Hello Robpack,
First, welcome to ALR. Some of us are old, and some of us are crotchety, but we're not all old and crotchety. Hang in there with us, we really are a great group.
I am apparently in the minority, but I remove the barrel of my full-stock longrifles for cleaning after every shooting session. The times that I tried cleaning with the barrel in the stock, I managed to get black fouling water/stain all over my gunstock. NO more! If you are careful, you will have no problems. Here's what I do. Remove the lock. One of the lock screws may go thru the breechplug bolster. You will want the lock out to clean it properly anyway. Remove the screw(s) that goes thru the barrel tang. Remove the pins that hold the stock to the barrel. Make sure the pins aren't tapered, bigger on one side than the other. I ran into that once on an antique Use a punch that's a little smaller than the pins. It shouldn't take much pressure to push them out. Keep track of what came out of which hole.
Spread a towel or something soft on your benchtop or table. Once you have all the barrel attachment screws and pins removed, turn the gun barrel-side down, with the muzzle resting on the towel and the breech end an inch or 2 above the towel. Hold the stock at the wrist with one hand and with the other hand give the underside of the stock a light tap or 2. The barrel should fall out. Don't force it. Set the stock in a safe, out of the way place.
My "cleaning fluid" is a dash of dish soap in a coffee can full of luke warm tap water. Put a toothpick in the touchhole and pour the barrel full of the soapy water. Let it sit while you clean the lock with soapy water and a toothbrush, followed by a liberal spraying with WD-40. Set the lock aside to let the WD-40 run off. Pour the water out of the barrel. Fill it up again, dump it out. Remove the toothpick. Put the breech end of the barrel in the coffee can full of soapy water. With fairly tight fitting patches, pump water in and out of the barrel. This will jet clean the inside of the touchhole. Switch to new patches periodically. Once the patches are coming out clean, use several dry patches, then I follow with WD-40 to chase the water out, followed by Barricade rust preventative.
Once the barrel is clean and dry, lay it sights-side down on your bench-top pad. Retrieve your stock and fit it down over the barrel, line up the tang, it should slide right in. Replace the pins and screws. Wipe the lock dry and reinstall it. I use Johnson's paste wax on the finished wood.
Enjoy your rifle. It's a rare bird.
-Ron
