After Cleaning Question...

[Quirt Evans]

50 shots? You're kidding - right?

Apparently I'm doing something seriously incorrect then.

At best I can shoot three RB/patches and then need to run a damp patch to loosen the fouling. I shot three in row one time yesterday and got the load stuck and had to pull it. What I did for 4 hours yesterday was run a damp patch after each shot and it loaded smoothly.

I've tried .15 patch w 530 ball and then downsized to .10 patch after I got the load stuck. I'm using 2F Goex ranging from 60 to 80 grains. Fouling is soft. It is cool here in the 40s & 50's with 60+% humidity. I'm using a varity of commerical patch lubes.

I know I'm doing something incorrect as I should be able to shoot more per session than I am currently doing now.

Any help is greatly apprecated!

 

[E Poffinbarger]

Quirt:

No, you're not doing anything wrong.

This you can take to the bank: accuracy is affected by any residue in the bore be it rust or fouling.

Fact: Swabbing between shots will produce the most consistent accuracy results.

Osage

 

[bwhoffman]

Quirt,
couple of things....
measure your round ball and see what you actually have. point being, my 490 mould throws a .493 rb, we tend to assume all things will be correct!
Also, while you are measuring stuff,do your patches and your barrel if you can. both groove depth and bore.
There a lot of lubes out there and everyone has their favorite. that said, use a spit patch in my trade gun (smooth bore), but do wipe about every 7 on that one.
I started using strait olive oil on home cut patches about 2 years ago in all my perc. guns (40, 50 and pistolas) and it really keeps things soft, to the point that in my .40, I need not have to wipe but every 16 or 17 rounds, went so well last weekend, that I shot all day with it and pushed 29 thru it without any wipes. my .50 on the other hand, will only go about 7 shots,go figure.

It could be a possibility, that the barrel has some built up residue for whatever reason and might need a wire brush(bronze)treatment and soak to get it loose, only throwing out ideas here!

But you should be getting way more shots out of that bore before you need to wipe it out!

these are my findings and milage, yours may vary!

 

[doulos]

Green Mountain Barrels advises to use WD-40 right in their owners manuals after a water cleaning. Ive done this a long time and never had any problems. However for long term storage ive always used something heavier like RIG gun grease. It will absolutely positively protect a gun that might not be handled and shot for extended periods. Ive allways swabbed my bores with a alcohol patch or 2 before shooting and never had a problem..

 

[Ridge]

I tried some kind of Pennzoil penetrating oil once...must have penetrated into the breech plug threads because I was 3 days trying to get that gun to shoot.

After running a couple of dry patches down it, I loaded it up. When I seated the ball, powder came out the touch hole. Looked just like toothpaste coming out of the tube!

It's olive oil and beeswax only now for me.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Whenever you have a problem with oil in the barrel, use cheap rubbing alcohol as a solvent to cut through it, and clean it out. If you want to disperse water after cleaning, Use alcohol, rather than WD40.

WD40 is okay, but it does dry out and leave a thick grease cake behind. It will dissolve if you spray it with more WD40, but the longer you go between cleanings, the more time it takes for the WD40 to dissolve the gunk. I have had Old gunk come out on patches looking like bits or varnish. I cannot guess how long it would take to dissolve that stuff with WD40.

 

[renovato]

Run a patch down the barrel in a couple of days and see if you are getting any rust. That will tell you if it is enough.

Over the years I have used a lot of stuff from 10 wgt motor oil, WD-40 and various gun oils. All of them prevented rust which is the primary goal. About two years ago I started using Balistol as a barrel preservative. It also prevents rust but has the added benefit of keeping the barrel cleaner while shooting. Barrels that used to gunk up in 5 or 6 shots will now go all day without a cleaning patch.

I use Ballistol also, and I rarely have any issues with fouling. I rarely swab when I'm plinking, but I find that a dry patch between shots does increase consistency a bit.

I also use Ballistol as a patch lube, mixed with 5-7 parts water (each gun has it's own favorite ratio). I wet the patches and let the water evaporate out. This leaves behind just the right amount of Ballistol. The patches aren't wet, just perfectly damp. That helps keep the bore clean between shots and has improved my grouping quite a bit.

Occasionally I use my patch lube mix to clean with also. Ballistol is an extremely good solvent. Mostly I clean with warm soapy water and run a dash of rubbing alcohol down the bore afterwards to dry out any water.

