Week long hunt. Unloading?

[MOcluck]

I pulled a bull tag in a limited entry unit for the smokepole. I will be backpacking in for the hunt ( 7 days). I've muzzy hunted whitetails for several years and just leave my gun loaded pulling the primer after each hunt. But this is not a camping situation. The guns only exposed to the elements while I hunt. My question is does anyone unload and reload during the course of the hunt when camping out or do you just load it and leave it?

 

[ATX762]

I've found that in cold/wet situations up north I really need to fire it every night. Just about everyone I know does, or they do once they get a dud while sighting down on an animal, frantically trying to change out primers as the animal walks away.

In moderate temps I've never had an issue. But now I unload mine every night.

 

[MOcluck]

That sounds like solid advice. Thanks for the input.

 

[MallardSX2]

My advice would be to not bring a gun inside and outside of any warm to cold temperature change. Most problems with black powder occur from these fluctuation in temperatures.

 

[larryschwartz]

I have gotten the same advice, unload it each night if the weather is cold and or damp. If you don't want to shoot it to unload it there are CO2 canister devices you can use to push the load out of the barrel for you.

B.I.D. CO2 Blowoff, Inflator, Discharger - Buffalo Arms