1861 Springfield Repro First Time Clean and Protectant Question

[TDDredge]

Hello all!

I am new to black powder, and absolutely got into it to get into historical guns (or reproductions thereof...), and I am in the act of acquiring a reproduction 1861 Springfield. As someone who shoots modern smokeless guns quite a bit (I shoot 2 and 3 gun), there are a lot of things that are quite different, and a few details I would like to make sure I have right. I want to take care of this gun, I am sure it will be a beautiful rifle, and I wish to keep it so.

I assume, as with modern firearms, that the gun should be cleaned before the first use. Would you do this as you would normally clean the musket? My cleaning plan is outlined below (bearing in mind right when I get it one of the first things I'll do is remove the nipple and grease it with choke grease, and I'm fairly sure you're supposed to fire some percussion caps on their own with no main charge, to make sure to really blast the touch hole clear):

Use a piece of leather to seal the nipple
Pour hot water down the barrel
Let it sit for 10 minutes to really dissolve the fouling
Pour it out
Repeat that again
Fill the barrel part way, cover the muzzle with my thumb, and slosh the water around
Repeat that until the water comes out clean
Run dry patches until they come out dry (and maybe blow some compressed or canned air into the nipple to dry it out thoroughly)
Run protectant down the barrel, maybe poke a little into the nipple with a patch

My other big question is this: does anyone use things like slip 2000 CLP on their muskets as a protectant for the metal? I love how well it works on my other firearms, but I don't know if you would treat this differently or if there are any issues with slip 2000 and muskets, so I am turning to your experience and knowledge! It has crossed my mind at least a bit that in theory the same lube used for the bullets (in my case I'm starting out mixing 50% beeswax and 50% lard) could also be used for this purpose?

Other than these things, how often would you do a full breakdown, remove the barrel bands/barrel, lock, etc, and should I do that right out the gate? Should I linseed oil the stock right out the gate, and if not, how often do most of you do it?

Thank you very much for your knowledge and wisdom here!

Tom

 

[Gooddaytoya!]

Hello all!

I am new to black powder, and absolutely got into it to get into historical guns (or reproductions thereof...), and I am in the act of acquiring a reproduction 1861 Springfield. As someone who shoots modern smokeless guns quite a bit (I shoot 2 and 3 gun), there are a lot of things that are quite different, and a few details I would like to make sure I have right. I want to take care of this gun, I am sure it will be a beautiful rifle, and I wish to keep it so.

I assume, as with modern firearms, that the gun should be cleaned before the first use. Would you do this as you would normally clean the musket? My cleaning plan is outlined below (bearing in mind right when I get it one of the first things I'll do is remove the nipple and grease it with choke grease, and I'm fairly sure you're supposed to fire some percussion caps on their own with no main charge, to make sure to really blast the touch hole clear):

Use a piece of leather to seal the nipple
Pour hot water down the barrel
Let it sit for 10 minutes to really dissolve the fouling
Pour it out
Repeat that again
Fill the barrel part way, cover the muzzle with my thumb, and slosh the water around
Repeat that until the water comes out clean
Run dry patches until they come out dry (and maybe blow some compressed or canned air into the nipple to dry it out thoroughly)
Run protectant down the barrel, maybe poke a little into the nipple with a patch

My other big question is this: does anyone use things like slip 2000 CLP on their muskets as a protectant for the metal? I love how well it works on my other firearms, but I don't know if you would treat this differently or if there are any issues with slip 2000 and muskets, so I am turning to your experience and knowledge! It has crossed my mind at least a bit that in theory the same lube used for the bullets (in my case I'm starting out mixing 50% beeswax and 50% lard) could also be used for this purpose?

Other than these things, how often would you do a full breakdown, remove the barrel bands/barrel, lock, etc, and should I do that right out the gate? Should I linseed oil the stock right out the gate, and if not, how often do most of you do it?

Thank you very much for your knowledge and wisdom here!

Tom

 

[TDDredge]

Anything in particular I can clarify in what I'm asking?

