Cleaning

[Hobobob74]

I know most people clean with soapy water, but us there any other way to clean them. Like just like you'd clean an inline with patches soaked in TC No.13 or somthing like that?

 

[trent/OH]

I clean my rifles by plugging the vent, then filling the bore with some hot water and slosh it around to remove much of the fouling. I then run Ballistol patches up and down the barrel until they come out clean. Then a couple Ballistol patches clean the outside of the barrel, and the workings of the lock itself.

I don't own an in-line, but I'd probably clean one by soaking it in the Ohio River for several years.

 

[spud]

:rotf: AMEN

 

[Slamfire]

I tried cleanin' an underhammer like that, cause I didn't want to remove the pins from the forestock. You'll spend 3 or 4 times as much on cleanin' patches as you would have on hot water and a bit of soap. :v

 

[renovato]

There are black powder solvents, but without rinsing, I don't know how you'd make sure you got the corrosive salts out. Soapy water is probably the easiest and most effective way and that's probably why most people use it.

I tried cleaning with Hoppe's black powder solvent when I first got into muzzleloading. I had some rust form and just went to soapy water. I now clean with Ballistol and water, then follow up with straight Ballistol after I've gotten the bore dry.

 

[Hobobob74]

To the rest of ya, i'm refering to my dad's TC Black Diamond. I'm just asking becouse one of my Renegades has a scope on it and i don't wan't to get it wet. My dad says to run like 4-5 patches with the solvent, 2 dry patches, and then a patch with a lube to keep it from rusting. I guess that's what the people at TC told him to do so :hmm: ?

 

[Pittsburghunter]

You can clean with #13 to get out most of the fowling and then use some solvent like Hoppies. It is harder than just using water then solvent but it does get the job done. Some of my rifles I clean with water others I use solvent like you. No matter how you choose expect to use at least 20 patches to clean the rifle.

With #13 I run like five of them then a few dry then I use a good solvent for a couple of runs down the barrel followed by a couple more dry ones. then there is the oil a couple patches there as well.

With the hot soapy water you need one patch to clean and rinse. While the barrel is still hot from the rinse you run a few dry then your oil.

 

[playfarmers]

I have seen a plastic line used, like the air line for a fish tank. It was put on what looked to be a drilled out nipple, and stuck in a jar. You then put soapy water into the bore and flushed it back and forth, just like I do only my barrel is in the bucket.

 

[Blizzard of '93]

Plug the nipple with a tooth pick then fill the barrel with warm windshield washer fluid, let soak awhile then pur out and refill. Place thumb over muzzle and slosh around awhile. This will remove a lot of fouling. Use a bore brush to scrub and repeat the fluid soak for final cleaning, Then dry patch or solvent patch and then some lube to keep any rust down.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The biggest problem for cleaning those In#@@#$ guns is the plastic fouling you get in the barrel from the sabots used, or the lead fouling in the barrel you get if you use a lead conical. Both require solvents to remove the lead or plastic, beyond removing the salts from the substitute powders. The salts will come out with soap and water. The plastic and lead need work with a bore brush, and a proper solvent for whatever is there. You can't leave the plastic or lead build up, because it may be covering some of the salts of the powder, and those salts will begin to corrode the bore under the plastic or lead, or both! So, you end up scrubbing with that bore brush, then soaking the barrel in solvents, waiting for 15-30 minutes to give the solvents time to work, then back to scrubbing the bore again to get the lead and plastic out. Then you use alcohol to neutralize and remove the chemicals from the solvents, then soap and water to remove the last of the salts, then oil or lube the barrel for temporary or long term storage, respectively. Those new wonder guns don't save you any time cleaning, but rather require extensive efforts to get them as clean as a tradtional ML rifle shooting BP, and a PRB. The cloth patch keeps the lead from touching the lands or grooves. Black powder is easily (and easier to) clean with soap and water. Rinse with water. Dry with patches, then oil or lube for storage.

The only time I have had to use a bore brush to clean my traditional rifle was when I burned through a powder horn ,and half of another horn of powder shooting blanks at a parade. I had so much crud in the barrel that I used a bore brush to break it off, then cleaned with soap and water as I would normally do.

We may not like your choice of gun, but since you spent the money, please take care of it properly. If you don't shoot the gun for several weeks, or month, slosh some alcohol in the barrel before taking it out again to shoot or hunt to dissolve the lube or oil that you put in the barrel for storage. Based on tests done here, I think I would have to recommend you buy a can of ballistoil and used that to lube the barrel for storage. It seems to resist corrosion the best of all the oils and lubes tried so far.

