Cleaning review please

[brewer12345]

I have been trying hard to take care of my percussion rifles and I am scratching my head on something. I used my great plains for an elk hunt last month. Did not connect, but shot the load out at the end of the hunt and cleaned the rifle with hot, soapy water. I dried it with a bunch of patches, lubed it with wonder lube on a patch, and put it away until today. Today I pulled it out to load for tomorrow's deer hunt and when I ran a few clean patches down the bore to remove the grease, I got what looks suspiciously like some rust mixed in with the wonder lube. The lube is normally yellowish and it was a rusty brown. No bueno. So I wonder if I am doing something wrong. Here is what I do:

- Put the barrel in a bucket of hot soapy water, wrap a patch around the jag and pump it up and down until the barrel appears to be clean. I put a smaller caliber brush on the rod and clean out the patent breech channel as well. If necessary, change the water out if it is too filthy. If I can get the nipple off, I remove it and and run a pipe cleaner into it and the channel. Fill the bucket with just hot water and do the pumping thing again until it is all rinsed out.
'
- Drain the barrel out and shake as much water out as possible. Run clean patches through until there is no evidence of moisture. stick a pipe cleaner or two through the channel to dry it and reinstall the clean nipple. Any exterior pieces that need it get wiped down.

- Give it a half hour to let things finish drying (live in Colorado in a VERY dry climate, think 20% or less relative humidity) and then run a patch saturated with wonder lube down the bore the coat everything. Wipe down all the exterior metal parts with conventional gun oil, reassemble the rifle and store.

Am I doing something wrong? Worth trying Hoppe's black powder solvent instead? Other comments?

 

[Bob McBride]

Wonderlube, though some have had success using it as a rust inhibitor, is way down the list of best ways to lube your metal bits. You'd be better off just using gun oil or a rust inhibiting grease, and being careful to remove it from the bore prior to your next shoot. Lots of ways to make it work. Mink/Bear/etc. grease, Barricade, Ballistol, etc. are all worth trying. You'll get different results based on how long you let them set up and how humid it is where you store them. As many right ways to skin a cat as there are cat skinners.

Your process other than that sounds fine...

 

[Carbon 6]

lubed it with wonder lube on a patch, and put it away until today.

Problems #1 and #2

Give it a half hour to let things finish drying

Problem #3

 

[brewer12345]

Problems #1 and #2

Problem #3

OK, so use something other than wonder lube. CLP or similar OK?

What is problem #3?

 

[Kansas Jake]

I always use barricade or 3 in1 oil to oil a cleaned barrel. My 40 year old TC Hawken still has a good barrel. I may get some discoloration on a patch but not rust. I used the 3 in1 for many years before using Baricade.

with the oil I dampen a patch but not runny. I gotten into the habit of storing my rifles muzzle down or if hanging with the muzzle lower than the breech to prevent oil from accumulating at the breech.

BTW, I spray some WD40 in the barrel. Blow the excess out the touch hole or nipple hole and run a dry patch down the barrel before oiling.

 

[Kansas Jake]

# 3. During the half hour of drying you may be getting flash rust.

 

[brewer12345]

# 3. During the half hour of drying you may be getting flash rust.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Carbon 6]

Problems #1 and #2

Problem #3

Wonder lube sucks IMO, because it doesn't wet out the metal and displace moisture. You should never clean a muzzleloader and put it away for a month without checking it. I check mine in a couple days then a few weeks, then a few months.

#3, Kansas Jake nailed it mostly. For that half hour the barrel is "unprotected and vulnerable.
I immediately flush the barrel with alcohol that does not contain water and protect with the product of your choice. or I use a water displacement and protectant in one product like G96 or WD-40 or Ballistol. Never let clean metal sit bare and unprotected.

 

[tenngun]

Try drying gun then use WD 40 for a swab dry out with several patches then use a good oil.
Beware, as I have had this problem. Most things like bore butter, lard, mink oil,olive oil, will brown on their own. They form a film that prevents oxygen from getting to the metal. But oxygen get to the top most layers of the film and it browns. I don’t know how many times my heart skipped a beat thinking I had rust when what I had was brown grease

 

[Maven]

I have been trying hard to take care of my percussion rifles and I am scratching my head on something. I used my great plains for an elk hunt last month. Did not connect, but shot the load out at the end of the hunt and cleaned the rifle with hot, soapy water. I dried it with a bunch of patches, lubed it with wonder lube on a patch, and put it away until today. Today I pulled it out to load for tomorrow's deer hunt and when I ran a few clean patches down the bore to remove the grease, I got what looks suspiciously like some rust mixed in with the wonder lube. The lube is normally yellowish and it was a rusty brown. No bueno. So I wonder if I am doing something wrong. Here is what I do:

- Put the barrel in a bucket of hot soapy water, wrap a patch around the jag and pump it up and down until the barrel appears to be clean. I put a smaller caliber brush on the rod and clean out the patent breech channel as well. If necessary, change the water out if it is too filthy. If I can get the nipple off, I remove it and and run a pipe cleaner into it and the channel. Fill the bucket with just hot water and do the pumping thing again until it is all rinsed out.
'
- Drain the barrel out and shake as much water out as possible. Run clean patches through until there is no evidence of moisture. stick a pipe cleaner or two through the channel to dry it and reinstall the clean nipple. Any exterior pieces that need it get wiped down.

- Give it a half hour to let things finish drying (live in Colorado in a VERY dry climate, think 20% or less relative humidity) and then run a patch saturated with wonder lube down the bore the coat everything. Wipe down all the exterior metal parts with conventional gun oil, reassemble the rifle and store.

