Cleaning 150/200 years ago

[theoldredneck]

I am being serious when I ask this. How did the mountain men, trappers and anyone else that lived on the land clean their guns. Especially in the winter in the frozen areas of the north. I have it easy with running water, soap and all the modern cleaners and lubes. To clean one in freezing temps when you live outside or extremely primative conditions took determination and skill.

 

I assume they just did the best they could. I seriously doubt that they were fanatical about cleaning their guns the way many are today. You'd think some people's guns were priceless museum pieces the way they care for them, when they only cost a couple hundred bucks. IMO

 

[Shifty]

I have often wandered about that myself and the fact that these guns were probly always loaded, I would guess that they just ran a spit patch in the bore a few times and maybe a patch with a little tallow or what ever they used for patch lube afterwards.And I would say that at times they were probly not cleaned for several days,would you clean your gun if you where hiding from Indians or unfriendly trappers or such.Maybe they also carried spare Nipples and just swapped them out every so often,or you came see that a Flintlock had a advantage here.This just a guess on my part, but this could turn into a very interesting post. Thanks

 

[coloradoclyde]

Keep in mind that the mountain man or trapper hadn’t been to the shooting range all day shooting up a pound of powder. Most often cleaning was from a single shot or two, so the gun wasn’t that dirty to begin with.
Cleaning can be easily accomplished by sitting by a campfire and putting a pot of water on to warm. Cleaning the fouling from one shot doesn’t require 100 gallons of water. I have done it with little more than a swig from a canteen. Oil rendered from animal fat will work well to lubricate and protect.

 

[George]

Not concerning rifles, but”¦

David Thompson's Narrative, late 18th century. Working for Hudson Bay Company, hunting ptarmigans for the trade, a polar bear tries to get into a tent:

"As usual in the evening, the fowling pieces were being washed and cleaned, and were then not fit for use, but there was a loaded musquet."

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

I suppose a buffalo hunter may have fired his gun until he ran out of powder or ball.

 

[Spikebuck]

While I cannot answer how the ol' mountain men did it, I do hunt squirrels in Jan/Feb in Minnesota in temps well below freezing. After 3 or 4 shots I will simply take a dry cleaning patch in my bare hand and dip it into the snow then hold it tight in my fist as the snow melts into the dry patch moistening it. I use a couple of those down the bore followed by a dry patch and I'm good to go. I find my smoothie used for this hunting cleans up a quite a bit more quickly than my rifled bores.

I suspect it wasn't that hard for the old timers to keep their firearms relatively clean even in tough conditions.

 

[Rifleman1776]

That is really a good question. I wonder how many of the rifles in museums had the bores checked and, if so, what the condition of them may be.
I suspect that often the rifles were seldom cleaned. One source did indicate just water and wipe.

 

[galamb]

Not just the "mountain men" who were far away from civilization, but I believe that even the "town folk" were only passingly familiar with any sort of cleaning regimen - at least by today's standards.

Here is an excerpt from a letter written by Christian Oerter from the Christian Springs Gun shop in September of 1773.

"At your request I have prepared a good rifle and sent it... The rifle is decorated with silver wire and well made, as well as tested and shoots right well.

It has a double trigger, so that you can fire either cocked or uncocked. Between the triggers there is a screw with which you can make it easier or harder to fire.

There is also a ball puller together with a screw with which you can pull the ball out no matter how rusty it gets.

She costs 8 pounds all together"

(that's about 550 bucks in today's money)

***NO MATTER HOW RUSTY IT GETS****

Sounds like the use of oil following any cleaning done at all was "minimal" at best and certainly not something they "obsessed" over like we do today...

*(the quoted parts are from American Tradition magazine winter 2014 - publication of the CLA)

 

[Many Klatch]

Lizard, a friend of mine tested that question. He had a gun we called "Old Rustaway". His contention was that the old timers never cleaned guns as religiously as we do today.

Lizard never cleaned Old Rustaway unless it got too hard to load, then he would run a spit patch or two down the bore and then reload.

He used precut patches and every time that he opened a new pack of 100 he threw the paper wrapping in a bucket. Lizard shot a lot. One year he used up 50 pounds of powder. Anyway, after 40,000 shots he said that he noticed that the barrel started throwing off one out of 3 or 4 shots. So he cut the barrel up to see what had happened. The rifling was mostly gone by then.

So what can we learn from this. Lizard shot 40K rounds up in about 5 or 6 years. I imagine that your basic backwoods hunter would take a lot longer to shoot that many rounds.

