Gun cleaning and the cursed black stripes

[dogsbreath]

Cleaned my rifle the other night in my usual way, tooth pick in vent, add hot water let sit a few minutes. dumped the water out and started to run patches and noticed a couple dark black stripes running down the comb. Now I've done this before over the years and the stripes usually fade and go away at least mostly do. I know what the cause is-My lack of and short attention span. What intrigues me is how does the "juice" of the spent powder and water go through the finish? This particular gun I had had recently finished(as in a week ago) using Permayln sealer. I don"t use the finish, just the sealer and build up coats. The gun that I hunt with is a Chamber's Marshall rifle. Its also finished in the same manor with Permayln. Over many,many years me and that rifle have sat through rain,wet snow and sleet.(like the mailman,Whoops,like the mail person) with no discoloration or swelling.Not knocking the product,Ive had this happen to guns finished with tung oil. Just would like to know why water runs off,but water and spent powder seem to penetrate. Any scientists out there.  Thanks   

[Eric Krewson]

Cut a green twig to fit in your vent and it won't leak. I have a little dogwood sapling outside by my archery target that I prune a little off of every time I clean my rifle.

A paper towel and a cheap clamp makes a good back-up just in case.

[JPK]

Not the scientists you may need but I believe the burnt sulfur and water mix is an acid and would have a greater effect then water alone.

[rich pierce]

I believe it’s a Murphy’s Law situation. Whatever could go wrong will go wrong when it has the worst possible impact. Chemists may disagree. I’ve certainly had the same happen to me.

Maybe we should consider black powder fouling as a possibility for artificial striping of gunstocks?

[Turtle]

I have had that happen before I started using permyln for a finish. It is impervious to eny cleaning solution I have used.

[Daryl]

A fellow wanted me to try his new black powder solvent - Wipe Out Spray Foam BP Cleaning solvent.  I plugged the vent, sprayed it into the bore and set the rifle aside as directed. A drop got out the vent, under my paper towel through the lock area, and running down the stock from wrist to butt plate. It left a white line behind it, took finish & stain right off to the wood.  Good finish remover that stuff was/is.

Of course after that, I went back to my tap water (cold tap) for cleaning & removing the barrel each and every time.  No more problems.

[Marcruger]

I use a dry toothpick (round) as it will swell slightly when wet.  I trap the toothpick with the frizzen so it cannot move. 

At the same time I trap a patch under the frizzen to catch any rogue drops of blackwater.  I have at times also tied a narrow rag around the breech area to catch anything that gets by. 

I am sorry you had a bad experience.  God Bless,   Marc

[T*O*F]

I hold my gun so the touch hole is down, thereby alleviating any chance anything will run down the stock.  Then it doesn't make any difference what the stock finish is.  No paper towels, clamps, or rags required.  It always amazed me that some people let that stuff slop all over their wood.

[Dennis Glazener]

I have had the streaks down the comb/cheek of my hunting rifle. I use the same method that Marcruger uses and never had a leak until I purposely pull the toothpick to shoot the water out through the vent hole. Sometimes I don't hold the rifle just right where the water/BP "juice" sprays on the ground. Occasionally it manages to run down the comb and leaves streaks. I have gotten the streaks off using Renaissance Wax.

I think I am going to start using a rag around the breech like Marcruger mentions. Maybe it will catch my mistakes!
Dennis

[mark esterly]

  you need to pay attention to the muzzle end of the barrel too not just the vent.  if you overfill the barrel and dirty water runs down the barrel channel and out the tang area you get the same result.

[dogsbreath]

Eric, Thanks for the suggestion to use a green twig. I had always used a round tooth pick and they usually do swell up. And Rich I believe Murphy is always out there.Somewhere  Behind the toothpick I take a patch and stuff it in the bolster mortise and wrap a rag around the locke area. Just didn't do it yesterday. O well, To soon old, To late smart.  Turtle, This was a Permylin finish.I do like it and have used it on a few guns. Dosen't seem to be affected by alcohol or light use of thinner. Started using it after reading a John Bivens article. Mr Bivens has been gone I'm gussen almost twenty years.  Thanks for the replies

[RVAH-7]

The whittled twig is good for sure. Also, I've run into problems with smaller diameter toothpicks which don't fit snug.  Happened to buy some various colored toothpicks in a little clear, plastic jar and they are the right size. EC121 mentioned on this site that he greases the 'pick to also guarantee no leakage.  As far as TOO MUCH WATER slobbering out of the muzzle, I started using a large ( I think 60 ml. syringe) to accurately fill to muzzle without going over. Eliminates messing with a small funnel ( I only have two hands) and visibility into the crown is way better too.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Why hot water?

[Elnathan]

Anyone ever seen those streaks on originals?

[davec2]

From another post of mine from a while ago........

Yesterday I had a chance to shoot just a few rounds (for the first time) from the copy of the Chambers rifle I built a while back.  Got ready to clean it today with my usual remove the lock, plug the touch hole with a toothpick, fill the bore with water, etc., etc.  Just after I put the toothpick in the touch hole, I broke it off and spent a while trying to get the remnant out.  As I was doing this, I noticed that I had two high pull, small magnets on my work bench and had a thought.  These magnets are rare earth (Neodymium) and are 3/8 inch in diameter and 1/2 inch long.  They have a pull of 19 pounds.  So I cut a small piece of silicone tape to use as a gasket, placed that over the touch hole, and then held it in place with the magnets.  Long story short, it worked like a charm.  No leaks.  Easy to attach and easy to remove.  The magnets are commercially available.  To each his own but this is the new normal for me.  Thought others might like to hear about it.

Lock out, magnet and gasket, plug in place, all done.











Here is the link to the full post and comments.  I modified this "magnetic plug" to include a tube so you can pump water in and out of the bore....

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=45793.0

[Dave Marsh]

Dave, after I read your original post I got the magnets and am using that method and it works great.   Thanks for posting. 

Dave

[Ric27]

I know a standard of cleaning a rifle barrel seems to be to pore water down the barrel. I have done this in the past and even taken the barrel off when I had a rifle with a hooked breach. In those days I would put some dish soap in a bucket and fill it with hot water and suck that stuff up through the vent. Whew! that was a lot of work. These days I put a rolled up patch int the pan up against the vent, close the frizzen down on it. Then wet a clean patch with water and set it down of the tight spot a couple of inches from the breach. Let that sit for 5 minutes and then pull it out. That seems to remove about 2/3 of the fouling. A few more wet and dry patches and it is cleaned. A lubed patch or two and I'm done. Then the over the next day or two I come back and run a couple of lubed patches down the bore to get any fouling that has bloomed out of the crevices.