Cleaning ML

[John Camp]

Still don't have rifle kit yet, but came across an item I need help on. Researching cleaning methods, I found one outfit that says to never remove the breach plug for cleaning(should only be done by gunsmith). The other says every 25-50 shots remove it for cleaning. Thanks in advance

 

[bwhoffman]

the majority will tell you to NEVER remove the breech plug...I follow that train of thought!
there is no real reason to.

 

[Black Hand]

Leave it be. It should only be removed in cases of "emergency" or repair.

 

[Bill Bryan]

I agree to leave the breach plug alone. I've only removed one in 35 years and that was to help drill and install a vent liner in a flintlock pistol.

 

[sniper68]

The other says every 25-50 shots remove it for cleaning. Thanks in advance

That sounds like some Inline talk! :barf: :shake: :nono:
Depending what kind of breach plug you have, will determine what you need to do to get the chamber area clean. All methods are simple and "NEVER" require the breach plug to be removed.

 

[jtmattison]

Pretty much the ONLY muzzleloaders with removeable breech plugs are the evil modern in$%^&*'s. Don't remove the plug on a sidelock. You might damage it beyond repair. Sidelocks are cleaned with the bucket of soapy water technique where you submerge the breech end in water and pump water in and out of the barrel with a cleaning rod with jag and patch.

HD

 

[MikeChapin]

I can't imagine removing a breechplug every 25 or 30 shots. The only thing I can think of this would refer to are those nasty inlines that have removable breechplugs.

I have only had to remove the breechplug on one rifle in the thirty or so years I have been doing this. The reason I did it was because I had the threaded shank on a cleaning jag break with the jag resting right on the breechplug face. There was no way to move it up enough to get a discharger in or put a little powder behind it. I took it to a gunsmith.

It is the only rifle I have that I had not breeched myself. The fella who did it must have used a trained gorilla with a ten foot cheater bar to put it in. Luckily the gunsmith had a hydrolic vice and one of the old, two piece breechplug wrenches.

Unless you have that kind of situation a breechplug never needs to come off.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Of the dozen or so muzzleloaders I've owned since 1976 I have removed one breechplug and looking back I regret that. The seam was thereafter very visible (to me) and I marred the barrel in doing it. It is absolutely unnecessary for cleaning. Unless it is one of the cartridgeless bolt-action modern abominations designed to be removed easily for cleaning it is like pulling the oil pan off your car to change the engine oil.

 

[bart_anastasi]

That is absolutley never.

The breach plug on in-line rifles are sloppy lose affairs.
Because of this In-line guns need that sort of treatment since after a while residue works into the easily removable threads on the plug causing them to gum up and jam.

Traditional rifles breech plug assuming that is what you have are never removed except by some one who knows how.

 

[roundball]

Unless you have a sidelock muzzleloader like a TC Firestorm, which actually has a breech plug designed to be intentionally removed by the owner, typical side locks rifles are not designed for routine or casual breech plug removal...ie: never had to remove any of mine.

Part of learning about traditionally styled muzzleloaders includes the practices, procedures, and small tools/attachments necessary to keep them functioning without having to resort to activities normally reserved for gunsmiths with specialized debreeching tools, etc.

 

[Rat Trapper]

I have to agree here with Roundball on this one. Those who play with in-lines need to remove the breech plug every time they clean the rifle. Those who have side locks should leave them alone as Round ball stated.