Cleaning in the field

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Josh Crider

32 Cal
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I am looking for recomendations for how I might clean my rifle, be it quick clean or deep clean, in the field, or rather, in a more traditional setting. Of course, I have chemicals and brushes at home but what does the community reccomend for a more period correct alternative?
 
I am looking for recomendations for how I might clean my rifle, be it quick clean or deep clean, in the field, or rather, in a more traditional setting. Of course, I have chemicals and brushes at home but what does the community reccomend for a more period correct alternative?

I clean in the field or camp the same way I clean at home. Patches, Jag, and warm water. Then oil.
 
Guess it depends on how long you intend to stay afield. If I'm hunting and out for the entire day and I have fire a shot and its raining or snowing, I may run a greased patch down the bore over a reloaded ball.
 
What type of gun do you have and how do you clean it now ? Why can't you clean the same way in the field as you do at home ?
 
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After discharging the charge for whatever reason you need to clean, I simply use damp cleaning patches (saliva) till bore it relatively clean then follow with drying patches. Dampen another cleaning patch to wipe around the nipple/touch hole and lock areas then wipe dry. I’ve stayed out hunting for a couple weeks in tent camp and did nothing else. Once home a thorough cleaning is in order.
Walk
 
I am looking for recomendations for how I might clean my rifle, be it quick clean or deep clean, in the field, or rather, in a more traditional setting. Of course, I have chemicals and brushes at home but what does the community reccomend for a more period correct alternative?
Water-wetted patches on a jag or tow on a worm, dry with patches/tow and lube. The same way I clean at home, though I might add a drop of dishsoap at home.
 
I carry to camp a basting syringe, a flush nipple kit, a small bottle of MAP an appropriate jag and patches.
IF I have fired the rifle -
Flush the breech, wipe the bore, dry and oil as normal.
Next day - Reload as normal and go hunting.
Works great for me, no issues.
If I have not fired it, I remove the cap, close the hammer on my leather strip, plug the end of the barrel with an orange earplug.
Next day, install a fresh cap and go hunt.
 
I carry to camp a basting syringe, a flush nipple kit, a small bottle of MAP an appropriate jag and patches.
IF I have fired the rifle -
Flush the breech, wipe the bore, dry and oil as normal.
Next day - Reload as normal and go hunting.
Works great for me, no issues.
If I have not fired it, I remove the cap, close the hammer on my leather strip, plug the end of the barrel with an orange earplug.
Next day, install a fresh cap and go hunt.

I'm with ya buddy :thumb: but what is the basting syringe for ?
 
I carry to camp a basting syringe, a flush nipple kit, a small bottle of MAP an appropriate jag and patches.
IF I have fired the rifle -
Flush the breech, wipe the bore, dry and oil as normal.
Next day - Reload as normal and go hunting.
Works great for me, no issues.
If I have not fired it, I remove the cap, close the hammer on my leather strip, plug the end of the barrel with an orange earplug.
Next day, install a fresh cap and go hunt.
The OP asked about "a more period correct alternative". Basting syringe, a flush nipple kit, a small bottle of MAP most definitely do not fit that request....
 
I'm with ya buddy :thumb: but what is the basting syringe for ?
I use it to force some cleaner into the nipple hole and clean out the snail and patent breech. The 79 cent walmart syring fits the tubing perfectly. I can push the MAP back and forth a few times and the breech is spotless! After a blast of air, follow with a quick squirt of REM-OIL or WD-40 or a squirt from the oil bottle.
 
I use it to force some cleaner into the nipple hole and clean out the snail and patent breech. The 79 cent walmart syring fits the tubing perfectly. I can push the MAP back and forth a few times and the breech is spotless! After a blast of air, follow with a quick squirt of REM-OIL or WD-40 or a squirt from the oil bottle.

I just pour it down the barrel and force it out the nipple with a patched jag. gives the same results. or you can use the clean out nipple and a bottle and suck it back and forth with a patched jag.
 
The OP asked about "a more period correct alternative". Basting syringe, a flush nipple kit, a small bottle of MAP most definitely do not fit that request....

Oh, really? Well in that case I just dump and pour followed by some patches ending with my patch lube as a protectant. I've also used tow and a string for large smoothbores. Real BP cleans pretty easily.
 
Tomato or Tomaato.... The end result is a clean breech, the ultimate goal...
The Bottle with the tube costs 7 bucks and takes 4 days to get here, the baster was 79 cents and WallyWorlds are everywhere.....
Really, it's not a complicated issue...
 
In the field, I just run a damp patch (spit or water) then a dry patch and reload. Essentially just the same routine as between shots at the range.
 
Tomato or Tomaato.... The end result is a clean breech, the ultimate goal...
The Bottle with the tube costs 7 bucks and takes 4 days to get here, the baster was 79 cents and WallyWorlds are everywhere.....
Really, it's not a complicated issue...
That’s true, but l like to see what I can do with the sort of equipment used back in the day. I carry a lighter for emergency, but from fire starting to lighting my pipe I use a glass or a strik a light. A protein bar is light and easy, but I carry historic food. In the field I use the same equipment to clean my gun and do it the same way I do at home, and the same way they did it back then.
 
That’s true, but l like to see what I can do with the sort of equipment used back in the day. I carry a lighter for emergency, but from fire starting to lighting my pipe I use a glass or a strik a light. A protein bar is light and easy, but I carry historic food. In the field I use the same equipment to clean my gun and do it the same way I do at home, and the same way they did it back then.

Same here. I like to challenge myself and act out worse case scenarios. Surprisingly many of those "scenarios" actually happened to me. I have stopped cleaning at home all together unless I shoot at home. I carry all my basic supplies in my bag, home is just for resupplying my bag.
 
It only takes a small kit to be able to completely clean one's rifle in the field. Usually not necessary, but I always take my jag, worm, ball puller, plenty of cloth for patches, (which is not much) a sawed off toothbrush, and a small (very small) bottle of "Blue Thunder", and a small amount of Hoppe's #9. It all fits into a very small and light kit.

I hunt some pretty remote country, so yeah, like to be ready for anything. The possibility of knocking something big down, towards the end of the day, and having to spend the night with it, could happen. In that case I might want to clean the rifle, as I believe a clean rifle is a reliable rifle, and that might come in handy in the middle of the night if Grizz comes to contest me over a dead elk. But I have the option. Or if I took a spill crossing a stream, I'd be glad I had the option.
 
I have always carried a very small, very old bottle of water with homemade soap dissolved in it as well as some plain ticking inside my hunting jacket(s) up against my body to keep the water warm. If needed I cut a patch, wet it with water from the bottle and run it down the bore with a jag which I carry in my bag along with a worm and perhaps a ball puller. Then dry patch and reload with a lubricated patch. Done deal. This is for my percussion, flint rifles and flint smoothbores. Been doing it almost 50 years.

JMHO
 
Yep, that's another thing, when you have just fired one shot, or maybe two at most, the gun is very easy to clean. Not like when you have been target shooting.
 
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