I use Ballistol again as a preservative and I don't have any rust issues. I do live in a pretty dry area, but I also use an evaporative cooler in the summer, so that raises the humidity. I'm not sure how well Ballistol would protect in the truly humid areas.

Unlike most folks, I prefer to store my guns muzzle up. If any Ballistol is going to run, I'd prefer it to pool in the breech area and protect any places where I might have missed some fouling. A dry patch and a couple caps cleans it out before firing anyway.

 

[Zonie]

I used Ballistol in my guns and 2 months later found rust in the bores of the rifles I had used it in.

I switched to Birchwood Casey Sheath and never had a problem with rust again.

 

[Dphar]

50 shots? You're kidding - right?

Apparently I'm doing something seriously incorrect then.

At best I can shoot three RB/patches and then need to run a damp patch to loosen the fouling. I shot three in row one time yesterday and got the load stuck and had to pull it. What I did for 4 hours yesterday was run a damp patch after each shot and it loaded smoothly.

I've tried .15 patch w 530 ball and then downsized to .10 patch after I got the load stuck. I'm using 2F Goex ranging from 60 to 80 grains. Fouling is soft. It is cool here in the 40s & 50's with 60+% humidity. I'm using a varity of commerical patch lubes.

I know I'm doing something incorrect as I should be able to shoot more per session than I am currently doing now.

Any help is greatly apprecated!

Try FFFG powder.
Better yet try Swiss powder. It has much better fouling characteristics.
Finally, most rifles shoot better with a clean bore than a fouled one.
If I am really serious I clean the bore between shots.

Dan

 

[AeroncaTAL]

...I started using strait olive oil on home cut patches about 2 years ago in all my perc. guns...went so well last weekend, that I shot all day with it and pushed 29 thru it without any wipes...

Everytime I go on the trail with Brett, it smells like a fast food resturant. I always want to supersize those fries... :wink:

I use Ballistol, both as a patch lube and after cleaning. So far, been happy with it.
Scott

 

[bwhoffman]

..its good on the lips and keeps my hands soft!

"..olive oil?,...your soaking in it!"

 

[50cal.cliff]

50 shots? You're kidding - right?

Apparently I'm doing something seriously incorrect then.

At best I can shoot three RB/patches and then need to run a damp patch to loosen the fouling. I shot three in row one time yesterday and got the load stuck and had to pull it. What I did for 4 hours yesterday was run a damp patch after each shot and it loaded smoothly.

I've tried .15 patch w 530 ball and then downsized to .10 patch after I got the load stuck. I'm using 2F Goex ranging from 60 to 80 grains. Fouling is soft. It is cool here in the 40s & 50's with 60+% humidity. I'm using a varity of commerical patch lubes.

I know I'm doing something incorrect as I should be able to shoot more per session than I am currently doing now.

Any help is greatly apprecated!

What are you using for lube? I am in NW Florida where the summers are brutal as far as humidity, and the winters aren't alot better some days, concerning humidity! The right lube helped my fouling problems alot! Now don't take me wrong I am not complaining but it's (hunidity) a fact of life you deal with when you live in this part of the country.
To make a long story short, your problem with fouling may be your lube. When I first started coming to this site I read posts form a group praising Hoppes #9 Black Powder Solvent and Lube. I thought they were just talking about Hoppes Solvent till I did a search on the name. I got a bottle and tried it. I have never looked back since it works well for me in our climate winter or summer.
Now it may not work as well for you but try it. In my opinion lubes performance rating is somewhat based upon the type of climate you experience, but if you are using GEOX already the lube would be my guess as to your problem!
I have already posted after cleaning I use a good gun oil and wipe all but a light residue back off, and run a patch before loading!

 

[nw_hunter]

If it works for you,then it is the right thing to use.Everyone has their own favorite lube.Some use petrol. base and get a gunk build up, and others do not. Some use veg.base type and get rust, and some do not.Sort of like politics........Or not! :grin:

 

[roundball]

50 shots? You're kidding - right?

No, not at all...I shoot 50 shot range sessions most every weekend year round...I use nominal size Hornady balls like .395/.440/.490/.530's in TC & GM barrels, Goex 3F, .015" & .018" patches, Natural Lube 1000 or Hoppes No9 PLUS BP patch lube.

