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While I've never seen any hard data on the effects of exposing propellants of any kind to petroleum products or other liquids or pastes, I've long been concerned about what happens when muzzle-loading powders are exposed to bullet lubes, fouling solvents, water, rust preventives, liquids used to swab between shots, etc.
For typical range shooting, the duration of contact between such liquids and powder is fairly short, so this is probably less of a concern. However, I have experienced perceptible delays between cap firing and powder detonation (a "snap-bang" sound, if you will), some possible explanations for which were partially clogged flash channels, weak cap detonations, or contamination of powder that was near the flash hole. With two "Northwest Edition" inlines that I've owned (inlines modified to fire exposed caps rather than 209s in order to comply with WA, OR, and ID hunting regulations), complete misfires were very common, and snap-bangs were the rule. I suspect that many of these snap-bangs and misfires were caused by poorly designed NW modifications because both of mine seemed to have incredibly weak hammer strikes, but some could have been caused by contamination. With my Renegade, it's happened only twice - once on the first shot after cleaning when I forgot to clear the flash channel by firing a couple of caps, and once, just yesterday, when I fired the Renegade after it had been loaded for 8 days while I was hunting.
For hunting, powder contamination is a much greater concern because rifles are commonly left charged for weeks to months, and so residual cleaning, lubing, and rust preventive liquids and pastes have a long time to work their way into the powder. Before I loaded up for my latest hunt with the Renegade, I therefore wet-swabbed the bore and powder chamber as thoroughly as possible with Hornady Muzzle-Loading One Shot, which Hornady claims will not affect the performance of powders or caps, dry swabbed with many patches on a very tight jag and then dry swabbed with a jag that has a rounded end in hopes of drying the hemi-spherical powder chamber, and then fired a cap to clear the fire channel. Nevertheless, when I fired the Renegade 8 days after loading, I got a snap-bang rather than the clean single detonation which is typical of this rifle. There was aksi an unusually large amount of powder residue left in the barrel when I swabbed it after firing. So... I'm thinking that powder contamination is the probable cause, and that's a big concern because it will result in slower bullets and loss of accuracy on that critical first shot.
Have you experienced any probable powder contamination issues? What are your procedures for getting your muzzle-loader ready to be loaded for hunting?
Thanks!
For typical range shooting, the duration of contact between such liquids and powder is fairly short, so this is probably less of a concern. However, I have experienced perceptible delays between cap firing and powder detonation (a "snap-bang" sound, if you will), some possible explanations for which were partially clogged flash channels, weak cap detonations, or contamination of powder that was near the flash hole. With two "Northwest Edition" inlines that I've owned (inlines modified to fire exposed caps rather than 209s in order to comply with WA, OR, and ID hunting regulations), complete misfires were very common, and snap-bangs were the rule. I suspect that many of these snap-bangs and misfires were caused by poorly designed NW modifications because both of mine seemed to have incredibly weak hammer strikes, but some could have been caused by contamination. With my Renegade, it's happened only twice - once on the first shot after cleaning when I forgot to clear the flash channel by firing a couple of caps, and once, just yesterday, when I fired the Renegade after it had been loaded for 8 days while I was hunting.
For hunting, powder contamination is a much greater concern because rifles are commonly left charged for weeks to months, and so residual cleaning, lubing, and rust preventive liquids and pastes have a long time to work their way into the powder. Before I loaded up for my latest hunt with the Renegade, I therefore wet-swabbed the bore and powder chamber as thoroughly as possible with Hornady Muzzle-Loading One Shot, which Hornady claims will not affect the performance of powders or caps, dry swabbed with many patches on a very tight jag and then dry swabbed with a jag that has a rounded end in hopes of drying the hemi-spherical powder chamber, and then fired a cap to clear the fire channel. Nevertheless, when I fired the Renegade 8 days after loading, I got a snap-bang rather than the clean single detonation which is typical of this rifle. There was aksi an unusually large amount of powder residue left in the barrel when I swabbed it after firing. So... I'm thinking that powder contamination is the probable cause, and that's a big concern because it will result in slower bullets and loss of accuracy on that critical first shot.
Have you experienced any probable powder contamination issues? What are your procedures for getting your muzzle-loader ready to be loaded for hunting?
Thanks!