Is That Seasoning or Fouling On My Patch?

[Indy Durtdigger]

I started shooting my TC Hawkin Christmas 1988. Between then and now I have learned: Bore Butter is the end all and you must “season“ your barrel. Never use Bore Butter. WD40 is some good stuff. Never leave home without it. WD40 is the devils spawn never let it touch your firearms. WD40 is a good barrel protecter.

Now thirty plus years later I clean with MAP. Lube clean barrel with Bore Butter and outside with WD40.

That's full circle right there.

 

[wiscoaster]

Funny how people have different experiences and form different opinions. I'm in the WD40 "devil's spawn" camp. Though I do use it occasionally if I have to use water on a cartridge gun and use it then just for what it was invented for: as a Water Dispersent. Then it immediately gets displaced by "real gun oil".

I think these differences lead me to conclude that:

pretty much anything and everything works.

 

[Brokennock]

What is it going to take to put an end to this "seasoning" nonsense. Unless your putting pepper flake, celery salt, garlic powder, and nutmeg in your patch lube,,,,, bores don't get "seasoned"!

 

[Scota@4570]

One thing that seems to encourage rust is a little roughness in the bore finish. I polish all my barrels with Flitz or Semichrome. I might even start with a little maroon scotchbrite depending on the barrel. For storage I use LPS-3 or Fluid Film, or real cosmoline.

The cheap Teslong bore scopes available on amazon are a good thing to have. Being able to see what is actually happening takes the guess work out of it.

As stated seasoning the bore is bunk. Bore butter has no special properties. It is the same as Chapstick but with a little menthol and some dye. IF a guy is happy with it that is fine. Patch lubes can be almost anything and give a reasonable result. I would not trust Bore Butter for long term rust prevention.

For cleaning I use Windex or similar that is close by. I also flush barrels when possible with warm tap water. Anything that contains water is fine to clean the rifle.

 

[#blackpowderbill]

It may have been mentioned already, bore butter will discolor. Also you jag will leave a dark spot or two.
I strongly suggest to use a commercially available metal protection. Not chap stick

 

[Indy Durtdigger]

Personally. Seasoning a barrel is slang for break in. Gets confused with seasoning a skillet.

My first comment yesterday wasn't supposed to be full on serious. After getting some sleep and a sad face.

 

[Freedom]

What you most likely have is a tiny little spot of hard carbon fouling adhered somewhere in the bore. I've seen it a hundred times in BPCR because you can see the whole length of the barrel.

Wrap your Jag in a little piece of "Gray" Scotch-Brite (not red, not green, not steel wool),.... Gray Scotch-Brite dipped in a little water, or elixir of your choice, and do a "few" strokes in your barrel. Then follow up with a moist tight patch, I'd wager that the patch will come out dark black, full of crud. You can get a patch to come out of the bore bright and shiny.. but only if the bore is actually clean.

I always follow up with CLR Break Free as my rust preventative of choice. Yeah pure petroleum,.. Works awesome!

 

[ZUG]

If anything was going to remove the seasoning from your bore it would be the Dawn. Same as it removes seasoning from cast iron pots and pans. The bore butter is grabbing or reacting to something the other things aren't. Maybe grabbing graphite from the powder impregnated into the pores of the metal, that's my wild guess.
I think ZUG's a machinist or something and knows his stuff but enough lead in the alloy to come out on a cleaning patch might be disconcerting for a gun barrel.

I'm a retired aerospace mechanical engineer with 44 years in the business. I do know a few things

 

[Howard Pippin]

[I]Notchy Bob[/I], you generally put thing right. Good Job.​

Squint

 

[Howard Pippin]

I've used bore butter many times in the past without bad results, I do get a kick out of those that bad mouth it so bad, but it still did work and probably still would. My accuracy wasn't what I wanted so I did experiment with different things and found something better for my rifle. Have this friend I shoot with, and his accuracy at 50 yards was deplorable. For whatever reason, and I didn't know whether it was him or the rifle, but one day out of curiosity, i had some old bore butter patches that had been in my possible box for probably two years and I said here, try one of these and see what happens. Now I don't know what he was using for Lube, whatever he was using was his own business, but by golly you know those old bore butter patches brought his group down to about an 1and1/2 inches at 50 yards for like three shots. He become become such an instant believer that he went right home and ordered some himself. What works for one gander, might not work for the other.
Squint

 

[wiscoaster]

One thing that seems to encourage rust is a little roughness in the bore finish. I polish all my barrels....

