How long is to long?

[mustangLX92]

I have had a load in my muzzleloader for about a week and a half. Is this too long. Hopefully I havent caused any damage. I left it in because I was hunting every other day durring early muzzleloader and it was easy to leave it in. If this is bad I will change my habbits.

Thanks.

 

[RobW]

If you are not living in a high humidity area, a BP load can survive even years (at least I read this from Sam Fadala, the recent BP pope) in the chamber without problems. A few weeks shouldn't harm anything.

The problem in my mind is, that you forget that there is a load down there, put another load on it and... baaaang, you had a BP rifle and even a nice face!

Be careful! I would suggest to remove the load. 10 times being tooooo careful is better than 1 time toooo sloppy!

 

[GrayBear]

LOAD CHECK -

If you have not marked your ramrod with a mark to show how much sticks out if there is a load in the barrel, do so now ! After youve cleared the barrel make another mark to show how much sticks out when it's empty. Either mark might do but I mark both loaded and empty.

As for leaving it loaded, if it's uncapped, it could pick up moisture. My grandpa left the Springfield his daddy had brought home from The Civil War loaded and capped out in the barn. He was ready for foxes and chicken hawks year round. It always went "Boom" when it was needed.

GrayBear

 

[Ed]

I saw someone sitting next to me shoot his BP inline last week. it had been "forgotten by him" left loaded that way all summer and loaded again at the range. 200 grains and 2 slugs later he remembered. Rifle was fine and the 2 holes at 100 yards were only 5 inches apart. The nice scope ring tatoo on his face will remind him not to do it again. I also marked his ramrod after that.


On another note. I remember hearing in Hunters Ed classes how people would uncap them and taking them from the truck the static electricity would set them off. Pyrodex may not be that easy to set off but I prefer to just shoot them. Its probably like the cell phone at a gas station thing, will it happen every time? no. Could it happen? yes.

 

[smokemaker]

I left my Omega loaded for a little more than two weeks last year, and it still killed a doe at 35-40 yards. I did, however, leave the gun out in the garage to prevent condensation from being a potential problem. The gun was loaded with 777 pellets, and I've also left a GPR loaded for almost 6 months with pyrodex, but it didn't go bang when the time came. The pyrodex had turned into a hard turd, for lack of a better term. I scrubbed it out, but there was no ill effect on the barrel that I could see.

 

[Jim K]

The old practice was to shoot off rifles after a day of hunting, then clean them. Shotguns were more commonly left loaded with the caps put up out of the reach of the kids. That way the gun was ready for foxes or whatever.

Anyway, I really see no reason to leave any muzzle loader loaded today. Black powder does tend to attract moisture and over time the chamber can corrode as well as the powder becoming inert. If that happens, you can't shoot the load out and have to resort to other measures, none of them especially easy.

Jim

 

[ducati]

left a thompson center thunder hawk loaded for 3 years, yes I said 3 yrs. went to the range with it 2 days ago. pulled the trigger shot perfect.

 

[4v50 Gary]

In the frontier days (1750 onwards), the muzzle loader was kept loaded and on pegs atop the door (and not the fireplace). It was good to go in case of game of foe. I wouldn't loose sleep about keeping a muzzle loader loaded for a long time (provided it was clean when loaded).

 

[Cap n Ball]

Black powder will keep for an indefinite length of time if moisture is blocked out. In the old days a hunter or sometimes a soldier would put a carved wooden or ivory plug in the muzzel called a 'tompion' to seal out dirt and water. These were often carved pretty fancifully and I seen a few collections of these here and there. BTW, this word is the origin of the word 'tampon'.