Cleaning after shooting help

[Tom Currie]

I am not shooting very often and when I clean the bores afterward I remove the barrel and stick it in a the bucket of hot water. For you guys who are shooting often I am guessing you are not doing this disassembly ( removing the barrel )everytime you shoot.
Are you just swabbing out the barrel with wet patches on a jag and then a patch with RIG or another sealer of some sort ?

Obviously you cant have things so wet that you have water coming out the touch hole with the barrel still installed. 

Thanks.



 

[hanshi]

All I can do is to describe my routine and it may differ from what others do.  For longrifles (with pinned barrels) I do not remove the barrel unless the gun has gotten soaked in the rain.  There is really, IMHO, no need to remove it and there's a risk of buggering the tiny holes in the stock. 

1.  I plug the flash hole with a toothpick, fill bore with warm, soapy water and let
     it stand for a while.  The lock is removed as the very first step.

2.  The dirty water is poured out and the bore is swabbed with wet & dry patches
     until they come out reasonably clean.  The breech is wiped down and the bore
     is dried and sprayed with WD40 to remove any water traces and soak into any
     nooks and crannies.

3.  The WD40 is mostly removed by swabbing the bore with a dry patch.  This will
     usually force out that last bit of grime.

4.  Using Barricade or some other good modern rust preventative oil, the bore is
     swabbed and well coated but NOT left runny wet.

5.  The lock is brushed clean in warm, soapy water, dried and oiled.  Gun is then
     reassembled, wiped down (I use TYPE F tranny fluid) and stored.

All that's needed for the next session is to swab all oil from the bore, lock & flash hole.  This has always worked for me since I started muzzleloading in the mid 1960s.

[SCLoyalist]

Unless the barrel has a hooked breech and wedge keys, I'd leave it in the stock.  Nothing good can come of frequently removing stock pins and changing the tension on the tang screw.

Hanshi's advice is pretty sound, I think.  My cleaning routine varies slightly:

Remove Lock, toothpick into vent hole - blow down barrel to check the t'pick has closed vent air (and water)tight.   Stuff paper towel in lock mortise to absorb any leakage.   Fill barrel with water - check for vent leaks - let sit for 20 minutes.   Pour out water (and I just use cold faucet tap water, no soap).  Patches until clean.    Lube barrel.

I used to not let the barrel sit for 20 minutes, and as a result, I often found it necessary to send a breech scraper down to get a fingernail size glob of wet gunk off the breech face.   The long soak seems to have eliminated the need for that.

[smylee grouch]

This topic was brought up some time back and I have since started to use plain water instead of hot or boiling water so as not to get flash rusting in bore. I have had no problems with this method and is alot faster. I use WD40 after I dry the bore and also take barrel out of stock.   Gary

[Daryl]

Most of us up here in the bush use cold tap water only, for cleaning. We find there is no need for soap. LB has been cleaning his guns while on the stock using the plugged vent- fillthe barrel with cold water, let sit, then pull the plug, push that out, re-do a couple times, wipe dry and oil, but most of us take the barrel off, pinned or wedged, doesn't matter, and flush water into and out of the bore usder as much pressure as the rod and hand will give, then dry with patches which then come out clean, barely has greyish lines, then hose down the bore with WD40 until it runs freely out the vent or nipple seat, then flush that out, blasting the excess WD40 out the vent or nipple seat, then wipe it down with the same WD40 patch and put it together.  The WD40 patch from the bore is merely a wet patch - no other colouring from fouling on it. The cold water flush gets the bore perfectly clean. We then store the gun muzzle down so any excess WD40 runs out the muzzle.  WE shoot every weekend, at least.

Years ago, I read a letter written by the famous old English Holland & Holland firle and shotgun firm, which was addressed to a very good friend of mine.  They had just re-furbished a mid 1800's 6 bore ball and shot gun double for Will and gave particular cleaning instructions for the gun.  they'd reamed the bores to 5 bore to make a perfect, as-new bore condition - indeed, the gun looked brand new - what a job they did.  They instructed Will to use ONLY cold water for cleaning due to the flash rusting that can happen if hot water is used, as the minor flash rusting that happens with very hot water is especially prevelent in the softer muzzleloading barrel steels and especially in damascus barrels.  We (Taylor and I) have seen this accumulative results of flash rusting in a couple different modern made muzzleloading guns - the results were fine pitting one end to the other.  One rifle was pitted so badly, it took 2 lead lapping days work to get to where it could be shot without fouling excessively.  The original owner always cleaned the gun 'first thing' after shooting, before doing anything else.  It never sat after shooting, so the cleaning with hot water was what almost ruined the bore.  We now use cold water only and never see rusting of any sort. It works and does not require 'fast' wiping to prevent rust.  While any water will promote or cause oxidation, the colder the water, the slower it happens - stands to reason .

