesn't become much of a factor until combustion occurs. I'd be more worried with hangfires than with corrosion. I've consistently had hangfires with both Pyrodex (RS and RS Select) and Triple 7 for the past five years even with fresh charges each day, so much so that I've relegated my substitutes to range use only and exclusively use black powder for hunting. I loaded my T/C with G-O black powder three days before I shot the buck I posted. Ignition was instantaneous and corrosion wasn't a factor. (FYI, humidity recorded at the gubmint weather stations in the vicinity of where I shot the buck was 95%.) In fact, I shot G-O through mine yesterday morning about 10:00, reloaded and didn't clean until about 8:00 last night. Corrosion was nary a problem.

I haven't run into any problems with 777 and corrosion but ... I also swab between rounds for improved accuracy. A water wet patch followed by a dry patch, turn it over and swab again. I do this while the barrel is still warm so there's little chance of any moisture being left behind. Water will neutralize the corrosive effects of 777.

This I don't know for sure but I wonder if unfired 777 is less corrosive than the residue left after firing.

One thing I have found is the barrel needs to be taped over just like with a CF rifle. You don't want any moisture getting in the barrel and causing rust or contaminating the powder. I shoot sabots but even those don't provide a perfect seal.

I forgot to add this. My ML shoots more consistent after three fouling shots with the wet patch swab routine between rounds with 777.

Not a side lock but the deer that I killed last Sunday was killed with an inline that was still loaded from last year. Maybe year before last. If I don't shoot it after cleaning, I do not unload. If there is no corrosion I would leave it until the end of season after firing, and then unload and clean. miles

I wouldn't do that with #11 caps because of the risk for hangfires. Musket caps or 209s would be safe, but I'd not try it with #11s and a typical sidelock drum. Oddly, flintlocks are better about this, since it's easier to pick the touchhole on a loaded rocklock,than to pull the nipple and clean out a sidelock.

FWIW, 777 will rust your barrel eventually. It will form the white crystal fouling first, then rust will set in after a few days. It's not as aggressive as Pyrodex, but still will get you.
I just tested this recently during muzzleloader season. I was lazy and wanted to keep my bore "seasoned" since it fires more accurately with 2-3 shots of fouling than it does from a clean bore, so I didn't clean after my last sight in session. I now have rust around the breechplug and in the false muzzle. Ugh

I agree with the Pyrodex issues, I found rust forming in the barrel within hours of shooting it, so I'd probably continue my habit of a fresh load everyday for the reasons BT mentioned.

Nothing worse at the end of a day, than finding your clearing shot, and what you'd have dealt with on game, has turned into a hang-fire drill. I'm still behind the times with a TC Hawken rifle and standard caps...

I empty my gun each day with a CO2 "silent ball discharger." The one from TC sucks, the one Cabela's sells is much better. Unless I've fired the gun, I don't generally give it a full cleaning. Once the charge 'n' ball are gone, I generally spin a brush at the bottom of the barrel on a rod to be sure all the powder is gone so I don't get a charge and a half (yikes) the next day. Then I swab the bore with one patch with "bore butter", then 2 dry patches.

Also, I don't "snap a couple caps" to be sure the flash channel is clear, I hit it with the S-B-D thus clearing it with a jet of C02 so that there is no priming residue to clean out later or to corrode if I don't clean.

Warning ... if you clear a charge with a S-B-D, don't point it into the sink. Its really hard on porcelain. (Don't ask how I know.)

Tom

Experience is seldom cheap.....got a chuckle on that one.

If I don't use a CO2 discharger like the other poster then I put a toothpick in either the nipple or the touchhole to stop moisture. I have a discharger from Cabela's and on my sidelock percussion it's great. Bought an adapter and will try on the flintlock. I am sure it will work though.

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!

If I don't fire my rifle (black powder and PRB) during the day, I discharge it before going home, and then clean it. Even a side trip to the bar to trade hunting BS stories doesn't effect the outcome of a late night cleaning session. But, I will confess to not discharging at the end of the day once, on the last day of my season as it turned out. (I had planned to go back out in the morning, and didn't want the hassle of cleaning it at my GF's place.) One thing led to another and the thing sat loaded until after the spring thaw. I set a #11 cap on the nipple and proceeded to punch a hole dead center at 50 yds., cleaned it, good as new. I certainly don't recommend that practice but I don't think it's the end of the world if you do.

My son left his loaded for three years. when he left it at my house I fired it and cleaned it for him, and no harm done. If it is spotlessly clean when loaded it could stay loaded indefinetly without any problems..some of you guys just like to clean your guns.

George Nonte wrote about recovering loaded muzzleloaders in Europe during WWII that had been loaded many, many years prior to allied troops laying their hands on them and being very much live and very much lethal if the trigger was pulled.

Then there was the old 'gunsmith' acquaintance of mine who took on a repair job on a Model 1861 Civil War musket and (foolishly) took the owners word that it wasn't loaded. The deal was for him to unbreech it and inspect the breech threads and bore, so the first thing he did was fire up the oxy-acetelene torch with the barrel clamped in a vise, to break the threads free. Sure enough, BOOM, and that old Mini� ball penetrated a cinder block wall. God only knows how long the thing was loaded, for it had laid in an attic for at least 60 years. When he told me what he did, I just shook my head and walked away...