Cleaning the flintlock

[Carteret Kid]

How is the best way to clean a flint lock musket ?

 

[paulvallandigham]

Soap and tepid water will do the job, with a good bore sized cleaning jag, and cotton cleaning patches. You can plug the touch hole to hold the water in the barrel, or mount the gun so that the touch hole is facing down. Remove the lock, which you have to clean anyway, after every time you shoot the gun. Otherwise, powder residue gets in behind the lock plate, and rusts the lock. There are commercial cleaners that work very well. Some people swear by some of the window washing cleaners, that come in spray bottles. Someone else likes a hand cleaner. Soap and water have been doing the job well for hundreds of years, and while most of us are seduced by ads to try this or that, when it comes down to cleaning the gun well after a long range session, most of us are in our kitchen or garage with a bucket and soap and water. There are kits that attach a small hose to the vent so that you can clean the barrel in the stock without worrying about the water and dirt getting under the barrel, or into the lock mortise. Check the suppliers listed here under Member Resources, at the top of the index page to the forum. If you allowed crud to build up, you will want a bore sized brass or bronze cleaning brush to use on the barrel to break up and pull out the caked crud. Otherwise you have to soak the crud in warm water and soap for an hour or so to dissolve the crud in order to remove it.

 

[trent/OH]

For my smoothbore musket I pour some water into the barrel first, and swish it around, fingers/thumbs over the vent and muzzle, to remove a lot of the fouling. It softens up the remainder also since it may have dried out since leaving the firing range if you drive home first.
After the musket is clean, a light coating of oil helps keep the rust away.

 

[Carteret Kid]

Has anyone here use the Track of the Wolf ,Flint Flush tool ? Does it work / worth the $$$$ ?

 

[ol vern]

I have one,

1. dose it work? yes
2 is it worth the $? no

 

[tg]

Once you get on to it the method of soaking/flushing the bore while the vent is plugged then alternatng dry wet patches then lubing the dry barrel is pretty quick without the use of doo dads, it helps to tie a rag around the gun just behind the vent after it is pluged with a toothpick to prevent spillage. A good head start is to wipe the bore with wet patches at the range or after hunting to soften up/remove much of the fouling, a sort of pre-cleaning.

 

[KW]

(This was a response that I wrote to another cleaning thread, hope this helps) I was taught and still am told that water and firearms are a no, :nono: I know it's been a long time tradition, but I have yet seen any documentation that the folks that depended on their rifles for daily life used water (the cause of rust anyways, without being introduced in an already corrosive environment) other than the military at that time, if anyone does know of some please tell me. I have used Hobbes Powder Solvent to clean and Break Free CLP as a preservative for most of my life and no problems, no rust, no grim, no ruined stocks. In the field I use a bottle with air tubing as a flushing sink. Pretty simple and it works. Yes it works with BP, Pyrodex, 777 all that stuff and no fear of rust or worrying if I got the barrel dry enough.

 

[tg]

Interesting I am curious as to what else they might have had acces to to clean their guns in the past, frontier type folks, 18th century and earlier. If military application is acknowledged why would civilian be different?

 

[KW]

A soldier had a lot easier time to replace his musket compared to a farmer/hunter on the frontier if it got rusted. Where as the civilian folk would have to pay to replace or fix their firearm if they were in distance of a gunsmith. I would assume just like today. Soldier's weapon is broken, go to the armorer and get it repaired or replaced. A civilian must find a smith and pay for services or send it in and wait, and I bet the economy wasn't as good then as it is now.
I had a recipe for fat and lye soap to form a sort of water free soap solution...see if I can find it and post it, might of gotten lost in the move. One rumor I came across was lamp oil :shocked2: ....very brave. I have used sage oil and that works, just takes a long time and a lot of sage brush to make. Smells nice too.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Lamp oil is mostly kerosene, with some perfumes added to it to improve its smell.

 

[KW]

I guess lamp oil would work??? Guess it would make it easy to see if there was any left in the barrel....got a light :grin: