I shot a deer on the morning of January 6th with my T/C .50 Pro Hunter (100 grains Pyrodex under a 250 Shockwave). The rifle was placed back into a soft case for travel and taken home. I removed the rifle from the case yesterday and cleaned it. I noted no rust or even any discoloration of any kind - the rifle cleaned up as usual to a bright and shiny bore.
In the past, I have waited (for different reasons) to clean this BP with again, no even minute signs of rust. I have read many accounts of horror stories about barrels using Pyrodex being savaged with rust formation in as little time as overnight.
I am wondering if the Pro Hunter barrel not reacting to the powder residue is because it is that well manufactured, if it is because it is SS or maybe as simple as it being stored in a soft case with no access to a supply of humidity - I do not know. Thoughts of those who know?
Congratulations for harvesting your deer.
I'm not sure exactly how many days that you went without cleaning but it would appear to be 11 days during this Missouri winter?
I think that you're lucky for the same reasons that the others mentioned.
I once bought a used Traditions stainless rifle that was heavily carbon fouled from shooting some kind of pellets and was fortunate that it wasn't rusted under the thick carbon residue.
But the residue was really baked on and very difficult to remove from the grooves even with a bronze brush and repeated cleanings.
Usually Pyrodex fouling is somewhat softer if cleaned sooner after the shots are fired.
At least your fouling wasn't the result of a range session with many shots fired which increases the amount of corrosive by-products.
From personal experience, it only takes one occurrence of rust forming in a barrel to teach a person the lesson to not wait too long to clean the gun.
In my case it was probably a month or two left exposed to summer humidity for a non-stainless barrel to show some signs of surface rust inside the bore.
It was a long time ago and luckily the gun wasn't ruined.
But it could have been a lot worse and I've seen others in person that were a lot worse.
The stainless steel, the protective case and low winter humidity helped to keep your gun protected.
Every gun has different steel, and the humidity variables and amount of fouling can have a different effect on the speed of rust formation.
One year I shot a deer and some snow fell onto the muzzle crown during the time the deer was being dragged to the car.
The flat of the muzzle crown of the rifle was not blued at the factory like the rest of the barrel, and the melting ice crystals mixed with the Pyrodex fouling to leave some black stains on the crown area.
It was no big deal and the "indelible stains" faded a little bit over time which seems unimportant now, and were well worth harvesting the deer for.
But it illustrates that you never know what can happen when a person is out in the woods with a dirty gun, and who normally carries cleaning supplies in the woods to immediately begin cleaning right after shooting a deer?
If it had rained into the barrel, then who knows what could result if a person waited 11 days to clean up their Pyrodex residue.
Even allowing blood to mix with fouling might be able to cause a problem.
Congratulations again on the deer harvest and for keeping your gun safe from rust and stain free, at least for this time!