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Cleaning review please

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The fouling dissolves a bit easier in warm water than cold water and boiling water certainly works too. I just find it far easier for me to use warm water with a squirt of dishwashing soap than take extra precautions when using boiling water. Drying could be accomplished with a heat gun blowing hot air through the barrels. The immediate application of rust inhibiting lubricants will prevent rust. Ballistol is good for cleaning and patch lube but not for long term rust prevention unless you apply the Ballistol every couple of days.
 
The only thing boiling water does well is burn your hands. Luke warm or room temp water does just fine breaking up black powder. Clean the bore, dry with a couple of patches, (including down in the breech) and use a good gun oil, Barricade, etc to oil the bore well. I wipe the bore with a patch damp with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol to dry the bore prior to loading.
close to boiling water is the best cause it heats up the metal which allows the little amount of water after swabbing to dry faster
 
Shooting side by side shotguns there is always the danger of water /moisture remaining in faults along the ribs. boiling water will dry this out. WD does the same job. Single barrel rifle you dont have this problem.
 
I have been trying hard to take care of my percussion rifles and I am scratching my head on something. I used my great plains for an elk hunt last month. Did not connect, but shot the load out at the end of the hunt and cleaned the rifle with hot, soapy water. I dried it with a bunch of patches, lubed it with wonder lube on a patch, and put it away until today. Today I pulled it out to load for tomorrow's deer hunt and when I ran a few clean patches down the bore to remove the grease, I got what looks suspiciously like some rust mixed in with the wonder lube. The lube is normally yellowish and it was a rusty brown. No bueno. So I wonder if I am doing something wrong. Here is what I do:

- Put the barrel in a bucket of hot soapy water, wrap a patch around the jag and pump it up and down until the barrel appears to be clean. I put a smaller caliber brush on the rod and clean out the patent breech channel as well. If necessary, change the water out if it is too filthy. If I can get the nipple off, I remove it and and run a pipe cleaner into it and the channel. Fill the bucket with just hot water and do the pumping thing again until it is all rinsed out.
'
- Drain the barrel out and shake as much water out as possible. Run clean patches through until there is no evidence of moisture. stick a pipe cleaner or two through the channel to dry it and reinstall the clean nipple. Any exterior pieces that need it get wiped down.

- Give it a half hour to let things finish drying (live in Colorado in a VERY dry climate, think 20% or less relative humidity) and then run a patch saturated with wonder lube down the bore the coat everything. Wipe down all the exterior metal parts with conventional gun oil, reassemble the rifle and store.

Am I doing something wrong? Worth trying Hoppe's black powder solvent instead? Other comments?
I do pretty much the same, but finish with a couple of squirts of G96 down the barrel, then wipe up and down with a loose patch to evenly spread the stuff, and use the wet patch from that to wipe down the whole exterior . no rust, and I live on the coast.
 
seems like that KEROSENE goes good with just about every thing. some places you cannot get it any more. time was that every service station had a pump for it. not now in the age of self serve! I guess that even lamp oil / kerosene is now scented wax. people complained about the kerosene smell when the lamp wick was lit and started giving off the smell.
 
seems like that KEROSENE goes good with just about every thing. some places you cannot get it any more. time was that every service station had a pump for it. not now in the age of self serve! I guess that even lamp oil / kerosene is now scented wax. people complained about the kerosene smell when the lamp wick was lit and started giving off the smell.
When I made my Eds Red up I just used Diesel instead. Allot cheaper and easy to find. It's not really that far off from kerosene.
 
some places you cannot get it any more. time was that every service station had a pump for it.

Any decent hardware store should have it.

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After my hunt yesterday when I returned home and my gun and I got soaked I did nothing.
I set it up in the kitchen and forgot about it.
Sometime after breakfast next day I plugged the vent. Boiled the kettle. Tipped some in and prodded the barrel with a patch and jag.
Tipped it out. Near filled the barrel with boiled water and tipped it out.
By the fifth fill and pour it was all but clear. The hot hot barrel was then prodded with a dry patch and allowed to dry.
The exterior was wiped down with a patch of olive oil and beeswax. After five minutes the unplugged barrel was prodded with the same greasy patch. Takes longer to write than do it!
 
Skipped to very end... no matter what... period... if you dun grease em oil em once a month... there goin to rust...dun care what u use... less u fill barrel full of grease... nature of the beast...
 
thank you sir. ask and you shall receive.
Your cleaning process is good just make sure all the moisture is out then light coat of RIG . Bear grease works too, but most people get the salts out when they render it down. Lasts a long time in the bore. A little hard to get though. The last bear just didn't want to give it up.Sooo you might want to settle for the RIG. There used to be a product called Accugard. Was made in Hiram Ohio I think. Was the consistency of STP bit was the best stuff you could find. A little on a patch and the bore was good for years. The best! Good Luck.
 
how about UNSALTED SNOW FLAKE LARD? I think some use it mixed with EVOO?
 
Skipped to very end... no matter what... period... if you dun grease em oil em once a month... there goin to rust...dun care what u use... less u fill barrel full of grease... nature of the beast...
I will add that in addition to regular maintenance keeping the humidity under control is another big plus in good gun storage.
I use a canister of absorbent and a goldenrod in the safe. Radical rise and fall of temperatures create moisture buildup on the cooling cycle and will contribute to potential damage.
 
Hot water/boiling water is known to cause flash rust.
I had never heard about this, until I got on this forum. I did use very hot water for cleaning my TC starting back about 1990. If it did cause flash rust, I wasn't aware of it. Now this many years later, I have looked at if it did cause it, it didn't do lasting harm. The gun still loads fine, seems to shoot all right, and I like the hot water because of the fast drying feature of it. Now I don't even shoot it much anymore because of the weight, but upon close inspection I surely see no damage. At 81, I know I'm not good for 30 years more.
Squint
 
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