Cleaning after one or two shots

[Homesteader]

(As is so often the case, I'm not sure where to post this. Please bear with me...)

It's 1868 and I've headed west with a couple of 1860 Colt Army revolvers. A rabid dog or something threatens me or my family, and I use two shots to dispatch it.

So, do I then strip the revolver down with the remaining loads intact to clean just what I've fired off, do I fire the remaining rounds to empty the entire cylinder before cleaning, or is there a third option?

Let's pretend there's no immediate threat from brigands, tribes, or whatever, and the campfire is warm and inviting. Just curious what y'all think.

 

[bingo1952]

Wild Bill Hickock used to empty his every day and reload. For the average homesteader a lot would depend on the reletive humidity. If it is a dry climate you can get away with it for a few days if wanting to save powder and lead. If it is damp you better clean it or it will rust. I wouldn't clean a loaded cylinder even uncapped, especially around a campfire.

 

[mukluk]

If it were me, I'd clean the barrel out, reload the two fired chambers and wipe the outside of the cylinder to remove the fouling exposed to the air. My thinking is so long as you don't get any appreciable amout of water/humidity in the fired chambers, they shouldn't rust once sealed with a new charge of black and ball.

 

[Don]

I'm with Mukluk. You could easily clean the colt barrel without effecting the loaded cylinders. I'd wipe the fired chambers with a dry patch as best I could as well as the nipple areas and the outside of the gun and reload.

Don

 

[Dphar]

(As is so often the case, I'm not sure where to post this. Please bear with me...)

It's 1868 and I've headed west with a couple of 1860 Colt Army revolvers. A rabid dog or something threatens me or my family, and I use two shots to dispatch it.

So, do I then strip the revolver down with the remaining loads intact to clean just what I've fired off, do I fire the remaining rounds to empty the entire cylinder before cleaning, or is there a third option?

Let's pretend there's no immediate threat from brigands, tribes, or whatever, and the campfire is warm and inviting. Just curious what y'all think.

You gotta clean it right.
If you leave it dirty it will collect moisture and you will have a miss fire sometime in the future. Powder/cap fouling is the cause of flint and percussion firearms "drawing moisture".
If the caps are potassium chlorate and the likely are they will rust/attack the nipples and surrounding area rapidly, much worse the BP fouling.
Tough call but if you want it to work you got to shoot it out by night fall at least and clean it with water.
If you can afford a pair of revolvers you likely have enough ammunition to allow this.
For reliability they need to be shot every couple of days anyway. As stated Hickok shot one revolver and cleaned, reloaded then shot the other etc.
Dan

 

[buttonbuck]

shoot a mess of dinner with the other 4 rounds, then clean and reload with lard from the critters.

 

[Many Klatch]

Since it is a Colt you can just pull the wedge and take the barrel off. Clean the barrel and oil it. Pull the cylinder. Wipe out the two dirty tubes with a lick and promise. Oil the cylinder rod. Reassemble. Load the two empty cylinders. I assume that one tube was already left unloaded for the hammer to rest on. So now you have a five-shooter again.

When you finally get to civilization in a week or so; shoot out all the the ball and clean it well and then reload.

Many Klatch

 

[Freedom]

Long story but it is on Topic...I lived in WY at the time so it may not apply to everyone but it rained there plenty. And it gets to -30 in the winter.

Used to carry C&B 44 Colt Rep. under the seat of my car..when I saw something I wanted to shoot, I shot, reloaded and put the pistol back in it's leather holster.
I had on several occasions, very heavily coated the pistol with Bore Butter and holstered it so the holster was well oiled with Non Petrolium oils.

I very seldom ever cleaned it but I did smear it with the "soft-tube" BoreButter like someone gave it to me. I never worried about the old pistol and it always fired when I needed it..

Shortly after I moved from WY the old Subaru gave up the fight and I did the classic Redneck thing...Removed the tires and put her on cynder Blocks in the pasture and forgot about her.

2 YEARS later, A friend of mine in need of a car asked if he could have it if he got it running. Sure I said, but the drivers window has been broke out for a few years so it's a real mess inside!

He got it running and was cleaning the car out when he found the pistol still under the seat. He brought it into the house and said "look what I found. "Whoa! I forgot all about that old pistol"

I pulled it from its holster and NO/None/Nawda,oz. of rust on the pistol. The wood grips were a little dry and weathered.

Took a look at it and it had soft ash in the barrel, 2 fired cylinders and 4 loaded rounds still in it. I pulled the wedge and ran a dry mop down the barrel, the ash just powdered and made a dust cloud.. leaving the barrel shiney and clean.

Said "wonder if she shoots?" stepped out on the back deck and BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM all four cylinders fired like they had been loaded just then.

So I highly doubt that the old timers worried too much about a couple shots fired,...just reload, cap, wipe down with a lard stained rag and holster. :thumbsup:

I can already here all the guys spouting off about "chapstick" lube, how rust is forming "under"?? the layer of "chapstick and how great Hoppe's is and how real petrolium oil is the best lubricant/preservative.

But this is a TRUE story and I have nothing to gain by lieing to you all.

 

[DanChamberlain]

I'm thinking Freedom has the answer. Hickock was a "gunfighter." Most settlers were...well settlers. 90% of them didn't have a pistol in the first place, relying on a shotgun for most of their chores. But...to stay on topic, my story is similar.

Many years back I bought a used Lyman 58 which was actually much more closely aligned with the Remington Beals than a true 58. I lived in Wisconsin which has fair humidity. I shot and cleaned, shot and cleaned and then one day, I decided to shoot and not clean and watch the gun every day to see if it was developing a problem.

Back then, crisco (animal fat shortening) was its only pre-shoot lube. Two weeks later, I started to see a fleck or so and it got detail stripped and cleaned.

So, I doubt a settler did anything but reload the fired chambers and wait til a time presented itself to do complete maintenance. A time when there was no potential threat or need for a fully loaded revolver.

Dan

 

[Blizzard of '93]

I have done that very thing when camped for as much as a week, fired a couple shots. I pull the cyl ('58 Rem) and clean the bbl/frame with warm water and wipe the cylinder and nipple area with wet rag as best I can, dry then lube and replace then reload the fired chambers. so far no problems but when I start for home I fire all the chambers so I can clean thoroughly at home. I value my pistols mucho they are why I got into BP guns and lead me to registering here.
I'm hopeing to get me a couple of underhammer .36 or maybe .40 cals sometime so if I need to fire a single shot it's easier to clean.