I think a lot of guys who need a LOT patches to clean their rifles, aren't taking the barrels off to clean. When I did this, as in after a mere 20 shots on a Hefley trail, the patch count went up to about 2, sometimes 3 for cleaning, 4 for drying and 1 for oiling after WD40 40 spraying down the tube. When cleaning on the rifle, I plug the vent with a round tooth pick, then fill the tube with cold water. I let this soak for 15 min or more, then pull the plug and let the $#@* run out the vent- black as can be for just a split second, then the rest runs out clean. I then run a dry patch into it to the plug, then another. If that one isn't quite clean, I'll do a third. It usually comes out clean. Then I spray in the DW 40 till it runs out the vent, then another dry patch into the bore to soak up some oil and spread it around and blast the excess out the vent. I wad up a paper towel in the lock mortise to protect the wood while draining the barrel and when oiling. To clean the lock at Hefley, I remove it form the gun, splash water on it, scrub with someone Else's tooth brush, splash more water on it to rinse, then shake it dry, spray with WD40 till it litterally runs off into the fire pit, shake the lock, wipe it dry, then reinstall it when the bore is clean. This all takes about 10 minutes - except for the wait while it's soaking. That is the time for soaking a dry throat, and that cometimes takes longer than 15 minutes, but no longer than 30. So far I've rusted neither the .40 nor the .45 doing this. They clean like a polished mirror inside, one with rifling, of course.