Am I doing something wrong? Worth trying Hoppe's black powder solvent instead? Other comments?

I too have a GPR, but I don't clean it with hot water since warm water works just as well. Once I've done that, I use a pc. or two of paper towel (thickness to suit) to dry the bore. With the nipple and clean-out screw removed, I put a generous squirt of WD-40 in the breech area, followed by a patch liberally soaked with it. (I don't leave the soaked patch in the bbl., btw.) I'll then check the bore over the next day or two with patches soaked in new ATF: I get no rust even in the often humid Hudson Valley.

 

[hanshi]

Barricade has been my bore protector oil for a long time. After cleaning and dry patching I use WD40 in the bore and then wipe it out with denatured alcohol; this assures a completely dry barrel. I also have an old hair dryer that I use from time to time. Either Barricade or BreakFree CLP does a great job.

 

[firestick]

I always swab my barrels after cleaning with a bore mop using a "goodly" amount of Ballistol.

 

[N.Y. Yankee]

The only thing boiling water does well is burn your hands. Luke warm or room temp water does just fine breaking up black powder. Clean the bore, dry with a couple of patches, (including down in the breech) and use a good gun oil, Barricade, etc to oil the bore well. I wipe the bore with a patch damp with 99.9% isopropyl alcohol to dry the bore prior to loading.

 

[Carbon 6]

The only thing boiling water does well is burn your hands.

Instead of using boiling water, use boiled water. The warmer water is the better solvent it becomes, but boiling the water deoxygenates it, leaving no free dissolved oxygen in it. Boiling the water also removes chlorine and softens water. All of these things are beneficial to cleaning and rust prevention.

 

[brewer12345]

I always swab my barrels after cleaning with a bore mop using a "goodly" amount of Ballistol.

Since ballistol is water soluble, I always wondered if it was OK to use as a preservative oil.

 

[brewer12345]

OK, so I use hot water from the tap, not boiling.

Sounds like what I need to do in addition or instead of what I was doing is use WD40 on the bore, dry patch it, and then lube with something better than bore butter/wonder lube. Since I keep CLP around for the unmentionables, that is what I will use. Anything else I am missing?

 

[brewer12345]

BTW, thanks for all the helpful comments.

Hoping to connect with a doe this weekend using a home cast 530 ball over 90 grains of Olde Eynesford 1.5F. 100 yards would be a long shot in the river bottom we will be hunting and when we were scouting last weekend I had 3 bucks standing stock still all of 25 yards away from me. Fingers crossed...

 

[kje54]

I have been trying hard to take care of my percussion rifles and I am scratching my head on something. I used my great plains for an elk hunt last month. Did not connect, but shot the load out at the end of the hunt and cleaned the rifle with hot, soapy water. I dried it with a bunch of patches, lubed it with wonder lube on a patch, and put it away until today. Today I pulled it out to load for tomorrow's deer hunt and when I ran a few clean patches down the bore to remove the grease, I got what looks suspiciously like some rust mixed in with the wonder lube. The lube is normally yellowish and it was a rusty brown. No bueno. So I wonder if I am doing something wrong. Here is what I do:

- Put the barrel in a bucket of hot soapy water, wrap a patch around the jag and pump it up and down until the barrel appears to be clean. I put a smaller caliber brush on the rod and clean out the patent breech channel as well. If necessary, change the water out if it is too filthy. If I can get the nipple off, I remove it and and run a pipe cleaner into it and the channel. Fill the bucket with just hot water and do the pumping thing again until it is all rinsed out.
'
- Drain the barrel out and shake as much water out as possible. Run clean patches through until there is no evidence of moisture. stick a pipe cleaner or two through the channel to dry it and reinstall the clean nipple. Any exterior pieces that need it get wiped down.

- Give it a half hour to let things finish drying (live in Colorado in a VERY dry climate, think 20% or less relative humidity) and then run a patch saturated with wonder lube down the bore the coat everything. Wipe down all the exterior metal parts with conventional gun oil, reassemble the rifle and store.

Am I doing something wrong? Worth trying Hoppe's black powder solvent instead? Other comments?

I always used boiled water allowed to cool slightly, not boiling water and I never used soap of any kind and have never had a rust issue. Pour the hot water down the barrel with the nipple on and covered with a cloth, pour out and repeat until the water runs clear then remove the nipple and pour some more hot water down the barrel. Never ran an oil patch down the barrel afterwards either and that was back in Virginia during the high humidity summers.

 

[DUNKS]

Funny that you guys. " far more experienced than me" are not keen on boiling water. Here in damp old UK I am new to muzzle loading but have been shooting black powder 12g cartridges for years. I shoot old original hammerguns which all seem very prone to rust if I am not careful and I always finish off a similar cleaning to all of you with pouring boiling water down each barrel.. This instantly dries the whole issue. ribs and all. I then quickly oil the barrels inside and out with "just oil". three in one or whatever. It's all going to be well cleaned out with pull throughs before I shoot again. Never get any rust! I am not a lover of Ballistol as a rust preventer. I did a test on new steel a while ago with all the oils I had to hand and Ballistol was one of the first to fail. "outside in winter"

 

[Many Klatch]

I use a mix of 50% 2-stroke motor oil and 50% kerosene to keep the inside of my barrels from rusting. Never had a problem. This oil mix makes a good penetrating oil for the operating parts and protects the barrel as well.