 

[bang]

I put wax on the barrel channel of the stock and a thin layer of light grease on the part of the barrel that sits in the stock. That way moisture doesn't build up on the wood or barrel. Also only have to do complete tear down one or twice a year depending on conditions when in use.
Light oil the barrel for short term storage.
I find a good shopping wet swabbing immediately after shooting then a good cleaning at home works well.
Lightly oil the bore.
Swab good before shooting.

 

[Stantheman86]

I use a variety of methods. I rarely remove the barrel from the stock. I feel it's unnecessary for every cleaning.

I just cleaned an ArmiSport Richmond by pouring rubbing alcohol down the bore and pumping it through the nipple with a patch. Repeat until clean, finish with Eezox. Sometimes I use Murphy's oil soap. I've used water at the range, sometimes I just use some kind of BP solvent. I always use Eezox as a last patch in the bore. I've been using it for 20 years on all kinds of guns

Depending on the rifle I remove the lock every few range trips. I tend to be more thorough with my expensive stuff like my Parker-Hales and I'll remove the lock and wipe the lock parts every time. I haven't had the lock out of my ArmiSport yet and I've put about 300 rounds through it so far.

Pouring water down the pipe gets sloppy but the original Ordnance Manual said to use water (hot if it can be gotten) and use a Tompion or your thumb to plug the muzzle and upend the rifle. Pour the water out and let it dry.....if you want to be authentic. I assume they used some kind of oil to protect the metal.

They also wouldn't let soldiers remove the nipple so I don't recommend that.

It's easy once you do it a few times. I usually try to clean them at the range so I'm not dealing with black sloppy patches and a barrel full of blackpowder water in my backyard or basement

 

[towgunner11h]

You need to put more effort into cleaning out the flash channel. I remove the nipple and clean-out screw and use swabs and pipe cleaners to completely clean the channel and threads, as well as the channel into the breech, and then coat it with oil/clip/oil of your choice.

 

[Justin.44]

Anything in particular I can clarify in what I'm asking?

Hey Tom, welcome to the forum and to muzzleloading! It's a bit disheartening that the first reply to your question is a frowning emoji from an old curmudgeon, but anyway...

You've gotten some good answers and there will be many more that will come along to add to it. I've never cleaned a musket so I don't really have anything to add, I just wanted to let you know that most of the people here are really friendly and helpful.

Have fun with your first black powder gun, it won't be your last! Justin

 

[dave951]

Hello all!

I am new to black powder, and absolutely got into it to get into historical guns (or reproductions thereof...), and I am in the act of acquiring a reproduction 1861 Springfield. As someone who shoots modern smokeless guns quite a bit (I shoot 2 and 3 gun), there are a lot of things that are quite different, and a few details I would like to make sure I have right. I want to take care of this gun, I am sure it will be a beautiful rifle, and I wish to keep it so.

I assume, as with modern firearms, that the gun should be cleaned before the first use. Would you do this as you would normally clean the musket? My cleaning plan is outlined below (bearing in mind right when I get it one of the first things I'll do is remove the nipple and grease it with choke grease, and I'm fairly sure you're supposed to fire some percussion caps on their own with no main charge, to make sure to really blast the touch hole clear):

Use a piece of leather to seal the nipple
Pour hot water down the barrel
Let it sit for 10 minutes to really dissolve the fouling
Pour it out
Repeat that again
Fill the barrel part way, cover the muzzle with my thumb, and slosh the water around
Repeat that until the water comes out clean
Run dry patches until they come out dry (and maybe blow some compressed or canned air into the nipple to dry it out thoroughly)
Run protectant down the barrel, maybe poke a little into the nipple with a patch

My other big question is this: does anyone use things like slip 2000 CLP on their muskets as a protectant for the metal? I love how well it works on my other firearms, but I don't know if you would treat this differently or if there are any issues with slip 2000 and muskets, so I am turning to your experience and knowledge! It has crossed my mind at least a bit that in theory the same lube used for the bullets (in my case I'm starting out mixing 50% beeswax and 50% lard) could also be used for this purpose?

