After shooting -- cleaning. There's the rub!

[shermo]

After shooting comes Cleaning -- and there's the rub!

Way back in the 1970s I built a .45 caliber flintlock, Pennsylvania rifle. Took me a year to make it, under tutoring from a master builder, but I finally got it finished. It's probably rather ugly, but I think it's beautiful.

Well, me and my friend shot it a few times. He made nearly one-hole groups. I was sometimes able to hit the paper. But it was the cleaning that I found discouraging. I figured that with practice I could improve my shooting, but I was SOOOO reluctant to take it to the range, and then have to clean it.

Don't get me wrong. I am a long-time blackpowder shooter, with caplock rifles, muskets, and pistols, and never found the cleanup to be any problem. Take her apart, scrub the barrel with hot soapy water, wipe down the lock and stuff, lightly oil. 15 minutes, max.

But the flintlock! By the time I got the pins driven out, the tang and lock screws removed, took the lock apart..... For some reason, the flinter seemed MUCH harder to clean. I got so discouraged that I put it away and haven't shot it since.

But this forum has reignited my interest, and I am thinking of taking it up again. Could some of you give me a pep talk, or at least a few pointers as to how the cleanup might be made less difficult?

Or it it that you guys just got used to it>

Shermo

 

[jamesthomas]

First ya don't have to take the lock apart, just spray it down with some carb. cleaner, it gets out all the dirt and drys fast. and you also don't have to take the pins out and remove the barrel, use your cleaning jag and patches and some water with a drop or two of dishwashing liquid, then run a patch or two up and down a few times to get out the fouling then using 2 or 3 more cleaning patches dry the barrel repeat if ya need to. I follow this up with an alchol patch then Rem-oil. If ya use Hoppe's blackpowder lube the clean up is a lot easier.

 

[bioprof]

Most guys that I've heard from on this forum and others don't take the barrel out of the stock to clean them. With those long, thin forestocks, you run the risk of damaging the wood.

There's a device that you can buy that you can clamp over the touch hole after removing the lock and has tubing that you can put in a bucket of soapy water. You can then pump soapy water through the tubing and into the barrel just by running a patch up and down the barrel with your ramrod. It works pretty slick and you don't run the risk of ruining the stock finish with cleaning solution. For some reason, I can't remember where I bought mine though. Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[bioprof]

Didn't take me long to find it. Track of the Wolf sells them. They call it a flint flush cleaning tool.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I wouldn't shoot mine either if I had to go through all that. I have owned three pinned stocks over the years and have removed a barrel once. Never on my current flint rifle (made in 2005). I remove the lock and wipe it off with a alcohol patch, then a dry one and lightly oil the contact points.

I run a soapy water (room temp) damp patch with the lock still off and with the m/l lying on a table slightly muzzle down and a junk towel under the vent. Then another wet patch, then swap the jag off and scrape the breech (or grind a wet patch in ahead of a tow worm). From there it's alternate dry and soapy water damp patches. When they are clean I run a 91% alcohol patch, let it sit a minute and a patch with BC Barricade on it. Then I wipe the barrel & furniture with that patch.

20 minutes?

If it is to sit a length of times I run another Barricade patch the mnest day and wipe everything down again.

 

[rancher]

I don't really mind cleaning my flintlock. In fact it's like bonding time with my gun. :grin: Plus the warm water gets most of it out pretty easily.

 

[justtim]

I've got several guns that the barrels have never been out of. Why would you ? As for the lock, I might take it out once or twice a year if used a lot. If it's inlet properly into the wood nothing should get inside it. If not, smear a bit of RTV silicone on the lock bolster before installing it. That will seal it up. If it is a hunting gun and I get caught out in a rain, I'll pull the lock and give it a good cleaning . One thing I have noticed is guys using too thin a cleaning patch and it seems to take forever to clean. I like pieces of old sweatshirts for patches. Gets down into the rifling good.. I tried one of the clamp on cleaning fixtures. More problems that it was worth. I do sometimes drive a toothpick into the touch-hole and fill the bore with cleaner and let it soak a while. Pour it out and start cleaning.

