Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles tape to protect muzzle???

I don't know if I related this story on the aforementioned thread in 2008 or on another, so pardon me if I'm repeating myself.

My buddy, John, was in Belgium in the winter of 44-45. He arrived at Normandy on D-Day +14. By December, he was north of Bastogne, and lasted until 3rd week in January, when he had to be evacuated for frozen feet. This subject of wrapping your barrel came up at our camp. Jerry had been an armourer in the Marines. Bob was a retired gun editor. We got to talking about preparing for a very wet weekend coming up.

Bob had written and edited for Gun Dog Magazine. Yes, he had tapped a barrel or two, and seen others do the same. Jerry could see no real good coming from it, but did not see any harm. He had rebuilt a lot of weapons that had been out there in the worst of it. John was the only one with experience on long term usage.

"We stopped using condoms," said John. "If we left them on for any length of time, we found the condensation would make our barrels rust."

There was no discussion of blue tape, but I seem to remember that was the first weekend I put electrical tape on the barrel of my Rem 742.

Does it have to be rainbow colered tape to work for a .270?😁

Anyone have a better tape for super cold installation? I find the cheap stuff doesn't stick to itself well when in single digit temps. Haven't tried the little condoms, do they get brittle when it's "hey baby it's cold outside"?

I use my special order condoms. Great multi-purpose item.

I’ve been taping my barrels since I joined here. I don’t recall when the infamous blue tape thread was but I believe it was before that.

Just this past Tuesday morning I took a tumble with the ML’r in hand down a slippery slope and jambed the spout into the snow. I just chuckled and thought of Jeff O.

Good times.....

LOL, didn't read the entire thread but pretty sure it has been mentioned the tape over the muzzle will be LONG gone before the bullet gets there.

I wrap a few rounds of camo duct tape around my scope tubes, don't want it on my barrels.

Of course, the rainbow colors of brown, white and red, a shot dead buck deer.

Scotch 3M Super 88+ works much better in the cold than the cheap stuff.

God, I love this forum!!

A quick wipe with an Alcohol rag to remove exterior barrel oil from the end. Stretch that tape well when applied and it has always worked down to 25 below temp. I tend not to hunt in temps colder than -25 so I can't speak to that.

I really like the blue confetti after the shot....

I will never again in my life hunt without taping the end with good ole Scotch 33 black vinyl electrical tape. Was sitting while hunting and dropped my rifle muzzle down and ended up with a mud plugged barrel. Thankfully I was able to modify a green branch from a sapling and cleaned the mud from my barrel, then used a disposable glasses cleaning patch to swab out the bore. When hunting out west or with mu .50 cal ML's I always taped the muzzle, but rarely while deer hunting back home. Not any more.

It won't bulge the barrel, however, a well-recessed crown protects the crown just fine. A solution looking for a problem IMHO.

There's a way it CAN blow your rifle up. If you hunt empty-chamber, in the rain, muzzle-down, and muzzle taped, water will get into the barrel through the breech and collect in the barrel. If it freezes, kaboom. Just FYI.

A solution looking for a problem?
It's done to keep [bleep] out of your barrel when actually hunting, Jeff, and it works quite well.

Don’t know exactly how he accomplished the feat, but, there’s a hunting video on YouTube showing a rifle “ come from untogether “ ! The hunter was taking a shot, at a moose I think, while being videoed. Shooter survived...rifle did not! memtb

Got a link or know the name of the vid? Was it taped?

Join the club! Sure is a lot easier to clean a barrel of crud that isn't it it due to tape, then patching it out after burying the rifle to the action muzzle first.

I put about 10 wraps of electrical tape around the barrel just ahead of the forend tip on every hunting rifle so I'll never be without tape to cover the muzzle.

If you hunt rough country, it's not a question of if, but when when you're rifle will get to interact with terra firma

My comment was about protecting the crown. You ain't gonna damage the crown on a rifle I built or spec'd. It's trivial to recess a crown to the point where it'd be virtually impossible, geometrically speaking, to damage it.

Realize that the tape also keeps crud IN. In the case I detailed, water. I've taped a few muzzles; I get it. However if yer gonna really kill it, poke a few pin-holes in it with the tip of your knife so water can drain.

And do NOT use blue tape,

If it’s warm enough for the water to drain...then you won’t have an ice plug! However, dirt/mud can happen above freezing temps! memtb

Never been tough to cypher,who shoots and who don't...though I do VERY much enjoy Window Lickers' Imaginations and Pretend. Jeff Zero as per always,is on fhuqking fire,shooting both her mouth and Imagination! Congratulations?!? Laughing!

Blue as a whole,keeps Splendid Beasties at bay,especially when offset with differentiating muzzle tape(3M or bust...literally). Hint.



Pardon that rifle's shallow crown. Laughing!



It's oft handy to use alotta Blue Tape...say when chopping spouts and whistlin' them findings through a chronograph. Hint.




Never have thought to tape a Rimfire...especially a Vudoo on a dusty summer day,wearing a Bartlein spout. Laughing!



Or when extrapolatin' a few different .243" bore rifles,on a Dusty Day. Laughing!



I've got a "hunch",that I prolly have Splendid Beastie pics capably covering most every muzzle tape color in the spectrum and you gals will haveta pardon shooting more than you could begin to fhuqking fathom.

Hint.

Just sayin'.

Merry Xmas.

Laughing!...........................