How often do you do a complete disassembly for cleaning?

Wow I don't know what I am doing differently than some of the other writers. For me I always brake down my revolvers down to its components and in a wash tub I scrub and clean all parts with soap and boiling water, after I dry buff and lightly oil with ballistoll before resemble. Yes cylinder nipples removed cleaned same way. Lots of q tips used . When I tried cutting corners and doing barrel cylinder only I always found light rust etc inside action.. always.. SO if you want gun to last clean every part and components after shooting.

Vtmountaindeerhunter said:

Wow I don't know what I am doing differently than some of the other writers. For me I always brake down my revolvers down to its components and in a wash tub I scrub and clean all parts with soap and boiling water, after I dry buff and lightly oil with ballistoll before resemble. Yes cylinder nipples removed cleaned same way. Lots of q tips used . When I tried cutting corners and doing barrel cylinder only I always found light rust etc inside action.. always.. SO if you want gun to last clean every part and components after shooting.

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Could be the humidity where you live and or store your guns make such extreme measures necessary…

I want my guns to last too, this one has lasted 6 decades so far, torn down completely at least every other year, but often every year. It’s been my main and favorite cap gun for all these years. I live in a semi arid climate but I do believe that either of dose of good gun oil/rust preventative into the action or pumping it full of Synthetic and grease is all that’s needed to prevent rust inside the action.

45D said:

Wow, thanks for asking, I did!!
I found me at Goons Gunworks lol!!

Mike

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Hey Mike can the same mod be done to the Pietta 58 Army?

I simply could not find the time to tear-down the gun completely after every shooting session. 15 minutes of shooting and then, what, 90 minutes of cleaning?

Four kids and a demanding job here.

Just the bore, cylinder, and everything I can reach with that level of disassembly. Spray Ballistol into the action.

I’d be willing to bet that using any of the techniques shown here, a revolver will out last us a generation or two. So many ways to skin a cat.

TDM said:

I’d be willing to bet that using any of the techniques shown here, a revolver will out last us a generation or two. So many ways to skin a cat.

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Mine are all earmarked for various kids, grandkids, great grandchildren. I have no doubt that they’ll be functional for generations.

ernbar said:

Hey Mike can the same mod be done to the Pietta 58 Army?

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Yessir! Minus the hook though. It is more a cover for fouling/dirt more than keeping hard frags out of the action. I'll post a pic of my '58 Pietta.




Mike

Overcleaning can put more wear on a gun than shooting and can be more harmful than just a normal cleaning.

Bronze or even brass brushes can damage the bore on a blackpowder revolver due to the mild steel used to make these. There are probably guys scrubbing the life out of their bore like they're back in Basic scrubbing an M16.

Nylon brushes are the way to go and I rarely use them in bores. For chambers, they are handy. Don't forget the arbor hole, I found some rust in the hole of one of my Walkers.

I found Eezox 20 years ago and have used it as a wipe down for every gun I own. I've never found rust in a blackpowder bore or chamber I have put a coat of Eezox on after cleaning, also I have many revolvers that are "antiqued" and I've never had a problem with rust on them, or Armory Bright muskets and rifles.

I also hate to use the word "beater" but I have a bunch of Pietta brass frame Navies that I'll take out and have fun with target shooting, that I don't worry as much about sterilizing after I shoot them. I usually bring a pair of them and I'll just clean them well enough for next time.

I can't always sit for 2 hours cleaning 2 guns

45D said:

Yessir! Minus the hook though. It is more a cover for fouling/dirt more than keeping hard frags out of the action. I'll post a pic of my '58 Pietta.

View attachment 170395


Mike

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Thank you for the picture. I will put one in my 58 then.

Stantheman86 said:

Overcleaning can put more wear on a gun than shooting and can be more harmful than just a normal cleaning.

Bronze or even brass brushes can damage the bore on a blackpowder revolver due to the mild steel used to make these. There are probably guys scrubbing the life out of their bore like they're back in Basic scrubbing an M16.

Nylon brushes are the way to go and I rarely use them in bores. For chambers, they are handy. Don't forget the arbor hole, I found some rust in the hole of one of my Walkers.

I found Eezox 20 years ago and have used it as a wipe down for every gun I own. I've never found rust in a blackpowder bore or chamber I have put a coat of Eezox on after cleaning, also I have many revolvers that are "antiqued" and I've never had a problem with rust on them, or Armory Bright muskets and rifles.

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Show me a gun that’s compromised from overcleaning and I’ll show you 20 that are compromised from not being cleaned good enough.

When i was in boot camp at Quantico, I was issued an M-14, with a glass stock. i was happy because it was lighter than the wood ones. When doing maintenance, I swear it was a smooth bore, because it had been cleaned so many times!!

FlinterNick said:

Show me a gun that’s compromised from overcleaning and I’ll show you 20 that are compromised from not being cleaned good enough.

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Yea I can’t recall hearing of such a thing unless you take a stainless steel brush chucked in a drill and brush the heck out of the bore and chambers. Bronze and brass are softer than the metal they are being used on so how can it possibly wear out the steel?

ernbar said:

Yea I can’t recall hearing of such a thing unless you take a stainless steel brush chucked in a drill and brush the heck out of the bore and chambers. Bronze and brass are softer than the metal they are being used on so how can it possibly wear out the steel?

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Gun barrels normally wear out from shooting, cleaning etc. The cleaning has far less residual effect on integrity than usage. Ramming with a steel rammer was proven in a french study that barrels are reduced and bores were oblong shaped from repeated ramming…. However this study was done with wrought iron barrels. Modern 12l14 barrels, 4140 or 1025-1050 barrels or EL14 are much denser and machined steels which can withstand extensive use and corrosion.

