Cleaning my trade gun

[11th corps]

Each time I take my T.O.W. n/w trade gun to the range, I come home, remove the barrel and lock to clean all the parts. Is this what others are doing, or are you leaving the barrel pinned to the stock. Do you remove the lock each time?
Removal of the barrel from my T/C hawken flinter is simple, so i remove the barrel for each cleaing session. But I'm not sure what to do with my new baby.

 

[Ridge]

I take the barrels off my flintlocks once a year. I clean the underside and then use car wax to protect them. Back into the stock they go for another year.

I take the lock off of my rifle about twice a year. Clean the mortice.....put it back together.

Once a year I completely disassemble the lock and clean the individual parts.

That's my system anyways.

 

I never pull a pinned barrel. Just clean them out with lots a cotton flannel and hot water. I henerally use a patch worm and tow to scour the face of the breech. That gets them real clean. Then dry it and oil it. The lock is taken out and I use a toothbrush under running hot water and then dry and oil it. You can blow the water out of the acting parts while it is hot from the hot water scrub.
Don

 

[longfowler]

I clean my musket the same way. plug the touchhole with a toothpick, fill 'er up with hot water and scrub away! I pull the lock evey time but if it fit better I probably wouldn't.

 

[Swampman]

Pinned barrels should never be removed except to refinish or repair a gun.

 

[David Teague]

I plug the vent with a tooth pick, scrub the barrel with hot soapy water, oil with "bore butter", pull the lock and clean it with a dab of soap and hot tap water with a tooth brush, blow any water out from underneath the lock parts( a hair dryer works get for this... when at home and not at an encampment :winking: ) and oil the moving parts with a fine oil. I do use "bore butter" on the lock plate and backside of the frizzen, but not on any moving parts or the frizzen face.

Works for me.

Cheers,

DT

 

[David Teague]

Pinned barrels should never be removed except to refinish or repair a gun.

or pull the breach plug... it's not that you can't, but you run the risk of damaging the stock at the pin holes and the tang (if you don't know what you doing).

Cheers,

DT

 

[charcloth]

11th Corps,

I have to disagree with some of the folks here. I remove the barrel and lock for cleaning after every shoot. I do this at home, not in the field. When in the field I clean as many others have described. If care is taken no damage to the stock is likely to occur. I have done this for many years and only once have I marred a stock. I guess the decision should be based on climate. I frequently attend shoots and hunt in rain and snow so I take the extra precautionary steps to insure that my firearm will stay in prime shape over the long haul. I have cleaned guns for friends after shoots when they had something else to attend to and found that many of those barrels were rusted on the underside. I don't mean to infer that anyone else here is wrong. I've never tried the wax on the underside. I'd just rather clean and oil.

Charcloth.

 

[musketman]

If you do pull a pinned barrel, lay the pins in order and make sure that get replaced in the same holes each time...

The reason for this is because pins will bend and flex with the barrel over time making them suited for only one hole, another reason is (if your stock is tapered) the pins are shorter in length as you go up the stock towards the muzzle.

 

[TANSTAAFL]

I seldom, if ever remove barrels from pinned stocks. It is not a question of if, but when one will screw up the wood one day.

Before pinning the bbl, I wax it several times with Johnsons wax. Had to pull a bbl the other day, after over a decade, it was fine.

 

[Swampman]

A properly made rifle or fowler is so easiely broken when the barrel is out of the stock that it's just not worth taking the chance. I've seen several ruined.

 

[Cherokee]

Hey its your gun if you want to take the barrel out and run around the house with it once a week more power to ya.
I would think maybe over time the pins would loosen up a bit with the steel to wood fit.
Just a thought.
I would like to see a pic of you trade gun.
I might get one of those kits down the road.
What lenght barrel did you go with?

