barrel cleaning

I know this has to have been discussed a 100 times before. a few days ago I bought a NC flintlock mountain rifle from a rifle builder. "don't have it yet" he told me on the phone he has never used soapy water in his barrels. he said he has used WD40 and advised me to do the same or use butch's black powder bore shine. he said he has a 32 cal. rifle he built 40 years ago and the bore looks brand new and it has never had any water near it. what are yall's thoughts on the matter?

I've used soapy water from the start. Works for me. As long as what is used will break down the residue and not cause damage is, well, fine. To me a gallon of soapy water way less expensive and gets it done. WD if not cleaned out will evaporate and loose some of its protective quality.
Soapy water a good scrubbing, rise, dry then light oil. Good to go.

olskool said:

I know this has to have been discussed a 100 times before. a few days ago I bought a NC flintlock mountain rifle from a rifle builder. "don't have it yet" he told me on the phone he has never used soapy water in his barrels. he said he has used WD40 and advised me to do the same or use butch's black powder bore shine. he said he has a 32 cal. rifle he built 40 years ago and the bore looks brand new and it has never had any water near it. what are yall's thoughts on the matter?

Click to expand...

Well, every gun I ever tried to clean using Wd-40 rusted. Especially if one uses a BP substitute.

The other day I put new brakes in the car, and the old rotors were still in good condition but replaced them anyway. The old rotors were nice and shiny so I sprayed them with WD-40 to "protect" them. They turned black.
Now whatever they coat new rotors with, that's good stuff.

I've never heard of Butch's bore clean but I would not use WD40 as a cleaning solvent but if you do at least flush the barrel with water first. I've always used soap and water. Let's face the old timer's didn't have WD40.

Lots of stuff out there to clean a barrel with, just don't use any petroleum based products in your barrel. Black powder is water soluable and using petroleum based products is not compatible with it and just leads to buildup of stuff you don't want in your barrel when you shoot it again. Anything alcohol related won't hurt anything. Plain old Windex will even do a good job of cleaning if you don't want to use soap and water. Coat your bore with one of the products made to use in black powder firearms afterward to keep rust out.

olskool said:

I know this has to have been discussed a 100 times before. a few days ago I bought a NC flintlock mountain rifle from a rifle builder. "don't have it yet" he told me on the phone he has never used soapy water in his barrels. he said he has used WD40 and advised me to do the same or use butch's black powder bore shine. he said he has a 32 cal. rifle he built 40 years ago and the bore looks brand new and it has never had any water near it. what are yall's thoughts on the matter?

Click to expand...

If you have the opportunity, it might be instructive to watch the builder clean a rifle. There may be more to his technique than simply hosing down the bore with WD40. I wouldn’t think that would be successful but I’ve been wrong before.

Never heard of Butchs Bore Shine (or whatever you said) either but many BP solvents come in a handy lil bottle and say to add a squirt to WATER, therefore these products are cleaning with WATER. WD-40? used for 41 years never ever ever any rust. I live in AZ, no humidity either.

Seems like it would be a waste of WD-40 to use enough to break down/remove all the fouling. A damp patch as a final clean and a can will last ya decades. BTW our well known member Dutch has a "system" many of us have obtained and he also says not to use water. Kinda like scrambed eggs, either you eat em with ketchup or ya dont, ya still eat em......its a personal thing. I would NEVER eat em with ketchup but about 1/4 bottle of AZ Gun Slinger (red) hot sauce will make yer day better,

yea he said he has a way of turning his guns upside down and brushing the fouling and then leaves the brush in to the breach and then "I guess" sprays the WD40 in and then pulling the brush out. he said he also stores his guns with the muzzle down, if any is left in the barrel it won't settle into the chamber/breach area and build up. as far as the butch's bore shine I have been using it for decades in my modern firearms, it is good stuff. I just have never tried the BP version.

I really think the main issue some folks have with using water is they equate it to rust, but haven't ever tried it themselves because they can't get past the thought of it.
It's cheap, plentiful, and easily removes BP fouling. The key is getting the bore DRY once you are done. In my humble opinion any issues anyone has ever had with rust after using water to clean is because they didn't get the bore completely dry. I also think some of the lubes used out there harden so they aren't easily removed and then can trap moisture. There is also some flash rust involved sometimes if cleaning is done with hot water. Mine gets flash rust every time I use hot water, no matter how fast I go to drying after the bore is clean. I suspect it has something to do with the city tap water I use. I simply use cold water and I never see flash rust anymore. Cold water, a couple drops of dish soap, and away I go. I then stand the barrel up to drain while emptying the bucket I used. Dry the outside of the barrel and then start running patches to dry the bore. Shoot some air through the nipple. Pour some denatured alcohol through the nipple hole with the barrel vertical. Then another shot of air. Then a couple passes with a patch damp with denatured alcohol. I could see using wd40 to try to remove all the water in this step, but I haven't tried it. Then more dry patches until no moisture is seen. Then a patch with petroleum based rust preventative. Wipe down outside of barrel with oily rag. Store barrel down. When I want to shoot again the barrel gets a couple of patches of denatured alcohol and then dry patches to cut out the rust preventative to prevent tar like fouling. Zero issues with rust or tar from the above procedure. Cheap and easy, rust preventative and denatured alcohol last a looong time cleaning this way.

