How long can i leave muzzleloader loaded?

[younggun308]

Myth busters should do a piece on this. Of course they're way too girly for anything like that, lol.

I'm not sure if the show is still making new episodes.

 

[Carlos]

I'm not sure if the show is still making new episodes.

After they did the 'Pee on an electric fence' episode- and they couldn't re-create a urine stream, I knew they never peed from a standing position.

 

[Antler Daddy]

Daughter fired the Savage flawlessly yesterday and we have waited overnight to look for him. She has a history of mortally wounding but you have to wait.

Buck shot at about 50 yards. She kept trying to shoot it broadside but safety was not all the way off. It staggered and then walked back at an angle to us for 30 yards and laid down about 40 yards from us. I am trying to load gun laying on the ground and the savage requires some force. Finally get bullet seated and then primer is stuck on bolt. Buck gets up and meanders down the hill. When I finally get a new primer in rifle, daughter can't find him with maybe 10 minutes of legal light left.

Of course, both of us forgot Bono's so I really don't know how big buck is or any guess on the exit hole. It is a blur now. But I do recall rack looked tall and seemed wide as ears. I am guessing liver or gut and hopefully he want be too far away and we can find him. I need to change back to those all copper bullets. Hopefully this will be her 3rd buck.

 

[ROVERBOY]

I left mine loaded one time for about 4 months. Completely forgot about it.

 

[Lost Lake]

Unless I get caught in the rain or pull the trigger on a deer, it gets loaded the night before opening morning and stays loaded until the season is over.

This.

 

[Dennis]

Some seasons in the past I've unloaded at the end of each day. But with the cost of bullets and powder, I thought why am I doing this. So last couple seasons I just left it loaded. I got caught in heavy rain the other day, so just to be safe I shot and reloaded. But I've never had a misfire with that gun, even after heavy rain, so even that seems unnecessary.

 

[Antler Daddy]

Daughter fired the Savage flawlessly yesterday and we have waited overnight to look for him. She has a history of mortally wounding but you have to wait.

Buck shot at about 50 yards. She kept trying to shoot it broadside but safety was not all the way off. It staggered and then walked back at an angle to us for 30 yards and laid down about 40 yards from us. I am trying to load gun laying on the ground and the savage requires some force. Finally get bullet seated and then primer is stuck on bolt. Buck gets up and meanders down the hill. When I finally get a new primer in rifle, daughter can't find him with maybe 10 minutes of legal light left.

Of course, both of us forgot Bono's so I really don't know how big buck is or any guess on the exit hole. It is a blur now. But I do recall rack looked tall and seemed wide as ears. I am guessing liver or gut and hopefully he want be too far away and we can find him. I need to change back to those all copper bullets. Hopefully this will be her 3rd buck.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but wanted to follow-up on this post.

First, I put black electrical tape over my loaded Savage each time. It is just an extra safety measure that lets me always know it is loaded. I also have my ramrod marked.

Second, I think this load was loaded last October 2022. I recall shooting once at Catoosa range just to make sure it was still on target. That load was also over a year loaded.

Third, I would not leave a ML with pyrodex loaded beyond current season. The powder is sugar based, attracts moisture, and will corrode..unlike smokeless.

And finally, my daughter is like a bloodhound. I decided to hunt with my son till 9:30 and then went to see if I could find a hit and look for deer before momma and daughter came. No luck. We scoured the area again after they arrived and nothing. I had set down and did not have much hope when my daughter found leaves with blood over 80 yards from where deer had first bedded. It took two hours of searching and then sending her on a deadbody search. The deer had bedded 3 more times and traveled over 1000 feet from the stand. Meat was cold and insides were cold at 1pm. Nastiest field dressing that I ever recall. That bullet just bunched through both sides of the paunch and there is not much blood.

The buck is not her biggest. Her second buck made the TN Deer registry for ML and we need to register it.

Baby girl "the bloodhound" will skip the next hunt for high school playoff cheerleading. This past weekend, her squad took 3rd in state competition cheer on Friday, she cheered football Friday night, and then we got to bond on Saturday and Sunday. Great times! She is tenacious.

My son and I are off to LBL for Friday and then we also have Fort Knox early gun this weekend.

 

[Huntaholic]

If you put it up loaded just make sure you mark it some way to prevent a later surprise or dangerous situation. I drop a loading rod down the bore and flag it with a little strip of masking tape then mark it "LOADED".

I leave the ramrod in my barrel to remind me. I honestly couldnt tell you how long mine have been loaded? Being smokeless, I dont really care!

 

[readonly]

I use triple 7 and have always followed this rule of thumb: on a field reload, until end of season. Loaded after a thorough cleaning, until the following season if I don't get another shot.
Never had a problem.

 

[PillsburyDoughboy]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but wanted to follow-up on this post.

First, I put black electrical tape over my loaded Savage each time. It is just an extra safety measure that lets me always know it is loaded. I also have my ramrod marked.

Second, I think this load was loaded last October 2022. I recall shooting once at Catoosa range just to make sure it was still on target. That load was also over a year loaded.

