How do you clean flints between shots?

Will Bison said:

Service the lock between shots. I never get in a rush with the flint guns. I check the flint for a good edge, wipe it down, wipe the frizzen, clean the pan and vent. I always check that the flint is solid in the jaws and aligned with the frizzen.

I probably spend 7/8 of my loading time just on lock service. This ain't a race. Take some time to service your lock, pan and vent.

Getting the next round down the bore is the last thing to worry about.

Click to expand...

I don't mean to single you out, but your post exemplifies something that is very interesting. I guess you can do all this "stuff", because you set up our "lab" at the range and don't go into the field?

Some people have turned the act of shooting a "primitive" weapon into a "science" of minuscule laboratory procedures. Geez, I can't imagine how long it would take you guys to do something complicated.

I never clean my flint and it works fine.

Again, just my perspective and whatever others choose to do is fine with me, I just find it interesting that some people take a "primitive" process and complicate it.

Clean the flint? :rotf: You're suppose to clean the flint?

I just use the end of the strip of patch I'm cutting from.
That’s only if it's wet outside.
In the winter when it's dry I use the screw drive to clean the dry gunk off the pan and don't usually touch the flint.
Lehigh...

I use a small piece of very soft deer hide and, yes - an old toothbrush. The deer hide is self cleaning and has, so far, lasted for years. As for the toothbrush, after a few scrubbings on the flint I no longer use it on my teeth - except in an emergency.

I just shoot.....:thumbsup:

I use my finger when it's needed, other than that, I don't clean the flint that much.

Oh by all means watch your fingers!LOL.Yesterday,I had just sharpened a 7/8 flint in my squirrel gun.Without really thinking I swiped the pan w/ my finger tip and gave meself a perfectly good cut in the crease of my trigger finger.As I live and breathe ,this flints can be sharp!

I never get in a rush with the flint guns. I check the flint for a good edge, wipe it down, wipe the frizzen, clean the pan and vent.

Click to expand...

This is how I do it as well, makes the difference between firing every time and fumbling along.

I keep a wad of steel wool in my bag and swipe the rock and the frizzen after each shot. Just a habit. Clean each time. Takes about fifteen seconds to fetch, swipe and put it away.

I moisten a couple of cleaning patches with my patch lubricant. I use a 10:1 Water : Balistol mix. I wipe the flint, frizzen and pan between every shot.

Just out of habbit unless I am speed loading on a seneca run, I always wipe the face of the frizzen with the thumb of my right hand after the rifle goes off.( I shoot right handed ) I then wipe down across the upper bevel of the flint. The fouling build up on the frizzen
can cause klatches. In wiping off the flint in over 30 years of shooting, I have only cut my thumb 35 times or so. The last time was last week
and I bled like a stuck pig! :thumbsup:

Blacksburg said:

I have been using my finger to wipe both sides of the flint to get rid of powder residue, but is there a better way to clean the flint (besides removing it using a stiff toothbrush).
Thanks. BBurg

Click to expand...

I try not to use my finger when I'm trying to clean the flint because it tends to slice my finger and I bleed all over the place! Black powder fouling also burns pretty good when it gets into a cut.

I participate in a number of Rev War reenactments throughout the year and, since we're just firing blanks, we use a lower grade of powder than I use for hunting. This reenactment powder fouls a lot more than the Goex 3f I use for hunting and after about 30 shots, if not cleaned, can cause some problems. The fouling on the flint is always on the underside.

I have about a 6" strip of ticking material hanging from the strap of my shooting bag and I use that to wipe the flint, and/or pan and frizzen. I also have a pan brush with brass bristles, along with a vent pick hanging from the strap. A simple thing to do is wet a piece of the strip of ticking (spit works great) and wipe. That usually cleans things right up. If it's gunked up particularly bad on the flint, I'll use the brass brush to clean it more after I've wiped it.

Its surprising how easily a spit patch cleans the fouling off the flint, hammer(frizzen), and pan. I'll only use the brush if the quick wipe doesn't clean it.

Twisted_1in66 :hatsoff:

Guess I just shoot but then after about ten or fifteen shoots I use the tail of my hunting shirt to wipe off the under side of the flint. Folks give me stern looks too because I don't wipe the bore between shoots ether, I may after about ten shoots if it gets hard to load.
Jeff

I just lick the pad of my thumb and rub with the edge top and bottom and also the frizzen between shots. Old habit I guess. Rarely have a misfire. Wipe the pan out when needed with the tail of my shirt.

I wipe down the pan, flint and frizzen with a cloth.

On one smallbore rifle, I simply use a water soaked shooting patch on the ball which wipes the lands while loading.

On others, I use alcohol on a patch to wipe between shots. For shooting patch lube I use a mix of alcohol with some Murphy's Oil Soap.

CS

Some one once told me to keep your skin and its body oil off the flint and the frizzen.

So since I have this little Sugar problem and I get these little alcohol wipes from the VA to clean my finger before I stick it, to test sugar it occured to me to try it on my flinter.

A couple of those wipes in sealed foil packs take no room. Each one open is not much bigger than a postage stamp. But just one sure do clean thru crud (flint, pan and frizzen) like you could not believe and dry up real fast.

No need to wipe to dry.

Agree...I buy them by the box at Walmart, etc...use before I load to start a range session and during a couple of periodic cleaning sessions at the range...and for sure before loading for a hunt.

While hunting I carry a few of what I call "field cleaning kits" that I prepare in little pint size ziploc bags...among other things each one contains a disposable alcohol wipe.

I usually have a strip of cleaning patch matirial hanging from somewhere which i use dry or dampened as needed to wipe with, the last shoot I did not wipe the flint untill it needed knapped after about 17 shots,(probably the 30th shot on that flint) and I only wiped it because the pan needed wiped also.

I use a dry cleaning patch. If there is a buildup of crud I missed, I will use moosemilk lightly on the patch, and then wipe off the flint, and surrounding structures, including the bottom and top jaws, the barrel, the pan, and the lock plate between the pan and the cock. I keep that patch then to use as my first wipe down the barrel after a shot, before discarding it.

I wipe the flint, frizzen and pan with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol about every 5th shot