I think it is safe to say that if you were living on the frontier, hardly ever cleaned your gun because it was always loaded, that after about 10 years the bore would probably be shot out.

As a result of Lizard's test I became a lot less anal about cleaning my gun immediately after a shoot. I put it in the gun sleeve and drive home and then clean it where I have everything handy.

I hope this helps.

 

[William O.]

While I can site no reference I thought I'd add to this discussion by mentioning that back then barrels were not made of steel as we know it today. We are truly blessed to have our muzzle loaders being made from modern steel, which isn't rust proof by any means but it is much tougher and stronger than the iron barrels of the 18th century. Once a barrel was "shot out" it was often sent to a gunsmith to be freshened up, which meant that it would be bored to a slightly larger caliber and another ball mould would accompany it. Calibers we not standardized as they are today and everything was had made and hand fitted on an individual basis. The softer "steel" used back then lent itself to being bored out using hand tools fairly easily. Imagine trying to do that with a modern steel barrel! Thorough cleaning perhaps wasn't seen as such a necessity as it is today. Anyway, food for thought.

 

[Oudoceus]

A thread similar to this came up a while back on another site. I wondered myself about cleaning when you were living in a situation where having an unloaded gun would never feel comfortable. One of the HC/PC gods opined that even though one was in Indian country, there wasn't an Indian hiding behind every tree and they took the time to clean their guns just as we do today. Well, I was fortunate in that I never had to spend time in "Indian country" but I met and spoke to hundreds, perhaps thousands who did. They pretty much agreed that there might not be an "Indian" behind every tree when you're deep in "Indian country" but it sure felt like it and it felt like he was drawing a bead on the back of your head every minute of the day. Even though only one out of four would clean his rifle while in the field the few minutes it took were pretty tense. Imagine how it would feel if you were alone or even in a small group and armed with your favorite flintlock while deep in Indian country.

 

[galamb]

I will throw one more thought into the mix.

Put up your hands - how many of you follow the service schedule on your vehicle to the letter? I have almost 200,000 miles on my truck and the transmission has never been flushed/filter changed and it certainly doesn't get an oil change every 3000 miles (or whatever it calls for) AND the only time it's gets washed is when there is a good rain storm - could probably extend the life of it if I did take more "preventative" care, BUT it's been working fine sooooooo.

(you will see where I'm going here)

My truck is just a tool - it takes me to work, out in the woods hunting, down to the store etc. Yes, it cost me a lot of money but it's such an "everyday" thing that it somehow loses (importance) or "specialness" (if that's a word).

OUR muzzle loader's are "our babies".

150 or 200 years back, theirs may have simply been like my pick-up truck. Only got real attention when something didn't work :idunno:

 

[Grizzly Adams]

I agree, I think many rifles back then didn't get "pampered" like we do with them today. They were used, and used a lot, likely daily so cleaning and maintence was likely far from religious. I have seen a few southern rifles up close and almost all show evidence of very hard use. By the way, my bronco has over 206,000 miles on her so far and it gets treated like a truck would get treated, unless I'm treating it like its NASCAR:grin:

 

[Captjoel]

I really believe that our modern needs for keeping the bore of our longrifle bright, shiny, and pristine, like the day it was new to be strictly modern ideas from us who are obsessed with such luxuries. Back in the day when the rifle was a man's most important tool, relied on for his sustenance and protection, the importance focused more on it's reliability. Always kept loaded and within reach when needed. I'm sure it was kept clean and lubed when time allowed using the materials and methods of the times and the various circumstances. Like any tool that was used a lot, a rifle would wear out, break, get lost, stolen, repaired, and traded for better or new. The most important thing that I am trying to convey is that the rifle would shoot when it was called upon. There is one detail that I never have seen mentioned. In the field after a rifle is shot and quickly reloaded, we all know that the fowling present can cause the barrel to rust from humidity over time. There is a procedure that I have done in deer camp, and I can only speculate that this may have been done back in the day. Following strict rules of safety, I actually clean my loaded rifle barrel with damp patches followed by dry ones then very lightly greased. I then use the greased patch to wipe down the lock pan and dirty areas around the touch hole. Just another something to ponder.

 

[thecapgunkid]

There's a lot of good conjecture here, and the sound of this thread suggests some good field experience. I betch that's because what we are chattering about here is a human thing.

The only documentation I have ever seen on cleaning is mostly 18th century. The British Soldier was forbidden to take his lock apart. The camp at Fort Edward in 1757 was plagued by accidental discharge while cleaning to the point where the Officers demanded that returning patrols or sentries pull the ball and empty the powder into a keg. Shortages of everything permeate many 18th century accounts.