Ya, ditto to that - best thing can be done to a new bore is polish it.

 

[wiscoaster]

I'm a retired aerospace mechanical engineer with 44 years in the business. I do know a few things

Things change in society, culture, etc. But metal doesn't change. What was true 44 years ago wrt to metal is still true today.

 

[LME]

With out seeing a used patch it is hard to tell what is happening . All I can say is when I clean my rifle and use a tight patch afterwards the pressure on the patch make a discoloration that could appear to be somethig coming off the barrel. I know the rifle is clean and after a dish soap and water cleaning I lay my barrel across two burners of my kitchen range and heat it up to dispurse the water that may be in the barrel. Rust doesn't come back to haunt me.

 

[Wirehair]

I clean with water, windex or some commercial black powder solvents and then finish with gun oil. I recently cleaned my rifle and went from black to gray. Then I used a bronze bore brush w/Hoppes black powder solvent. Patches went back to black. Wiped with clean patches back to gray. Repeated with the bronze brush etc. Every time I followed a "clean" patch with the brush, the patches went back to black. Is this carbon buildup I'm scrubbing out or is something else going on?

 

[Terrier]

If you have a hooked breach percussion barrel and can remove it from the gun, the quickest and easiest way I know of to get it squeaky clean is with TSP in a small bucket and syphon it in and out with the ramrod/jag/patch. Just wear gloves. It can be hard on the skin.

1 Tbsp per 1/2 gal of water.

I don’t recommend using it on a pinned barrel. The solution will jack up the finish on the wood. But, on a removable percussion barrel, it can’t be beat.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

You'll have to taste it to see if it's seasoned.

 

[LME]

I clean with water, windex or some commercial black powder solvents and then finish with gun oil. I recently cleaned my rifle and went from black to gray. Then I used a bronze bore brush w/Hoppes black powder solvent. Patches went back to black. Wiped with clean patches back to gray. Repeated with the bronze brush etc. Every time I followed a "clean" patch with the brush, the patches went back to black. Is this carbon buildup I'm scrubbing out or is something else going on?

I have never had a brush go down any of my barrels in over 40 years and when I did use one it was because I didn't know better back then, If you clean as you are supposed to there is no need for a brush. They are just not needed for a well maintained rifle.

 

[Wirehair]

I have never had a brush go down any of my barrels in over 40 years and when I did use one it was because I didn't know better back then, If you clean as you are supposed to there is no need for a brush. They are just not needed for a well maintained rifle.

I somewhat agree. I always clean after shooting and, most of the time, use water, ballistol, etc. On this occasion, I wanted to try and eliminate the gray on the patch, i.e., I wanted pearly white. Thus the bronze brush. So, where's the dark black coming from?

 

[wiscoaster]

.... Thus the bronze brush. So, where's the dark black coming from?

I couldn't find if you mentioned what gun you were cleaning. It may be that yours doesn't have a flat breech face, and/or your brush is a typical "cartridge gun" brush (with wire loop on end), and so your scrubbing efforts aren't contacting the breech face.

PS: no problem with using a brush; just realize its limits wrt BP muzzleloaders. I don't use brushes so much for cleaning as just to scrape, loosen up and dig into grooves to get at and break up the residue that hot water and moose milk have already softened. Makes its much easier and faster for the patches that do the real cleaning and transport the gunk out of the bore.

 

[Wirehair]

I couldn't find if you mentioned what gun you were cleaning. It may be that yours doesn't have a flat breech face, and/or your brush is a typical "cartridge gun" brush (with wire loop on end), and so your scrubbing efforts aren't contacting the breech face.

PS: no problem with using a brush; just realize its limits wrt BP muzzleloaders. I don't use brushes so much for cleaning as just to scrape, loosen up and dig into grooves to get at and break up the residue that hot water and moose milk have already softened. Makes its much easier and faster for the patches that do the real cleaning and transport the gunk out of the bore.

I have a flat breech plug and use a scraper. I'm sure there's no fouling buildup on breech plug. The brush has a loop on the end, so the bristles don't contact the face of the breech plug. It appears to me the black residue is coming off the lands and grooves. Is this a buildup of hardened carbon this needs to be removed down to bare metal before the patches come clean? The issue is only how clean is clean. I don't have a problem with rust and 50 yard accuracy is acceptable. Any input from the pros would be informative.