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Length of time being loaded/Jonny Brown Hawken gun/tipis

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BowEd:
Just curious.How long can someone leave a muzzle loader loaded without damage to the walls of the barrel using conventional black powder?I use a pillow tick patch soaked in deer tallow and beewax around a round ball.I've left them for a week before with no damage.
I've read of guns that'll still fire after after years of being loaded but not as to the condition of the barrel wall.
When I load my gun to be sure it's dry I drop 5 to 10 grains of powder down the barrel and fire it out with a cap.Then load my my barrel.
I would think the lubrication from the greased patch would help deter most corrosion over an extended period of time.

Don W:
Is it normal to leave a muzzle loader loaded. I've never felt comfortable with that.

BowEd:
Yes it is.Many do it.Old timers did it all the time.Why would it be uncomfortable?If it's a safety thing your concerned about.If there's no cap on.It's safe.By law in Iowa a muzzle loader can be transported uncapped or no priming charge if in a gun case.

Eric Krewson:
If you fire a squib load in your gun then load it with powder and ball you have done the same as firing a full charge and not cleaned your barrel for as long as you have left it loaded. This is VERY bad practice and unnecessary and could cause some serious rusting and pitting in your bore particularly at the breech.

I had a Knight rifle that wouldn't shoot accurately without a fouled bore so I did like you have been doing before I loaded, it didn't take long for the barrel to get really pitted inside. I was shooting pydrodex which is even more corrosive than B/P after it has been burned.

Black powder is stable and non corrosive until it burns, the residue is very corrosive after burning.

Firing a couple of caps before you load won't hurt a thing because they are non corrosive. This practice will burn out any oil in the flash chamber and and assure your gun will go off. It is a good idea to put a patch down the bore with your ramrod when you fire the caps to catch the oil that might be blown out and keep it out of your powder charge when you load. 

As for loading on a dry barrel, I leave my gun loaded from the first day of M/L season until I take a shot at a deer or not. I plug the touch hole with a toothpick to stop any moisture migration into the powder charge, my gun will go off like it had just been loaded 6 months later if I don't get a chance at a deer.

BowEd:
From a stored barrel that's been oiled layed up I used to just fire off 2 caps/load it and she fires.I was hunting with my nephew once years ago and he had a CVA rifle.We snuck up on some deer once.Tried to time our shots together.Him shoot left one and me shoot right one.His cap just went off and that's all.Mine fired.That happened to us twice even though I told him to like you say squib fire dry his breech before hand.I squib fired this time to be sure too.
Shot the week stored load out at 50 yards at a 3" circle.Still shoots the same as in years past.

I'll clean er up a little and reload her.Dawn and water.Follow up with my oil of choice for years and years.

Only took 5 or 6 long underwear patches to clean er up.Felt smooth as silk stroking it.I've looked down the barrel with an LED pen light and it's all shiny smooth yet.I'll run 1 dry patch through after another to make sure it's dry.Shoot some caps through it and load it.

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