Cleaning Cap & Ball revolver - Tip

[NAA_Silent]

I spent the day sending lead balls down range. After 90 rounds through my Pietta 1851 Navy Confederate, it was caked heavy with carbon. I'm running 22.5 grains of American Pioneer and .454 balls. When I got home, I decided to give something a shot. Since it took me over 1.5 hours to clean my pistol last time I decided to try something different. I broke down the pistol to it's smallest parts, and put all the pieces in my ultra sonic cleaner with warm water and Dawn dish washing liquid. After a single 5 minute heated cycle, 99% of all the carbon was gone. I don't know if this has been covered before, but I've seen no reference to using an Ultrasonic to clean C&B.

Harbor Freight Ultrasonic

 

[walruskid1]

is that big enough to put the frame in?

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

A friend of mine took off some finish on his auto pistol--can't remember the name of the finish, but I know he said it was something that he'd applied. He also said that regular blued guns can tolerate the sonic cleaners a lot better, FWIW.

Dave

 

[phoenix511]

Some say ultrasonic cleaners are hard on springs. A watchmaker friend says he would not put springs in his ultrasonic cleaner. His notion was the ultrasonic vibrations caused problems in pre-stressed items leading to premature failure. If this is true, you might want to keep the main spring, hand w/spring, and the loading rod w/latch spring out of the ultrasonic bath.

I've found water (not hot as this can cause rapid rust), some elbow grease, and a gentle application from the air compresssor to be helpful.

 

[NAA_Silent]

is that big enough to put the frame in?

Yes, it's big enough to put the entire pistol in as long as it's disassembled.

As to the springs, I'm not to worried about the ultrasonic doing damage to the springs, I do more damage to them by firing the weapon than the ultrasonic can do. If they do fail for some reason or another, I can easily get or manufacture replacement parts. I'm a machinist by trade.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

So what was your total time to break the pistol completely down, clean and reassemble it? I generally only remove the cylinder, pull nipples, clean the bore and chambers and reassemble. Takes less than 30 minutes. Maybe once a year I'll do a complete break down.

 

[Chilidog]

I generally only remove the cylinder, pull nipples, clean the bore and chambers and reassemble. Takes less than 30 minutes. Maybe once a year I'll do a complete break down.

That's the way I do it too. :thumbsup:

 

[NAA_Silent]

So what was your total time to break the pistol completely down, clean and reassemble it? I generally only remove the cylinder, pull nipples, clean the bore and chambers and reassemble. Takes less than 30 minutes. Maybe once a year I'll do a complete break down.

It takes me less than 5 minutes to break it down, and about 10 minutes to put it back together. Breaking the weapon all the way down allows me to clean the carbon build up off of the internal parts, including the hammer, and the channel that the hammer rides in.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I have two '58's and the hammer clearance is of a concern when the fouling builds up, so I can see where it would affect you revolver as well.

I use Butch's Black Powder Bore Shine. It emulsifies BP residue on contact. Wonder if you could add a pinch to chemically treat the water bath so as to eliminate the effects of the residue, or do you change baths at least once, after the original bath gets the fouling off? Just a thought.......

Dave

 

[nilo52]

I Too Break Down My Dragoon All The Way For the Same reason, Carbon Build-Up On The Internals. I Shoot At Least 70 to 100 RB When I Shoot, Using Two Cylinders And It Gets Crud Eveywhere. I Also Shoot A Flintlock And Combined, It takes me About the same Time as You. If Your Gonna Play, You Gotta Pay. Attention To Your Toys. :thumbsup:

 

[NAA_Silent]

As an old Marine (87-95), I do try and give my weapons the proper attention. It still takes some time to clean, and I'm more than willing to spend the time required as it's all part of the fun of going to the range. I just found the ultra sonic broke the carbon off so I don't have to use sharp things to break off the carbon buildup. With my cartridge weapons, carb cleaner followed by CLP does wonders. This combo didn't even make a dent in the black powder buildup. I was amazed how a single pass with the ultrasonic cleaned the frame so well without any real work at all. I only used a single load of water/dish soap as that was all that was needed.

 

[graybeard]

This procedure seems to startle some shooters and make them worried about wives' reactions, but it works fine. Take your Colt replica apart, and take the handles off. run a patch with solvent down the barrel a few times, and into each chamber. Then put it in your dishwasher (with the supper dishes if you want) and run it through a regular cycle. make sure the barrel and the cylinder are up and down so they will get well flushed. Take the pistol out while still hot, spray with wd40 and wipe clean, then with rem oil. reassemble. I have been doing this for nearly 30 years and both wife and pistol still going strong. :haha: graybeard

 

[nilo52]

I Do Not Have The Courage To Do This. My Wife Would Skin Me Alive.
A Very Cautious Nilo 52

 

[pargent]

you should not need to fully strip a cb revolver to clean it after shootingit. maybe once ayear or to remove cap debrie in the working parts,the threads on the screws will wear or strip out from excess use.afield strip is all that is needed, remove the barrel and cyc., drop the barrel and cyc. into a container of hot soapy water,while those parts are soaking full cock the hammer use an old tooth brush to clean residue out of the hammer channel and cyc abor ,frame etc.placethe frame on adry cloth remove the barrel scrub out the bore and brush off outer surfaces,removethe cyc. and scrub out thechambers and brushthe nipples etc very throughly,place all parts on the dry cloth .the heated parts will dry quickly,wipe with a clean dry cloth,oil lube and reassemble. this should only take 5 mins., wrap the revolver in a clean cloth .

 

[reddog97]

I've completely disassembled my revolvers after each shooting session and found all of the internal parts(i.e. the bolt,bolt spring,trigger spring, hand and the channel where the hand lays) to have residue on them.What keeps these parts from rusting if you don't clean each time?

 

[MSW]

What keeps these parts from rusting if you don't clean each time?

oil, keeping them more or less dry, and the ever- popular dumb luck. i use WD40 liberally when i clean without detail stripping the piece down to the last screw, which is not HC/PC, but seems to have worked for me over the years.

i take it all the way down after every other session, and that works for me.

make good smoke!

 

[Stephen_D]

I do the normal soaking of the barrel assembly and cylinder, but then I do something kinda messy. I've always been concerned about the crud building up inside, but have a hard time putting the inner works back together right. So, I squirt a bit of olive oil into the works and then blow the excess out with canned air - outside.

 

[pargent]

yeah use wd40,triflow or the like with anozzle to get inside at the works.when i do a complete dissamble i use a moly .lith. assembly grease on the internal parts,i find this protects against rust and provides more than enough lubrication,it is then not washed away buy the wd40 when used later. :thumbsup:

 

[nilo52]

Your approach seems to be more in tune with the time period. Can anyone tell me exactly how "they" used to do it ?