Cleaning for the frequent hunter?

[THBailey]

Its the middle of the waterfowl season here in Nor Cal, the birds have arrived, and my Pedersoli 12 ga is getting a thorough workout. I am shooting 3 or 4 times a week. I have been cleaning (boiling water routine) after two days of shooting or after one day if I am not shooting the next day. I can't believe the old market hunters went to all that bother. I wonder if once a week or so would be just as good?

 

[oomcurt]

Just my two cents on this... First off "boiling" water??? No need to have the water boiling. No need to have it even hot really. Black powder is quite corrosive, now granted, a smooth bore does not have rifling but even so I would hate to ruin a good gun just because it took maybe 20 minutes to do a cleaning job. Incidentally, I have owned and shot regularly over 10 different modern centerfire rifles pistols and handguns, all of them got a cleaning after using. To me, that comes with the territory of gun ownership.

 

[harryo]

Just my two cents on this... First off "boiling" water??? No need to have the water boiling. No need to have it even hot really.

I agree with this. First, I beleive very hot, or boiling, water sets up your bore for flash rust and secondly, it creates a dangerous situation which could cause you to burn yourself badly. I have cleaned my barrels for over 30 years with warm tapwater and a wee bit of soap and it has worked fine, with no problems, no potential burns and no fuss of mixing up some exotic cleaning solution.

 

[CrackStock]

First, I use cool water to clean. Never seen any advantage to using hot and it is a PITA. I think that is does contribute to quicker rusting and I can find better ways of drying the bore.

Second, BP residue is not really corrosive. It does attract moisture which will quickly oxidize steel parts.

Third, It may be true that some did not care well for their guns, which is why so many turned to junk. I would carefully clean and preserve after any shooting.

CS

 

[Runner]

I don't go to bed until the gun does if it was shot that day.

 

[ssettle]

I have the same shotgun but in 10 gage. It's suppose to have a chromed lined barrels. I bought it about 5 or 6 years ago. I use warm soapy water to clean it with. Found out afew years back that hot hot water will flash rust steel, seen it happen on one of my other guns. You should be able to clean your gun in about 10 min. ssettle

 

[paulvallandigham]

I agree with the consensus of responses here, and you should clean the gun daily. Use tepid or cool water, and some soap. Its the chemicals that help break up the crud, and not the temperature of the water.Dry and lube that barrel, and wipe down the outside of the barrel and oil it, and the action parts. If I were shooting that much( 3-4 times a week) once a week, I would take my lock out, and use a toothbrush to scrub the inside of the lock parts, and then dry and re-oil them. The Daily cleaning should take less then 5 minutes of your time, once you get into a routine. I plan on 3 wet patches to scrub the barrel, and then 4 patches to dry it, and one more with lube on it to lubricate the barrel on the inside and out. One of those clean drying patches is used to wipe powder residue off the barrel and lock areas, and the lube patch serves to lubricate the clean lock and around the touch hole. Put the gun up, pick up your dirty patches, throw them away somewhere reasonsible, wash your hands, and go to bed. Simple.

A trick I have learned from the folks who live in the very far North( Sweden) is to pack the barrel channel of your gunstock with a good wide temperature grease, like waterpump grease. That will protect the underside of the barrel and the stock from any water that might otherwise get into the barrel channel during a " wet " hunt. You might have to use a synthetic silicone-based lube for this if you are going to shoot the gun in 80 degree + heat, so that it doesn't melt on you on a hot summer day, but it will protect the stock and the underside of the barrel from the weather.

 

[THBailey]

Well, thanks for the input gentlemen. Duck season just ended and I thought, for what its worth, I would share my experience.

First, perhaps a creature of habit, I still like the scalding water for cleaning. I tried tepid and cool, but it seemed like the patches didn't slide as smoothly in the barrel. Also I like the assurance of a dry barrel I get from a hot barrel. After cleaning and running patches until dry, I would finish with a pass or two with a patch lightly saturated with bore butter. Perhaps because of the chrome barrels there was never any flash rust. I also took care to be sure the nipples were clear after cleaning, confirming daylight in the fire channel.

Second, the evening before the hunt I loaded the gun without snapping caps. Rather, I ran down the overpowder wad with vigor so I could here the air whistle out the nipple. Of course, the gun was not capped until I was settled in the blind early the next morning. I never had a failure to ignite in 20 or so trips.

Third, contrary to recomendations above, if I hunted consecutive days I left the gun dirty overnight and on two occasions when I hunted three days in a row, left the gun dirty over two nights. I can see no rust or other side effect, but again the gun does have chrome barrels.

And finally, if I was planning to hunt the next day and todays hunt did not end with a bang, I pulled caps and left the dirty gun loaded overnight. Again, no failure to ignite on the three or four occasions I did this.

To be fair, I should admit I took my modern gun on the wet weather days. Also, being in California we are not talking extremes of ice, snow or frozen conditions.

 

[roundball]

I couldn't agree more...steaming hot soapy water, hot clear water rinse, and bore butter for 15+ years = perfect bores.

As you obviously know, the primary purpose of the steaming hot water is not so much for cleaning purposes as it is to heat the barrel as an aid in drying after the cleaning is finished.

When the bores are bone dry, but still quite warm, I plaster them repeatedly with heavily coated patches of bore butter...all my bores are still in showroom condition today, and they're not chrome lined, just good steel.

:thumbsup:

 

[Elkinde]

The boiling water heats the metal up so that when the scubbing is done the water evaporates quickly and completely, leaving less of a chance for remaining water to cause rust. I use an oven glove to hold the barrel of my gun.

 

[jimeckersley]

If you use hot water, IMMEDIATELY after dry patches use something like Ballistol or WD-40. Don't even wait a few minutes or you can run a patch down the bore and it will be brown. I've done it! I don't want to do it again. :nono:

Now, I just use warm water and a little soap, then dry patches, then plenty of WD-40 or Ballistol. I especially like Ballistol It's non toxic and will mix with water. The water evaporates and the Ballistol remains.

If I'm not going to clean within a few hours of shooting I run a Ballistol patch down the barrel and leave it that way until I can clean.