Barrel Cleaning...

[Billnpatti]

You likely did not get all traces of water out of your bore after you cleaned it. Next time, give this trick a try. After flushing your barrel with soapy water and rinsing, run several dry patches through your bore to dry it and then give the bore a good spray with WD-40 to remove the last traces of water. Wipe out the WD-40 with a few more dry patches and then swab your bore with Barricade. The WD-40 will remove the final traces of moisture before you oil your bore with Barricade. Any moisture left in your bore can, and most likely will, cause rust to form under the coat of Barricade. The Barricade will just seal any residual moisture in next to the metal where it can cause rust to form. WD-40 is the secret but it is not a rust preventive by itself so follow up with Barricade.

 

[ZUG]

:metoo: I also do as BillnPatti suggests but I use a few drops of dish soap in WARM water. I use a snug fitting patch (5 to 10 of them) and pump the solution many times through my barrel with a change of water/soap once or twice depending on how I feel that day. Then I do a clean water only rinse, dry patch until dry then WD-40 and leave it this way if I am going to shoot the rifle in a week or two. If the rifle will be put up for longer then I run a GOOD oil down the bore & check it in three days.

 

[RonRC]

Hydrogen sulfide H2S reacts quickly in air to form sulfur dioxide, SO2.
When you shoot and get an acidic smell (sour), that is SO2. If you get the rotten egg smell, it is H2S.
With combustion of the powder, I would think that most of the sulfur will be SO2. SO2, as mentioned, reacts to form sulfuric acid.
Also, as mentioned, there are neutralizing compounds in the powder that may neutralize some of the sulfuric acid.
H2S reacts with SO2 to yield water.
So, big deal. The object of the story: get that stuff out of your barrel, including the water.

I put a cleaning patch over a nylon bore brush to clean thoroughly when I get home. At the range, I just use the patches for a preliminary cleaning. There always is residual crud in the barrel even after several swipes with cleaning patches. I can see it with my el cheapo bore scope. After using the patch covered brush and soapy water, the scope says: "Clean!"
Ron

 

[Dewey]

Hydrogen sulfide H2S reacts quickly in air to form sulfur dioxide, SO2.
When you shoot and get an acidic smell (sour), that is SO2. If you get the rotten egg smell, it is H2S.
With combustion of the powder, I would think that most of the sulfur will be SO2. SO2, as mentioned, reacts to form sulfuric acid.
Also, as mentioned, there are neutralizing compounds in the powder that may neutralize some of the sulfuric acid.
H2S reacts with SO2 to yield water.
So, big deal. The object of the story: get that stuff out of your barrel, including the water.

Ron

True, H2S reacts with oxygen to form SO2, but being very familiar with both smells (more so SO2 than H2S, of course!), I think we are smelling a mixture of the two (a little H2S and mostly SO2). NBD, as you said.

H2S reacts with SO2 to yield water. Er ... where did the sulfur go?

Sorry ... taught general chemistry too long ... :surrender:

H2S reacts with oxygen to form SO2 and water. At high temperature or in the presence of catalysts, sulfur dioxide can be made to react with hydrogen sulfide to form elemental sulfur and water. Probably the first reaction is the most common in our case.

I really wonder if the SO2 gas is in the barrel long enough (and with enough water) to form H2SO4. I GOTTA measure the pH of my first wash to see if the residue is acid, basic or neutral !!!!

Then maybe I can talk my former colleagues into letting me use the ion chromatograph to test the wash for anions ... then I would know what we are dealing with here!

The object of the story: get that stuff out of your barrel, including the water. :thumbsup:

 

[Dewey]

You likely did not get all traces of water out of your bore after you cleaned it. Next time, give this trick a try. After flushing your barrel with soapy water and rinsing, run several dry patches through your bore to dry it and then give the bore a good spray with WD-40 to remove the last traces of water. Wipe out the WD-40 with a few more dry patches and then swab your bore with Barricade. The WD-40 will remove the final traces of moisture before you oil your bore with Barricade. Any moisture left in your bore can, and most likely will, cause rust to form under the coat of Barricade. The Barricade will just seal any residual moisture in next to the metal where it can cause rust to form. WD-40 is the secret but it is not a rust preventive by itself so follow up with Barricade.

Yep ... that's my current method! :thumbsup:

Except that I use hot (tap, not boiling) water.