[James Rogers]

but most of us take the barrel off, pinned or wedged, doesn't matter

Hi Daryl,

Do you guys pull pinned barrels to clean when still in the field (hunting camp, in the lean-to after taking game for dinner, etc.) or is this mostly inside on the cleaning bench?
I have had the need to pull pins when the conditions were not ideal and found it quite a pain.

[bob in the woods]

Usually, but not always [ depending on how dirty the lock is ] I'll pull the lock. Plug the vent with a toothpick or feather. Fill barrel with water[ room temp or what ever...not hot] Let sit a few minutes. Dump out. Refill to about 4 to 6  inches or so of muzzle and slosh up and down covering muzzle with my thumb.
Dump, repeat. Wipe out with patches till clean, then patches with wd40 . The WD  seems to clean even more. Then wipe down with WD40 and if not shooting for a week or so, wipe the bore with a bear oil patch.
Lock gets wiped and oiled or scrubbed with an old toothbrush and oiled. The lock area was cleaned after the feather etc was removed after the "sloshing" Assemble lock to gun if it was removed and I'm done.
I always wipe the Lock/barrel contact area with patch lube prior to a installing, so if I only fire a shot or two
ie hunting , I don't necessarily have to remove the lock, but can clean it well enough on the gun.
I carry either my fowler or a rifle on my property almost every day, so they get a lot of use.
I don't expect the patches to be white when I'mdone. Some of the barrels are over 20 years old and are still bright, even after thousands of rounds, and cleaning per the above. The barrel on a pinned rifle, has been out once in 20 years. I finish the inside barrel channel and wax the barrels..then forget about taking them apart. Never been a problem.

[bgf]

I shoot 1x or 2x per week and do full bucket procedure with barrel out, but I think it may be excessive.  Perhaps I should consider a shortcut cleaning procedure and do a monthly bucket, but on the other hand, it isn't really that big a deal (1/2 hour, maybe), so I haven't been able to talk myself into a shortcut.  Once after only a handful of shots, I stopped the hole and soaked a minute or two with 90% alchohol, cleaned with a couple of patches, then dried and oiled it, but I knew I would be shooting the next day; nothing bad happened overnight .

[Muleskinner]

I do the same thing with percussion hooked breech guns and flintlocks....plug the bore....cold water soak a couple of times....WD40...it works.....no need for soap or hot water....after a day or so I wipe out the WD40 and use break free for extended storage...no problems

[roundball]

For you guys who are shooting often I am guessing you are not doing this disassembly ( removing the barrel )everytime you shoot.

After doing that religiously for 18 years on several hooked breech MLs, when I switched to longrifles I tried a couple different approaches to cleaning while the barrel was still in the stock including 'flush tubes', etc...but for me, found it more trouble than it was worth.

I learned right here on the ALR forum about how to carefully remove a pinned barrel and have now done that a couple dozen times on some Virginias...thanks again to all those who contributed to helping me learn that.  And I find other benefits to easily removing a barrel for more than just cleaning...ie: working on sights, refreshing the 'aged' finish look of a barrel, ensuring the bottom of the barrel flats & bed are clean and lubed, rust free all the time, etc....so far so good.

I have a carpeted work area on top of a big Craftsman rolling parts chest, with nothing around the sides to cause any interference, I leave my strong brass ramrods in place to ensure there's good support for the forend, remove the tang bolt, "push" the pins out the same side every time, pull them out the rest of the way with pliers. (no hammering of punches required for this so no chance of marring the stock)

After cleaning I reverse the process and 'push' all the pins back into their original places with only a final light tap to center them inside the stock...then I re-install the tang bolt, screwing it down to the same place every time using the bolt head slot for alignment, and the end result is fine, no POI change from one range trip to the next.

