• This community needs YOUR help today. We rely 100% on Supporting Memberships to fund our efforts. With the ever increasing fees of everything, we need help. We need more Supporting Members, today. Please invest back into this community. I will ship a few decals too in addition to all the account perks you get.



    Sign up here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/account/upgrades

Cleaning bore: Is boiling water advantageous?

Muzzleloading Forum

Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
ScottH said:
I shot my .54 hawken last sunday.
As soon as shooting was over for the day the gun was cleaned as follows.
I sprayed some "moose milk" (mixture of distilled water, castor oil, 91% rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, and murphy's oil soap) in the barrel after removing the nipple. Then set the breech end in a bucket with barely warm, almost cool, water in the bottom. With a cleaning patch on a .54 brass jag on my bench rod water was pumped in and out of the breech end of the barrel. After the water bath it was onto clean dry patches until they came out clean and dry. Then after it was good and dry a patch with my preferred bore oil was used to oil the bore slightly. I checked it this morning and it was bright shiney clean, no rust, ready for the next shooting session. I live in dry eastern Washington.

I thought "moose milk" was Ballistol and water?
 
the recipe I use was suggested by a fella with a lot more muzzleloading experience than me. He mentioned that instead of the castor oil and murphys oil soap that some used water soluble machine cutting oil sometimes called pigeon milk.
I have not tried ballistol. This stuff I use has been suggested to be acceptable as both a solvent and as a patch lube.
If you would like to make some to try I can post the recipe.
 
My cleaning is mostly done in camp ,so it is with open fire , boiled water ,soap , plug the vent ,fill up the barrel with hot soapy water let it soak 5 minutes tops ,tip it out wet patches till clean then dry patches , then oily patches etc. oil whole gun . The only time I have gotten a bad dose of rust was when I rushed the job to get to a meeting in camp .
 
At home eg: returning from my local range I use hot tap water with the same results , (70c) . :)
 
I think the real 'trick' (if you want to call it that) is to get to it the next day, run a patch down the bore, and make sure everything's OK

I think this is good advice regardless of your cleaning technique. I always like to check my barrel within the next day or two just to make sure everything is okay. It also lets me know if my methods are sound.

Jeff
 
Looong before Ballistol was available in the U.S., I was taught that moose milk was one part hydrogen peroxide, one part isopropyl alcohol, and one part Murphy's Oil soap. There are a bunch of other recipe's but the above does go "milky" when mixed.

I stopped using it as I found that water, and soap, follow by water, and dry patches does a very good job...followed with a rust preventative.

LD
 
Have never used soap of any kind to clean a BP rifle. Just plain, hot tap water does fine. Soap would just be another item to take on a hunting trip.....got too many items as it is....like keeping it simple......Fred
 
I'm with you on the no soap view, Fred. It's just an extra mess to wipe off the metal when done. The TC manual suggested the shavings of bar soap and boiling water, but I've found water alone to work very well.

Some lubes seem to create a more stubborn fouling than others.
 
I think I can change your mind about the use of soap.
When cleaning the baked on fouling out of the nipple or counter bore on a percussion hammer face or frizzen pan try a test with a tooth brush of hot soapy water and just plain hot water and see for yourself which one cleans better.
I think this simple test will make and impression on you. It sure did me. Mike D.
 
How about another basic additive to help neutralize the acidic effect of the sulfur? Baking soda or household ammonia maybe? We use it to neutralize aqua fortis and LMF cold browning. I have never tried it because plain old water (and sometimes some liquid dish soap) works for me though.
 
I stopped using "hot" water a long time ago and just use room temp water with maybe a drop of Dawn. Never saw an advantage to hot and it gets cool before you finish, anyway.
 
For 45 years I have used hot tap water and never had any problems. The past few years, I have been following the rinse with Butch's Black Powder Bore Shine. I don't think I would try boiling water. Too much chance of burn injuries.
 
I wonder though (flash rusting aside) if there is any real benefit to boiling water vs. simply hot water out of the tap?

The simple answer is yes. But it does depend on what your “benefit” parameters are.

Both water and soap can be thought of as chemical, and the rate chemical reaction increases with temperature.

Ever heard of a steam cleaner? Steam along with various chemical/caustic agents is use to clean all sorts of organic compounds. Steam is hotter than boiling water.

What you deem necessary to clean your muzzleloader is really up to you!

I use various methods depending on the specific circumstances.
 
I always remove my rifles barrels before I clean them.

Then, I use the bucket method with the breech of the barrel under the surface of the water and pump a cleaning patch on a jag up and down the bore with my range rod.

This not only cleans the barrel nicely but it also sucks in and blows water out of the vent/flame channel so those areas get cleaned by high velocity water.

Doing this always ends up pumping water up and out of the muzzle, right where my hand is holding the barrel.

My hand and its skin had a long talk with me and we all agreed that having boiling water dumped on them would make them very unhappy.

That is why I never use boiling, or even overly hot water to clean my muzzleloaders.

And now, you know the rest of the story. :grin:
 
How about another basic additive to help neutralize the acidic effect of the sulfur? Baking soda or household ammonia maybe?

Dawn dish soap and baking soda have the same PH level, but ammonia is 1000 times more basic.

I would stick with the Dawn and water.
 
I used to use boiling hot water but very often I would get a brown dirty bore just a few weaks later. Then I just used hot tap water and no more flash rust. In my opinion, just hot tap water works better. Every time I observe even a little bit of rust I feel like I lost a little bit of the barrel.

HH 60
 

Latest posts

Back
Top