If the gun is stored stanind upright, on its butt, oil will slowly fall to the breech of the gun, and will congeal in the flash channel leading to your nipple. So, in addition to sloshing alcohol in the barrel to clean it, and running a couple of patches to pull it all out, use a pipe cleaner to clean out that flash channel of grease and oil. Fire a couple of caps off, in your garage or back yard, to make sure the passage is clean and dry. Only then will you be ready to load the gun again and go shooting.

I had a very good friend who won one of the modern wonderguns in a Pheasants Forever Banquet raffle, so he set it up for his son to use deer hunting. The first year, the son shot two deer off the back porch with it. He was in college, so he did not get back home to practice with the gun again before the next season. The gun spent the year standing upright in my friend's gun safe, with oil in the barrel. The kid drove in the night before deer season opened, got up the next morning, dropped a powder load down the barrel then a sabot and bullet, and then primed the gun with a shotgun primer. A nice buck came out of the woods towards the back yard just after dawn, and the kid squeezed off a shot. The primer fired, the main charge didn't. He primed again, and fired, but the main charge didn't go. The deer finally wandered off, probably not aware of the kid's presence.

Junior woke Dad up to help him pull the load, and they cleaned the gun. Dad called me the next day, and asked me what I thought had caused the misfire. You all know that answer now. Junior killed another deer the next day, with the gun. Dad and junior learned that the new wonderguns can't just be left in the case all year long, like some people do with cartridge guns.

Paul

 

[Rat Trapper]

Someone should have told Jr and Dad to put a patch on the rod and run it down the barrel and then pop some primers or caps. If the patch was not black when it was pulled out, it was very likely not to fire when the buck appeared.

 

[Tim Clark]

To me, there's just no reason not to use Ballistol. It readily mixes with water, gets in wherever water does, and when the water evaporates the Ballistol is left in place. Plus it's terrific on the stock, leather, etc., instead of actually being harmful to those materials. Still, go ahead and run straight Ballistol after cleaning, it has proven to be the best stuff I've ever used and I've been hunting/shooting black powder since 1979. In that time I've tried virtually every gun cleaner/lubricant/rust-preventer there is, including the private brands and stuff from Sinclair's. I will not, cannot, bad mouth any other stuff, but that does not prevent me from saying that the best I've ever used and now exclusively use is Ballistol. Perfect? I'm not saying that. Just the best stuff I've used. And I pretty much do it like Plink... except, when I'm up in the Adirondacks and the comforts of home are far far away, hot water isn't a luxury I have, so it's a cold Ballistol:Water mix and then just plain Ballistol after the barrel is clean, also coat the outside, lock, trigger, etc. as usual.

And no, I don't sell the stuff or make a penny from any sales of it. I'm just flat-out sold on it. :thumbsup:

 

[paulvallandigham]

I did. Paul

 

[Raynor]

Another Ballistol user here, the stuff is just awesome. The best product I've used in 25 plus years of shooting black powder. :thumbsup:

 

I have tried Hoppes #9 and got bad results. Which is a shame because I love the way this stuff smells. I now use Butches Bore Shine and it breaks up the residue very well. I also practice runnig a patch down the bore and then re-oiling for 3 days after I shoot. I got to get me some of this Baristoil stuff though !

 

[dan d]

I posted the same question a few months back, I just did not like the thought of water touching my douglas barrel. After trying it 'my Way" I went back to doing what these guys recommend, Hot water and Ballistol. I did a lot of "homework" On Ballistol, It is good stuff, and is water soluable. I had a scoped out hawkins 20 years ago, Yes it was a pain to clean, I didnt want to drop the scope in a bucket of water either. Now I am a true traditionalist, I dont use a scope and clean with water and ballistol.

 

[greenneck]

I have used Ballistol for many years on the old Walther LG53 pellet rifle I got when I was 11. Not being used much during those years, it did get a little rusty, but nothing really serious. Now that I live in a more humid climate, it rusted pretty quickly before I switched to RemOil. No more rust problems since.

When it comes to treating stock wood or leather, Ballistol is just great stuff. Believing the ad material from the late 50s, it will even fix a lot of your dog's skin problems. Thankfully, I am not a dog, so I never tried that.

Steve