How far down do you clean?

[wiscoaster]

....

The barrel and cylinder I use good old hot soapy water.

I add Ballistol to the hot soapy water, so I'm less concerned about not getting them 100% dry. Although I do try.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

I prefer powder/wad/ball, but this new paper cartridge fad leaves no room for the wad.

Cleaning: First clean, drop everything but the grips in a bucket of windex.
Pull it out, blow dry with compressed air, take home and strip it down and clean and polish every part.

 

[CaptainVane]

I have shot about 500 rounds thru my 51 Colt 36 and 31 since i got in March. Haven’t disassembled a screw.
Deep hot boiling bath soapy water for an hour. After a bath, cold rinse followed by hot hair dryer until metal too hot to touch removes all water. Then Hoppes black powder cleaner, then Muzzle Magic including long cotton tips deep inside via hammer and trigger slots. ( why both? Because I find whichever I use first, the other still removes some black the other didn’t). Until Spotless. Then a coating everywhere with BreakFree if not shooting for a week.
As someone said, with modern cleaners there is no need to disassemble.

 

[CaptainVane]

Old thread, but gonna post a mea culpa. Took off grips on my .31 this week to install a new mainspring. Inside the grip was a a lot of black gunk. Pistol is a 2004 so i dont know if this gunk is 20 years old or just 6 months old since I got it. I was surprised. So soon I will be doing a total disassembly to see how much gunk is under the trigger guard.

 

[Sam squanch]

My co worker just hoses his .36 navy down with wd- 40 after shooting it. It seems ok and rust free to me. He never took it apart either. I’ll check back with him in a year about it.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Some of the stuff I read above makes me shiver.

Dont shoot my 1860 as much as Id like to. dang work keeps me too busy.
Before I shoot I coat everything that rotates with bore butter.

When I do, when Im done shooting, I have a bucket with windex in it. Everything put the wood grips go in. When I get home I strip everything down. hand clean the small parts and near boil all the metal in dawn soap. Then I lube it with T/C 1000 + bore butter, and put it away.

Them shields are a crutch. Shoot it the way it was designed to be shot, and you wont have cap jams.
I dont.

 

[Edm]

I shoot and then heat water over the campfire. If I have soap good. If not fine. I take the cylinder out and clean it also. That’s it. When I get home I wipe it down with gun oil. I’m of the opinion that when people used these to survive or fight, they did about the same thing and it worked for them.

 

[45D]

Them shields are a crutch. Shoot it the way it was designed to be shot, and you wont have cap jams.
I dont.

"Them are not a crutch" dangit!! Them thar shields are put there to keep fouling and caps from gettin in thar!! They do a dang ol good job of it too!! My customers like um an I do too so thar!!!
By tha way, I do shoot um like they was designed to and I've never not one time had a dang cap jam . . . an, I ain't never cleaned um with water or windex or anything but Ballistol . . . an it works too!! An since tha guts is slam full of Mobil1 grease, them parts is like new !!

Mike

 

[Justin.44]

I strip mine down completely after every 5 outings or so. And when I do? It's not dirty inside at all, usually just a few little crumbs of dry fouling that wipe right out, never any corrosion of serious fouling at all. In my experience, stripping it down completely after every use is overkill.

 

[smoothshooter]

I shot 12 rounds yesterday and I actually took and smeared some real butter in the bore before shooting. Just on that first shot but I do believe it did make hot soapy water clean up easier.

The butter was all that I had. Lol.
I also do something else that some people might scoff at. And I have been doing it for years with no chain fire.

Between my powder and lead ball I will use one square of the cheap Scott toilet tissue as a wadding. I only shoot 25 to 30 grains so in addition to using it for a wad.... It also takes up some of that dead chamber space.

Your toilet paper will have no effect on chain fires.
A thin greased felt wad that you can make yourself between ball and powder won’t either, but will help keep fouling soft.
Properly oversized balls and properly fitted caps will eliminate chain fires. Nothing else will.

 

[CaptainVane]

Update to #24. I took off trigger guard and spotless inside. Figured it out. Every shoot the pistols go into a boiling water, Dawn, Muzzle Magic bath for an hour except the grips stay above the water. Hence gunk in the grips, but none in the guts.

 

[Bunk]

Old thread, but gonna post a mea culpa. Took off grips on my .31 this week to install a new mainspring. Inside the grip was a a lot of black gunk. Pistol is a 2004 so i dont know if this gunk is 20 years old or just 6 months old since I got it. I was surprised. So soon I will be doing a total disassembly to see how much gunk is under the trigger guard.

you will be surprised. It is a testament to Col. Colt;s design that the gun even works,

 

[User_Dan]

I've shot an old CVA 1851 until the brass frame got loose and the cylinder wobbles forward and back. Never took the grips off or opened it up. Cylinder, nipples and barrel cleaned in water.

Tonight I'll open it up and see what it looks like inside.

 

[M. De Land]

I have shot about 500 rounds thru my 51 Colt 36 and 31 since i got in March. Haven’t disassembled a screw.
Deep hot boiling bath soapy water for an hour. After a bath, cold rinse followed by hot hair dryer until metal too hot to touch removes all water. Then Hoppes black powder cleaner, then Muzzle Magic including long cotton tips deep inside via hammer and trigger slots. ( why both? Because I find whichever I use first, the other still removes some black the other didn’t). Until Spotless. Then a coating everywhere with BreakFree if not shooting for a week.
As someone said, with modern cleaners there is no need to disassemble.

The trouble with that regimen is your not greasing areas that need more than just oil and your creating a fouling, dirt and dust magnet to the enteral parts if holster carried in dry climates !

 

[User_Dan]

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Chain fires are from to small of balls, Get some bigger balls.

 

[User_Dan]

View attachment 272298

Little rust found on some screw heads, otherwise everything wiped down fine. Wire wheeled the brass and it looks damn new.


Strip down cleaning every time is way beyond neccessary in my opinion.

 

[45D]

Little rust found on some screw heads, otherwise everything wiped down fine. Wire wheeled the brass and it looks damn new.

sept the frame is loose and the cyl. wobbles . . . but at least you got some rusty spare parts!!

Mike

 

[Mike in FL]

I gotta respond even though this is an old thread. I have NEVER taken my Pietta apart except for removing the cylinder. At the range I take the cylinder out, give it a swabbuIng, I run a wet then dry patch thru the barrel. I also squirt moose milk into the action. It keeps running and stays accurate. At home, I do the same although more methodically. Never do I remove screws. After it is clean I dump plenty of alcohol into the action and scrub those areas reachable without disassembly. If I have rust or have missed residue, it has never revealed any kind of problem. Afterall, it is an Italian reproduction. It will fail mechanically long before the guts will rust. I don't "love" the thing like I do my longrifles.

 

[User_Dan]

sept the frame is loose and the cyl. wobbles . . . but at least you got some rusty spare parts!!

Mike

Yeah bud....brass frame stretched from hot loads, zero to do with not cleaning internals in a 1991 CVA/ASM 1851 navy