 

[paulvallandigham]

LIke most people, and you, I am concerned about the condition of my barrel where I can't see it, as in between the stock and barrel. I remove the barrel from the stock at least once a year for inspecting, or at least I have until recently. Several years ago, I bought a Swedish Mauser rifle made in 1900. When I took the handguard off the barrel, I found that the prior owner had coated the underside of the handguard, and the barrel channel in the wood stock with something that resembles water pump grease. The metal on the barrel protected by the handguard looked terrific, and had the original blue on it, while, the portion of the barrel that is exposed beyong the handguard is missing all its blue, has nicks, and scratches from hard use by the home guard. The stock has scorch marks on the bottom from where it was left on the mantle of a fireplace and someone got too big a fire going in the fireplace at least once! The stock is Walnut, and is now 100 years old and very stable. I have no intention of changing it, scars and all. It shoots very well, BTW>

That gun has taught me a lesson on gun care. I live in central Illinois, where it can get a little warm in the summertime. But nothing like how hot it is in Florida or Texas where I have relatives. I am not so sure how hot you can get this water pump grease without it melting- I have some research to do- but I know we now have synthetic lubes made of silicon, that suffer a wide range of temperatures without melting, or hardening. If your gun maker did not seal the barrel channel and lock mortises with stock finish when he finished your gun, you may want to consider either using a stock finish to seal them yourself, coat the channels with several layers of wax( I use the wax on my finished gun stocks before going out into wet weather with it, just as added insurance), or fill that channel with a good lube that will not harden or melt under the typical weather conditions where you live, before putting the barrel back in the stock. The excess will squeeze out, and you can wipe it off and forget it. THEN, there is no need to take the barrel out of the stock to check for rust, just as Swampman is advocating. I do believe that your lock should be removed and cleaned frequently, and reoiled after an inspection. Crud does have a way of finding a route behind the lockplate and into the workings. Stocks do breathe some, and the movement can cause a temporary gap between the lock and the side of the barrel. Flintlocks are a little better about this, as the pan, and its structure protect the action by redirecting the dirt up and away from the lock, while a percussion lock spits it down and into the lock, in my experience. Fences not withstanding, I also find more crud in the locks on my percussion guns than I have on my fintlocks. I learned that the first time I cleaned the gun after converting my .50 from percussion to flint!

 

[Cherokee]

You sure it wasnt the cosmoline it was packed in when new?
Military rifles were dunked in barrels of the stuff and wrapped and packed for storage sometimes they werent taken completely down and cleaned. You can still find traces of the grease in areas a troop wouldnt tear down.

 

[akapennypincher]

I would Personally like to recommend the Fines Gun Cleaner I have found, it is made in the Phoenix AREA. It is Non Toxic, Does not Smell, and the Only Drawback is Price. but it can be RECYCLED with a Funnel, and some 4 x 4 Gauze, or Baby Flannel. It is called MPro7, and the stuff works wonders. a Quart will cost in the Neighborhood of $20.00, but I have been using the Same Quart almost THREE YEARS, using a Funnel, and Cotton Baby Flannel to Filter out the Crud following use. :hatsoff:

 

[HistoryBuff]

I don't remove my barrel because it is pinned. I might remove it if it was a keyed barrel with a hook breech. I have tried a toothpick to plug the vent hole when cleaning with water, but it kept leaking out. Now I use a small piece of beeswax to cover the hole and it works great.

HistoryBuff

 

[Slamfire]

Petroleum based preservatives may do well at keeping rust off the barrel, but they will eventually destroy the wood. :hmm:

 

[11th corps]

Hey its your gun if you want to take the barrel out and run around the house with it once a week more power to ya.
I would think maybe over time the pins would loosen up a bit with the steel to wood fit.
Just a thought.
I would like to see a pic of you trade gun.
I might get one of those kits down the road.
What lenght barrel did you go with?

I'll try to post new photos at some point.

This is my 2nd go around with this trade gun. I put it together last year, shot it this summer, then decided the stock was still a little chunky. Took it down again this winter, am happier with the stock shape. I also knocked the shine off the brass buttplate, sideplate, and stained the stock walnut. I am pretty happy with the result. Mine has a 42" barrel.

 

[paulvallandigham]

I know the smell and feel of cosmoline, and this is much more like a water pump grease, not cosmoline. In fact, on first sight, I thought it was cosmoline, and cursed at the long job it would be to get that out of there. Then I felt the stuff, and smelled it, to be sure. I bought a quart of water pump grease to use on a pitcher pump we installed at my gun club years ago, and I think I still have some of it left in the garage somewhere. This grease looks like that.

I was as concerned about the oil based grease ruining the wood, too, but I saw no evidence of it, perhaps because the wood is so old. I still would prefer one of the silicone based lubes for this work, if this was a new gun.

 

[Swampman]

I would personally like to recommend tepid water. It works perfectly and it's all you need. It's really cheap and available in the nearest creek or tap.