Alcohol in your bore?

[hrfunk]

This being New Year's Eve, I will probably put some alcohol somewhere tonight, but I'm new to the idea of swabbing the bore of a Muzzleloadrer with alcohol to remove oil prior to loading. Is this plain old rubbing alcohol that's used for the purpose? (I'm fairly certain the procedure has nothing to do with burbon, but feel free to correct me). Also, is there anything I need to do other than swab the bore with an alcohol saturated patch and some dry patches? Lastly, how do you get the alcohol into/out of the breech area?

Thanks,
HRF

 

[David W.]

You can use 91% isopropyl or denatured alcohol. You can also use PGA, but that is a little costly.

 

[Bill Hall]

To dry the breech area, I let it stand for a while so most of the alcohal will evaporate on its own. Then I pump a dry patch up and down the barrel and listen to the sound of the escaping air. If it makes a sputtering sound, I let it sit a little longer, then pump air into it again with the pumping action until the sound is a constant "ssss". If it's a cap gun, I'll pop off a couple of caps when I get to the range, just to make sure.

When I'm going hunting, I'll remove the nipple during the drying process just to make sure I get alot of air in there. When I'm sure it's completely dry, I'll pop some caps and then load at home, and keep the gun loaded until I shoot at something or go home empty handed. Bill

 

[Bill Hall]

P.S. As already mentioned, the higher percentage alcohols work better, since they dry faster and more completely. Some of those drugstore rubbing alcohols take forever to dry. I use denatured. Bill

 

[woodse guy]

P.S. As already mentioned, the higher percentage alcohols work better, since they dry faster and more completely. Some of those drugstore rubbing alcohols take forever to dry. I use denatured. Bill

Same here in my short ML career that I have had so far.

 

[George]

Remind me why it's necessary to remove the oil from the bore, please.

Spence

 

[David W.]

Remind me why it's necessary to remove the oil from the bore, please.

Spence

The presence of oil will contaminate BP and possibly cause a miss-fire. Then comes removing the nipple to add a few grains of powder in order to set off the charge. Sometimes, even that will not work and will only move the ball a bit down the barrel. When that happens, one must take care to reseat the ball back down or it can cause even more problems, like a bulged barrel. We can all live without that.

 

[necchi]

Remind me why it's necessary to remove the oil from the bore, please.

Oil mixed with BP residue esp when the heat of the blast occurs, turns into a nasty hard goo, that can and does harden fouling the rifling and limiting any form of accuracy.
Tar = Carbon and oil.

To hrfunk;
As said the High percentage rubbing alcohol 90%, or denatured alcohol breaks down the oil.
I'll slosh some back-n-forth in the bore with the nipple plugged, then a couple of saturated patches.
The alcohol evaporates.
Also use the same when cleaning to get extra water out of the bore.
It's like ios-heat in your gas tank, it breaks down water AND mixes with the gas, a catalyst.

 

[StewartLeach]

Funky:

The Bourbon is for medicinal use, and only AFTER you have cleaned and put away your guns.

As for alcohol to remove preservative oils from the bore and ignition passages, I learned quickly this is a very good idea. Rubbing alky (70% or 91%) from the drugstore will help, but best results will come the 100% stuff. I buy it at the paint store, and transfer to a plastic flip top bottle from Midway.

My drill is to run two successive cleaning patches that are really wet with alky up and down several times each, then pour a teaspoon or so down the barrel to let it run out the vent or nipple. Patch dry after a couple of minutes.

White Fox

 

[William O.]

Use an alcohol soaked cleaning patch before you start shooting to remove any excess gun oil from the previous cleaning as well as in between shots to keep the fouling to a minimum and loading easy. You're just swabbing with an alcohol patch between shots, not cleaning.

 

[hrfunk]

Thanks to all for the info. Happy New Year!

HRF

 

[Greenmtnboy]

two cents.
Right before I load my hunting rifle I swab out the nipple drum and barrel with rubbing alcohol,(97% alcohol) patch dry, load, then oil the barrel infront of the ball.
I don't expose it to fast tep changes and I keep my hunting rifles loaded all winter because I don't know what I may be doing.
I clear my flints once a month then clean it and reloade it the same way.
I clear all my percession hunting rifles right before antler picking season, on paper and have never had one perform poorly(all hit point of aim at 100 yrds).
If I do shoot any in a hunting situation the gun gets cleaned throughly then reloaded.
Happy new year back at ya.
I know what I said is redundent to every body elce's response but I feel it is in your best interest to get all oils out of your breach area.
I started doing this in VT back in 1983 at the advise of an ol timer and never looked back.
I never had hang or missfires during the wettest muzzleloader season up der on de border eh, wile my know it all school chums missed deer, miss fires etc..
Lots of venison in my freezer lots of empty excuses in theirs.

 

[bowkill]

budlight wont work so dont try it.... :shocked2:

 

[necchi]

budlight wont work so dont try it.... :shocked2:

It might in a Myroko barrel. :haha:

 

[Joel/Calgary]

... Is this plain old rubbing alcohol that's used for the purpose? (I'm fairly certain the procedure has nothing to do with burbon, but feel free to correct me).

Actually, any type of alcohol - methyl, ethyl or isopropyl - will work for cleaning and/or drying, and the more concentrated the better. Around here, methyl alcohol (a.k.a. methanol) is often labeled as "methyl hydrate" and is common and inexpensive at 100% as thinner, fondue fuel, and gas-line antifreeze. Since I also use it as gas antifreeze and as fuel in low-tech camping stoves and in some D.I.Y. versions of the same, I get it cheap in gallon jugs.

Regards,
Joel

 

[DanChamberlain]

Bob

I caught your drift. It's funny that we "oil" our bore when we load, but we don't want "oil" in our bore when we load. Then, not everyone here knows your history with muzzleloaders and thinks your question is a newbie one.

Truth is, I don't use "oil" in my bores. They stay perfectly rust free. Well...does "bear oil" count?

Dan

 

[Eterry]

The only alcohol that gets near my guns is after they are cleaned and put away I prefer two fingers of Maker's Mark or other appropriate internal lubricant as I stare into the firelight and reflect on the days hunt with family and friends.

My rifles are definately on the wagon !!

Eterry

 

[Darkgael]

My range box has a couple of squeeze bottles of 100% denatured alcohol in it. I use a patch dampened with alcohol between shots.
The 100% stuff dries very rapidly and does not disrupt the loading process. Any kind of "rubbing" alcohol has water in it....that is what takes so long to dry, waiting for the water to evaporate.
Pete

 

[RCB1917]

I've got four Mz loaders two inline, and two percussion. Been shooting BP since 1976. I typically have used a light coating of tc bore (yellow) butter while they are stored in my safe, with no ill effects. I do dry the bores out pretty good first however. And if I don't shoot them for an extended period they come out for an general inspection and a barrel swab out, like my other modern cartridge rifles. I just try to avoid oil in the bores of the Mzldrs's.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

A fellow sent me his barrel to have the vent liner replaced. He said "I never use oil in my bore, only Nature Lube 1000" and I believe him.
Here are the first three patches.