Militia men were fined because of dirty guns. Even fiction writers picked up on it and Walter Edmonds Drums Along The Mohawk has a passage about a clogged and filthy musket.

It seems you guys pointed out the human element that is timeless...if you valued your gun you took pains with it. If you didn't...well... hope a raid full of bad guys don't catch you in an open field.

Me...I'm gonna clean my baby and change my transmission fluid...

 

[theoldredneck]

The answers are good and food for thought. Cleaning a gun the way black powder requires was not something I was interested in. I have modern smokeless powder guns that are seldom cleaned. When I started shooting black powder cleaning became part of it. Instead of it being something I hate, it is just part of shooting. I like to run a clean patch with a little lube down the barrel between shots. Being a southern raised man I hate snow, ice and cold. After working in northern winter weather I have great respect for people that live there. I would probably have to be a bow hunter if cleaning was done outside in that weather. I made a 10" barrel in .32 smooth bore percussion to do a test with. Shot it some and put it up without cleaning. In a few months you couldn't get a pencil in the bore. Sawed it length ways and was amazed at the pitting. The pioneers were tough to clean and keep flintlocks shooting in the conditions they lived in. I made a living fixing things. Keeping things lubed and serviced adds to equipment life and reduces repairs. My flintlock is an investment so why not take care of it. Theirs was a tool that provided food and protection. Wisdom would be to clean and care for it I would think.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I think things back then were just as they are today, in that the level of gun care depended on the individual and the circumstances.
Look at this forum for example, newbie threads pop up all the time with cleaning questions or what to do about a rusty bore.
Cleaning and rusting has been such a problem that it has led manufactures to develop product solutions like ballistol,hopes#9, less corrosive black powder substitutes, and inline actions with removable breeches.
I also think that when traveling on the frontier, things got used and abused.

 

[Twisted_1in66]

As Bull3450 pointed out, the barrels back in the 1700's and 1800's were not made of the steel that they are today. They were wrought iron and hammer welded which resulted in a mild steel. As such they were much more subject to rust than modern steel barrels and proper maintenance was even more important then.

galamb came up with that great primary documentation from Christian Oerter in 1773 pricing his rifle at 8£. That was about 3 times as much as a trade gun, fowler or musket. I have often seen quotes that the price of a rifle was almost as much as a years wages for a man of the times. I can quote from the payroll records of Herrick's Green Mountain Rangers in 1777 that each of the Rangers in Captain John Warner's company were paid 1£ (one pound) per month and those were considered good wages. So 8£ would have been 3/4 their annual income - comaprable to buying a new car perhaps?

Keeping in mind that it costs so much of their yearly income to purchase the rifle, it is very difficult to believe that they would neglect to properly maintain it. It was not only the most expensive item they owned, their safety and livelihood depended upon it. Leaving it loaded for a few days at a time caused little problem because the fouling of burnt black powder is where the corrosive problem comes from. Certainly in the field by yourself in hostile territory, cleaning your rifle might not be at the top of your mind. However, when in a group of men, cleaning your guns/rifles in rotation makes a lot of sense.

Despite the earlier quote that the British troops were not allowed to remove their locks, they were required to clean their arms. Removing the locks resulted in lost parts, improper assembly, and malfunctioning weapons, which is why they were forbidden to remove the lock. They still had to clean the the outside of the lock (pan, frizzen, cock, touch hole, etc.). In fact, each British soldier was required to clean his arm and polish the metal with a paste made from brick dust (doesn't work with modern bricks). They could be court martialed if their muskets weren't bright and shiny at inspection each morning. So they cleaned their muskets every day.

It would also be good to remember that there were none of the common conveniences in the 1700's and 1800's. So, no internet, no TV shows, fewer books and relatively little to do after dark on the frontier - perfect time to clean your gun.

One advantage that we don't have now is that both whale oil and bear oil/grease were widely available. Both of these protect steel and iron surprisingly well and are also good patch lubes. A friend of mine rendered some bear oil out of bear fat (a laborious and smelly process) and used it on both his barrel and lock. He never had even a tiny bit of problem with rust. He was showing his rifle to me at a reenactment a week after he had applied it to his rifle and it looked like it had just been freshly oiled. So some of those commonly available substances were more than up to the job of protecting and preserving their flintlocks.

I think it's a mistake to presume they used less care with their firelocks then than we do now.

Twisted_1in66 :thumbsup:

 

[smoothshooter]

Greg Geiger said they were forbidden to take their lock apart. That is not the same as removing their lock.