Black powder in the winter and making it work.

Snug tight caps..especially on aftermarket nipples is usually enough to keep it water tight. I use slixshot and remington 10s or 11s and they fit tight and make a perfect seal. As far as chamber waterproofing a tight fitting ball or bullet with a wad or lube disk between powder and ball should be enough but you can always put a thin wax lube disk over ball/bullet as well to seal the chamber again from the elements. Heres a pic of a lube disk i make..

Oh and yes clean and dry out your cylinders before loading and make sure the nipples are clear and clean. You can use pressurized air from an air compressor or canned air...and/or swab the chambers well with a dry patch and even q-tips...but chambers and nipple channel must be dry to ensure the powder ignites and you get no squibs etc.

The way I use my revolvers (in particular the 58) if Im not careful to clean excess lube out of them in coldest part of winter the lube can harden and prevent firing.mainly by pushing a small amount of lube through the cyl pin hole that rests under the hammer.

I think Mobil1 is good to about -35° F ! Why in the world are you out shooting in -35° weather?! Lol!!!

Mike

Wax paper and/or a dry wad or card under the ball should help to seal the powder.
Nail polish / clear nail polish has also been mentioned as an effective way to seal both the ball and the cap as an alternative to wax. --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...l-concealed-carry.865106/page-6#post-11622144

But I don't know if you really need to do that for only a couple of days, and it would make decapping more difficult without needing to fire them off.
Hunters generally don't do that even if hunting over the course of a week or two in the winter.
But most do leave their guns in a cold car trunk or a cool room to avoid condensation forming inside their bore.

I was about to mention what articap just said, temperature swings making the metal sweat or condensate would be something to consider.

I use paper cartridges with wax disk and card inside the cartridge and have never had issues with squibs or moisture etc...and i live in super duper humid environment. Heres what they look like...


I have a write up i did on how to make them too. Somewhere on this forum lol

Sorry its not really a wax disk..Its actually a hard lube disk...usually 1:3 to 1:4 lambs tallow to beeswax.

SlowFuse said:

I was about to mention what articap just said, temperature swings making the metal sweat or condensate would be something to consider.

Click to expand...

Same here, my go to rifle has a Green Mtn stainless barrel and well waxed stock so I also leave it in the garage till end of hunting season, never had a problem with FTF.