I'm in agreement with the others who use water to clean. I've used hot water with Murphy's oil soap to clean my muzzle loaders since day one and never had any issues. As was said the key is to make sure the bore is dry then lightly oil it before storage. WD 40 is better than not cleaning but also not necessary.

I'd love to run a bore scope and look at end breech end of his 40 year old rifle! Swabbing the bore clean is one thing, but all the manure being pushed down into a bolster/drum would really suck.

Dutch Schoultz is also a great proponent of only using WD40 as a bore cleaner. The real issue is to get the water out after the water and soap have done their job. WD40 is great as a water displacement. WD40 is not so great as a lubricant or rust inhibitor in all areas of this country. There are some users who absolutely love WD40 and others who have bad experiences with that curse WD40 soundly. WD40 will clean black powder fouling.

I have some rifles for 40 years. They have always been cleaned in soapy water. There is no rust forming as I followed the soap and water cleaning with some form of water absorbing soluton (rubbing alcohol or WD40) followed by some form of rust inhibiting oil.

The OP's builder can make his case for a no water cleaning method. Others can make the case for the use of soap and water as part of the cleaning process. I do agree that the gun needs to be stored muzzle down after cleaning to drain the oils from the breech.

WD40 is not period correct so there ya have it!

the builder told me he was rabbit hunting with a friend he built a flintlock for a couple of years ago. he said both guns were cleaned and not loaded. he dropped a bore light down his barrel, they looked and it was new looking after 40 years of cleaning with nothing but WD40 he looked down his friends rifle that had only been cleaned with warm soapy water and there was traces of rust. I have always used warm soapy water then lubed with olive oil with no problems, that I could see anyway. I just ordered some butches BP bore shine, the reviews are great. we will see,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I use WD40 as one step in ridding the bore of moisture; it's also used if I have to stop and continue the cleaning the next day. Denatured alcohol is used in drying the bore and for getting out the WD40 in preparation for the final anti-rust application which is Barricade. I clean with plain tap water and it works like a charm. I'd never try to remove BP fouling using WD40 or any oil. Cleaning muzzleloaders is easy and time is the only thing one has to spend.

Stony Broke said:

Lots of stuff out there to clean a barrel with, just don't use any petroleum based products in your barrel. Black powder is water soluable and using petroleum based products is not compatible with it and just leads to buildup of stuff you don't want in your barrel when you shoot it again.

Click to expand...

I know that is a common belief, but it simply is wildly untrue. There are countless excellent commercial black powder cleaning/lube/rust preventive products out there that contain petroleum products. There is no buildup of "stuff". Heck, Ballistol is a "petroleum product"- you can clean your gun with it, protect your bore with it. lube your lock and use it as a patch lube and shoot all day without wiping. Hoppes #9 Plus Black Powder cleaner has a petroleum in it, and I have never heard anyone say anything bad about it.

As to the OP- I can't see WD40 as being much of a cleaner, but Butches Black Powder Bore Shine is an excellent product. It does have water in it so I'm not sure he's accurate in that regard. Butches is pricey though, and doesn't do any better job than many other commercially available ones.

exactly right Alan, even the beloved bore butter is paraffin (petro!) wax and some coloring added. Nothing wrong with using petro oil to keep rust off. Like any lubricant, remove it prior to loading/shooting.

Clean, dry,oil and lube.... it ain’t brain surgery.
I think most of us have tried a few hundred ‘best ways’ and found what works best.
But if you clean, dry oil and lube you be just fine.
I make a swab with WD, let it stand for a few min swab and oil. The WD is the one thing I leave off if not handy.
Lard or mink oil work real well. So do other gun oils.

olskool said:

yea he said he has a way of turning his guns upside down and brushing the fouling and then leaves the brush in to the breach and then "I guess" sprays the WD40 in and then pulling the brush out. he said he also stores his guns with the muzzle down, if any is left in the barrel it won't settle into the chamber/breach area and build up. as far as the butch's bore shine I have been using it for decades in my modern firearms, it is good stuff. I just have never tried the BP version.

Click to expand...

Watch out using bore brushes, Early in my bp career I tried that as thats how I cleaned my winchester shotgun. I snapped every one off in the breech. If you can find a tornado brush ,those work well otherwise soap and water wipe with rags till clean ,lightly oil