Input needed

[WP79Vet]

Good info, yet personally I would suggest never stuffing anything into a nipple orifice, and all the moreso with Pyrodex, which is harder to ignite than black powder. Better, if using closed cell foam (assuming you know what that is) would be to put a a piece of it into the cup of the hammer, then let the hammer down on the nipple. You can then use a safety pin, tweezers or whatever to remove this piece from the hammer cup when applying a new cap.
Aloha, Ka'imiloa

I'm certainly not suggesting firing a rifle with the foam still in the nipple(!) - the foam is just an easily removed way of sealing the nipple when there's not a cap on it - so it makes no difference what kind of powder is being used. If some foam gets stuck in the nipple and can't be removed with tweezers or a toothpick, nipples aren't hard to remove, and the foam can easily be pushed out of the nipple from either end. You would never want to push so much foam into the nipple that it gets into the fire channel - just enough to fill the outer part of the nipple.

Good suggestion about using closed cell sheet foam between hammer and nipple for sealing the fire channel - that would work as well as a rubber band or a piece of an inner tube. Regardless of how you're using foam to seal the nipple, you do have to make sure it's closed cell foam, as open cell foam allows air to pass through it. How to tell open cell from closed cell foam? Open cell foam takes up water, just like a sponge. I'm a fly tyer, so I have lots of closed cell foam of different sizes and shapes.

For octagonal barrels electrical tape probably works better than the Traditions "Raingear" rubbers, which have a tendency to tear on the ridges of the barrel. The rubbers do work on octagonal barrels, but you have to put them on pretty carefully.

 

[WP79Vet]

Talk of cold weather hunting brings a couple of other issues to mind:

Bringing a rifle indoors after hunting in cold weather does cause condensation on the rifle, which can cause rust, which can freeze when you take the rifle back outside, and if there's enough ice in the wrong place, can interfere with safeties, firing pins, or maybe even interfere with the lock on a traditional muzzleloader, although I'd be surprised if there's enough air circulation inside a traditional lock to form that much ice. However, if you seal the barrel and the nipple of a muzzleloader using the techniques described above, there's no way for moisture to condense on the powder because warm indoor air can't get to the powder or to the inside of any metal that surrounds the powder, and I've never experienced a misfire, even after moving from cold to hot and back again many times with the same powder in the rifle. And.... I grew up in Northern Wisconsin and live in Montana, where temperature differences between indoors and outdoors can easily be 80 degrees or more during late fall hunting seasons. If you hunt in cold temperatures, just be sure to use an effective rust protectant BEFORE you take your rifle outdoors, and after you bring your rifle indoors, be sure to wipe off any condensation and apply more rust protection once the rifle warms up.

Another potential problem in single-digit or colder temperatures is that simple gun oils can become stiff and gummy in the cold, and interfere with the mechanical workings of firearms. Dad told me that once upon a time (the '50s) an elk got away from him here in Montana for just that reason. So... Dad and I always lubricated the mechanical parts of all of our firearms with "Gunslick" graphite grease rather than the "gun oils" which were available back then, and I've never had or heard tell of a gumming problem with it. The graphite grease also tends to stay where it's needed, so I still consider it to be the very best lubricant for the working parts of all firearms (and fishing reels) in all temperatures. I've never had a gumming problem with CLP either, and it's been my favorite gun cleaner, lubricant, and rust protectant ever since my Army days, when I found CLP to be the only thing which would keep M-16s, .45s, M-2 and M-60 machine guns, and artillery cannons from rusting during literally months afield with little or no shelter in the rain forests of Western Washington, the monsoon downpours of Korean summers, Ranger training around the salt water creeks and human sweat of coastal Florida, and so forth. If allowed to soak for awhile, CLP will literally work its way under the rust on a weapon so that the rust comes off easily - wish I had before and after photos of the .45 I was issued when I took command of my battery of M110A1 8 inch howitzers in Korea! I'm sure that other modern gun lubricants are good in cold weather too, but put them in your freezer and make sure that they still flow easily before using them on critical working parts.

