Cleaning Lunatic

[paleryder]

Just got back from shooting my two 1851 revolvers. It has taken me hours to clean them. Why?

I disassembed the guns (quick). I remove the handle, spring, trigger spring, bolt, trigger, etc... everything. Upon inspection, just about everything was dirty. I do put lube in the chambers when I shoot so maybe this contributes to the mess.

I used a combination of Moose Juice and hot soapy water to clean the things. This took a while. The black stuff came off easily off the exterior of the gun and the barrel. My big problem was the chambers and the nipple area. I scrub everything with a nylon brush and Moose Juice then put in a bath of hot soapy water while I address each piece individually.

I removed the nipples and soaked them in hot soapy water. (forgot to clean the insides though). I then used a brushed and several patches inside the chambers followed by Q-tips. I kept getting black stuff coming out of the chambers. It seemed to come from the very back of the chambers. I'd soak the cylinder some more and repeat.

Once I had everythign done, I would then rinse with very (almost boiling) hot water and dry in the oven at 250 for about 20min.

When I removed one of the revolvers from the oven, it looked like rust had started forming in the oven. Errr.

I'm having a tough time. I did this years ago and don't remember having this kind of trouble. Even after all that cleaning, I'd get brown stuff coming out of the chambers after a soak in the soapy water.

How clean do the chambers need to be? I try to get everything spotless because that's what my drill seargent made me do. I haven't shot these much in the past and they often sit for a long time. For this reason, I'm concerned about getting a good clean. I may be shooting them more this coming year if all goes right.

Tell me what I'm doing right (if anything) and what I'm doing wrong. Look forward to your words of wisdom.

May it be blessed,
Todd

 

Windex will clean it just as well or better and won't cause it to rust immediately.

 

[Flinter987]

An old timer told me he cleans his BP revolvers with rubbing alcohol. I decided to give it a try on my longarm flinter. It works really well and I haven't gone back to soap/water since! (It's nice to not have to worry about getting all the moisture out of your barrel!)
That being said, those things are a pain to clean! It usually took me a good while too, back when I had one!

 

[Celt5494]

I would suggest using luke warm to cool soapy water. Forego the very hot stuff. Also putting the parts in the oven is not necessary and will cause more harm than good. What you are experiencing is called flash rust. The heat from the oven creates this along with the water left over. It takes a long time to clean out and will have you saying bad words in the process.

Dissasemble the firearm and scrub it out with the soapy water. If it's really fouled let the parts soak for a bit and scrub them every now and then. Once all the black is out dry it with a towel or cuetip etc. for the chambers. If you are still paranoid about any residual water a little rubbing alcohol or similar applied inside the chamber or barrel will assist you. After that apply the oil of your choice. Once done re-assemble, your pistol shouldn't present any further aggrivation for you. If you miss a little fowling no big deal as the oil you have applied will loosen it up and you can check it a few days down the road.

If you are living in a humid environment you might also get some surface rust if your firearms aren't stored in a humidity controlled environment such as a good safe. Hope this helps you....

 

[M. De Land]

I agree about only using warm soapy water. I like to get after the chambers with a tight piece of cloth towel on a slotted jag and the warm soapy water.
I rinse them in warm water as well and dry with paper towel, oil and reassemble. I now put Hoppe's down the barrel and chambers as it will displace any left over water and protect the steel until it evaporates.
I don't use hot water at all anymore since I discovered how well Hoppe's #9, not the black powder stuff, works. No more flash or residual water rust in my barrel or chambers.
I also have been experimenting with Gunzilla for black powder cleaning and preservation but am not quite ready to endorse it yet although the preliminary finding are very encouraging.MD

 

[Don]

I've got the revolver cleaning ritual down to 50 minutes. Like others have said, skip the oven drying, I use an old blow dryer and that works fine. The cyliders are the most time consuming part of cleaning and its the one process I haven't found a way to shorten.

Don

 

[Mike Brooks]

I rarely strip mine completely down. I pull the wedge and clean the barrel, cylinder and the outside of the gun. I don't go into the guts. When I have they are dirty, but not rusty as the fouling is saturated with lube.

 

[loki04]

Sir,

a few things that I have found to help with my 1860;
1. Most black powder that I can buy has graphite mixed in with it. Graphite is non-polar, and so water has a hard time getting it off of surfaces (think pencil marks)
2. Hot water is not needed; hand-drying and oiling work just as well as baking, with fewer risks.
3. Windex is awesome.
4. Windex is even better than awesome on black powder residue and graphite. it also works very well on old ammo with corrosive primers.

Using warm water and windex, it takes me about 10 minutes to strip, clean, and oil my 1860.

Hope this helps,
Loki

 

[Leatherbark]

I clean the cylinder and barrel and keep the innards saturated with WD 40. The insides never rust. Take em completely down every year or so....Take care of the barrel and cylinder.

Bob

 

[paleryder]

Gents,

Thank you so much for your help. Flash rust, huh? Fitting description. I will try out your suggestions. The idea of getting a revolver cleaned in under an hour makes me salivate...just not ON the revolver.

May it be blessed,

Todd

 

[graybeard]

This one always raises some eyebrows but it works fine. take the wooden handles off. field strip the pistol to barrel, cylinder and frame. run a patch soaked with solvent down the barrel a couple of times. run another two or three into each cylinder. Brush the nipples and area with a toothbrush with solvent. Then put the three pieces in the dishwasher (with dishes if you want, it doesn't hurt anything) and run through a cycle. make sure the barrel and cylinder are straight up and down so they get washed well. Take the pistol out when it is still hot, spray with wd40, wipe with paper towels, spray with rem oil and reassemble. I've been doing this for years with a colt 1860 replica. No rust. graybeard.

