New Shooter Question on Cleaning

I just got my 1st black powder percussion , any thoughts on using Shooters Lube on black powder?

Water and a little dishsoap is all you need. Wipe it down inside and out with a good gun oil and put it away. Never heard of shooters lube but im sure it’d be fine.

Easily the best and most common of the solutions for cleaning black powder fouling and synthetic black powder fouling is water and a small amount of grease dissolving soap. I also recommend a brass or stainless-steel range rod with a muzzle protector to work the cleaning patch on the appropriately sized jag for your new rifle. Your first cleaning will need to remove the packing grease from the bore. For that you will need rubbing alcohol to dissolve the grease.

Looking at the Shooter's Lube web site, it probably will work but better as a final water displacing type of cleaner for a modern firearm and for a final wipe before putting your rifle up for storage.

Usually just soap and lukewarm water. I use Windex because the ammonia neutralizes the acid. Dry and oil

I use nothing other than plain cold tap water with (sometimes) a drop of Dawn. I use WD40 for the final swab to rid the bore of water. I use denatured alcohol to remove the WD40 and preserve with Barricade or Break Free CLP.

Thanks everyone !!
I'm very excited to start shooting this gun

I don't use water, usually just Barricade as cleaner and protectant. Keep running patches until clean and I use a scraper. I check periodically to see if any rust is forming in the barrels and so far nothing.

Water is fine, been used forever, but they used water because that is the best they had, lube with some bear grease and there you go, these days there are better options in my opnion.... It's hard to keep water from going into lock and under barrel, so unless you are pulling the barrel off, I don't like the idea of water getting where you can't wipe it off. At least my barrels that were cold blued don't take well to water...

adrianmason3 said:

I just got my 1st black powder percussion , any thoughts on using Shooters Lube on black powder?

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Water and little soap is able to break up fouling very easily. All the experienced shooters I know use water, but I imagine that this "Shooter's Lube" works fine as well. You might just have to experiment with what your gun likes.

I’ve kinda settled on water, then dry patches to dry the barrel, then a patch with a little Balistol. Before the next shooting session, I remove the ballistol with a patch with a little rubbing alcohol. So far all is well

A little plain water, a few patches, dry and oil.

After cleaning, store your gun muzzle down overnight , and give the bore a final wipe , next day. You might be amazed that some residue will drain down from around the breach area. Wipe it out , then recoat the bore with preservative. Good shooting toYa.........

Thanks to all , this is one of the more helpful forums I've been on.

Didn't mention this little trick in my previous post but it might help someone. I usually try to remember to scrape the breech plug face and sometimes will also do this little cleaning act. Scrape the breech then push a wet patch down to the breech. Using the scraper just twist the cleaning rod a few times; this cleans residue from the breech plug-bore interface.

Shooters Lube can be used as the final step in cleaning and preparing the weapon for storing

Water, luke warm water, cold water, river water or from a lake, bottle or pump will all work like they've been doing since powder was invented.

Howdy from East Tennessee. What gun do you have? Folks around here like pictures.

Good luck with your new rifle.

I agree with what Hanshi said

Banjoman said:

Howdy from East Tennessee. What gun do you have? Folks around here like pictures.

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I haven't taken pictures of my actual rifle yet, but this is the one I have


Mountain Rifle .50 Cal Percussion 32" Barrel | TraditionsFirearms.com

hanshi said:

Didn't mention this little trick in my previous post but it might help someone. I usually try to remember to scrape the breech plug face and sometimes will also do this little cleaning act. Scrape the breech then push a wet patch down to the breech. Using the scraper just twist the cleaning rod a few times; this cleans residue from the breech plug-bore interface.

Click to expand...

Although I have never tried this I like the idea. I will start using this method.