 

[roundball]

Agree...for me its just part of the hobby activity...whether I shoot it once to kill a deer or 50 times at a range session, it gets a complete cleaning and goes back in the case showroom ready every time.

I pull the lock

Hot soapy water for the bore/breech/vent, then dry & lube;

Hot soapy water for the lock...hammer jaw/screw/flint/leather cleaned & dried...flush the lock internals with aersol WD40, blow off with compressed air;

Frizzen & frizzen screw out, all pivot points cleaned/dried/lubed with shooters choice grease.

Quick polish of the brass, wipe down the entire rifle with an oily rag and case it muzzle down;

I might not shoot that particular one again for weeks/months and I never want to worry about it again...other's mileage may vary of course.

 

[hanshi]

As the others have said you don't have to remove the barrel. The only thing you need to remove is the lock so it can be wiped clean, dried and oiled. You don't even have to remove the vent liner. Yep, cleaning is drudgery; but we like to eat, we just don't like to wash the dishes.

 

[Snow on the Roof]

I first wipe a mix of deer tallow and vegetable oil on the stock, barrel and all external metal. I the plug the vent with a wooden tooth pick. Urban pour hot, soapy water down the bore and let it stad for 10 minutes. After which I dump the water out and use several patches until the bore is clean and dry. Then using a wet patch clean the external parts of the lock the oil it well. Follow up with ballistol down the bore and rub down the exterior with a dry soft cloth. I use the tallow mix in part tomprotect the wood from water spillage during cleaning.

Snow

 

[shermo]

I am very impressed by the number of people who so quickly responded to my post! And I learned A LOT.

The most important thing I learned is that I not only don't have to, I actually should NOT remove the pinned barrel from the stock. That was news to me, but very welcome news. Yes, I feared getting water down between the stock and the barrel, and yes I feared damaging the thin wood of the forestock. But I have always disassembled all my caplocks to clean them, and nobody had ever told me it was different for a flinter.

That one piece of info is priceless to me! Now I can shoot my rifle without dreading the cleanup. Heck, if I can do it the way several responders have stated, it will be a piece of cake. I don't mind taking the lock apart; it's not very different from a caplock.

Thanks again, and may I say that this is by all odds the BEST forum I have ever joined!

Sherm

 

[Many Klatch]

Cleaning flintlocks is fairly simple. Lots of good ideas here. I plug the touchhole with a toothpick hammered in then stand the gun upright and fill the barrel with hot soapy water, I like **** and Span but other soaps will work. Pour out the water run a patch, fill with water, repeat. It takes about 4 to 10 patches before it finally comes clean. I take the lock out each time and wash it off as well. I blow out the excess water and then oil the inside of the barrel and lock with oil. I use a mix of 50% two stroke motor oil and 50% kerosene. Wipe down the outside of the barrel with the same oily rag and then I'm done til next time. Total time elapsed 15 to 20 minutes.

Once in every blue moon I will totally disassemble the lock, and make sure everything is OK.

Many Klatch

 

[paulvallandigham]

As a part of routine maintenance, the screws on the inside of the lock should be checked, often, to make sure they are not working loose. :thumbsup:

 

[hanshi]

Can't recall if it was mentioned but it's not a bad idea to remove the barrel at least once to coat the bottom of the barrel with a rust preventative and thoroughly treat the barrel CHANNEL with some sort of sealant. I used True-Oil on my stock's barrel channel.

 

[tg]

I would go along with the leave the barrel on train of thought and the flush kits are not needed, pluging the vent ansd letting some ater of your favoruite solution sit for a apell than wiping with clean damp patches and oiling when dry/clean should only take abput 15 minutes with a fliter of caplock think many use a lot of gadgets and spend a lot of time and probably have a barrel no leaner than those of us who use the more simple less complicated methods I have had a breechplug removed from a a barrel after 8 years of shooting when changing barrels to a different bore size and cleaning as mentioned with no flush ot barrel removal and it looked fine, MLing is so simple that many manufcatures have to work hard to come up with stuff we NEED to make everything in our hobby work OK, just some thoughts from the common sense side of the fence.The choice of how many gadgets to get wrapped up in is a personal one, just consider how folks got along without them for 300 years :shocked2: and we will,.be told that due to the lack of all the goodied that their guns did not last very long though some from the mid 1700 were converted to caplock 80+ years later, then old KISS concept is a sound one

 

[ohio ramrod]

When it comes to cleaning flint locks my son said it all. "Leave it to dad to find a hobby that takes you 1/2 hour to do and four hours to clean up after!" :idunno: :idunno:

 

[Dphar]

After shooting comes Cleaning -- and there's the rub!