Third, I would not leave a ML with pyrodex loaded beyond current season. The powder is sugar based, attracts moisture, and will corrode..unlike smokeless.

This post is very much spot on. Highly suggest your knowledge here. Electrical tape is the way to go on Any Muzzleloader. Does not effect Downrange Accuracy whatso ever.

 

[Kelljp]

Just read this latest post and remembered mine was still loaded. Step out back and pooped a cap BOOM.
80 grains of FFG Swiss, loaded since opening day of muzzleloader.
Have hunted in the rain 2 days. Also didn't take my on advise, brought the rifle in the house a few days ago. Was expecting I would have to pull the ball.

 

[PillsburyDoughboy]

I can only state my experince with 3 powders. Pyrodex, Smokeless and BH209.

With Pyrodex all bets are off. You need to probably baby those loads. Keep the ML in the truck over night. Do a fouling shot before the hunt , snap a primer. Keep some tape over the muzzle during the hunt and then shoot at the end of the hunt and then clean.

As for Smokeless you can treat those pretty much like any cartridge rifle. Put a piece of tape over the muzzle and you are pretty much good to go for years. I highly suggest on really rain pours to discharge or pull and run your favorite cleaning solution though. I generally suggest cleaning once during and at the end of the season.

As far as BH209 you can pretty much do the same with it as you do Smokeless. However with one Caveat. If you fire your ML during the season I generall reccomend discharging/pulling the load at the end of the hunt and dry patching then wet patching. You can usually get through a normal ML season which is a couple of weeks without cleaning without any harmful effects. Once intentionally left a older ML left with a shot load of BH209 for up to 6 weeks to see what it would do and did not see any signs of rust so I cleaned it up and put it away.

 

[CharlieTN]

I will load mine right before the opener. It will stay loaded with that charge until the season is over in January or until I shoot at something. One trick that helps with the issues of temp changes and humidity is to keep the rifle in a case, either hard plastic or cloth with padding. I put it in the truck the night before to give it plenty of time to acclimate before the hunt the next day. When I bring it in I leave it in that same case for a few hours before taking it out. A cold gun brought into a warm and humid house is a recipe for a mess.

I do this with by muzzleloaders and center-fire rifles as well. Really cuts down on the issues.

 

[rodeojoe]

If you put it up loaded just make sure you mark it some way to prevent a later surprise or dangerous situation. I drop a loading rod down the bore and flag it with a little strip of masking tape then mark it "LOADED".

I put black electrical tape over the end of the barrel after loading my muzzleloaders.
The tape help keep the unwanted things out, and it is easy to tell if it has a load in it or not.
Of course, mark your ramrod also.

 

[mike243]

Just fired mine to clean it, shoulder is hurting worse now so should have pulled the load , went off as it should've.

 

[ImThere]

This thread reminds me mine has probably been loaded for the last 4 years I'll update you guys when I get a chance to shoot it. I think it's been at least 4 years possibly 5. Now I'm curious to go see when I last shot one with my muzzleloader!

 

[Kelljp]

This thread reminds me mine has probably been loaded for the last 4 years I'll update you guys when I get a chance to shoot it. I think it's been at least 4 years possibly 5. Now I'm curious to go see when I last shot one with my muzzleloader!

I buy old TC muzzleloaders at estate sales and about 10%-20% are loaded. Amazingly most will fire, very few balls needed pulling.

 

[Wooden Arrow]

if it was clean other than being loaded, i wouldn't worry about it rusting from the charge. that said, i'd shoot/clean it by seasons end. i'd hate to have a misfire opening morning.

 

[themanpcl]

That day.

How Long Can I Leave My Muzzleloader Loaded?

This is my favorite part...

No one makes you drain the gas out of your lawnmower or motorcycle at the end of a season, or makes you hit that idle snowblower with a trickle charger. Yet, the number of lawnmowers, motorcycles, and snowblowers that fail to start the next time are significant. "Jim Bob" has a snowblower that never has failed to start for him though, and "Jim Bob" has a muzzleloader that he thinks will be okay that he has kept loaded for a month. Heck, Jim Bob never has checked the air in his tires, or his engine oil. Everything "works for me," Jim Bob likes to say.

lol, I know I should unload mine regularly but I do not leave it loaded for more than a year. Mine are in the safe after I get out of the woods. I have always shot it before season and haven't had an issue with it firing after being left from the end of the season to the middle of the next summer.

 

[jlburdge]

I am planning on hunting with my muzzleloader through the rest of deer season. If it hasn't been shot, how long can I leave it loaded before I need to worry about corrosion? I have a CVA Optima and I'm using triple 7. I am also concerned about condensation causing a misfire, but not as much as corrosion starting at the breach where the powder sits. I have left them loaded over the 2 weeks of muzzleloader before and have not had an issue, I'm just concerned leaving it loaded for longer.

get you a bullet puller (ebay?) and then unload the gun, no problem. Always good to fire off a primer before you load up and go hunting. (will eleminate any oil left around the chamber. Just a good thing to do.