Other than these things, how often would you do a full breakdown, remove the barrel bands/barrel, lock, etc, and should I do that right out the gate? Should I linseed oil the stock right out the gate, and if not, how often do most of you do it?

Thank you very much for your knowledge and wisdom here!

Tom

I shoot Civil War arms in competition. This is how I do it so here goes

1) Shoot only real black powder. Use only minies made from pure lead. There's a lot to make a minie ball gun shoot well. Saving this for later.

2) First use, yeah a complete cleaning wouldn't be a bad idea.

3) After shooting, I don't do a complete disassembly on mine but once a year and that after the competition season is over. It's just not needed and mine are all glass bedded. Reason for this is most repops aren't bedded well, especially in the breech/tang area and repeated disassembly can cause tons of frustration with accuracy issues. Mine are glass bedded and I don't want to even take a chance of zero wandering.

My cleaning process. With nipple in, butt on the ground, I hose the inside the barrel down with Windex with ammonia. That breaks up the fouling and neutralizes the acidic nature of BP fouling. I look to see the Windex running out the nipple and while that's happening, I start with a patch on a range rod with jag. Repeat until clean. It doesn't take as long as you'd think. Then I pull the nipple and wipe down the bolster/lock/hammer with windex. I'll wipe out the inside the nipple threads with a wet patch. I use a can of dry air to blow it clean. Put a dab of white lithium grease on the nipple thread and reinstall. The nipple doesn't have to be super tight, just good and snug. Then I wipe down bore inside and out with gun oil or ballistol and wipe the outside with an oil patch. No issues.

 

[TDDredge]

I shoot Civil War arms in competition. This is how I do it so here goes

1) Shoot only real black powder. Use only minies made from pure lead. There's a lot to make a minie ball gun shoot well. Saving this for later.

2) First use, yeah a complete cleaning wouldn't be a bad idea.

3) After shooting, I don't do a complete disassembly on mine but once a year and that after the competition season is over. It's just not needed and mine are all glass bedded. Reason for this is most repops aren't bedded well, especially in the breech/tang area and repeated disassembly can cause tons of frustration with accuracy issues. Mine are glass bedded and I don't want to even take a chance of zero wandering.

My cleaning process. With nipple in, butt on the ground, I hose the inside the barrel down with Windex with ammonia. That breaks up the fouling and neutralizes the acidic nature of BP fouling. I look to see the Windex running out the nipple and while that's happening, I start with a patch on a range rod with jag. Repeat until clean. It doesn't take as long as you'd think. Then I pull the nipple and wipe down the bolster/lock/hammer with windex. I'll wipe out the inside the nipple threads with a wet patch. I use a can of dry air to blow it clean. Put a dab of white lithium grease on the nipple thread and reinstall. The nipple doesn't have to be super tight, just good and snug. Then I wipe down bore inside and out with gun oil or ballistol and wipe the outside with an oil patch. No issues.

Any particular gun oil you use? Do you avoid petroleum based? If I can I'd love to use slip 2000, it makes a very nice, long lasting protection layer on the metal. My only big question is how it would interact with the black powder.

Edit: I had seen a lot about using real black powder and pure lead. I have 5 pounds of goex old eynsford 2Fg coming (I know I may eventually switch to 3F, but we'll start here and see where we go. Not about to buy a small amount of powder with hazmat shipping. Need to find a local source), and once I've pin gauged the barrel, I'm going to get the first couple rounds of bullets from track of the wolf and resize as necessary, then some point when I can spend a little more money I'll go in for casting.

 

[TDDredge]

Hey Tom, welcome to the forum and to muzzleloading! It's a bit disheartening that the first reply to your question is a frowning emoji from an old curmudgeon, but anyway...

You've gotten some good answers and there will be many more that will come along to add to it. I've never cleaned a musket so I don't really have anything to add, I just wanted to let you know that most of the people here are really friendly and helpful.