Way back in the 1970s I built a .45 caliber flintlock, Pennsylvania rifle. Took me a year to make it, under tutoring from a master builder, but I finally got it finished. It's probably rather ugly, but I think it's beautiful.

Well, me and my friend shot it a few times. He made nearly one-hole groups. I was sometimes able to hit the paper. But it was the cleaning that I found discouraging. I figured that with practice I could improve my shooting, but I was SOOOO reluctant to take it to the range, and then have to clean it.

Don't get me wrong. I am a long-time blackpowder shooter, with caplock rifles, muskets, and pistols, and never found the cleanup to be any problem. Take her apart, scrub the barrel with hot soapy water, wipe down the lock and stuff, lightly oil. 15 minutes, max.

But the flintlock! By the time I got the pins driven out, the tang and lock screws removed, took the lock apart..... For some reason, the flinter seemed MUCH harder to clean. I got so discouraged that I put it away and haven't shot it since.

But this forum has reignited my interest, and I am thinking of taking it up again. Could some of you give me a pep talk, or at least a few pointers as to how the cleanup might be made less difficult?

Or it it that you guys just got used to it>

Shermo

Barrels without a hooked breech are not intended to be removed except now an then
Pull the lock, plug the vent with a toothpick or other piece of wood. Pour in enough water to fill the barrel 4-6" deep. Put thumb over the muzzle and upend a few times to stir the water in the bore.

Dump and wipe with a fairly loose wet patch or bore brush then repeat the water thing. Do this a couple more times then 4-5 wet patches that are pretty tight in the bore. Then dry and oil the bore set the rifle muzzle down.
Water is the key is dissolves the elements of the powder that will cause corrosion and washes them away. That which remains is removed with the wet patches.
Wipe the lock off, maybe use a wet patch and a toothpick or q-tip to clean the nooks and crannies. Dry and oil
Reinstall the lock and store muzzle down over night.
Hot soapy water is not needed and may even promote rust. Warm or tepid water with no soap is fine for BP fouling.

Any of my FLs will be easier to clean than an AR-15 done right.

Dan

 

[roundball]

You must have been doing something wrong if you got rust in your barrels.

I've used hot soapy water and a hot water rinse for almost 20 years and it doesn't cause rust problems in any of my barrels...if it did I wouldn't continue to use it.

 

[tg]

The "flash rust" syndrome is an intersting one as some have got it constantly to the point of never using hot water again and others have used hot water for years with no problem, I find cold water works well for me so I do not bother with hot water, I have often wonderd if the various water chemistry around the country may play a hand in this phenomenon, I cannot imagine that such a large number of people on either side are doing somethimg wrong or that different in their procedure

 

[Bob J]

I'll second Bioprof's Flintlock EZ Flush kit as a great way to go! My experience was similar to yours in that I found pinned-barrelled fullstock flintlocks difficult to clean compared to my hooked breech percussion halfstocks...almost made me give up on flintlocks :shocked2: :shake:
The toothpick-thru-the-touchhole method never worked well for me, either. Then Birddog6, of this forum, posted instructions AND photos for using the EZ flush kit - I use it with water/Ballistol mixture, then dry barrel thoroughly, then finish with either aerosol OR straight Ballistol. I also take the lock off (not apart), remove flint, and scrub with dish detergent, hot water, and toothbrush - dry - and spray with Ballistol, wiping off excess. After a time or two, you will find this method as quick AND effective as the old way with the percussions in the hot soapy water was. :hatsoff: