Barrel Blaster Foam

[Sport]

Looking for a faster way to clean my flinter. Who has field tested it? Is it a go or no go?

 

[walruskid1]

great on centerfires for removing copper, haven't tried it on the muzzleloaders. welcome sport.

 

[Sport]

I should really be asking if anyone has used this on thier flinters to save time? The expected response of course is to use hot soapy water in a bucket which I swear by for my percussions. But in the case of my flinter, the barrel is pinned = many many patches and lots and lots of time. The ad says you leave it sit in the barell for 30 or so minutes and then a few patches. Just wondering if this is the case. Probably not.

 

[Russianblood]

I've switched how I clean my flinters from the heavy patch using to plugging the vent hole and filling the barrel with water. Let it sit for a bit, dump it and repeat. After about 3 cycles of this I can have my barrel clean in just a few patches.

The foaming bore cleaner won't make it any faster as you're still going to have to wipe it all out and it won't dissolve the fouling like water will.

 

[jdixon]

Same here - on my pinned barrel guns, plug the touch hole with a toothpick, fill with water. What has been working real well for me is about 5 squirts of Ballistol down the barrel, let that run to the bottom, then fill the barrel with plain water, let that sit, dump it out, 3 - 4 patches and it is clean.

 

[Hoyt]

I wish my guns would clean up so easy. I've got two rifles and a smooth bore and all take bout an hr. each to clean. I'm going to try letting Ballistol soak in the water next time and see if that helps mine.

 

[hawkeye1755]

What did you take? Cold Water or Hot Water
OK a little ice on the Single Malt. :winking:
:hatsoff:

 

[Rebel]

My smoothbore cleans up in about 10-15 minutes. I plug the vent and fill the barrel with water and let it soak until i am finished cleaning the lock and lubing it. I used to use patches but a friend sent me a bag of tow and that stuff works great on the smoothbore barrel. A wad of tow, a few passes with it down the bore on the tow worm, a couple dry patches and then one with WD-40 on it and i'm done. I check it over the next couple of days and never find any sign of rust.

 

[Toomuch_36]

I wish my guns would clean up so easy. I've got two rifles and a smooth bore and all take bout an hr. each to clean. I'm going to try letting Ballistol soak in the water next time and see if that helps mine.

Try this, I use a syphen tube flusher that threads in in place of the touch hole liner.

Clean with room temp. water and solvent (usually 2 or 3 patches to clean).
Rinse with HOT water till barrel is very hot to hold on to.
Dry thourghly and oil liberaly, and set aside to cool while you clean the lock.
As the barrel cools excess oil will be drawn back into the metal.

The entire process takes about 10 to 15 min.

Toomuch
...........
Shoot Flint

 

[Sport]

Russinblood, thanks. I should have thought of that (slap on the head). I'll be doing that for a while and see if it cuts down the number of strokes with the ramrod. It makes you think twice before you decide to go out and shoot when you know you have to come home and work the ramrod the other half day at the bench.

 

[Sport]

TooMuch. I'be been thinking about trying one of those. I think I saw them in Cabela's but not sure. Are you pleased with yours? Where did you get yours? Does it leak much at the touch hole? If this isn't too messy, this would be the way to go and could save a lot of time. Initially, I thought they would be messy---dripping water all down the stock and hence have stayed away from the thing. I'm tempted to try this if I can get my flinter cleaning down to my perc cleaning time.

I usually don't mind cleaning which is part of the whole deal, but the flinter has become a bit much for frequent shooting. Sport

 

[paulvallandigham]

wADR, using hot water just encourages surface rusting as the metal cools while waiting for that oil. Clean and rinse with cold or tepid water, nothing above room temperature. After I dry my barrel, I run a patch with wonderlube on it, down the barrel up and back a couple of times, Then I turn it over, and lube it some more and run it down the barrel again. I then am sure I have covered all surfaces with lube. I don't use oil anymore. Oil will flow to the bottom when I stand my gun up in the vault, and either leak out of the vent into the stock, or conjeal in the breech area of the gun, requiring a soaking with alcohol to get it out before I can shoot again. It is the water, and soap that is the solvent. Hot water just makes your hands feel warm!

 

[Bob J]

Same here - on my pinned barrel guns, plug the touch hole with a toothpick, fill with water. What has been working real well for me is about 5 squirts of Ballistol down the barrel, let that run to the bottom, then fill the barrel with plain water, let that sit, dump it out, 3 - 4 patches and it is clean.

