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Warm/Hot water when cleaning and flash rust

the hawken shop
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I clean with hot tap water and Dawn.Never saw any rust in mine inside or out the breech end goes in a mop bucket. Rinse with hot tap water.
 
I clean mine in a small bucket in the bath tub. We have well water with a water softener and I use the hot tap water from the tub faucet. I have never had any "flash rust" when drying the bore with a patch.
 
hawkeye2 said:
Distilled water is great and cheap. I use in in my car batteries, mix it with antifreeze and use it in my steam locomotive. Do not ever use deionized water! It is not the same as distilled water and can really cause issues. Repeated use will actually destroy the boiler for a model steam engine.
Click to expand...

Interesting observation as demin water is the feedwater of choice for most commercial and industrial boilers; however, it undergoes deaeration prior to use in the boiler.
You are correct that demin/DI water that has dissolved oxygen or CO2 can be particularly corrosive to carbon steels.
 
I just checked my Frontier rifle since being cleaned 1 week ago. No rust at all. Best clean yet and how I will do it every time going forward. Patches were so clean I should dry them out and use them again. So I have to eat some crow now from some of the stuff I said or thought last fall when I first got the rifle.
Save the Hoppes for the cartridge guns.

Room temp water/alcohol/dry and lube with pure Ballistol. Clean & shiny. Next shoot, couple of dry patches, snap a cap and good to go.
 
renegadehunter said:
Just wanted to pass on a recent experience.
Every time I've ever cleaned with water that was any warmer than tepid I have experienced seeing flash rust on the first dry patch I run down the bore. (Brit, I know how trivial you feel flash rust is).
Quite a while back I remember reading someone say that they wondered if the reason some always see it and others don't may be because of additives to city water.
A week ago or so I went shooting. When I came home to clean, I had a jug of distilled water on hand, been meaning to try it and see if there was any difference.
I heated it up to boiling. Used half with a couple drops of dish soap to clean, then the other half for a rinse.
No flash rust this time. Only once so not a super remarkable experiment, but I'll be trying it again the next time I shoot. I just like how much quicker the barrel dries when I can use hot.
Click to expand...
It's probably the chlorine in the city water. I always use filtered (Pur charcoal filter) hot water with some dish soap for cleaning and the same clear water for rinse. I then wipe dry with a patch or two and always follow up with a patch or two of WD-40 which displaces any residue moisture in the pores and groove corners.
I then wipe out the WD-40 and coat with Gunzilla inside and out. Never have any rust inside or out.
 
I am severely allergic to chlorine. Therefore, it is difficult for me to use the bathtub or take a shower. I have to add all sorts of salts to the water to get rid of the severe itching after. Therefore, sometimes I boil water and bathe in it. In fact, this allergy manifested itself not so long ago when I moved to the city, before that I did not really notice anything like that. I used to love to lie in my bathtub after a workout in order to relax, but now it's all complicated.
 
Bernatilio said:
I am severely allergic to chlorine. Therefore, it is difficult for me to use the bathtub or take a shower. I have to add all sorts of salts to the water to get rid of the severe itching after. Therefore, sometimes I boil water and bathe in it. In fact, this allergy manifested itself not so long ago when I moved to the city, before that I did not really notice anything like that. I used to love to lie in my bathtub after a workout in order to relax, but now it's all complicated.
Click to expand...
My wife suffers the same. Here is what we use for her bathing.
https://www.amazon.com/AquaHomeGrou...hlorine+Removal+Filters&qid=1614707839&sr=8-8Other in-line filters are available. One of them is big enough to do the whole house.
 
It could be the tap water. I never get rust using hot water. Our water taste as good as bottled water.
 
renegadehunter said:
Just wanted to pass on a recent experience.
Every time I've ever cleaned with water that was any warmer than tepid I have experienced seeing flash rust on the first dry patch I run down the bore. (Brit, I know how trivial you feel flash rust is).
Quite a while back I remember reading someone say that they wondered if the reason some always see it and others don't may be because of additives to city water.
A week ago or so I went shooting. When I came home to clean, I had a jug of distilled water on hand, been meaning to try it and see if there was any difference.
I heated it up to boiling. Used half with a couple drops of dish soap to clean, then the other half for a rinse.
No flash rust this time. Only once so not a super remarkable experiment, but I'll be trying it again the next time I shoot. I just like how much quicker the barrel dries when I can use hot.
Click to expand...
70% isopropyl alcohol, followed by diluted Ballistol or some other oil. Diluted Ballistol only works well too, but the alcohol does a better job of getting any patch grease out of the breech area.
If the process takes longer than 15 or 20 minutes, you’re just playing around.
usually takes me about 10 to 12 minutes with flintlocks, which I realize can be a little faster to clean than a percussion gun.
 
Lighting & flash rust ?

I had cleaned my new gun after shooting and looked at it quickly in kitchen lighting and it looked clean.
Sometime later I used the flashlight on my iPhone to look at the gun and saw what appeared to be light rust.

This bothered me and I went at it bit more.

It looks like I dealt with it but I was just curious if anyone has had the experience of thinking a gun clean until seeing it later in different lighting and noticing some light rust etc ..
 
I clean with hot, unfiltered, unsoftened, soapy well water. Always followed the cleaning with a boiling water rinse and then treated the hot, dry barrel with Bore Butter. Always saw flash rust. Never found it to make any difference.

The well water is somewhat hard; it's got a fair amount of calcium. Other than that it's good and good to drink. Have forgotten my freshman chemistry; don't know whether that dissolved calcium will make the water acidic or base.
 
renegadehunter said:
Just wanted to pass on a recent experience.
Every time I've ever cleaned with water that was any warmer than tepid I have experienced seeing flash rust on the first dry patch I run down the bore. (Brit, I know how trivial you feel flash rust is).
Quite a while back I remember reading someone say that they wondered if the reason some always see it and others don't may be because of additives to city water.
A week ago or so I went shooting. When I came home to clean, I had a jug of distilled water on hand, been meaning to try it and see if there was any difference.
I heated it up to boiling. Used half with a couple drops of dish soap to clean, then the other half for a rinse.
No flash rust this time. Only once so not a super remarkable experiment, but I'll be trying it again the next time I shoot. I just like how much quicker the barrel dries when I can use hot.
Click to expand...
There is no need to use hot or boiling water to clean your barrel. Room temperature is fine.
 
Put some butter on a knife and hold it under room temp water. It won't wash off. They turn the water to hot and it washes right off. Just like patch lube and and fouling will.
 
If you wanted to prove anything you would have to do this ‘experiment’ with your patch lube on the knife. Such is the scientific method.
 
Rudall........I have but anything greasy will have the same result if it's natural.

I was simply explaining why I use hot water. I do that when someone tells me I don't need to do something i'm doing.
 

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