flintlock cleaning

[Birddog6]

  Here ya go.  You can get a flushing kit from Dunlap Woodcrafts & several other
venders. I do modify mine & take a flat faucet washer like one you use on a outside
faucet. Drill the hole out slightly, remove the "O"Ring on the flushing kit & push that
washer on there & it seals allot better.

Here goes:

Probably 101 different ways of doing it. Main thing is it be clean & DRY before ya lube it for storage.. Here is how I do it & have done so for many years with success:

I have shot BP for over 40 years & I started shooting flintlocks about 25 years ago & now all my ML rifles but one are flintlocks & all are longrifles but two.

I use a good healthy squirt of dishwater liquid soap or about 2 oz of non-aerosol Ballistol in a gallon of cold water for the flushing solution. I put the rifle upside down in a cradle & remove the lock & connect the "C" clamp type flush kit & wet a patch, put it on a jag & take it to the breech & then suck the barrel full of the solution. While the barrel is soaking I & clean the lock asm. under faucet with a toothbrush, blow dry with air & or dry with a paper towel & take a tiny screwdriver & work the towel into the cracks & etc., then spray the lock down entirely including the flint, with Barricade & pat dry with a paper towel & set aside.

Back to the rifle in the cradle, I take a cleaning jag & a tight patch, & start swabbing back & forth in full strokes to flush the barrel real good for about 20 strokes. Change patches every 5 strokes or so, & do it again, change patches and do it again til I am sure it is clean. Then I take the jag off & put on a breech scraper & check for any fouling. Scrape if necessary & if there is any fouling I put on a Breech Brush & brush the breech. Go back to the jag & wet patch & flush again. Then I swab with a dry patch a time or two. I wad up 2 patches & put them in the bore & shove them to the breech with the jag & hold it there tight with the ramrod & then take a worm & pull it & check it for moisture & fouling. Then I do 2 more. And 2 more if necessary to be SURE the bore is dry.

When dry, I squirt a lil Barricade Non-Aerosol in the barrel from a pump spray bottle & wet a patch real wet with same Barricade & again swab & force some out the vent.

When I am satisfied it is lubed real good, I install the lock & close the frizzen on a dry patch so any excess Barricade will run out the vent & be absorbed in the patch at the frizzen.

I use non-aerosol Barricade as a bore preservative & it works great for me.  I have been using the Barricade
(It was previously called Sheath) Non-Aerosol in the bore for about 11 years now on all my ML rifles and have had no problems at all with it.

(Also the Barricade Aerosol is a real good wife repellent, she comes a snooping into the gun room wanting some "honey-do" stuff ?? When ya hear her coming your way, just spray a lil of the Barricade aerosol into the air toward the door & it will ward her off !!)


Some tell me I go to too much detail, I don't know. I do know I don't have any rust in the bores of my rifles, so it must work. I do all the percussion & halfstocks the same way now, just use a different attachment on the nipple.

It is IMPERATIVE that you get ALL of the moisture out of the barrel and at the breech before you put the bore rust inhibitor in the bore, regardless of what you use here. (If you incur a rusting problem, it will be because you didn't get the moisture out & left it trapped under the oil.)

It is IMPERATIVE that you Reswab the bore the 1st day & the 2rd day after cleaning, just to be sure you got it all lubed good & etc.

Once you do this a dozen times, you will have it cleaned in 10-15 min. Have everything you need together
in a box & you can clean one pretty quick.

Good Luck !!

Keith Lisle









NOTE:  Rifle Upside Down in the Cradle is IMPORTANT !  It keeps any water or solution
           from getting under the barrel or in the lock inlet. 

[Terry Cheek]

Thank you

[Daryl]

Taylor and I, and most of Taylor's gun customers remove the lock & barrel for cleaning, the breech (remove nipple in cap gun, leave the vent in the bore) in a container of cool or cold water. 5-10 minutes for lock and barrel.
This method usually uses 5 to 6 patches total. One for cleaning and 4 or 5 for drying and oiling.
Scrub the lock with a toothbrush in the container of water, shake it off to blast dry with compressed air, or to dry in the sun.(alternate - Use compressor to blast moisture from the lock.)
Breech in the container of water, pumping water in and out with patch on a jag. Remove from water, dry with a towel,, then patch it out dry with more patches. Spray WD40 down the bore
then patch that out, blasting it out the vent or nipple seat. (scrub nipple in water, wipe it off, blow through the top and wipe off the base, then replace) Liberally spray the lock with WD40, then shake it and wipe it off.
Use the WD40 wet patch (or a larger one wet with WD40) to wipe down the outside of the barrel. Take back inside and replace the barrel into the stock. I do not remove the ram-rod from the stock on pinned guns.  Replace the lock onto the gun. done. 5 to 10 minutes. It takes longer, sometimes a LOT longer, to properly clean a modern rifle.

[Austin]

I didn’t realize that it was this complex…..

[smylee grouch]

I don't know if its complex, flush, dry, and oil but I'm thinking it takes longer to wright up a run down on how to do it than it takes to do it.

[Birddog6]

By far. I rewrote it 40-11 times 🤦🏻‍♂️🤣

[Daryl]

It's a 5 to 10 minute job.  That depends on if this is your first or 100th time. Cleaning a cap gun or flinter is not time consuming, unless you want it to be.