I've had the same problem Sport shares in that the pinned-barrel flinter takes a lot longer to clean than hooked-breech rifles where the barrel can be plunged into a tub of soapy water. I have ordered some hemp tow after reading how well folks on the 'Forum say it works.

Question; When filling a barrel with water and letting it sit, How do you keep water from leaking past the toothpick in the touchhole?

 

[Rebel]

I put the toothpick in my mouth for a bit and get it wet so it will swell some when i put it in the vent hole. I tap it in to seat it good. Hardly any water comes through it.

 

[roundball]

"...and see if it cuts down the number of strokes with the ramrod. It makes you think twice before you decide to go out and shoot when you know you have to come home and work the ramrod the other half day at the bench..."

FWIW, after it's all said and done, I spend about 45 minutes to an hour completely cleaning a flintlock from start to finish...lock, stock, barrel...but it doesn't involve a lot of ramrod work...the bore is actually the simplist and quickest part of the whole process and I spend more time cleaning the lock than I do the bore.

I believe the type & anmount of lube used, in addition to the type and granulation of powder used, makes a huge difference in the amount of fouling and how easy it is to keep a bore clean during and after a shoot. (Goex with Natural Lube or Hoppes)

I don't have to wipe between shots during a range session, then for the drive home I clean off the whole lock area with an alcohol rag, and run a damp patch, dry patch, and lubed patch down bore.

Once home, I use a couple hot soapy water patches, couple dozen brush strokes, hot water rinse...dry and lube.

 

[Toomuch_36]

No, they do not leak. The clamp on jobs have a very bad leaking problem however and are a "pain" to mess with. The ones I use are made at the ML shop where I got my training and are available in a variety of thread sizes to match different manufactures.

Toomuch
..........
Shoot Flint

 

[Toomuch_36]

wADR, using hot water just encourages surface rusting as the metal cools while waiting for that oil. Clean and rinse with cold or tepid water, nothing above room temperature. After I dry my barrel, I run a patch with wonderlube on it, down the barrel up and back a couple of times, Then I turn it over, and lube it some more and run it down the barrel again. I then am sure I have covered all surfaces with lube. I don't use oil anymore. Oil will flow to the bottom when I stand my gun up in the vault, and either leak out of the vent into the stock, or conjeal in the breech area of the gun, requiring a soaking with alcohol to get it out before I can shoot again. It is the water, and soap that is the solvent. Hot water just makes your hands feel warm!

The cleaning is done with room temp water. It is only the rinse that you use the HOT water. By using the syphen tube you are drawing the HOT water up inside the barrel and heating it from the inside out. By the time your hand feels the hot coming through the barrel the metal is throughly heated. You then dry the barrel with a dry cleaning patch and oil very liberaly (WHILE THE BARREL IS STILL HOT), as the barrel cools the oil will be drawn back into the steel. After the barrel has cooled completely you take another dry patch to remove any excess (if there is any), then wipe the external surfaces with a lightly oiled patch and you're done. There will be no sloppy pools of oil to run out the touch hole and smear over the stock. By replacing the oil in the metal in this way each time the barrel "will not rust" the way it often does by merely using a surface lube (of any type)!!!

Toomuch
...........
Shoot Flint

 

[roundball]

My guess is the apparent the lack of success different people have using steaming hot soapy water and hot water rinse may be an end user process problem, not a water temperature problem...been cleaning muzzleloaders with steaming hot soapy water and hot water rinse for 15+ years...works perfectly...bores still look like factory new today
:hatsoff:

 

[Bob J]

I put the toothpick in my mouth for a bit and get it wet so it will swell some when i put it in the vent hole. I tap it in to seat it good. Hardly any water comes through it.

Thanks, I might try that and tie a rag around the wrist to absorb any seepage that might occur.

 

[cptleo1]

Ballistol and water is the hot ticket.

Take some to the range with you.

I keep 6-8 Oz in a squirt bottle.

When you are done shooting

squirt a few Oz down the bbl

(Less is better here- the sloshing is what you are after at this point)

put your finger over the hole and slosh

it around for 30 seconds, pour it out.

This gets a bunch out and keeps whats left soft

so it cleans easier at the house.

I think the real time savings is in the tecnique

not the chemical.

Soak the bbl while you clean the lock.

Clean the bbl while the lock dries.

Lube all the parts with strait Ballistol

Assemble

Inspect

Done