Fouling a barrel for hunting.... and what about the end of the day

[alternate]

I always sight in and hunt with a clean bore. It's the only thing I can duplicate on a hunting trip.

 

[Squint]

i absolutely refuse to pop caps before loading. Any rifle that places bullets from a clean and dirty bore in different positions on the target quickly goes away.

Any rifle remaining unfired at the end of hunting day is uncapped and remains loaded.

We are kind of on the same wavelength,, and most of my clean barrels should very close to a dirty barrel especially up to a hundred yards. With that being said, popping a cap and leaving the residue in the barrel should be no worse than Leaving a 22 Rifle that's been fired and not cleaned, and I do that all the time. Caps aren't corrosive, so even if it is never cleaned and unloaded with air pressure, There shouldn't be much of a problem, as far as corrosion. The money and time we spend cleaning muzzleloaders, is at times, funny. I used 777 powder with noncorrosive caps, and I don't know what the corrosion factor is, but From my research, not real high.
.Squint

 

[Widude]

I’m a 2 primer guy, did a test years ago. My average shot is 75 yards, fouled or clean, within 1/2” of each other. For that reason, shooting 2, 209 primers in the basement is enough. Even with B209, I’d rather keep the bore mostly clean as long as possible into the hunt. YMMV.

 

[toytruck]

My brother had a hang fire yesterday in his Omega. First time for him. First thing I asked was if he had shot a primer before loading. He didn't, cost him a big doe, wasn't a killing hit...

 

[Widude]

I always say, do a test. Today I check my zero, at 50 yards. The 1st shot is with a clean bore, the 2nd ‘fouled’. I’m shooting B209 powder. I did fire one primer before loading the 1st load. Most of my shots are 50-75 yards. I just don’t see any reason(for me) to foul the bore with powder before setting off for the hunt.

 

[bronko220002]

I'm really at a loss on this topic. All my black powder rifles hit where they are supposed to or darn close on the first shot. I always run a dry patch, both sides, down my bore before loading my first shot to get and residual oil out of the bore. (NOTE: After cleaning my rifle I also always stand it up muzzle down for at least a day before putting it up on the rack and store them in my safe muzzle down.) A couple weeks ago I took out my .45 cal 1:20 twist Hawken and first shot at 50 yards cut the bottom of the 1" red bulls eye and the next 2 were within an inch of that.
Yesterday with a stiff wind in my face and freezing cold I took my 50 cal Rem 700ML and my 45 cal Mountaineer out and on a cold clean barrel at 100 yards my 700 hit 1/2" right and perfect height and my Knight hit 1/2" right and 2" high (right where I had it sighted in at). I was suspecting that with both shooting the 1/2" right was caused by the wind otherwise they would have been perfect.

 

[Widude]

Great, yes do your own testing, there’s your answer.

One may not get a shot on day one, depending on the powder, I certainly don’t like leaving a bore dirty for days.

 

[JIMYJAC]

I usually pop a cap then load. Yesterday I took a nice size doe then reloaded. Even though I have a nitride barrel she gets clean at the end of the day if shes been shot. I put a baggie over the breech end to catch power after breech plug removal. Push the sabot out and clean barrel. Don`t take long.

 

[muzzlestuffer]

For many this topic is a moot issue but for many who are starting out and planning to hunt this may help. With hunting seasons starting to ramp up, these questions also start popping up.

I hunt all in-lines and use the same practice on each gun. I live in a city of about 135,000 and within sight of the Mayo Clinic. For several years I'd just wait until dark the night before opener and put a small charge of BH209 in the barrel with a plug made of paper towel, sneak out the service door of the garage and point the gun in the air and let it rip. Some neighbors got a little testy with this procedure after seeing me do this, so I took to just popping off four primers out in the garage with the gun pointed in a waste paper basket. Things are much better on the neighbor front now.

With the wonderful shortage of everything black powder these days I won't use the Winchester primers I have the guns dialed into for fouling the barrel so I picked up a couple flats of regular cci shotshell primers to use for this, but I honestly think any primer including the lower heat muzzleloader specific primers will work for this too. It's fouling we want, not necessarily the heat.

For side locks I think the same method of fouling a clean barrel for hunting can be used only with one's choice of caps. For the range one can just run a light load down range to foul things. I don't know why but my sidelocks don't seem to shoot a wild first shot in a clean barrel when using T7 granular and that's all I use in them.

