Barrel cleaning

[Gatorpsd]

I've just got into muzzleloading. I have picked up a T/C hawken .50 and a new englander .50. My barrels a very clean. My buddy has have a T/C hawken .54 for years. Last time we were out the rifle wouldn't fire. I took it home. used a brush with warm water. Then some hopps solvent. Back to warm water. I can't run a patch and have it come out perfectly clean. Should i expect some black on my patches no matter how much I clean?

 

[cynthialee]

you should be able to get it clean enough to have your last patches come out clean

Take it down and scrub it more. What is your cleaning regimine? Run us through your exact system.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Don't use a brush, they can become stuck. Take the barrel out of the stock and put the breech end in soapy water then using the ramrod with a patch on the jag pump up and down to flush out the breech end. Use patches to clean the bore until it comes clean. You should not have any black.

 

[cynthialee]

Don't use a brush, they can become stuck. Take the barrel out of the stock and put the breech end in soapy water then using the ramrod with a patch on the jag pump up and down to flush out the breech end. Use patches to clean the bore until it comes clean. You should not have any black.

worth repeteing and highlighting

 

[Black Jack]

At times I have found a brush useful. The caution is, if using a brush, use one with nylon bristles vs. metal bristles. The bronze brushes can indeed get stuck because the bristles, being less flexible, will not reverse direction on the upstroke. But the pumping action with water has always taken care of 99.9% of the cleansing.

 

[RedFeather]

Brushes were discussed a while back here. Track of the Wolf has brushes with the best shanks. Those used for smokeless guns often have thin shanks that can strip/break. I only used a wire brush when I came across a barrel that was rusted,etc. Even then you have to be careful to get one well undersized.

 

[nmdd]

After you clean the barrel with soap and water, try running a couple of patches dampened with alcohol down the barrel.

 

[Billnpatti]

Remove the barrel from the stock and remove the nipple. Then immerse the breach into a bucket of warm soapy water. Use an undersized jag with a piece of 3M scouring pad on it like a patch. Use this to scrub out all of the crud. Alternately, you can use some 0000 steel wool wrapped around a plastic bore brush to scrub the bore. After scrubbing the bore thoroughly and rinsing with clean water, run some clean patches down the bore to see if it is clean. The first couple of patches may come out dirty but after that, if the bore is really clean, the patches will come out clean. These patches should have dried the bore but there is always a tiny bit of residual moisture in there. So, spray the bore with WD-40 to remove the residual water and then run some patches through the bore to remove the WD-40. Follow this with a patch with a good protective oil such as Birchwood-Casey's Barricade. I have revived some pretty bad looking bores with this technique. But, one I had to de-breach to get the packed in hard crud out. I don't recommend de-breaching. If it comes to that, you might want to consider having it done by a qualified gunsmith. You can really screw up a barrel trying to remove the breach plug if you don't have the proper tools and knowlege to do the job.

 

[tenngun]

I have track of the wolf brushs but only use them if I do lots of heavy shooting or shot on a trek and had to do some field cleaning, then used the brush when I got home. Never had one stick. All in all follow Riflemans advice pull your barrel put one end in bucket swab until clean, dry and oil. You may shoot for the rest of your life and never have to use a brush.Bp is a pia,its stinky,rust every thing it touchs, all and all it sucks except for 1 thing... its lots of fun and cleaning after shooting is just another way to play with your gun :wink:

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

Black powder is coated with graphite to prevent ignition from static electicity. But it also leaves residue like someone took a number 2 lead pencil and marked up the inside of your barrel.

You can, if you wish, keep cleaning your barrel until it is all gone but you are wasting your time. Graphite is not corrosive. This only applies to real black powder not to substitutes. If you are using the substitutes you need to get all that crude that it leaves in there out quick as you can.

 

[SwanShot]

I'm a noob too, and I come from centerfire competition shooting where bore cleaning is a ritualized procedure.
I was taught to use the above mentioned method of nipple out and start pumping. Works a treat. The thing I have most trouble getting out is the lube. If it refuses to come I use hot water and extra detergent.
But it still feels all wrong to be pouring water down a barrel. :shocked2:

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

Alcohol does a good job of cleaning the wax based lubes.

 

[George T.]

Water will not hurt the new guns in face when the primers had salt it was common. I really do not get all torn up over a gray patch. If I have gone thru the cleaning process described here I just oil her up and come back a few days later and re oil it. If you use PB ot Kroil it will losen the stubborn stuff. Geo. T.