Brass and bronze Brillo or brushes generally don’t harm or effect steels that are harder. If bores are cleaned on a lathe, naturally the speed RPMs over 1000 - 2000 creates friction which will burnish the bore no matter what is used.

Smoothbores I use steel Brillo pads (soap pads) to clean out my guns and it has little to no burnishing effect on the steel bore as it is done by hand and lubricated with water.

Rifled guns I use magic erasers and sponges attached to a brass worm to clean out the bore.

The only gun I’ve ever had an issue with was a Dixie Gunworks mount rifle in .32 caliber, I purchased it used and the rifling was in terrible shape, pitted and burred. My only choice was to debure the bore with Emory wax and chamise patches. I had a special mold made up to .3189, as it was the only way to get the ball to engage the rifling. I eventually had Bobby Hoyt recut the rifling to .365. Bobby’s answer for the quality of the bore was due to neglectful cleaning and possible use of pyrodex.

ernbar said:

Yea I can’t recall hearing of such a thing unless you take a stainless steel brush chucked in a drill and brush the heck out of the bore and chambers. Bronze and brass are softer than the metal they are being used on so how can it possibly wear out the steel?

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It can and it does

Carbon steel would be fine, you're not going to damage a modern gun with a brass brush. However, I've heard several warnings away from Bronze or stainless brushes. Even to the effect that using them on a modern gun is more wear inducing than shooting . Unless you've got a rifle with a hard chromed bore.

There's a reason why you're not supposed to shoot anything jacketed in older S&Ws , and why Sabots will wreck the bore of cheaper muzzleloaders. The steel is soft.

The steel is soft and Pietta does not heat treat the barrels in cap and ball revolvers, I don't know about Uberti. Repeated and aggressive scrubbing with bronze or even brass brushes will erode your rifling over time.

I gently used a brass punch to tap on the loading cutout of my Uberti Walker to field strip it, one light tap and I put a little dent in the steel. I'm like, how can a brass punch ding steel?? It did....I guarantee if I tapped on a Ruger barrel with brass it wouldn't dent , nor would I hurt it with a brass brush

If you think I'm running anything aggressive down the pipe of a barrel that dings from light contact with brass, guess again. However, it's your gun, your $$, do what you want. This is why these guns are $2-400, the steel is mild and not heat treated, because it doesn't need to be for BP

Nylon brushes are a wonderful thing , you can scrub all day , get everything out and not hurt anything

I see these "cleaning kits" for BP revolvers with a brass brush in them and I'm like, yeah no

One very gentle tap with a soft brass punch broke the edge of the loading cutout , so think about what pumping an oversized brass brush down the bore may do after a few dozen cleanings

Stantheman86 said:

It can and it does

Carbon steel would be fine, you're not going to damage a modern gun with a brass brush. However, I've heard several warnings away from Bronze or stainless brushes. Even to the effect that using them on a modern gun is more wear inducing than shooting . Unless you've got a rifle with a hard chromed bore.

There's a reason why you're not supposed to shoot anything jacketed in older S&Ws , and why Sabots will wreck the bore of cheaper muzzleloaders. The steel is soft.

The steel is soft and Pietta does not heat treat the barrels in cap and ball revolvers, I don't know about Uberti. Repeated and aggressive scrubbing with bronze or even brass brushes will erode your rifling over time.

I gently used a brass punch to tap on the loading cutout of my Uberti Walker to field strip it, one light tap and I put a little dent in the steel. I'm like, how can a brass punch ding steel?? It did....I guarantee if I tapped on a Ruger barrel with brass it wouldn't dent , nor would I hurt it with a brass brush

If you think I'm running anything aggressive down the pipe of a barrel that dings from light contact with brass, guess again. However, it's your gun, your $$, do what you want. This is why these guns are $2-400, the steel is mild and not heat treated, because it doesn't need to be for BP

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Good to know. Of course anything can get damaged when being overly aggressive.

Stantheman86 said:

Nylon brushes are a wonderful thing , you can scrub all day , get everything out and not hurt anything

I see these "cleaning kits" for BP revolvers with a brass brush in them and I'm like, yeah no

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I have tried Nylon brushes on various firearms and in my experience they do not always get everything out of the barrel/chamber.

I detail clean every time. But then I exclusively shoot Pyrodex P in the cap guns also. No rust yet, but I'm looking for an easier way to clean.

Does anyone who shoots Pyrodex use an abbreviated cleaning method? Or does powder choice not make a difference?

Don't ask me to change powders; I've got lots of Pyro-P and like how it performs.

Old-Duckman said:

The title pretty much says it all. Watched enough videos to realize that there are surely various opinions, some seem to never do a complete disassembly…just wondering if there is a consensus here or not.

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Every time.
Flintlocks I remove all but the barrel, I remove the barrel every year or two.
I remove the Lock and vent liner (on ones that have).
Percussion rifle my barrel lifts off so I pull it and the Nipple every time.
Percussion pistols I remove the cylinders each time, only break down grips etc maybe once a year.

As far as 'wearing out threads'; in my opinion that is operator error and/or bad maintenance (not greasing or improper grease).
As for the barrels and cylinders; I only use nylon brushes or TOW.

I have never had a rust issue but I am in a very dry region (except one that was gifted to me a rusty mess, it's all good after days and days of elbow grease).
With religious cleaning (maybe 20min or so per piece) I never get bad build ups or surprises.
Clean, Dry, Lube/Oil, Wipe, Hang it up.
All part of owning, and keeping, firearms.

Now for unmentionables I am not as aggresive; always 'clean' but only do full break downs every few trips.

Oh; and I only use Black Powder, no interest in fake stuff.