Cleaning a black powder revolver

[Wes/Tex]

Never thought that was serious till I tried it and voila, it does work. Wife was less than thrilled and I promised to do it by hand from then on! :haha:

 

[Dave Colborn]

Take em apart and stuff in the diswasher!Reoil reassemble..

I'd almost buy a dishwasher just to clean guns. Put it in the basement and continue to wash dishes by hand.

 

[Billnpatti]

I know folks who have stainless revolvers who do this successfully but I am not sure how well a blued revolver would hold up under this cleaning method. :idunno: Dish washer detergents are really strong and can be corrosive to some metal surfaces. Having said that, if you have been doing this to your revolver and it has not been damaged....... :hmm: well, I can't argue with something that works even if I do have my doubts about recommending it to someone. I am not going to clean my guns this way, it just doesn't sound like a good idea. I'll stick to my way of doing it because I don't mind the work or the mess and I want my guns to look as good as the day they came from the store.

 

[graybeard]

I've been cleaning my 1860 replica Army Colt in the dishwasher for many years. She looks as good as new. I always run a patch with solvent through each chamber and down the barrel a few times. Then into the dishwasher. Make certain the barrel and cylinder are vertical so the water runs into them. This system doesn't work as well with Remingtons. Take the parts out while still hot and spray down with Rem oil or whatever, grease the arbor and reassemble. graybeard

 

[pargent]

How long on the washer cycle and which one ?How does it compare to the 5mins. tops for the old school way ?

 

[tom deinek]

Surely, the dishwasher method requires removing the wooden grips, does'nt it?

 

[bpd303]

Absolutely...however I would never put any firearm in a dishwasher used for dishes. Think lead poisoning.

 

[graybeard]

yep, take the wooden handles off. I just run a regular dishwashing cycle. All those knobs confuse me. As far as lead poisoning goes, I assume any lead runs out with the dirty water. I'm 81 and it hasn't gotten me yet, anyway. Takes me 15 minutes just to field strip the pistol and reassemble. Anyway, I'm just saying what I do and I'm lazy. Works for me.

 

[pargent]

:rotf: Tried all the mod con stuff when I first started with B/P now days it's heat the water in an old billy and strip and clean in camp 5mins tops ,if at home it's quicker because of the elec. jug . Had a club member (now passed ) who showered with his ROA to clean it , dropped it on his foot and broke his toe chipped the bath , slipped over and broke his hip , true story he told the ERT and Police that's how he cleaned his gun because his wife wouldn,t let him use the dishwasher , they didn't charge him but made him do a safety course .

 

[jaxenro]

Kind of reminds me of tossing a cast iron fry pan in a dishwasher

 

[Billnpatti]

Reminds me of putting shampoo and the cat in the commode and closing the lid and giving it a few flushes to bathe the cat. It may work but it sure pisses off the cat. I'm just not sure that putting my nice Remington in the dishwasher will ever be my cleaning method of choice. But, as the man said when he kissed the pig...."To each his own." :hatsoff:

 

[WolfSpring]

I bought my first BP pistol a few days ago and have stripped it down completely, it was nasty. I have wiped down and used hot water and a tiny bit of dish soap but it's still got what looks like rust in the cylinders. Is it safe to use a bore brush on them and clean them like a normal firearm? And is it safe to use a sonic cleaner to clean all the parts minus the grips of course? I bought a Pietta 1851 for $100 and it seems in decent condition minus the cylinders showing some rust spots.

 

[Billnpatti]

If you use a bore brush, be sure that it is an undersized one so that the bristles don't get caught in the bottom of one of your cylinder chambers. Brass bore brushes are notorious for that. Use an undersize bore brush and wrap 0000 steel wool on it and give the chambers a scrubbing with that. You can use a bore cleaner to keep things running smoothly as you clean out the chambers. You will likely have to change your steel wool a couple times before you are done. After using the steel wool, thoroughly wash out your chambers to completely remove the steel wool bits, thoroughly dry (I spray with WD-40 and then thoroughly wipe it out) and then coat with Birchwood-Casey's Barricade.

An excellent overall cleaner is 1:10 mixture of Ballistol in water. Put it in a spray bottle and spray everything well and let it sit for a minute or two than wipe clean. Remove your nipples and put them into a small container such as an empty pill bottle and squirt in enough of the cleaning mixture to completely cover them. Give them a couple good shakes while you are cleaning the rest of your revolver. Then empty them out onto a shop rag and use a tooth brush on them to clean them Spray them again and blow them out with compressed air if you have it or just wipe them out with a pipe cleaner and let them dry. Then before replacing them, put just a tiny dab of shotgun choke grease on the threads. Any anti-seize grease will do the job.

As an added note, some folks add just a bit of Murphy's Oil Soap or Lestoil to the Ballistol/water mixture. I haven't done it yet but it sounds good to me. I'm going to try it when I mix up my next batch. I'm not sure of the exact amount :idunno: but I am going to try a 1:1:10 mix and see how that works :hmm: . Should be good stuff.