As the title asks, how long can I leave my inline muzzleloader charged for? Assuming I wanted to leave it charged for the entire season I never have an opportunity is that okay? I would obviously touch it off and clean it at the end of the season.
Seems to be some mixed opinions on this based on the powder you're using. I'm using blackhorn 209.
I put the gun away with a natural bore butter in the bore, store bore end down, and I pull the breech plug, make sure its completely dry, blow air thru it and do not use oils of any kind. Its stainless, but I store it inside so the flash hole stays perfect. I then check it with compressed air again before I load for the season. I swab out the bore with a few patches and put in the breech plug. In general the bore butter will not interfere with firing, where oils may creep into your powder or pellet or flash hole.
I usually load once a season, then keep it out in the cold garage to stop from major condensation changes/sweating. With the pellets I use I need to clean every third discharge or sooner so I don't want to shoot off and clean every time, even though with the breakopen/ no tools screw in breech plug, its pretty easy and quick.
I think if there was a drastic weather change, or rain hunt, i would pull the breech plug and push out the old stuff and put in new stuff.
I use these blue MZ pellets from Alliant and I have not witnessed any decomposition or mushiness when pushing them back out at the end of the season. But they are definatlely not "clean" I need to swab the bore every third charge.
I want to try Blackhorn, but got a 50% sale on the Blue MZ and have a bunch of them, and have very good accuracy with Powerbelt Platinums.