Clamp-on Flinter Cleaner?

[frogwalking]

I saw a Clamp-on Flintlock rifle Cleaner in a catalog.    It has a tube that goes into ones bucket of hot soapy water, or whatever concoction one uses. The flash hole on my rifle is pretty small. (good technical description)  Does anyone use one of these?  Does it work?  I can do more damage removing and reinstalling screws and pins than shooting.

[SCLoyalist]

I have one that I got from Track of the Wolf.  It works, but you have to be careful to get it centered over the flash hole so there's no leakage. I pull the lock, stuff a paper towel into the lock mortise to absorb any leakage, then screw the clamp down.  (The seal is via a little rubber o-ring on the flusher.)     Before actually putting water down the bore, I put my thumb over the muzzle and blow into the hose to check for air leaks.   If air can't get through, neither can water.   If okay, I put some water down the barrel, let the breech soak for a few minutes, & dump it.   Then a few patches pumping with the hose end in a small pail.   Dump that fouled water.  Do it again with clean water.  Take hose off.  Run patches through bore until dry.  Oil.

Cleanup usually takes me 15 minutes or so. 

If I didn't use the flush hose, rather than removing a pinned barrel for cleaning, I'd shove a toothpick or wood match stem into the vent to seal it and run wet patches up/down, and maybe use a breech scraper.

[Pete G.]

Leave the screws and pins in place. I stick a feather in the vent (seals much better that the often recommended toothpick) then pour a couple of tablespoons of windshield washer fluid down the bore. It sits while I retrieve the target and frame and then a few patches wipe everything out. Follow with a good oil and you are done. We live where the weather is 95/95 through the summer, 95 degrees and 95% humidity. If that technique works here it should work anywhere.

[billd]

I just bought one, used it once. It seemed to work well. I clamp the gun in a vice upside down so any leakage won't run into the lock mortise.
Bill

[Daryl]

I use mine periodically, works fine as designed. I wrapped a small strip of sheet lead around the 'bob' to hold it in the bucket of water & pump water in and out as if the barrelw as removed and sunk in the bucket - works fine but you must make certain the hole is lined up with the vent.  It might not work well with slotted vents.

[Larry Pletcher]

I used one of these when I shot a rifle before the wood was finished.  By using it I thought I could keep the wood around the breech dry.  It worked well.  The O-ring is the same size as a WL liner.  I installed it so that I could not see the liner and that centered it on the vent just fine.  Now that the rifle has finish, I may continue to use it.

Regards,
Pletch

[Long John]

Back when I was young and foolish I thought you had to slurp water up and down the bore to clean a long rifle.  I even thought you had to remove the barrel!  So I made a rifle with a hooked breech and keys to ease the cleaning job.  It always looked too fat!

Now that I am just plain foolish I know that all I have to do is lay my rifle down on a pad on the kitchen table with lock removed and lock mortice down.  I put a pad of paper towels right where the vent is.  I use a bronze bristle brush dipped in hot tap water for a couple of passes up and down the barrel.  Then I use that neat little breech face brush Willliam Slusser sells at the fair.  Then about 1/2 dozen wet patches and things are comming clean.  With each run of the rod up the bore I can hear the water spurt out the vent onto the paper towels.  1/2 a dozen dry patches , one with WD-40 and one to wipe the bore dry and the barrel is ready for a patch moist with bear oil, my rust preventative.

I wipe of the lock and outside with a paper towel and Windex, followed by a cloth with bear oil.  I am done in 10 to 15 minutes and have never seen the slightest hint of rust since I have adopted this cleaning routine 1/2 a dozen years ago.

If any one wants on of those thingies, free, email me I will send you a very slightly used one if I haven't thrown it away already.

Best Regards,

JMC

[SCLoyalist]

Yesterday I shot a rifle I hadn't shot for quite a few months and tried using my flush hose on it.   On that rifle, it wasn't usable - the wood on the side opposite the vent comes up higher than the vent, with the result that I can't clamp and seal the vent.   So, while it works great with my 54, it doesn't work at all with my .40.

