Breech “Chamber” Question

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Hello,
I’ve been working on fixing up an older investarms hawken, and I’ve managed to clear out the rust from the majority of the bore and oiled it sufficiently. Today I got a bore camera and looked inside to see if my work was thorough enough. In the photos provided, you can see where it transitions from the barrel down into the “breech chamber” (I hope that’s the right terminology), and a toothpick that I stuck through is visible. As y’all can see, the chamber is still rusty, but it’s covered up with oil. How can I remove the remaining rust, and clear up the oil so I don’t soil my powder? Would popping a few caps suffice for clearing the oil? Thanks.

 

[bang]

Run a patch on a small loop jag to get inside the breech. Put some patch over end of the jag so it will get the very bottom.

 

[necchi]

and clear up the oil so I don’t soil my powder? Would popping a few caps suffice for clearing the oil? Thanks.

Don't pop caps with oil present,, that's a bad thing. The heat and debris even from caps when mixed with oil quickly fouls into a hard tar like goo that can and will restrict or even block the fire channel leading to hang-fires and/or mis-fires.
A spray of brake cleaner into the breech followed with wiping, or I will use a denatured alcohol rinse to remove oils from the bore/breech before firing.

Some folks will get a small bore breech scraper for like a 32 to get in there,,

 

[ohio ramrod]

I use an alcohol soaked patch to remove any oil from the breech area. Just soak a patch in alcohol squese out any extra and run it into your breech area. Then set off a cap or two.

 

[R Ellis]

Use a bronze bore brush to clean the chamber

 

[DiMarco_Mercantile]

Thank you for the suggestions. I’ll have the bore cleaned up in no time.