 

[CaptainKirk]

Todd, like you, I am totally anal about a complete strip and clean.
I use Hoppes #9 Plus black powder solvent instead of soapy water, ans wipe everything down with Rem Oil or Lubriplate before reassembly.
The few times I tried the soapy water and oven trick, I got flash rust like you.

 

[Leatherbark]

I consider these Italian revolvers as a gun that is tinkered with and handled so much while loading, shooting and cleaning that they are going to show wear quickly just as they did in the 1800's. I've shot them for 34 years. Always had several around. Never had one rust up as long as I kept an eye on it. All you have to do is to make sure it does not rust until the next time you shoot it.

If you shoot it and clean it and put it hidden away for 6 months especially in humid weather that will let you know how well your cleaning techniqes are.

Plus I never take two of them revolvers to the range. Double the cleaning. One at time for me

Bob

 

[Cowboy2]

Forget the oven, hot water, and petroleum products (petroleum and bp just make a tar-like mess). Save yourself a lot of time and headaches by getting an electric screwdriver/drill, a cheap electric toothbrush (if you have one, just dedicate some brush heads to cleaning), and an inexpensive air compressor with a hose cleaner attachment.

Clean the cylinders by chucking the appropriate sized nylon cleaning brush in the drill and hit each one for a few seconds after letting it soak in water a minute. Do the same to the nipple holes with a nylon .22 brush. Clean out the nipple recesses with the toothbrush and water, windex, or ballistol, as well as any other difficult parts that need scrubbing. Towel everything off and dry it with the air compressor. 80psi of air will do wonders. Now rub the parts down with Ballistol and reassemble.

 

[ryoung14]

Plus I never take two of them revolvers to the range. Double the cleaning. One at time for me

Bob

AMEN to that!! Goes for BP longarms too.

 

[M. De Land]

The trouble I see with just spaying them down with light oil and calling it good without breaking them down for cleaning an lubing, is the need for grease in several areas of concern.
1. The cylinder bolt where it cams on the hammer needs grease not just oil.
2. I prefer Hoppe's gun grease on the base/cylinder pin, to just oil.
3. On hammer spring tops that do not have rollers.
I bought a used Old Army Ruger that had been so treated and several of the interior parts had pitting on them although were salvageable. MD

 

[Gatofeo]

I prefer hot soapy water for cleaning, in a tub. This way, fouling is not only removed but floats away with a good scrubbing.
I've found that cleaning without immersion often smears fouling into crevices and small places. Immersion removes it totally.
I rinse each part under the faucet, wipe or shake dry, and place in a pan in the oven set at 150 - the lowest temperature my oven will go.
I also leave the door cracked open, to allow moisture to escape.
Never had a problem with rust and the metal is squeaky-clean.
I run a dry patch into each chamber, then set the cylinder chambers-up in the oven. This creates a gap between the base of the cylinder and the pan, as the cylinder rests on the ratchets.
The barrel also gets a good shake, a couple of quick, dry patches, and then placed in the oven upright. This allows moisture to escape.
The frame (on Colt guns) gets a pipe cleaner in each screw hole, then is placed upside down so moisture can escape from these blind threadholes.
Overall, I try to arrange each part for maximum moisture dissipation.
I believe that 250 is too hot. I'd lower the temp to its lowest, were I you.
Been cleaning my cap and balls like this for 40+ years. Never had a problem with rust. I think a quick, wipe-down and patches in the bore and chambers do wonders.
After removing the parts from the oven, I coat them with olive oil. The base pin and inner moving parts get grease made from mixing olive oil and beeswax.
I don't let petroleum anywhere near my guns, especially WD-40. WD-40, over time, forms a hard, sticky varnish that gums up moving parts. I know this from personal experience with modern guns.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Was out shooting my 1860 army with fluted cylinder by Uberti yesterday and it seized up, wouldn't cycle.
Took it apart and discovered it was so full of BP fouling that the bolt couldn't move enough to disengage from the cylinder. :shocked2: Now, that's alot of crud! Blasted it out with sea foam aresol and was set to go again. No rust what so ever in the guts or anywhere else. Shot some ballisol inside and reassembled. I figure there was probably 400 to 500 shots worth of gunk inside as I shot these in cowboy action for a couple years.
Thought you guys might be interested to hear there was no corrosion, just greasy black gunk.

 

[Bob J]

Plus I never take two of them revolvers to the range. Double the cleaning. One at time for me

Bob

AMEN to that!! Goes for BP longarms too.

I whole-heartedly agree :haha:

 

[Poor Private]

When I go to my range out back-sometimes it takes 2 trips to carry all the guns and ammo and targets thats going to be shot that day. sometimes 2 or 3 people have their arms loaded down. We shoot both modern and BP long and short guns. It's a good way to introduce new people to the sport of shooting. It gives them choices on what to buy. One of my wifes' favorite is a brass framed .44 1851 Confederate Sheriff. it fits her hand and the bbarrel is short so it's balanced for her.
We wouldn't know what it's like to only fire one gun and clean one gun. Firing multiple is a good way of getting them out of the safe and use them. Also if your pulling them out of the safe every 6 months to gie them a cleaning -why not fire them first?