Have fun with your first black powder gun, it won't be your last! Justin

Oh I already also have a traditions kit that's waiting for me to find a way to blue the barrel before I get into it. So I'm technically sort of already at 2... Thank you for the welcome!

 

[TDDredge]

You need to put more effort into cleaning out the flash channel. I remove the nipple and clean-out screw and use swabs and pipe cleaners to completely clean the channel and threads, as well as the channel into the breech, and then coat it with oil/clip/oil of your choice.

Noted! Do you use a channel pick at all? And aha! You said one of the magic words. Do you use CLPs on all of the metal components, or just the nipple? Hadn't thought of pipe cleaners. Will be an interesting use for them that isn't arts and crafts! Then again I think most people would probably be confused by the fact that I have 5 pounds of beeswax and a suspicious lack of candles or soap.

 

[TDDredge]

I use a variety of methods. I rarely remove the barrel from the stock. I feel it's unnecessary for every cleaning.

I just cleaned an ArmiSport Richmond by pouring rubbing alcohol down the bore and pumping it through the nipple with a patch. Repeat until clean, finish with Eezox. Sometimes I use Murphy's oil soap. I've used water at the range, sometimes I just use some kind of BP solvent. I always use Eezox as a last patch in the bore. I've been using it for 20 years on all kinds of guns

Depending on the rifle I remove the lock every few range trips. I tend to be more thorough with my expensive stuff like my Parker-Hales and I'll remove the lock and wipe the lock parts every time. I haven't had the lock out of my ArmiSport yet and I've put about 300 rounds through it so far.

Pouring water down the pipe gets sloppy but the original Ordnance Manual said to use water (hot if it can be gotten) and use a Tompion or your thumb to plug the muzzle and upend the rifle. Pour the water out and let it dry.....if you want to be authentic. I assume they used some kind of oil to protect the metal.

They also wouldn't let soldiers remove the nipple so I don't recommend that.

It's easy once you do it a few times. I usually try to clean them at the range so I'm not dealing with black sloppy patches and a barrel full of blackpowder water in my backyard or basement

Would you say that water works similarly or as well as a good black powder solvent? I'll probably look into some eezox. If water works and is fairly effective, then it seems to me like a great option, because as it so happens that's what comes out of the tap! If I don't need to buy anything in the powder solvent front, I won't. But if it isn't the best method, then I'll look into what the best method is. From my research into black powder (which wasn't entirely comprehensive hence this post and question), black powder is not nearly so formulaic as smokeless powder guns. They're easy. Get the ammo, shoot it. Clean with smokeless powder solvent. Use CLP. Rinse and repeat. Black powder? Eh, see what charge you like! Probably don't go over X number of grains, but sure, play around with it! Greasing your bullets? Eh, start with X and Y ingredients, but don't forget you can possibly add P, Q and R as well! Play with it, see what you get! I love it, this will be a bit of an experiment. But cleaning I definitely want to try and zero in on a good method quickly, and it does seem as though hot water is a good way to go. I just also want to make sure using CLP like slip 2000 is a good choice for protectant. Thank you for the info here!

 

[TDDredge]

I put wax on the barrel channel of the stock and a thin layer of light grease on the part of the barrel that sits in the stock. That way moisture doesn't build up on the wood or barrel. Also only have to do complete tear down one or twice a year depending on conditions when in use.
Light oil the barrel for short term storage.
I find a good shopping wet swabbing immediately after shooting then a good cleaning at home works well.
Lightly oil the bore.
Swab good before shooting.

Definitely seems like a full tear down upon arrival would not be a bad idea at all. Use some beeswax to wax the barrel channel, and maybe a little choke grease on the outer surface of the barrel that's touching the stock. What kind of oil do you use in the bore? Have you ever used a CLP like slip 2000? I periodically see things saying to avoid petroleum products, and that they will gum up with the black powder residue, which is what prompts that question. If I can, I'd love to use a good CLP for that purpose, and slip 2000 has left me quite happy with all of the modern firearms I own, but I'm not familiar enough with black powder yet. So I guess it boils down to, do you use a petroleum based oil, or do you stick with an animal/plant oil? Any particular products you use?