I'm not a fan of letting a round off in the dark at the end of the day either. I'll pull the primer, give the gun a wipe with an oil impregnated cloth and case it up. A simple primer the next morning and I am good to go. Unless one has been in some serious wet weather, charges within an inline gun should be just fine. If you suspect that the charge might be moisture compromised, pull the plug at home or camp and dump it, cleaning the plug and wiping out the barrel before reloading using a new sabot....the bullet will be fine to re-use. Sidelocks are another thing and I'll let someone more in touch with possible damp load issues offer advice on them.

You can always use a co2 discharger at the end of the day.

 

[jd24.5.48]

I'll fire 1 primer and load up. If I don't shoot the gun I will leave it loaded until the end of our 1 week season. If I fire the muzzleloader it gets cleaned that night!

 

[edmehlig]

I generally fire 2-3 primers. I run a patch down to the Breech plug and fire a cap. This insures the nipple is clear and helps burn off any remaining oil in the Breech plug. Then I fire 1-2 to fowl the bore. Powder residue from the caps is not corrosive to the bore.

 

[morehops]

I used to empty my rifle by shooting it at the end of the day. Then I would leave it loaded until last day of the season. One season I quit early and never got out again and lost interest in ML for years. My Hawken was in the safe for 5 years and very visibly marked "loaded" 3 different ways. when i finally got around to it again it shot like it was loaded a minute ago. I do use real black.
I used to carry my unused caps in my pocket to reuse another day. I was very fortunate to look in the cup before priming for hunting and lo and behold, found the charge had fallen out of the cup in my pocket. Look for that center hump in the cup if using #10 or 11's.

 

[bronko220002]

I hunt on a squeaky clean bore. Shocking huh. When I clean my rifles after a shooting session I always store them muzzle down for a couple days so any residual oil drained out. Prior to loading for hunting or shooting I will swab the bore with a dry patch, both sides.
My first shot always hits where its supposed to without any fouling. This goes for both my sidelocks and my inlines.
I've seen so many time post about fouling a barrel before hunting and I don't understand why people do it. I don't like any fouling in my barrels for any length of time just because of the corrosion aspect.

 

[ElDiablo]

Does your second shot shoot to the same poi as the first shot Bronko?

 

[Idaho PRB]

I remember after reading Dutch Shultz accuracy method, fouling my bore during testing loads. I also thought I should do that while hunting and in fact, convinced both my hunting partners to do the same. We had a pretty rainy hunt for the first few days and embarrasingly we all had misfires. I now do not pre-foul. Using 99% alcohol, I clean oil out of the bore and patent breach, as well as nipple & flash hole and load for the hunt. No misfires since. Second shot without swabbing, of course will be slightly different point of impact but to me it's irrelevant for hunting purposes.

 

[Squint]

I remember after reading Dutch Shultz accuracy method, fouling my bore during testing loads. I also thought I should do that while hunting and in fact, convinced both my hunting partners to do the same. We had a pretty rainy hunt for the first few days and embarrasingly we all had misfires. I now do not pre-foul. Using 99% alcohol, I clean oil out of the bore and patent breach, as well as nipple & flash hole and load for the hunt. No misfires since. Second shot without swabbing, of course will be slightly different point of impact but to me it's irrelevant for hunting purposes.

Can you tell us how you fouled the barrel? With a primer or a powder charge?
Thanks

 

[Idaho PRB]

Can you tell us how you fouled the barrel? With a primer or a powder charge?
Thanks

Dutch advocated pouring a small charge of powder down the bore and igniting it (no patch or projectile). You were then supposed to swab once down and up with a lightly moistened "moose milk" patch and then proceed with your testing of loads or competitve shooting. I was able to develop some pretty good loads this way and accuracy was superb. In his defense, I believed this same process was necessary in a hunting situation though he never stated or advovated that. Moisture was drawn into our ignition channel through the outside humitidy and resulted in misfires during the trip. Hard lessons are the ones I remember most.

 

[Renegadehunter]

My rifle hits low with the fouling shot in comparison to fouled shots. I leave mine loaded if I don't shoot, and so like a clean bore since I use "real" BP.
I use a 75 yard zero, and just remember that my first clean bore shot is a 50 yard zero instead.

 

[bronko220002]

Does your second shot shoot to the same poi as the first shot Bronko?

Yes as well as 3rd, 4th etc as long as I swab between shots. If there is a difference its only an inch or so. This is 1 of my 700MLs at 100 yards. Top hole is 1st shot then the next 2.

 

[ElDiablo]

Do you swab between shots in the field? That’s interesting. My cold/clean bore shot mostly shoot low.