The key to doing that is a lot of moisture in bore. There has to be enough moisture in the bore during/between shots to immediatelt act on the fouling and keep it soft, not let it dry out and get hard/build up. The fouling has to be left so soft that when you seat the next patched ball, the patch wipes the bore walls clean and pushes the fouling down on top of the powder charge. When the next shot is taken, that previous shot's worth of fouling is ejected, and a single fresh shots worth of fouling is left on the bore walls. Repeat the cycle every shot...fouling never builds up...last shot loads as easy and is as accurate as the first.

In months/weeks/days of high humidity by the time you stand the rifle down and lean it against the bench, the pan fouling turns wet/glistening because it draws moisture out of the high humid air in seconds...same thing is happening insode the bore.

In the winter time here, cold weather brings very low humidity and I can't make more than about a dozen shots without having to wipe the bore, so in low humidity, dry conditions, a wetter liquid lube (like Hoppes No9 PLUS BP solvent & patch lube for one) is needed...I use patches actually wet to the touch and just shoot the whole range session no matter how bone dry the conditions might be.

And particularly with Hoppes, when I get back to the garage and push a cleaning patch through the bore in a bucket of hot soapy water, barely a trace of fouling come out of the vent the bore is so clean...there are a lot of liquid lube choices but one I can recommend without question is Hoppes...you might get yourself a bottle of Hoppes No9 PLUS BP solvent & patch lube, open a bag of 100 precut patches, squirt a few squirts of Hoppes into the bag...squish everything around until they're good and damp/slightly wet, squeeze out/pour out any excess and see how it does.
:thumbsup:

 

[White Cloud]

Osage,I admire your cleaning habits but do you honestly keep records of all those days weeks and monthly swabs and oilings.I do the same thing on finishing a stock with Linseed oil put it on and rub daily for a week then put it on and rub every week for a month, then same thing once a month for a year and if I think about it once a year until it won't hold no more.Keep up the good work...Lazy White Cloud :v

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I used Ballistol in my guns and 2 months later found rust in the bores of the rifles I had used it in.

I switched to Birchwood Casey Sheath and never had a problem with rust again.

I too use Sheath! Zonie, just so that you know, Birchwood Casey changed the name to "Barricade"! Next time your in the store, pick-up a can and in fine print it will say "formerly Sheath".

I soak all of the metal parts will Sheath via application with a couple of patches after I spray some down the bore and apply wet patches into the bore too. This causes some extra to be squirted-out of the nipple, thus protecting the entire ignition path during storage. I store muzzle down on some paper towel for a few days to drain any excess that the rifle doesn't need.

At the Range, a simple dry patch and a couple of caps snapped at the firing line make sure that the ignition path is clear before I put the first load in. My Son and I have been doing it this way for years, and both of our rifles have never failed to fire OR show any rust!

Sheath is a great product!

Dave

 

[strongarm]

Make absolutely sure your barrel is dry before wiping down with Bore Butter (Oxyoke). Then I oversaturate the patch and leave a little extra at the muzzle. This helps prevent the barrel from drying out or sweating in between shoots.

 

[scroggwe]

I clean with warm water and a couple of drops of dish soap. Wipe dry with a couple of patches and lube the bore. I've used Hoppes Gun Oil, Breakfree and Rem Oil in the past with no problems. I've never used Ballistol until today. I've heard alot of good things about Ballistol on this forum and decided to try it. I always reswab my bores several times over the week following cleaning. I live on the Texas Gulf Coast and humidity can be a concern here, especially in the summer.

Years ago when I was a Civil War Re-enactor alot of the guys in my unit used Hydrogen Peroxide for cleaning. It worked very well, but you have to make sure to rinse the barrel thoroughly with fresh water. I quit using it because I was concerned what it was doing to my bore. Maybe nothing, but I was uncomfortable using it.

 

[Dillohide]

I used to live in Victoria, that Gulf Coast Humidity can be brutal. Not as bad in North Texas. After soap and hot water I've been using Laurel Mountain Forge Bore Lube to swab my barrels. Seems to work.

 

[Jerry Coffee]

Man, you are right about North Texas humidity. The humidity in the Dallas-Fort Worth part of north Texas especially. My brothers live in Houston and they gripe about how humid Houston is. I tell them to come to Dallas and you will really see what the humidity is like...they just laugh and say I am crazy. The humidity in North Texas is consistantly 60% to 75% in the summer.

The Dallas area is just as hot and humid as Vietnam, 95 degrees in the rain. In Nam, I did not keep my teeth clean but my M16 was spotless.