Cleaning a pinned barrel

[olgreenhead]

If you have a rifle that has a pinned barrel is ok to disasemble it to properly clean the barrel . How many people take there long guns apart ?

 

[bob308]

if it pinned i would not take it apart. if it is a caplock you just get a pice of rubber or plastic hose. put one end on the nipple and drop the other in a can of hot water and run a patch up and down the barrel. it will pull the water in and push it out cleanning the barrel and breach.

that is the way i clean my underhammer and 1841 rifle.

 

[longrifle78]

I never take my barrels off for cleaning, I just swab the bore with patches sprayed with window cleaner until they come out clean then dry it and grease it with deer tallow to prevent rust.

 

[steve stanley]

comes off once a year....more to treat the inside of the stock & remove general yuckiness than to clean the barrel itself....
Steve

 

[Hunter66]

I take the barrels off of all six of mine to clean them and have never had a problem.

 

[Cherokee]

I take mine off once maybe twice a year. Usually its extensive cleaning to be stored awhile.

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you coat the bottom of the barrel, and the barrel channel of the stock with a good water repelling grease or lube, appropriate to the temperatures where you live and shoot, you should be able to clean the gun with the pins left in the stock and barrel. there are cleaning devices made to screw into your nipple hole, or to clamp to the vent so that you can flush the barrel using rubber tubing from a pail or bottle of water and cleaning compound. ( soap and water ! ) That is the " neat " way to do the cleaning. I found out how to tip the gun to the side in my bathtub, and simply pour water down the barrel and then drive a cleaning rod with a patch on a jag down on the water and force it out the vent or nipple flashchannel into the tub. The tub gets ugly, but it clean up afterwards with a little bleach. I do think the window cleaner idea is a good one, but be careful about using cleaners with Ammonia in them. Use them, but then flush with water to get the ammonia off the steel. It is corrosive. But there is no doubt that these cleaners attack Black Powder agressively, and get it out .

If you live or shoot in one of the southern tier states, where summer temperature can be 90 degrees and above for months on end, look at some of the synthetic silicon based lubes now made in the auto trade for high temperature performance. They work will in keeping water out of the barrel channel and protecting the bottom half of the barrel from any corrosion. They also work pretty well for below freezing temperature, when most oil based lubes will harden up. If you live and shoot in so temperature in between all those extremes, you can use a good water pump grease to protect that barrel. I have a 1007 year old mauser that came with a coating of waterpump grease between the stock and the barrel including under the handguard. The exposed portion of the barrel shows all kinds of wear from hitting tree branches and other things, with almost no original blue showing. Where the grease protect the barrel, you can see the original finish on the barrel!

 

[longrifle78]

I have been using nothing but window cleaner to clean my guns with for probably 5 or 6 years and hav never had a problem with rust or corrosion, but I do run plenty of dry patches down the bore then grease it well.

 

[Keppy]

I agree with you bob308. I have a Kentucky 45 and have been cleaning it the same way. It works great. The only time I took it down was when I bought it to look it over good and oil under the barrel.

 

[Mike Brooks]

The only reason I ever take a pinned barrel out is to change the vent liner after it is worn out. This may be 5 to 20 to 100 years depending how often the gun is shot.
If you think you absolutly must take the barrel out to clean it, turn your barrel lugs into hooks so all you have to do is take the tang screw out and slide the barrel forward 1/4" before you can lift it out. That way you never have to push your pins out when you remove your barrel.