 

[Ian Straus]

About petroleum products -
Yes they will gum up your bore, and can make a major problem very quickly.
When my own 1861 Springfield was brand new and I was brand new to rifled muskets, I bought some Minies just as you did and lubed them with a suitably named product. Which turned out to be petroleum based! I fired four rounds and the 5th stuck in the bore when I rammed it. I had to go to a gunsmith to get it out. That product is off the market now. Yes, the petroleum and black powder combined into thick crud that fast!

Lesson learned:
Don't use a petroleum based lube on your Minies. Or in your bore. (A light coat of gun oil for storage seems to be OK as long as you clean it out before firing. But I don't use that either.)

Do use a "natural' lube on the Minies, because the lube both keeps your bore from leading and keeps the fouling soft, so you can fire many times before you have to clean. The original Minie lube was half tallow and half beeswax and that is what I use today. Other better shooters do have their own lube recipes, sometimes using olive oil or Crisco.

 

[Steveoko922]

Water pump grease the stock channel. Don't be afraid, apply liberally. Soap and water in the bore, tooth brush for nipple, bolster, natural lube bore, check in 2 days for rust, lube again...done.

 

[Phil Coffins]

Use your favorite oil for protection then just before shooting clean the bore with a solvent to remove it. That way any good oil works!

 

[TDDredge]

About petroleum products -
Yes they will gum up your bore, and can make a major problem very quickly.
When my own 1861 Springfield was brand new and I was brand new to rifled muskets, I bought some Minies just as you did and lubed them with a suitably named product. Which turned out to be petroleum based! I fired four rounds and the 5th stuck in the bore when I rammed it. I had to go to a gunsmith to get it out. That product is off the market now. Yes, the petroleum and black powder combined into thick crud that fast!

Lesson learned:
Don't use a petroleum based lube on your Minies. Or in your bore. (A light coat of gun oil for storage seems to be OK as long as you clean it out before firing. But I don't use that either.)

Do use a "natural' lube on the Minies, because the lube both keeps your bore from leading and keeps the fouling soft, so you can fire many times before you have to clean. The original Minie lube was half tallow and half beeswax and that is what I use today. Other better shooters do have their own lube recipes, sometimes using olive oil or Crisco.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I've seen regarding petroleum based. My starting bullet lube is going to be 50/50 beeswax and lard (I mean, pig tallow lol). I do usually have a pretty good supply of isopropyl alcohol so i should be able to use that to get any oil out of the barrel. Do you know if any of the "synthetic" plays nice with gunpowder? I think that stuff is still technically petroleum based, so I'd assume not.

 

[TDDredge]

Water pump grease the stock channel. Don't be afraid, apply liberally. Soap and water in the bore, tooth brush for nipple, bolster, natural lube bore, check in 2 days for rust, lube again...done.

Any particular thing you like to use in the bore?

 

[Pete G]

Welcome from the South coast .
I use windscreen washer fliud for cleaning and Break Free CLP for protection. Works well in our heat and humidity.

 

[TDDredge]

Welcome from the South coast .
I use windscreen washer fliud for cleaning and Break Free CLP for protection. Works well in our heat and humidity.

I'm seeing that slip 2000 actually does make dedicated black powder clp and protectant. Hadn't thought about checking their website for such a product. Stupid me. Looking like water, isopropyl alcohol, and slip 2000 products will be my go to, with choke grease on the outside of the barrel that touches the stock, and maybe a little wax around the seam between barrel and stock. Glad to hear that a clp works though. I just ended up with slip 2000 instead of break free in my modern firearms, and they have won my loyalty. Windshield washer noted if I can't find any isopropyl. And then I gotta get some linseed oil for the stock. Alright I think I might actually have a plan.