[sniper68]

Have had that problem on all my flinters. Seemed like a great idea and although it wanted to, just didn't get the job done. Below are pictures of how I resolved the problem years ago. Works perfect!!
Replaced the O ring with a faucet washer. Counter drilled(by hand) halfway through the washer to a size that would allow a press fit on the clamp. Contact cemented a piece of flexable rubber on the other end and had to enlarge the hole and add some weight to keep it from wanting to flop around when you pump to hard.

[Ky-Flinter]

ah, a modified facet washer.  Thanks sniper!  I've had a similar one (from Dunlap) for years and had given up on it, never could get the thing to seal.  I'll have to give it another chance.

-Ron

[fyrfyter43]

Another option is to make a flush kit using a zerk fitting. Find a zerk fitting threaded the same as your TH liner and drill it out as big as possible. Remove the TH liner and screw in the drilled-out zerk fitting. Put a length of tight-fitting clear tubing over the zerk and put the other end of the tubing in your bucket of water.

Same as one of those clamp-on kits, only alot cheaper and should give a better seal to prevent leaking.

[Long John]

I used to remove the touch hole liner and thread in this little fitting with a tube on it.  NO MORE.  Every time you remove and reinstall that touch hole liner you are wearing down the threads.  If you do it long enough, eventually you will have an unpleasant surprise.

You guys are making this way to complicated!  You don't need fancy stuff to clean along rifle!  Don Getz, tell them what you told me years ago!

JMC

[northmn]

I used to remove the touch hole liner and thread in this little fitting with a tube on it.  NO MORE.  Every time you remove and reinstall that touch hole liner you are wearing down the threads.  If you do it long enough, eventually you will have an unpleasant surprise.

You guys are making this way to complicated!  You don't need fancy stuff to clean along rifle!  Don Getz, tell them what you told me years ago!

JMC

AMEN.  I just plug the vent and use a funnel to pour some cleaner down the bore and dump it out acouple of times then brush.  Simple, works and does not even require lock removal if I am going to shoot again soon.

DP

[sniper68]

AMEN.  I just plug the vent and use a funnel to pour some cleaner down the bore and dump it out a couple of times then brush.  Simple, works and does not even require lock removal if I am going to shoot again soon.DP

I knew that's what someone was going to say... It do work and that's the method I use when I'm out and about for more than a day or so. But I've never been comfortable  using that as a final cleaning method. Being a clean fanatic and lazy, the flushing clamp works best, at least for me anyway. Gotta keep my Getz barrels pristine!

[hanshi]

I'm sort of OCD and have a phobia of rust.  Still, I've never, NEVER, gotten a bore (smokeless cartridge or muzzleloader) spotlessly clean.  Maybe I'm too picky and expect too much.  I oily patch-out the bore the next day, a few days later and periodically after that.  I pour soapy water down the bore & soak, pour out & start swabbing with wet & dry patches.  I remove the lock & clean everything I can see then oil.  Seldom if ever remove the vent liner, though. 

Thing is, at some point, either on cleaning day or within a few days after I can almost always get a stained patch if I wipe the bore enough.  A little of this is the oil.  I use Butch's which is red, along with others, but that doesn't explain the sorta "dark" tint that white patches can show.

I can't do a 15 minute cleaning as some have reported.  It takes me around 45 minutes to an hour.  I am just slow by nature but can't bring myself to stop until the whole piece is as pristine clean as possible.  I suppose this is why many of my well used, decades old firearms look brand new.  Is this just me or are any others as obsessed as I am?

[northmn]

I knew that's what someone was going to say... It do work and that's the method I use when I'm out and about for more than a day or so. But I've never been comfortable  using that as a final cleaning method. Being a clean fanatic and lazy, the flushing clamp works best, at least for me anyway. Gotta keep my Getz barrels pristine!
[/quote]

One reaon I do it this way, since either the late 1970' or early 80's is that somehow I have always questioned why we want to slop water all over a piece of metal, then dry it off so that it won't rust.  Personally if I were not so cheap and commercial solvents like Hoppe's 9+ so spendy that is the route I would go as they do seem to help eliminate rust.  Water dissolvesthe salts in BP but is a rusting agent in itself.  The worst I had heard was when people extolled the virtues of Hydrogen Peroxide which has even more oxygen in it molecular structure. Antifreeze works fairly well for me, but the only way I have found to really make sure that the weapon is clean is to do as Hanshi stated and go back in a day or two and reoil.

DP