How clean is "clean"

[Britsmoothy]

I call it seasoning. Once them salts have been dissolved and the bore dried the corrosion is stopped.
I do recommend vegetable/animal oils/fats over anything petroleum based.

B.

 

[Golfswithwolves]

Leftover graphite seems like it might help to make the bore more slippery (?)

 

[The Baron]

Thanks so much for all the replies and great information. I'm more confident now I'm doing it right. I've owned the gun 8 years and all is well, but its great to hear from so many others.

Thank you all! :hatsoff:

 

[Grandpa Ron]

I use a three step process. 1.) I clean with a patch in soap and water, rinse with hot water, run a second patch to remove any water. 2.) I spray then run a third patch with WD 40. 3.) I finish with an oil or straight Ballistol patch which I leave on the ram rod in the barrel until the next outing. I rarely have a patch come out perfectly clean.

I have tried dozens of cleaning techniques through the years, but as long as I finish with an oil or Ballistol patch I have not had a problem with rust between outings.

I did forget to clean the gun once and by the next monthly shoot, things were not pretty. I never forgot a second time though.

 

[Capt. Fred]

I had an interesting experience the other night while cleaning a smoothbore. I was experiencing the normal issues of getting a smoothbore clean when I tried some lacquer thinner on a patch. One swipe up and down and it took the last of the crud out.

This is a new double flint 12 gauge that I just built, and I had been trying different loads over two days, so it was REALLY dirty. Also, 2 barrels takes twice as long as one so I was starting to get tired of the process. Frustration can be the mother of invention too!

I used just enough lacquer thinner to dampen the patch because I didn't want any squeezing out and dripping on my finish. It worked great.

 

[Zonie]

Lacquer thinner, Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) and Acetone all work about the same at destroying oil and allowing any trapped particles that was in it to be wiped out.

They are also extremely flammable and not good for people to breath.
Use them outside your house.

Disk Brake cleaner will also do a similar job.

If any of these fluids are used, immediately wipe the bore with a rust protective oil as soon as possible.

 

[Capt. Fred]

I was wondering if it might be the oil cutting properties that did it. Maybe a lot of this dirt is clinging to the barrel in the layer of oil in the steel's pores?

Either way - it worked great. I wiped the last of it out with dry patches and oiled her up with CLP.

 

[AZbpBurner]

My .62 cal. Fusil is easier to clean than anything else I own. Last time to the range I began using some fiber shotgun wads from TOTW, soaked in 1 part castor oil to 5 parts denatured alcohol. When the DA evaporates it leaves a light application of castor oil evenly distributed throughout the wad. After a dozen rounds fired I swabbed out the bore & had some discoloration, but no appreciable accumulation of fouling. Clean-up at home was with hot soapy water, a c0uple of passes with a 20 Ga. nylon brush, then a couple of water changes & a few patches. WD-40 to remove excess moisture, and on to dry overnite. Clean patch next day followed by some Barricade and it's ready for the next time out.

Ballistol only works if you're a believer. I've tried it, and it's just more junk to accumulate on my cleaning stuff shelf.

UPDATE:

The castor oil mix still can't be beat for both wad and patch. Less fouling accumulation means more shots (15+) between bore swabbing, and clean-up is simple.

I was looking for something cheaper than castor oil, but with the same clean properties, so I tried olive oil. Olive oil does not dissolve in denatured alcol, but it does in napthalene, so I made up a batch for my Circle Fly fiber wads. The napthalene evaporates when left out in the sun on the front porch, and looks like a nice clean 'dry' wad.

In use, after only 5 rounds fired, I got a wad with a ball atop it stuck midway down the bore.

With the castor oil wads, I load the wad, push the ball over it, then ram to seat, but with the olive oil wads, the fouling build-up was heavy enough to cause a problem. I was able to pour the ball out & use a worm to shred & remove the stuck wad.

Clean-up after the olive oil wads was a PITA. My normal full, flush the barrel with a couple of changes of hot soapy water, then swab with a patch, wasn't enough. There remained a nasty residue that I finally had to use carburetor cleaner to remove.

From now on, for me, olive oil stays in the pan for cooking, and the other bottle of olive oil is for salads.

 

[ZUG]

Your barrel might be made out of a leaded steel such as cold drawn 12L14 bar it is a standard grade carbon steel and free machining steel with added lead content. So no matter how hard you scrub you will get some grey on your patches. Just keep it clean and protect with a good rust protectant :thumbsup: .