General discussion > Black Powder Shooting
Another barrel cleaning thread
eagle24:
Took my .50 to the range yesterday. Like I always do, I ran a patch through it with a cleaner that I use for wiping at the range (simple green & alchohol mixed 50/50). Rust! Not real dark red, but significant rust on the patch. I ran 4 or 5 patches before I got one fairly clean and then commenced shooting. When I got home, I decided to pull the barrel from the stock to clean. I usually draw water through using one of the c-clamp gadgets with the rubber tube. I filled a bucket with cold soapy water and started my cleaning using a jag and flannel patches. After about an hour and no telling how many patches, I was still getting a greenish yellow color on my patches and couldn't return a clean patch to say I was done. I removed the breech plug and went at it some more. Finally, I ran several patches with WD-40 and left it on my bench with the breech plug out and gave up for the night. After the "rust" incident at the range, I decided that I better check my .32 which I haven't shot in a couple of weeks. Thank goodness, it was clean as a whistle with no rust. One more thing on the .50 barrel. This rifle was built to look aged and there are a couple of spots on the outside of the barrel that will nearly rust before your eyes. I have a feeling the builder used a browning solution and it is not completely neutralized. I'm going to neutralize it with some ammonia before I put it back in the stock. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the trouble I'm having with rust in the bore? The bore looks bright and clean, but I can't get it too the point that I can run a patch through and have it come out clean, or at least I haven't yet. Accuracy is really good from the barrel and I sure want to keep it that way. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong, or what I need to do?
Roger Fisher:
First off I'm wondering if you may have forgotten to dry that bore and/ forgot to oil said bore after cleaning her and she was rusting away til your next trip to the range ??? ??? This would be my thought since you probably used the same oil etc in that .32 that stayed pristine?
I know a certain old guy that was cleaning 2 rifles and a smoothy the same evening and pulled the above mistake. He found dark brown after 2 days!!! :o
eagle24:
--- Quote from: Roger Fisher on September 19, 2008, 05:20:20 PM ---First off I'm wondering if you may have forgotten to dry that bore and/ forgot to oil said bore after cleaning her and she was rusting away til your next trip to the range ??? ??? This would be my thought since you probably used the same oil etc in that .32 that stayed pristine?
--- End quote ---
I don't think that is the case, but anything is possible. I can't imagine that I didn't go straight to dry patches and then oil before I put it up. Right now, I'm most concerned that I can't get a clean patch out of her. It acts like it is flash rusting, but I am using cold soapy water. When I finally gave up and ran a couple of oil patches through last night they came out with dark gray on them like there was still powder fouling in the barrel.
Roger Fisher:
--- Quote from: GHall on September 19, 2008, 05:30:19 PM ---
--- Quote from: Roger Fisher on September 19, 2008, 05:20:20 PM ---First off I'm wondering if you may have forgotten to dry that bore and/ forgot to oil said bore after cleaning her and she was rusting away til your next trip to the range ??? ??? This would be my thought since you probably used the same oil etc in that .32 that stayed pristine?
--- End quote ---
I don't think that is the case, but anything is possible. I can't imagine that I didn't go straight to dry patches and then oil before I put it up. Right now, I'm most concerned that I can't get a clean patch out of her. It acts like it is flash rusting, but I am using cold soapy water. When I finally gave up and ran a couple of oil patches through last night they came out with dark gray on them like there was still powder fouling in the barrel.
--- End quote ---
A little gray is really no biggee; but to get rid of that I would suggest 4/0 wool or scotchbrite pad material wrapped tight on the cleaning jag and run that (tight) thru her 15 or twenty trips then clean her and oil. I use ballistol in the bore (not the lock) with no problems! I had old 4-d 40 years ago and the bore rusted under the @!*% oil. Don't trust it ever since. The guys claim it has more drier in it now and it's okay. I dunno :-\
Let us know how it works out! :)
Daryl:
I am at a loss at to why you can't get her clean, Ghall - I don't use soap - just cold water and have no difficulty getting the bore clean. Cleaning only uses one patch when flushing water in an out, barrel off or with the C-clamp thinkie. I run 3 to 5 patches down it after cleaning chaning them until the last patch drags due to a dry bore. The patches for cleaning and drying are all used on a jag and are quite tight fitting. After drying, I heavily spray WD40 down the tube & it sprays out the vent (or nipple seat) when I run the oiling patch up and down the bore. I keep pumping until it stops spraying. When cleaning or oiling with the barrel on the stock, I have a paper towel wadded in the lock mortice to prevent water or oil from soaking the wood. Whe pumping the water up and down the bore (barrel on the stock), I wrap a towel around the muzzel and forend as water spews out to muzzle as the rod is lifted amnd drawing water into the bore. I have never used wet patches for cleaning only as it's almost impossible to clean a bore that way without using copious amounts of patches - ridiculous in my opinion. The only way to clean a bore well, is to pull water into the bore, then flush it out the vent or nipple seat - in-out, in-out, in-out, - probably 20 or more times AFTER the water is being pulled all the way up to the muzzle through the vent or nipple seat. The bore will then be clean and ready to dry. As I've said before, this rarely takes more than 4 patches to get completely dry. The spraying of a LOT of WD40 into the bore, then flushing that out the vent seems to get rid of any vestages of water or moisture left in the bore or breech area. Any patch run into the bore after that comes out pefectly clean - no marks from dirt at all and only the faint impressions in the cloth of the rifling. If I lived in a humid area, I'd then re-dry the bore with a couple patches to pull out the WD40, then use a better rust preventer. Here, or when I lived at the coast, that isn't/wasn't necessary.
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