cleaning during hunting season

Ive actually never had this situation so asking for advice . Went hunting this morning and fired one off at a doe promptly reloaded as I thought I may have hit her . No hair no blood clean miss But anyways . Now I have a loaded flintlock with a fouled bore .planning on going out in about another week its the end of season here in Pa . It's cool and dry in the house where I keep the rifle should I just let it be till the end of season or try to swab out the barrel above the ball . The patch was lubed with mink oil if it makes a difference when I reloaded .

If it was me I'd fire off that loaded round and clean it. I wouldn't risk a week. Even if you clean above the ball, the breech will still be uncleaned. Just how I'd do it anyhow.

I was never comfortable leaving loaded & 'chambered' firearms around unless they were VERY well secured,
and there was no chance some soft head would pick it up and 'see if it works'.

If it was me, I'd fire & clean it.

If you’re shooting real black powder, you need to clean your gun. Just shoot it and clean it....it’s not a good idea to let it sit for a week with BP fouling in the barrel.

You could shoot it every other or third day and oil the bore out above the ball just to keep the rust down. If it's a fine rifle with no bore rust then I'd unload and clean. If it's a user and has pits already, ain't much to lose.

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Originally Posted by Winger Ed.

I was never comfortable leaving loaded & 'chambered' firearms around unless they were VERY well secured,
and there was no chance some soft head would pick it up and 'see if it works'.

If it was me, I'd fire & clean it.

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No issues with that have a tooth pick in the flashhole and just me and the wife in the house so no danger of anyone toying with it

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Originally Posted by RU shooter

No issues with that have a tooth pick in the flashhole and just me and the wife in the house so no danger of anyone toying with it

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Sounds like you're good. I'd lightly oil the bore though.

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Originally Posted by RU shooter

No issues with that have a tooth pick in the flashhole and just me and the wife in the house so no danger of anyone toying with it

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Nah ! shoot it and clean it -never know what the next week or two will bring

You have an oiled patch pushed against the powder. Will that make any difference or will it contaminate the powder? Why take a chance.

After having only fired 2 shots, it will be easy to clean.

Nope, pull the ball and clean it.

I pull my charge at the end of everyday and the bore is either wiped if unfired or properly cleaned with water if it had been fired. Two reasons: If I had to shell out 500.00 to 1000.00 for a good quality muzzleloader, I'm certainly going to take pains to properly care for it. Second, I don't get misfires from contaminated/damp powder. You can bet that your chance at a 180 class whitetail will be at the exact instance when the misfire fairy swings by for a visit to remind you that a clean rifle is a reliable rifle. I learned that many years ago to my own chagrin.

I would reconsider taking it into the house. That is where the bulk of condensation comes from. I've taken multiple shots plenty of times. I would fire and clean the rifle as I always do. Once loaded on a clean bore, I will leave it until fired again. It is not uncommon for me to leave mine loaded for our entire season. Before loading I run dry patches to soak up as much oil as I can. Once loaded, they stay outside.

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Originally Posted by RU shooter

Ive actually never had this situation so asking for advice . Went hunting this morning and fired one off at a doe promptly reloaded as I thought I may have hit her . No hair no blood clean miss But anyways . Now I have a loaded flintlock with a fouled bore .planning on going out in about another week its the end of season here in Pa . It's cool and dry in the house where I keep the rifle should I just let it be till the end of season or try to swab out the barrel above the ball . The patch was lubed with mink oil if it makes a difference when I reloaded .

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Do not bring in the house ,probably to late but in cold temps never ever bring inside !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ed

I’m in the fire and clean it camp, too. At least pull the ball and clean it, if you can’t fire it.

Thanks all I'll shoot it off and clean tomorrow . I'm not too worried about bringing it in the house and the condensation thing it is pretty chilly in my basement and never had an issue in the past leaving it loaded weeks at a time and putting it in the same place .

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Originally Posted by indian joe

Nah ! shoot it and clean it -never know what the next week or two will bring

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Just think about how many old guns are found loaded, well after the owner passed away & the family then divested themselves of it.


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Shoot it, clean it. Not worth risking next weeks shot, or your gun. You do want to harvest a deer, right?

