cleaning question: wedges vs. barrel bands

[johnwm]

Ah, these darned ol' muzzleloaders...just when I thought I had the itch sufficiently scratched with my recent purchase, another interesting one had to come along...

OK...my experience with traditional muzzleloaders has all been with guns whose barrels are held in place by one or more wedges. For cleaning, I put a length of silicone tubing on the nipple and use it to vacuum hot soapy water in and out of the barrel by pumping with a swabbed cleaning rod. Once in a while I take the barrel off for this, but mostly I do it with the gun assembled. No problems so far.

Now I have my eye on a gun which has the barrel attached by means of two barrel bands. Is it a bad idea to frequently or regularly remove this type of barrel for cleaning? It appears that it would be much more time-consuming than the wedge type barrels. Is my usual barrel-on-the-gun method adequate for all cleaning? I'm always wondering and worrying about moisture and rust between the stock and barrel.

In case it matters, the gun is a Parker Hale .58 model 1861 carbine.

 

[mooman76]

The wedges are there to make it easy to take down and clean. They way you are doing it now is fine if you don't chose to remove the barrel.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Wedges are intended for barrel removal. Bands are intended to hold the barrel and stock together. Each has a purpose. :idunno:

 

[bpd303]

Actually wedges, bands and pins all serve the same purpose, to hold the barrel in the stock. Some are stronger than others, being bands, wedges then pins in that order, in my experience and they all have to be removed to dismount the barrel.

 

[hawkeye2]

Less than 30 seconds to remove a barrel held on with bands. Remove ramrod, remove tang screw, depress spring & remove front band, depress spring & remove rear band, lift barrel out of channel. Add a couple of seconds if you have a 3 bander. Absolutely no reason not to remove the barrel for cleaning every time, won't hurt a thing.

I missed the Enfield part. Loosen the band clamping screws as there are no springs to depress. The time is the same.