cleaning tips

[hrt4me]

Until today, I have only fired black powder revolvers, in which I can obviously pass a cleaning rod all the way through both the barrel and each chamber in the cylinder.
I have never had a single-shot cap-and-ball percussion pistol before, but today I fired my new-to-me .54 caliber Lyman™ Plains Pistol.
Do you have any advice and tips on how to best thoroughly clean its barrel?
Thanks in advance!

 

[leadhoarder]

I am pretty sure that those have a hooked breech so they should be easy to clean. remove the barrel and take a clean patch and push it down. Place the breech end into a bucket or sink of water and plunger the patch/jag up and down the barrel. This draws water into the bore like a syringe. The bore will be clean in notime but you will need to swap the patch out a few times.

It will be much easier to clean than a revolver.

 

[Grenadier1758]

@hrt4me, Here's a link to a copy of the Lyman Muzzle Loading Manual.

Lyman User's Guide (textfiles.com)

You really only need tap water for cleaning. Extra hot water is not really necessary. A drop or two of dish washing soap helps to remove any oils used as patch lubes. Use a bucket for the cleaning. Life has been much better once I learned that the sink, even the one in the laundry room, was not for cleaning muzzle loaders. I've gone to using Barricade from Birchwood Casey as the rust inhibiting lubricant for rust prevention during storage.

 

[deermanok]

With my own pistols, I pull the barrel off and remove the nipple.
Put the barrel in a small pail of soapy water. I use regular dish soap. Using my cleaning rod with a jag and patch, I pump it up and down in the barrel until I draw the water up, kinda like a pump.
When the water starts to come out pretty clean looking, I remove the barrel from the pail and start with dry patches until they come out clean.
Clean up the nipple good and then I apply a dab of breech plug grease on the threads and reinstall. Lightly oil the barrel, reinstall that and done.
I also run some pipe cleaners through the flash channel too .
That's about it.

 

[hrt4me]

I did realize I can pull off the barrel, thank you!

 

[hrt4me]

do you normally swab the barrel between each shot?

 

[FishDFly]

Now you have opened a huge can of worms.

There are those who swear by swabbing between shots and there is the other camp who swear at swabbing between shots.

There is no right answer.

Most line shooters will swab between shots.