Agreed, don't use peroxide. And forget about the Murphy's too, it is not that helpfull when it comes to cleaning your musket. All you need is water, a wiper like the one used issued by the army, your combination tool and a dozen or so 2 inch square patches made of thin cotton or linnen along with a smal piece of leather about 1 inch square. Use the method clearly stated in your manual given to you by the army. To paraphrase:
1 - Place a small piece of leather on the musket's cone and lower the hammer on it making sure that it seals well.
2 - Pour water (cool water is preferred) down the barrel until the bore is full and allow it to sit for a few minutes. This will disolve all fouling in the barrel, even at the breech. Just lean it against a tree or a fence, whatever, and talk to your friends...
3 - Pour the water out. If you cock the hammer it will come out faster.
4 - Put the leather back on the cone and lower the hammer again and put more clean water back in the barrel, this time fill the barrel only half way. Put your finger over the muzzle and rock the gun back and forth allowing the water to slosh back and forth, you will hear it. Pour the water out again and notice that it is slightly less dirty than the first time. Repeat until the water comes out clean. Now that you have clean water comming out, you have clean most of the heavy fouling out and yoiu want to drain as much water as you can so lean the musket, muzzle down, against your old friend the tree or fence and let it sit for a few minutes. Protect the muzzle from getting mud or dirt jammed into it, I use a piece of firewood if possible but a grassy patch will do if that is all you have. (Don't use a rock or pavement unless you are sure that it won't slip and abrade the muzzle thereby damaging it! :shocked2: You can use your little piece of leather if that is all you have, just don't loose it, you will need it next time.)
5 - Now, take your wiper and screw it to the end of your rammer. Wrap it with tow or, lacking that, put a thin piece of natural cloth (cotton or thin linnen) over your muzzle, a two inch square piece is enough, put the wiper on it and push the cloth down the barrel to the breeck plug face, turn it clockwise about a quarter to a half turn and withdraw it, dispose of the dirty patch and replace with a clean one. Repeat with a new patch until they start coming out clean and dry and you are done cleaning the bore.
6 - Take one of your patches and LIGHTLY oil it, push it down the bore and withdraw.
7 - Use your combination tool to remove your cone and use your vent pick to clean it out then pour water out of your canteen on it and dry it well. Use you vent pick to make sure that the flame passage in the cone seat is also clean - you can screw a damp patch into it to remove any fouling there. Make sure it and the cone are dry. Then LIGHTLY oil only the threads and screw the cone back into its seat.
8 - Take a damp rag and clean the outside of your barrel taking special care around the breech, the lock face and the inside of the hammer recess, then dry with aq clean patck and (you guessed it) LIGHTLY oil everything.
9 - You're done, go eat whatever you have in your haversack and get some rest, you'll need you strength tomorrow. Oh, and don't let an overly enthusiastic numnutz "hammer" you breech face with the rammer during the inspection, you can "ring" a barrel with a one inch drop of the rammer, so don't let some farb trash your barrel. One last thing, don't forget to use a clean patch to remove the light coat of oil from your bore when next you load. I have been using this method exclusively for 20 years on original and repop muskets and have NEVER had any trouble with rust, just be sure that everything is dry. With no short cuts, this shouldn't take any longer than 15 pleasant minutes with friends. The army knew how to do things so listen to what they said.