[Daryl]

RB's go the method down & that's how we do it. Push the pins out far enough to grab, pull with pliers.

Locks off for cleaning, shaking and blowing with lung air to dry in camp - air compressor blowing dry at home), then flushing with WD40 and softly wiping almost dry again before reinstalling.

Sometimes if few shots are fired, as a heffley Trail walk, ie: 22 shots or so, I'll just pull the lock (clean as always) and plug the vent, fill and dump a couple times while sipping a cold one, then patch it out dry and then blast WD40 out the vent, patch that out and then put the lock back on.

Sooner or later, the pins 'might' get a bit looser due to in and out wear in the wood - we and others here shoot at least once a week.  Merely rub some beeswax on them and into the hole, then reinstall, then wipe off the excess.  If they are a bit shorter than perfectly side to side, rub beeswax over the hole then burnish with your thumb.

Hooked breeche barrels are easily cleaned in a bucket of water, so they always get taken apart.

[Roger Fisher]

Ok, so I'll say it---Its much like making love it can be done different ways with usually the same end result sometimes better than others or whatever works best for you!   Oh yes and some ways take longer than others!

[Nate McKenzie]

Here's the post on cleaning with tow I did a while ago.

This is how I clean my Flintlock:

Many people would be upset by this procedure, but I have rifles that are 20 and 30 years old that look like they could have been made last week.  I am lucky enough to have outside running hot water.  I’ll show you this way first and then a way if you do not have outside running water.

With Hot Running Water:

First I hang the gun by the trigger guard on a peg near the hot water faucet.  Then, I put dish detergent on a tooth brush.




Brush around the lock area and breech with the wet soapy toothbrush and then squirt lock area with hot water to rinse. 



Next squirt hot water up the barrel until it comes out of the touch hole.  Then let drain.  Do this several times until the water looks clean.



Now pull off a piece of linen tow.  You will soon learn how much you need for a fairly tight fit in the barrel.



Don’t wear your best clothes when you are doing this!!!

Now fold the ends of the tow in and put the worm on the middle and twist to put tow on worm. 





Put some detergent on the linen tow ball.



Wet the tow ball and pump it up and down inside the barrel. 



Rinse tow ball and leave it on the ramrod.  Put more soap on it and pump it again.



This time it should be coming out pretty clean.  Rinse tow ball and ram it a few more times without soap.  Rinse tow ball and squirt hot water up the barrel until it comes out clear.  Let barrel drip dry for a few minutes.

Now run a few dry tow balls in the barrel to be sure it is completely dry.

Wet a clean tow ball with your favorite gun cleaner- lubricant- protector and lubricate inside of barrel.  If you get any blackness on the tow, keep doing it with fresh tow and lube until it comes out clean.  Run your last oily tow ball over all metal parts of the gun to protect from rust.  Some cleaners that I have used and like are Ballistol and  G 96 Gun Treatment.  But there are many others.  Please note that WD 40 is a water displacer not a lubricant and it tends to leave a film on the metal.   I don’t use it.


Without Hot Running Water Outside:

If you do not have the luxury of outside running hot water, you can plug the touch hole with a feather or a toothpick.  Close the pan on the feather to keep it in place. 



Pour hot water down the barrel about half full.  Place your thumb over the muzzle and shake and pour it out.  Do this until it comes out clean.  Then use the soapy tow balls as described previously.  Now rinse well and dry and oil as previously explained.



Dry with dry tow and oil with something like Ballistol or your favorite gun oil on the last tow ball.



There is a gadget made like a C-clamp with a hose on it that you can put over the touch hole and put the end in a bucket of water and pump it up and down after you remove the lock.  I have heard this gadget works OK, but I have never used one.

Every several times you do this you should remove the lock, clean behind it, and re-oil it.

Another good cleaning product, especially for range cleaning every 4 or 5 shots, is Simple Green Cleaner (available in Grocery stores).  It comes in green and pink.  I have used the green and like it, but I have never used the pink.  I mix this about 50% with water and use it on the tow ball between shots and then dry with another tow ball.  Then wet the dry one and use it the next time.

All linen tow can be cleaned in hot soapy water, dried out, combed, and used again.

                                           THE END!