 

[RonRC]

True, H2S reacts with oxygen to form SO2, but being very familiar with both smells (more so SO2 than H2S, of course!), I think we are smelling a mixture of the two (a little H2S and mostly SO2). NBD, as you said.

H2S reacts with SO2 to yield water. Er ... where did the sulfur go?

Sorry ... taught general chemistry too long ... :surrender:

:grin: I didn't give the whole reaction, mainly because I was too lazy to balance the reaction:
2 H2S + SO2 → 3 S + 2 H2O

That is solid sulfur that is produced.
Thanks for noting that omission.
Ron

The object of the story: get that stuff out of your barrel, including the water. :thumbsup: [/quote]

 

[tenngun]

My method also, although I use animal fat wiped along the inside. Many oils yellow and brown. I wondered for a long time how my bore could rust but none on the outside. Then I noted that the can of mink oil, or lard will turn the same color as rust in the bore.

 

[Jim C]

Just wondering why you place emphasis on WARM water. I've always used hot, about 200 degree water. I have to hold the barrel with a towel in one hand while I pump it out and run the dry patches through, but the barrel remains hot enough long enough to ensure that all traces of water have dried. I've never once had a problem with rust in any of my guns.

 

[ZUG]

I feel that the hotter the water the quicker you have to work to dry & oil the barrel before "flash rust" starts . I have tried boiling water, hot tap water, warm water & cold water (all with a bit of dish soap added) and my best cleaning and least amount of "flash rust" comes from using warm water - just my observation :v .

 

[azmntman]

wonder if gg-grampa boiled (or heated) water to clean with or just used regular old water (or cold)? Heard about (and have experienced) flash rust from boiling water. Now I just use kinda warm.

 

[Dewey]

wonder if gg-grampa boiled (or heated) water to clean with or just used regular old water (or cold)? Heard about (and have experienced) flash rust from boiling water. Now I just use kinda warm.

Ned Roberts in "The Muzzle-Loading Cap Lock Rifle" (published in 1940) gives boiling water as the "only right way" of cleaning - "Even when hunting in the wilderness ...".

He was taught this method from an older muzzleloading shooter as a boy, which dates this method to 1875 at least. He got his first caplock rifle that year, when he was 9 years old, as a birthday present from his uncle, who instructed him on how to use and clean it.

He states that the rifle must be dried and oiled (still was using sperm oil then) while the barrel is still warm, saying that those who are "careless" allow the rifle to cool during the process, which "... allows slight rust to form in the bore."

Roberts does say that "with all the good cleaning solvents that we have today (he says that in 1940 they have Hoppe's No. 9 and similar, and he knows of Rig, but uses Safetipaste), he finds using these "equally as effective as the hot water method."

 

[coloradoclyde]

Hoppe's No.9 as good as hot water? :shocked2: :bull:

 

[Dewey]

Hoppe's No.9 as good as hot water? :shocked2: :bull:

Yeah. That struck me as strange, too. But he claimed that the method he used with it (I won't bother to write it all out) worked. Looking at what he did (with brushes and patches), it seems to me like the residue was more physically removed than dissolved.

Just quoting, not using (the Hoppe's method, that is) myself.

My point was that the boiling water method dates to at least the 1870s if not far earlier, and was considered (in 1940) as good as any other method used then.

 

[Dewey]

Or maybe the Safetipaste saved the day, LOL:

Saafetipaste

 

[mooman76]

Hoppe's No.9 as good as hot water? :shocked2: :bull:

I've been using Hopps#9 for years with good results.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Just goes to show ya that what works for one guy doesn't work for the next. :haha:

Great period reference though Dewey.... :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[ZUG]

How true -- that's why you see all different answers even from Ned Roberts himself :haha: . Do what works for you -- enough said :thumbsup: .

 

[Vaino]

Hoppe's #9 was my only cleaner when I was into CFs....but w/ MLers, hot water has replaced it. Why? Don't like to spend money on "stuff" when there is cheaper "stuff" that works better....like hot water. I'm so cheap that I don't even use a tad of soap in the hot water...it's just some more unnecessary "stuff" that has to be rinsed out.

Plain 120 degree treated water has kept the bores of my MLers clean and the Oxyoke 1000 has ensured that they stay rust free for as long as they're stored.....Fred

 

[hanshi]

Long live H2O.

 

[fishmusic]

Bill,

Glad to see your post. After taking my GPR on its maiden voyage today I cleaned and cleaned but didn't use WD-40 before the barricade. I will follow that advice.