Best product to clean neglected Thompson Center Hawken 50 Cal

[Larry Hughes]

Best product to clean a severely neglected 50 Cal Hawken

 

[French Colonial]

Best product to clean a severely neglected 50 Cal Hawken

Your going to get a lot of answers based on supposition because others do not know what the issue is.

Is it the wood, is it the metal, inside the bore, just the finish.....

I am going to ASSUME your just worried about the bore (it's just a TC) and recommend a cheap bore scope from Amazon some evaporust and some scotchbrite pads and lots of elbow grease.

 

[ChuckJonesWagon]

The thing about "bad bore's" is you never know until you clean 'em up and shoot them. You could have one ugly looking bore after using scotchbrite\steel wool\etc and it will still shoot great. OTOH....you know the opposite could be as well.

But work to smooth it up....then to the range!

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Even if some rust on the blued exterior piece, that Frontier 'Big 45' monel cleaning pad is the bomb! It removes rust without removing a blued or browned finish. Needless to say, some wrapped around a brush is awesome in the bore too!

See here: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/big-45-frontier-metal-cleaning-pads.167852/

 

[LME]

The thing about "bad bore's" is you never know until you clean 'em up and shoot them. You could have one ugly looking bore after using scotchbrite\steel wool\etc and it will still shoot great. OTOH....you know the opposite could be as well.

But work to smooth it up....then to the range!

Good information! Now was that hard?

 

[Grenadier1758]

The first few passes can be done with soapy water to get the dirt out. Then advance to the more aggressive cleaners to attack rust to finish with the bore clearing Scotch Brite pads or steel wool.

You may never get the pits out, but the gun will be shootable.

 

[Des52]

I just got a CVA plainsman in a trade with a trashed bore, and a few hundred strokes with some polishing compound on a under size jag with a small square of green scratch pad. The bore still looks like manure but it shoots good. I really was thinking about boring it smooth and still mite but it is usable as is. Metal can be cleaned up with some hoppes and 0000 steel wool.

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

I tell you ... buy these $6 cleaner pads and you'll never use steel wool again. In fact, I NEVER use steel wood in my machine shop or for any wood work. (Note the Big45 cleaner is for metal only).