 

[Lamonta]

I don't find a good reason to ever take the nipple out. Don't you want to clean that out also? My wise father's rule was, "f___ around with it long enough and you'll break it." I apply that to nipple and breech threads, I check mine about once per year, reapply the gray stuff - tighten it back down. In fact, I pull the barrel from the stock about that often and more frequently run 1/8 rubber hose from the nipple to my cleaning water container. That reduces the amount of cleaning fluid down to several ounces and keeps water off of the outside of the barrel and the stock. I also presoak it by putting a round toothpick in the nipple - dump some fluid in there - swish it around, let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes. During that time period I apply a little alcohol -internally - usually a single malt Scotch.

 

[Cowboy2]

Give this stuff a try, but use it sparingly. I used it for a year on my GPR with a jag, as opposed to the recommended patch around a brush, and I had to move up patch sizes for shooting. Now, that may not be the cleaner's fault, supposedly GPRs are notorious for shooting in after several hundred rounds, and going up .005th in patch size after that much use might not be unusual (though it seems a bit much to me). [But then, I got a new GM barrel a while back in .50, and right off the bat I was using .495 balls and .020 patches, so maybe I patch them a bit tighter than most.] Still, whether it was the cause or not, I get the feeling its a little more aggressive than one might thing. That said, it cleans things out very, very, well. I think its perfectly safe to use, I just wouldn't employ it the way I did any more than I had to. On a really neglected or rough barrel like you describe, it'd be the first thing I tried.

 

[Danny Ross]

I don't know why it seems a lot of the posts on here some say to remove the nipple then pump the water up and down the barrel. If you pump at first with the nipple on for about 10 strokes or so, it flushes out the nipple, then remove the nipple and run your jag and patch up and down the barrel. One gun maker I know uses Hoppe's #9 cleaning solvent in his barrels. If what ever is in there isn't coming out when you have dry patched, maybe saturate a large patch with the Hoppe's run it up and down the bore re saturate and and run it up and down again to soak the inside of the barrel, let it set for a while then go back with a brush scrub it and then reclean with water. DANNY

 

[Little Wattsy]

I don't know why it seems a lot of the posts on here some say to remove the nipple then pump the water up and down the barrel. If you pump at first with the nipple on for about 10 strokes or so, it flushes out the nipple, then remove the nipple and run your jag and patch up and down the barrel. One gun maker I know uses Hoppe's #9 cleaning solvent in his barrels. If what ever is in there isn't coming out when you have dry patched, maybe saturate a large patch with the Hoppe's run it up and down the bore re saturate and and run it up and down again to soak the inside of the barrel, let it set for a while then go back with a brush scrub it and then reclean with water. DANNY

Perxactly!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Billnpatti]

It is obvious from the many posts that there is more than one way to skin a cat. But when it comes down to it, nothing, and I mean nothing, is better or cheaper than good old hot soapy water. Some will argue with whether it ought to be hot or cold. I prefer hot. Not scalding, but about as hot as you might be able to stand to use to wash your hands. Unless your bore is suffering from years of neglect and is full of crud and rust, the good old hot soapy water treatment will get it clean. The crudy and rusted barrel must be treated accordingly. It will all depend on the actual condition of the bore. Sometimes the soapy water and elbow grease treatment will be sufficient. Often, you may have to use a bit of one of the 3M pads or some steel wool on an old bore brush along with your soapy water to scrub out the crud. But if you start with a clean bore and are cleaning up after a day of shooting, there ain't nothing better than hot soapy water to "get 'er done". Next time you are tempted to try one of those bottled "miracle cleaners", just remember, they will not do a better job than hot soapy water and usually not as good a job as hot soapy water and they will cost a whole bunch more.

So, let me say in summation....What is the best and cheapest black powder cleaner available? Good old hot soapy water. :thumbsup:

Will someone help me down off this soap box? :haha:

 

[M. De Land]

Shoot, your doing fine, no reason to come down yet! :rotf: Also, I like the way it gets my hands clean after a long day at the range. Every thing I touch turns black and of course I always got to scratch my nose some time during the day with those hands. Funny no one ever tells me about the black smudges on my mug and I have to see them after I get home. MD

 

[btech]

I purchased a used Zouave 58 caliber and used every method outlined in this post to clean it. Patches still came out dirty. I finally purchased an 18" bore light so I could see down the barrel. The breach plug of my rifle is semispherical and had not been properly cleaned by the previous owner. Bore brushes are designed to clean at 90 degrees, not 180 degrees. So no matter how many times I "pumped" detergent water up and down the barrel it wasn't touching the problem. I finally wrapped patches around the top of my cleaning lug and about half a bag of patches later it was clean.