Originally Posted by
rodwha
"I have left loads in a clean gun for months at a time with no ill effect. I sure wouldn't load it after firing and leave it for any length of time though. Maybe a weekend hunt but longer. It just ain't that much trouble to clean it."
As I just received a .50 cal rifle for Christmas I'm now thinking more about this stuff.
I live in central Texas where it is uber humid for most of the year, but winter would't be so bad. Were I to take a shot and miss I'd be likely to reload in the field, which would leave me with a dirty barrel. Would you carry with you the stuff needed to clean your barrel while out n about?
I carry a small water bottle, alcohol, etc. in my shooting box to the range when I've shot my Old Army just in case, but I don't see myself carrying all of that additional stuff afield. Being that it could stay loaded for an unknown amount of time in an unknown humidity (we can hog or exotic hunt year round) level it seems I ought to consider a backpack with this sort of stuff. It's unlikely, after a shot, that I'd get another shot before I could give it a quick cleaning and reload...