 

[Squint]

Talk of cold weather hunting brings a couple of other issues to mind:

Bringing a rifle indoors after hunting in cold weather does cause condensation on the rifle, which can cause rust, which can freeze when you take the rifle back outside, and if there's enough ice in the wrong place, can interfere with safeties, firing pins, or maybe even interfere with the lock on a traditional muzzleloader, although I'd be surprised if there's enough air circulation inside a traditional lock to form that much ice. However, if you seal the barrel and the nipple of a muzzleloader using the techniques described above, there's no way for moisture to condense on the powder because warm indoor air can't get to the powder or to the inside of any metal that surrounds the powder, and I've never experienced a misfire, even after moving from cold to hot and back again many times with the same powder in the rifle. And.... I grew up in Northern Wisconsin and live in Montana, where temperature differences between indoors and outdoors can easily be 80 degrees or more during late fall hunting seasons. If you hunt in cold temperatures, just be sure to use an effective rust protectant BEFORE you take your rifle outdoors, and after you bring your rifle indoors, be sure to wipe off any condensation and apply more rust protection once the rifle warms up.

Another potential problem in single-digit or colder temperatures is that simple gun oils can become stiff and gummy in the cold, and interfere with the mechanical workings of firearms. Dad told me that once upon a time (the '50s) an elk got away from him here in Montana for just that reason. So... Dad and I always lubricated the mechanical parts of all of our firearms with "Gunslick" graphite grease rather than the "gun oils" which were available back then, and I've never had or heard tell of a gumming problem with it. The graphite grease also tends to stay where it's needed, so I still consider it to be the very best lubricant for the working parts of all firearms (and fishing reels) in all temperatures. I've never had a gumming problem with CLP either, and it's been my favorite gun cleaner, lubricant, and rust protectant ever since my Army days, when I found CLP to be the only thing which would keep M-16s, .45s, M-2 and M-60 machine guns, and artillery cannons from rusting during literally months afield with little or no shelter in the rain forests of Western Washington, the monsoon downpours of Korean summers, Ranger training around the salt water creeks and human sweat of coastal Florida, and so forth. If allowed to soak for awhile, CLP will literally work its way under the rust on a weapon so that the rust comes off easily - wish I had before and after photos of the .45 I was issued when I took command of my battery of M110A1 8 inch howitzers in Korea! I'm sure that other modern gun lubricants are good in cold weather too, but put them in your freezer and make sure that they still flow easily before using them on critical working parts.

As a lad in the mid-50s, jackrabbits were selling for anywhere from 20 cents to a dollar so we hunted them unmercifully. That's when we discovered three in one oil would get so stiff that our 22's wouldn't shoot. The next lubricant we used was kerosene. We used it to wash out the oil and then left some for lubricant. We also never brought our rifles inside, left them in a cold porch so they wouldn't sweat as the temperature was often 20 below zero outside. It worked then and I'm sure it would work now.

 

[drpatton]

I've never had a gumming problem with CLP either, and it's been my favorite gun cleaner, lubricant, and rust protectant ever since my Army days, when I found CLP to be the only thing which would keep M-16s, .45s, M-2 and M-60 machine guns, and artillery cannons from rusting during literally months afield

I hadn't heard of CLP until recently. I was issued LSA. It never worked in the humidity of the Carolinas. Parris Island was so humid, the M-16A1 I was issued would start to rust within an hour of its application.

I bough a bottle of Break-Free CLP to try, and a friend of mine happened to see it and explained what CLP is.

Here is a video of of tests of various CLPs. It even tests the ability of various CLPs to keep from siezing or freezing. I'm after the corrosion prevention of CLP, which the video also tests. Not so much of the lubricant value of it, so if it freezes, it doesn't bother me.

 

[WP79Vet]

I hadn't heard of CLP until recently. I was issued LSA. It never worked in the humidity of the Carolinas. Parris Island was so humid, the M-16A1 I was issued would start to rust within an hour of the application of LSA.

I bough a bottle of Break-Free CLP to try, and a friend of mine happened to see it and explained what CLP is.

Here is a video of a battery of tests of various CLPs. It even tests the ability of various CLPs to keep from siezing or freezing. I'm after the corrosion prevention of CLP, which the video also tests, and not the lubricant value of it, so if it freezes, it doesn't bother me.

I agree - LSA is completely worthless for corrosion protection. If I remember right, CLP came out in the early 80s, and it was miraculous.

 

[drpatton]

I used to work with a guy who was the U.S. Bench Rest Champion at 100 & 300 yrds (Not Muzzleloader). I learned from him, bench shooters formulated their own cleaning solution for their rifles after a match.

They used 1 part Kroil to 1 part GM Top Engine Cleaner. (Some used 2:1)

GM hasn't made that cleaner in over 20 years, does anyone know if there is another cleaner like it?
What GM has now isn't anything like the original. They had to get rid of it for some reason (Carcinogen?, EPA?, Hazerdous?). I can say it didn't have any Ammonia in it. No bench rest shooter would ever put ammonia in the bore of a rifle.