Cleaning patent breech?

[Idaho Elk Hunter]

I have a couple of rifles that have patent breaches. I always clean them by removing the nipple, putting the breach in a can of warm soapy water and flushing them thoroughly. I also wanted a breach scraper to get down into the powder chamber to scrape out any crud. I determined what size breach scraper that I needed by sharpening a rather steep point on a dowel rod and putting it down the bore. I felt around until it dropped into the powder chamber and then I pressed down and turned the dowel a turn or two. When I removed it, I could see the ring left by the edges of the powder chamber. I measured the diameter of the chamber and bought a scraper of that size. I think what I have is either a .32 or a .36 caliber breach scraper. I seldom need it but I give the powder chambers a good scraping every once in a while just to be sure that nothing has built up in the chamber. So far, my usual cleaning method has left no crud build up but I have my breach scraper just in case.

Good info for sure! Good idea on using wooden rod to measure breach opening. I think mine is about 36 caliber as I can put a brush and mop that is made for that size anyway...gun is 54 caliber.

 

[eaglesnester]

I just put a 30 cal brush on a cleaning rod and wrap a flannel patch round the brush and push it into the breach give er a few twists with hot soapy water rinse then patch out dry. finally moisten a patch with WipeOut and pusher down into the patten breach giver er a few twist until it comes out clean and then fogaboutit.

 

[tecum-tha]

The patent breaches are a pain and in my opinion Nock only fooled with them to make a double gun easier to produce.
I am also convinced, that the percussion ignition gained so fast in popularity, because guns could be easily converted by welding on a drum. The rest remained a flint gun essentially with all the ease of cleaning and maintenance.
The chambered design with only a minor diameter change is probably still ok,but everything else creates more pain and trouble than it is worth. Look at this chamber size in my old pedersoli prior to cutting it off and installing a flat faced flint breach: http://pedersolilancaster.rsengineering.de/#!album-0-15

I didn't measure it exactly, but this was a .50 cal barrel and the chamber was less than 1/4" diameter. The source of constant trouble and no trouble with the flat face plug. Not one flash in the pan...
For me, Pedersoli is just too darn lazy to install a real flint breach, as most of their guns are probably percussion.

 

[Mike Boettcher]

The patent breaches are a pain and in my opinion Nock only fooled with them to make a double gun easier to produce.
I am also convinced, that the percussion ignition gained so fast in popularity, because guns could be easily converted by welding on a drum. The rest remained a flint gun essentially with all the ease of cleaning and maintenance.
The chambered design with only a minor diameter change is probably still ok,but everything else creates more pain and trouble than it is worth. Look at this chamber size in my old pedersoli prior to cutting it off and installing a flat faced flint breach: http://pedersolilancaster.rsengineering.de/#!album-0-15

I didn't measure it exactly, but this was a .50 cal barrel and the chamber was less than 1/4" diameter. The source of constant trouble and no trouble with the flat face plug. Not one flash in the pan...
For me, Pedersoli is just too darn lazy to install a real flint breach, as most of their guns are probably percussion.

I don't a lot about a patent breech :redface: , but I sure enjoyed the pictures. :bow: