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Beginner Questions - Follow-up

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Brad S.

Brad S.

32 Cal
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Welp, I made it out to the range with my Bess and had a great time. Thanks for everyone's advice in my last post. A few questions:

1. How clean is clean enough?

So to clean her, I scraped the barrel with a cleaning jag until I couldn't get a significant amount of fouling out. Then I ran about 20 patches through it with the track of the wolf bore solvent until the patches come out a light grey. It seems using patches, the very bottom of the barrel remains dirty unless you wrap the patch accross the top of the jag and scrub the bottom of the breech that way. I then used patches with solvent over all the exposed portions of the ramrod, barrel and lock sections to get any powder residue off and then oiled the same. Good enough or should I do more?

2. I used one of those spring loaded brass priming flasks, which worked great until it started to get gummed up with powder and clogged. Is there a way to prevent this or should I use a priming horn instead?

3. I shot a .715 ball using "bore butter" lubricant, and 90 grains of swiss 2F, offhand/standing. Nothing else. At 25 yards I shot a pattern a about the size of a large dinner plate. Is that reasonable?
 
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If you shine a light down the bore after you run some lube down, and the bore is shiny. That's plenty clean.

I started using the "plug the flash hole with a toothpick, then pour water down the barrel method". Shake the barrel up and down while holding a rag over the muzzle. Gets most if the crud out, and is quick. Still have to run some patches through to get the rest, but it's much easier than using the tube that clamps to the barrel then leaks everywhere.

I've always used CLP type products as the protective lube after cleaning. Don't believe that horseshit that you can't use oil based products to lube your guns. Total BS. Just make sure to wipe it all out before you shoot the gun next.

Sometimes granules of powder will clog the little plunger on the primer. Unscrew the plunger, hold it open with your finger, then run your flash hole pick through the opening at the bottom. That usually does it for me.

I never sight in offhand, but if you're holding a group that big with a smoothie offhand, I don't see why that can't take game. However, try some shots from a rest and see how you do. A lot of guys will tell you that you should always shoot offhand to get proficient at shooting game. Again, I say don't go for that horseshit. I never shoot at game without having some sort of steady rest, be it a tree, my knees, or whatever. Others can do what they want but that's not how I hunt.
 
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You need to work on your hold. Dinnerplate at 25 isn't going to cut it. Keep in mind, very few people can shoot a brown bess accurately, takes a lot of practice and load development.
 
All you need to clean a BP gun is water. I use warm tap water, pour it down the barrel until it comes out clean looking, and then run patches till they look clean. Blow the water out of the barrel and lock, run a alcohol patch to make sure it's dry and then a litely oiled patch. I use Barricade for storing. Get rid of the bore butter, all I've found it's good for is lubing maxi balls. I use TOTW mink oil for lubing patches. As Comfortably Numb said work on your hold and the groups will tighten. The stock should be in the same part of your shoulder and you should have the same amount of barrel in front of your eye everytime.
 
As @wiscoaster observes, a pattern the size of a dinner plate isn't all that bad. It's a lot to get used to the flash from that charge of powder in the pan of a King's Musket. It's going to take practice to hold on the target as all that smoke gets cleared away. It takes practice to learn where to hold the stock, so the sight picture is the same from shot to shot. Your sighting eye is now the rear sight, and it needs to be the same height above the comb for the ball to go to the same place on the target.
 
Brad S. said:
Welp, I made it out to the range with my Bess and had a great time. Thanks for everyone's advice in my last post. A few questions:

1. How clean is clean enough?

So to clean her, I scraped the barrel with a cleaning jag until I couldn't get a significant amount of fouling out. Then I ran about 20 patches through it with the track of the wolf bore solvent until the patches come out a light grey. It seems using patches, the very bottom of the barrel remains dirty unless you wrap the patch accross the top of the jag and scrub the bottom of the breech that way. I then used patches with solvent over all the exposed portions of the ramrod, barrel and lock sections to get any powder residue off and then oiled the same. Good enough or should I do more?

2. I used one of those spring loaded brass priming flasks, which worked great until it started to get gummed up with powder and clogged. Is there a way to prevent this or should I use a priming horn instead?

3. I shot a .715 ball using "bore butter" lubricant, and 90 grains of swiss 2F, offhand/standing. Nothing else. At 25 yards I shot a pattern a about the size of a large dinner plate. Is that reasonable?
Click to expand...
Lots of great advice but I would add one thing. In my experience you almost never get to the point where a patch comes back up spotless. None of my barrels have even a hair bit of rust. I use ballistol, and warm water, and always wind up with a spotless bore. Even after I clean it until a mirror, my patches always come back slightly mis-colored/or FAINTLY brown. It is not rust (I am lucky to have a chemist for a friend) so I suspect it is maybe a byproduct of the ballistol. If you go until it becomes a spotless white patch on the way back up, you will lose your mind. Clean it until the barrel looks like a mirror and your patched come back up without any fouling or gunk. Double check the bore, then swab it a little with your favorite rust-preventative. I swear by ballistol and have never had a shred of rust. I oil my guns heavy and then just swab them out with dry patches and a little rubbing alcohol then wipe the frizzen before I shoot. I have a ridiculous and irrational paranoia that the tiniest microsopic bit of rust will peel my barrel back like the one that took Henry Knox’s fingers off, so I am confident in my system. Good luck and I hope this helped!
 

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