rust covered .54 flint, unknown variety.

My dad found out that I was getting into black powder and let me borrow his flintlock for an extended amount of time. Considering he hasn’t touched it in four years probably a long time.

The problem being that he hasn’t touched it in 4 years and my brother apparently took it out on the 4th of July and fired off with just powder then never even gave a thought to cleaning it.

The lock is covered in rust, the whole gun has a light layer of surface rust, and the rifling is deep and looks ok except for all the rust. I put a patch down it and it came up black, and red.

Here are some picks of it. It’s a .54 cal, it has no markings what so ever, all I know is that the stock was custom made and is probably walnut.

pics

The gun is in bad shape and I don’t even know how to get started other than I have to buy a cleaning jig for it.

So now I have a .50 flintlock, .44 c&b revolver and a rusted unmarked .54 flint. Not bad for a newbie that doesn’t know what he’s doing half the time.

I'm not sure what you've got there, but that looks like a Siler lock and that's not a production stock. It'll probably clean up well and be fine. I've seen some really sad looking guns turn out to be excellent shooters. :thumbsup:

If your trying to get the rust off the lock and barrel you might try using 0000 steel wool, be sure to use light oil.

Others may have an idea about the rust in the bore.


sixbull

sharpie44
Get a cleaning jag for the .54 caliber barrel.

Use the same #0000 steel wool that your using on the outside of the gun and wrap a very thin pad of it around the jag on a cleaning rod.
Apply a little oil to the bore and have at it.

Remove the steel wool and replace it every so often.Most of the loose rust will be removed in just a few minutes but keep at it. You will want to get as much of the harder rust as you can out too.

This by the way will not damage the rifling. The steel wool may remove any razor sharp edges the rifling has but you don't want those sharp edges anyway. They will cut cloth patches which hurts accuracy.

After your arm feels like it is about to fall off, then use some soap and water to clean the oil and rust particles out of the bore.

When the wet patches are coming out clean switch to dry patches and dry the bore.

When the bore is dry, lightly oil it by running a oil dampened patch down it to protect it from further rust.

thanks for the info I'm going to have at it tomorrow. I just need to figure out if I'm taking off the bluing on the outside or if it's suppose to be shiny steel.

That's not bad at all, I've bought guns far worse off than that and they ended up shooting just fine. Like the others said steel/brass wool and oil.

steel wool leaves "lint" that is nasty to clean out. A good tight weave patch and some J&B bore cleaner if it isn't too bad. Also, the white, or fine auto paint rubbing compound. (don't use the red, it is too abrasive.) Put it on patches and run it up and down the bore. You may have to change patches often. The J&B is slightly abrasive but is in a grease substance so it can slide the bore pretty easily.

On the exterior rusted metal, 4 ought (0000) steel wool and oil is the ticket. (don't use 3 ought, too abrasive.) In a pinch a standard SOS pad will work.