And buy a co2 discharger when you get a chance. So much nicer spending a couple cents at the end of the day, a nice "fffoooop!" blowing the charge and projectile out, rather than fussing with pulling it, or cleaning from firing it out.

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Originally Posted by cas

And buy a co2 discharger when you get a chance. So much nicer spending a couple cents at the end of the day, a nice "fffoooop!" blowing the charge and projectile out, rather than fussing with pulling it, or cleaning from firing it out.

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:???: It needed to be cleaned anyway. Seems like a waste of time to me to blow it out. I'm not saying to not use a CO2 discharger, but using one on a regular basis seems like it is asking for problems to me.

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Originally Posted by pietro

Just think about how many old guns are found loaded, well after the owner passed away & the family then divested themselves of it.


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Your point is................?

Hello RU Shooter,

I guess that would depend, most of my hunting is/or has been on weekends.
So if I were to take a shot on Saturday, I'd probably wait until Sunday night to fire it off again for cleaning.
But if I were on a week long hunt, I'd probably shoot it off & clean it that night. Even though I'm shooting Triple Seven.
Right or wrong, that's how I would or have handled the situation.

AntiqueSledMan.

Get the charge out -shoot, CO2, ball puller - then clean.

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Originally Posted by indian joe

Your point is................?

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Don't leave your gun loaded, you could die. :D

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Originally Posted by megasupermagnum

I'm not saying to not use a CO2 discharger, but using one on a regular basis seems like it is asking for problems to me.

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How so? It's a whole lot easier on your gun than firing and cleaning it.

I always had a range rod in camp and pulled with a screw puller , if I needed to pull .
If I took a deer or small game and reloaded I would fire it out at camp and clean.
The CO 2 puller sounds easier if it had not been fired to put in a fresh load or to head home.

Attachment 275184Attachment 275185 After 6 days in snow-rain and cold ,end of season following day cold/sunny unloaded 80 grains BH 209/50 cal GM 1-66 /495 ball patched with bear oil lubed.015 denim over a 54 cal felt wad 90 yds ranged at our short range , the TC custom shop Buckeye special killed 2 deer this year a 6pt 45 yds/a fat doe @96yds and this target day after the season ended . The target was killed 6 days after the doe died and then cleaned .ch deer kill gun was cleaned and then reloaded .The only modification was blue tape over muzzle and cci 209 in a Mag Spark adapter weather proof all season and BH 209 is not happy with cold/moisture in anything sidelock with out the 209 primer /works well with real BP too!/Ed

Ya shoot it, Ya clean it. But hey, it's your barrel

Before I Went and fired it off after work I ran a patch down the bore just a slight amount of red brown on the patch with the normal fouling color it cleaned it up fine after firing . Thanks all .

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Originally Posted by megasupermagnum

:???: It needed to be cleaned anyway. Seems like a waste of time to me to blow it out. I'm not saying to not use a CO2 discharger, but using one on a regular basis seems like it is asking for problems to me.

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hmmmmm If he lives in town he can do the blowout in his basement or garage - would need a pretty good washout to get all the remnant powder out though.

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Originally Posted by Edward

After 6 days in snow-rain and cold ,end of season following day cold/sunny...

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But relevant to the OP, did you have fouling rusting your bore for two weeks?

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When I use the c02 discharger after a day of hunting, I just run a brush or a dry patch down the bore. It's not anything close to "cleaning" a fired muzzle loader.

In a word (NOPE)

No question. Shoot it & clean it. Rust starts right away and although it may start slow, it starts.

I always left mine loaded if I hadn't fired it. If I fired it I cleaned it. I'd tie a tag to the gun with loaded written in red sharpie just in case I should drop over dead unexpectedly.
Had a friend bring me a double barrel shotgun that was his grandfathers once that he wanted me to clean up enough to hang on the wall. It had sat in a damp basement for many years. I explained to him that it might be loaded. He had played with it as a kid. Of course both barrels were loaded! Had a lot of fun getting the loads out. The shot was corroded into one big lump.

I picked up 2 used CVA’s cheap. Got both home and went to work on them. Both loaded! One was actually double loaded! I really went through hell getting out 2 sets of powder and patched balls. Good thing it was in the inline & not a sidelock!
Better thing I didn’t drop a cap off on it in my basement!

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