Blackpowder hunting

[czechsonofagun]

OK, the season started, I take the smoke stick, load it just the perfect load and take it to the woods. I sit on a tree stand for hours and nothing and comes time to go home. Now what?


I shoot the rifle to the ground to empty it, go home and clean it and keep it clean till the time comes to load it again.


I removed the cap and take the rifle home loaded and keep it like that till next time. Next time comes and all I need to do is take it to the woods and put the cap back on?

Any other option? I believe powder left in the chamber is not going to cause any corrosion and it will not get dump in there either, but I was wrong before.

Opinions?

 

[Dozernut]

I black powder hunt, TC .50 caliber. I always pull the bullet at the end of the day and dump the powder, shooting makes it a little harder to cleanup. My reasoning for doing so is that that a gun that has been outside all day will take on the ambient temperature of the outdoors (around here sometimes it gets fairly cold). Take a cold gun into the warm house and you have a perfect way for condensation to form. Whether there is enough condensation to ruin the powder is questionable but I feel better doing so. Plus a wipe down with an oily rag prevents rust on the gun inside and out.

One other reason to unload at the end of the day is that you eliminate the possibilty of double loading by mistake. This can happen in the mornings when you are not fully awake. My son did this but saw no deer, He got lucky that day. We made an iron clad rule to unload at the end of the day no matter how tired you were.

 

[RobertN]

What powder are you using?Black powder in an untreated metal container(your barrel) will be corrosive. If you take the cap off, air can get in there, making it worse(especially since that air will contain moisture.

Real black powder is sensitive to pressure and static. My Uncle knows a guy that had a loaded black powedr rifle go off in his truck as he moved from one hunting spot to another. No cap on; static set it off. That's why real black powder is getting harder to get; it is too unstable compared to other modern powders.

The effects may not be as bad with Pyrodex, but you will probably still see problems.

Dozernut mentioned double charging; that is real bad news. I guess if you marked the ramrod on an empty barrel and a loaded barrel you could double check.

And, it's not worth having a loaded weapon around, because you'll never be sure like a cartridge rifle(where you can open the chamber and see the cartridge).

 

[RonMar]

I havn't shot black powder in years, used to have a .45 colonial cap and ball when I was a teenager that was a hoot. I recall seeing CO2 powered unloaders for cap and ball rifles. Clamps over the nipple and uses the contents of a small CO2 cylinder to empty the barrel contents without combusting the powder, so cleanup is easier. It is also relatively quiet so you don't disturb other hunters nearby. It looked easier than a bullet puller...

I would not leave it charged due to safety and corrosion concerns mentioned.

 

[Egon]

Can you legally store or transport a loaded rifle?

Make a bang and clean it properly each time. Then you know where your at!

 

[ToadHill]

Egon, in New York the smoke pole is considered unloaded if you take the cap off.

 

[Dozernut]

I live in the middle of the woods, the only transporting is by hand when I walk out the door to the stand. If I was to transport the gun in a vehicle in my state, it must be fully unloaded and in a case.
I made a misnomer when I said I pulled the bullet, I actually remove the breech plug and use the ramrod to push the bullet back through the breech opening. Makes it easy to run patches through the barrel. I would do the same if it was shot or not but by not shooting it makes a little quicker cleanup. Season is two weeks away I am starting to get anxious.

 

[RobertN]

I was thinking along the lines of a Hawken or similar; I have never used a "modern" muzzle loader.

I made a misnomer when I said I pulled the bullet, I actually remove the breech plug and use the ramrod to push the bullet back through the breech opening. Makes it easy to run patches through the barrel.

 

[George2615]

Last year me and my hunting buddy learned the hard way not to just pull the cap until another day. We used to do that but as Dozernut said, You will get condensation in there. We used the pellet charges and after a couple days of seeing nothing a nice 6 pointer walked by my friend. He pulled up and fired. The gun went poof and the sabot barely made it out the end of the barrel. The buck turned and looked as if to say what the heck was that and wagged his tail as he walked away.
From now on if we don't see anything we fire it off and the end of the day and start with a fresh load each time we go into the woods. This year he didn't get away.