Leaving um loaded?

[mark davidson]

Do you guys leave your guns loaded for a week or more at a time or unload and start over? My gun has been loaded since my last hunt about two weeks ago and has been standing upright in the house.  Would you guys shoot it and clean it and start over before the next hunt .....OR....pull the ball and pour out the powder to avoid complete cleaning to start over....OR...just put a new cap on and go to the woods??? Thanks in advance for dealing with such a trivial question. :-)

[R.M.]

If you brought it into the house from the cold, there's a good possibility that condensation has gotten into the charge. I'd dump it and start over.

[Riley/MN]

Since you brought it into the house, I would blow the load with CO2/air and do a light cleaning and reload.

Normally, I load and leave the gun outside (on the porch).

[northwoodsdave]

Loaded/unloaded is a problem, especially if you hunt. I don't like having loaded guns in the house, but hate to discharge the gun at the end of each day or, alternatively, use my co2 setup to remove the load.

Keeping the gun in the mudroom is something I often see, though that requires you have a mudroom and kids who either can't get at the gun or have the smarts (in the old days, they sure did) not to play with loaded weapons.

I am considering installing a gun rack in the garage or barn, so I can keep the gun I have loaded safely away from the house (and avoid the extremes in temperature bringing into a heated building) between hunts.

Dave

[greyhunter]

The fly in the ointment is the weather you had the rifle out in all day. Drastic differences in indoor/outdoor temps will mean a unload/reload.  I'm lucky as I have a dry unheated shop that is close to the outadoors temp,so i can leave my flinter there after every hunt an two weeks later it still fires. That being said I have never had a problem with leaving a loaded rifle in the house for extended periods, no kids left at home, and if my wife wants to do me I prefer a quick round to the head instead of a dull knife. Kit Carson reloaded his pistols every day, but then, for good reason, his life depended on them working.

[mark davidson]

Thanks for the opinions. I know how OCD I am about being confident my gun is going to go bang when I need it to, so I know now that I will unload it one way or another and start fresh with a new load before I hunt next.  It has been in and out of the cold a few times since it was loaded and in and out of the truck as well as the house so I will load it up fresh and then not worry about it. Thanks again for the input. :-)

[greyhunter]

Here in Pa. it is recommended to unload your muzzie at dusk when you leave the woods, preferably into a dead stump.  I do it sometimes just to make the neighbors spill their evening coffee and I like seeing the purty flame after dark.  hee hee.

[Two Steps]

I often leave mine loaded for a couple of weeks at a time and have never had a problem (you know what's going to happen the next time now don't ya   ).  
I can leave a loaded rifle in the back of my shop or in the truck, so it doesn't get any big temp changes.  One thing that I would suggest though...after you've ridden it around in the truck for a week or so...before ya prime or cap, take your rammer and make sure your RB hasn't tried to come out and meet you.  A ball that's not seated on the charge could mess up more than the hunt.
Al

[northwoodsdave]

Good idea on reseating the ball.  I often check mine: while I've never had a ball move down the barrel on a rifle, smoothbores are a different story.

My grandpa always carried his guns with the barrel up and cautioned me never to point the gun barrel down or carry it that way.  Since he was raised around black powder, that makes more sense to me now!

Dave

[Riley/MN]

Even with a modern gun that is a good idea - if you are as stumble footed as me. One trip and your muzzle could get all plugged up...

[Swamp]

I always start with a fresh load everyday when I hunt. When I come in from the woods, I dump my load into my shooting berm, run a few patches soaked with rubbing alchohol, a pipe cleaner thru the touch hole, a few dry patches, and I'm ready to go in the morning. I have and use a CO2 discharger when I hunt in other locals where I can't shoot it back at camp or the truck. But my findings is that this method does not remove the entire powder charge that has been compressed in the bore, thus when you reload in the morning, you have a hotter charge in the gun from the leftover powder still in the bore from the last nights hunt. Again, these are my findings, and may not be the case for everyone else using a CO2 discharger. If I do use this method, I will run my breech scraper down the bore to loosen the powder compressed into the corners of the breech, and clean by using several alcohol patches. This is where I find the leftover powder. It may only be 5 grs, but it's enough sometimes that it can change the accuracy of my rifle.

Again, like everything else, it's personal preference.

[Longhunter]

There was a time when I brought a loaded gun inside at night. It ended up costing me an elk when the gun went POP instead of BOOM.

This picture was taken 38 years years ago in Montana on an elk hunt, where  a friend and I stayed in this old trappers cabin just below timberline. The cabin had an old barrel stove and would get cozy warm, enough to cause condensation in my .54 percussion rifle.

Bein a slow thinker It happened twice before I figured it out and started leavin the gun outside at night.  



I haven't brought a loaded gun inside since.

[prairie dog]

I left my GPR loaded for six days while hunting last week.  I left it in the truck overnight to avoid bringing it into a warm trailer and collecting condensation.  I remove the percussion cap from the rifle before putting it into the truck and apply a fresh cap when I hunt.

I've followed that same habit for the past thirty years with my CVA mountain rifle and haven't had a problem or a misfire.