Cleaning your flintlock

[Tim Richards]

This has probably been covered somewhere, but I can never seem to get the search function to work for me, so...
The new fowler is a blast to shoot but cleaning is sure a pain compared to my old TC Hawkins. It takes very little to have clean patches coming out the Hawkins but seems to take forever to get clean patches out of the fowler. With the Hawkins, I fill the sink with hot soapy water and use patch and rod to pump the water in and out a few times. I plugged the vent on the fowler and filled with plain hot water. I'd like to say its an act of love to clean it, but I sure wish it would clean quicker. I know this subject has been hashed about off an on, but how do you clean your flintlock after use, what do you find to be most effective? How often do you pull the lock, how do you effectively clean around the vent and lock area with all of its little nooks and crannies?

 

[musketman]

How often do you pull the lock, how do you effectively clean around the vent and lock area with all of its little nooks and crannies?

I pull the lock on my brown bess every time, flashing powder could make it's way to the inside of the lock between the barrel and the pan...

As for them nooks and crannies, use a soft tooth brush and soapy water...

Don't forget to oil them nooks and crannies when you are done...

 

[boar]

TDR Heres A easy to clean you gun I use it Some don't like it Says it will take finish your gun it don't mine .Take equal parts of Murphy oil soap,Peroxide,and alcohol .I usually mix 2oz of each . Shake up,Plug touchhole with stick pour in small Amount, Tilt gun up and down, then lean gun against chair seat,I use seat on picnic table outside , with lock toward ground pull plug let drain out then wipe it out Make sure after your done cleaning, You oil it good Because it takes out all oil, barrel will be clean. The person who gave me this was cleaning his smothbore. You can hear it working after you pour it in . I use it in all of mine. Dilly Little bit powder,little bit lead shoots far and kills dead

 

[Doc Arroyo]

My rifle and smothbore clean up the same...

Pull lock...flush lock with hot tap water...set aside to dry.

Put your favorite solvent in a spray bottle. My current favorite is Windex with vinegar, cut 50% with water. It is less corrosive than the peroxide mixture that I used to use...easier on the hands too!

Plug touch hole with thumb, and spray solvent down the barrel. Rock back and forth so the solvent slides up and down the barrel. Pour out.

Repeat.

Dampen patch with cleaning solution. Wipe barrel

Repeat. (Most of the time the second patch comes out clean.)

Wipe dry with dry patches, and then oil the bore with your favorite lube.

Dry and lube the lock and reinstall.

I think that it took me longer to type this then it does to clean my flintlock! eace:

 

[roundball]

How often do you pull the lock?
How do you effectively clean around the vent and lock area with all of its little nooks and crannies?

Every time I finish shooting a muzzleloader I 100% clean everything with steaming hot soapy water & hot water rinse...including the lock...I even remove the frizzen pivot screw & frizzen to clean and grease that area.

My whole focus is geared towards being able to put a rifle up and never worry about it again until the next time I go to shoot it, whether that's a week, a month, a year, 5 years, etc.

 

[Stumpkiller]

. It takes very little to have clean patches coming out the Hawkins but seems to take forever to get clean patches out of the fowler.

That tells me you have a flash hole a distance from the breech. The fouling is "bunching up" against the breech face as you push the jag/plunger past the vent hole. It isn't "shooshed" out but pushed against the breech. You need either a fouling scraper or a worm that will press hard against the breech plug after the initial soaking. A tow worm really works well for smoothies, and is the authentic way. The tow is just aggressive enough to grab the fouling and has lots of crannies to cart it away. I have one in the patchbox of my rifle (pre-loaded with fresh tow) but it is not as effective as with the smoothies.

A smoothbore should clean up in half the time of a rifle. T/C has that nice little patent breech that focuses the force of the water right at the very bottom of the breech so all the fouling "swooshes" away nicely.

I leave the locks on my hooked breech guns and pull them maybe every forth cleaning. My Bess I used to leave the lock on while cleaing, too. It was a fast job. My flint rifles I pull the lock every time because there is more chance of water incursion and to get all the powder residue cleared. Keeping the shelf below the vent/bolster can prevent a lot of casual water seepage and fouling out of the lock.

Hot, soapy water, followed by hot clean water, followed by an alcohol wipe, followed by Birchwood Casey Sheath, followed by Moose Snot.

For "in the field" cleaning I use moose milk followed by Sheath, followed by Moose Snot. I keep a one oz. bottle of the milk, a Ted Cash brass oiler with the Sheath, and a one oz. tin of Moose Snot in my hunting pouch.