How long

[ed lundquist]

Curious about how long one might leave a load in a barrel. Say during deer season you loaded up and didn't see what you wanted for a week, two or even longer. Would you shoot, clean and reload, would leaving it too long harm a seasoned barrel? Thanks

[Hungry Horse]

For me it would depend on the moisture in the air. If you live in a climate that has high humidity, I would change out the load every couple of days, just to be sure. I live in Northern California, and our deer season is at the end of the hot summer, and beginning of fall. It hot and dry, so I leave the load in all season.

  Hungry Horse

[ed lundquist]

Been as wet and humid a year here as I ever remember, not alot of fun for BP. Things will get better as it gets colder.  Appreciate the response.

[Davemuzz]

I will leave mine in for a day or two, depending if it was raining out. Rain will make me pull the ball and reload it the next outing.

I use to hunt with a fellow that loaded his up, and never unloaded it unless he was shooting at a deer. He had more confidence than I did!!!

[Joe S]

If you live in a climate that has high humidity, I would change out the load every couple of days, just to be sure.

Just out of curiosity, why do you have that opinion? According to Mad Monk, black powder is not particularly hygroscopic.

The difference between powder stored in your gun and powder stored in your powder horn is not immediately obvious to me. It seems to me that if one would ignite, so would the other one. But, I live in Montana, so I don't have any real experience with humidity.

[Daryl]

Our falls are not particularly wet or dry. I suspect the average humidity would be in the 70's  - likely mid 80's low 90's when raining. I left my .69 loaded all hunting season, finally discharging it after new years.  It was loaded with 165gr. 2F GOEX, a neetsfoot oil 12OZ.denim patched .682" pure lead round ball. I had a piece of hard leather held to the top of the nipple by the hammer.
When I fired it, it went off as if just freshly loaded and hit the plate at 100 meters offhand. No big deal.  I did not swab out the barrel with dry or alcohol'd patch before loading as some do. I see no reason to do that.

[dstock]

There was an article in Muzzle Blast about this a few years ago. Showed some rifles where the barrels come apart. One or two of them went down range. Said it was because the rifles had been left loaded for a short period of time and the charge had caused corrosion and weakened the barrel.
I would leave mine loaded two or three weeks between hunts sometimes and never a problem. A year after reading that article I left one loaded for a few days and when I cleaned it I found a ring of corrosion in the area near where the charge would be. Won't shoot it anymore.
God Bless
Doug

[Pukka Bundook]

Doug,

To get corrosion you'd have to have a barrel that was dirty, as in fired a charge before being left loaded, Or, had very wet conditions where the powder soaked up lots of moisture. (or a wet patch used )
Best,
Richard.

[Daryl]

Richard, I am assuming water-wet patch or maybe water soluble oil which absorbed moisture. If it was the powder chamber, then not cleaned well before loading. No way there would be corrosion

with Neetsfoot oil or track's mink oil.  I've been using either since early 80's & my own fried out marmot oil & bear grease before that. No corrosion - loaded long time - from days to months until

 fired to clear.

[dstock]

My gun was clean before loading and was loaded using oiled patch. I had done this for years with no problems and then it happened.
God Bless
Doug

[Daryl]

Interesting - no explanation, then.

[Pukka Bundook]

I too have no explanation Daryl, as my loads with deer tallow have sometimes stood loaded for months and months. 
Breechplugs are polished too, so any sign of corrosion would have shown up very easily.

Doug,
I'd just give that breech a scouring with oil and steel wool, and it'll likely clean right off.  No way under the sun it can be eaten up if no moisture/fouling present.

Best,
R.

[dstock]

Thanks guys for the replies. I know black powder is not corrosive by its self. In my case the gun had not been subjected to any rain, fog, or snow, just temps in the low thirties. That leaves  condensation and probably was my situation. In driving home and at home the temp was warm and maybe the barrel was still cold while in its case. Don't know and it was a long time ago.
Just saying, Muzzle Blast Magazine did an article on leaving our rifles loaded and showed some that when shot the barrels came apart and this was attributed to corrosion from being left with a charge in the barrel.
There is no cleaning it out without major work.
 Again I too have left them loaded for several weeks with no problems. Just won't do it any more.
God Bless
Doug

[TommyG]

I will leave mine loaded for the entire 3 week PA flintlock season, unless I have been out in some rain or snow.  Use TOW mink oil patch, plug the TH with a brass pin and keep it cased in the shed, never bring it into a warmer environment.  Never had any trouble.

[longcruise]

I have left them loaded for up to a year with no problems.  When I load a gun for hunting, the barrel is completely cleaned out and dried with alcohol before being loaded.  The lube is a grease lube so the barrel gets a coating as the ball goes down.  Since it's a cap gun, the nipple is covered with a piece of leather with the hammer down when it is not capped.

Fired one that was loaded for a year in the last week of August this year and the ball went right where it was aimed.

[Joe S]

Fired one that was loaded for a year in the last week of August this year and the ball went right where it was aimed.

That's pretty good. I can load my gun and fire it just a minute later, and the chances of the ball going where it was aimed are only fair to middling.

[Darkhorse]

I remove all oil in a squeaky clean bore with alcohol before I load for deer hunting. The rifle remains loaded until I take a shot. Then the rifle is completely cleaned again before I load it again. I've been doing this for 40 years and have learned a couple of things. Lubing with crisco, wonder lube or mink oil I never had a problem. Then one year I had a rust ring right where the patch rested. Then another one. Then a rust ring in another rifle. All right where the patch rested.
I finally figured it out...I had changed patch lube. I had been shooting a wet lube with great results and just naturally lubed my hunting patches with this lube. I mentioned this several years ago and named the manufacturer, so my post got pulled. I won't name the manufacturer again. But before it got pulled Mad Monk chimed in to explain what was happening, he had a name for it I can't remember something like Galvanic Corrosion.
Anyway, I still use it for shooting but not for hunting. I've gone back to my greasy patches and things are back to normal.
So, if a rifle is clean and loaded and a rust ring forms where the patch is then I'd look to the lube being used. I'd like to read that article in Muzzle Blasts. There is always a reason for everything but sometimes it takes detective work to figure it out.
BTW this was years ago and I polished out the rust ring in both rifles and I've shot them both hundreds of shots since then with no problems at all.

[bob in the woods]

Hunting season here lasts from the 1st of Sept [ opening of bear season ] until near the end of Dec for muzzleloading dear season. I use my flintlocks for regular rifle season straight through, so one or two of them are always loaded. If I get a bear, then I clean and reload for deer or moose etc . If it gets cold, I'll plug the vent, and store the gun in my tool shed [ locked of course ]  so I don't get condensation.  The longest I've had one loaded was a year. It fired just fine and the bore was/ is fine. One thing though, is that I use paper cartridges, dipped in a mix of bear oil and beeswax. If I'm using a patch [ in my .54 rifle ]  I use the same lube or Track's mink oil lube and haven't had a problem. If corrosion occurs , my first thought in terms of a culprit would be the lube , or perhaps the barrel has had a sub used in it's history ??  If a rifled barrel, a loose ball /patch combo along with condensation could also cause trouble ?

[Pukka Bundook]

One possible cause for your rust Doug;

If you bring a freezing gun into a warm house you'll get condensation. In fact they can turn real furry up here with frost.
If this happens, always stand them on the muzzle so the condensation does not settle in the barrel.  It won't hurt the charge as long as you quill the touchhole or something similar. Even paper towel in the pan with frizzen shut down on it. 
When its dried off a bit I dry mine with more paper towel and wipe the bore as well, even though it Was stood on muzzle.  Bit of oil and she's ready for off again.

[alacran]

21 days is the longest I've left a gun loaded. It was a winter hunt, got down into the teens. I never brought the gun into the house. Went off just fine.

[bones92]

I have left a load in for up to a week or so, but kept in the house in a climate-controlled environment.  I have also pulled the ball a few times when I knew I wouldn't be hunting for a while.  I thought pulling the ball would be easier to clean than firing the round, but in truth, I don't think it's any faster than just firing the round and cleaning the barrel as normal.  Once that powder gets packed tight, it still has to be flushed out. 

I actually bought a CO2 discharger kit earlier this year.  I haven't had a chance to try it, but I wonder if that might make for quicker cleaning than firing the round.

[Pukka Bundook]

Bones,
A tow worm will looses up packed powder and allow it to fall out.   

[Daryl]

3 months is the longest I left my 14 bore loaded. Went off perfectly.

[longcruise]

Fired one that was loaded for a year in the last week of August this year and the ball went right where it was aimed.

That's pretty good. I can load my gun and fire it just a minute later, and the chances of the ball going where it was aimed are only fair to middling.

You have to get closer or aim at bigger targets.