Cleaning

[woodsnwater]

Me too! Some guy on this board accused me of not caring for these guns and of just using them until they rust so badly they need to be replaced. Man, nothing could be further from the truth. It’s just that, for this area and the climate conditions I’m faced with, maintenance is much easier than many folks make it. I don’t know too much about the more humid climes, when I lived in those places I wasn’t able to devote much time to bp shooting so maybe this regimen wouldn’t work as well there. But my educated guess is that it probably would.

Sorry if I missed it, but how do you clean yours so quick?

 

[Bad Karma]

Sorry if I missed it, but how do you clean yours so quick?

The actions are packed with Mobil 1 Synthetic grease and only get detail stripped every year or so. For the rest of the gun, run a couple wet patches through the bore and then the chambers. I use a damp toothbrush on and around the cones and follow this with dry patches and then a patch dampened with Eezox or Frog Lube. Once that dries I reload the gun and put it away. If I know I’ll shoot that gun the next day I just reload it without any cleaning at all except a quick wipe to remove external fouling. I do live in a very dry climate but I’ve never had any trouble with rust or corrosion. If I lived in a humid clime I’d experiment with this routine and see just what works there. I know bp residue is hydrophilic and the salts in it attract moisture but I think it’s less corrosive than commonly thought. Much of the corrosion issue in the past was due to corrosive primers and caps.

This applies to revolvers and these get used a lot. Rifles receive a more intense cleaning and drying regimen. More wet patches until they’re squeaky clean and then dry and follow with Frog Lube.

took longer to write about it than it takes to actually do it…

 

[Ed C.]

That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works.

It works for me. Some days I just want to shoot. Other days, with plenty of time available, I will enjoy fiddling around with the disassembly and cleaning of the BP revolvers. In any case, I will not shoot if I can not properly clean my guns the same day. To each his own

 

[Bad Karma]

Sorry if I missed it, but how do you clean yours so quick?

This is a great example of how well cared for my guns are! Just a quick wipe and away we go!

 

[woodsnwater]

A little ballistol will fix that right up.

 

[mushka]

I have four handguns, three revolvers and one single barrel. I've never been a a lover of cleaning guns of any kind. Least of all BP revolvers. I like looking at them and shooting them but cleaning them up is a different story. I don't mind the pirate pistol so much as it is kind of like a short rifle. The revolvers to me are a pain so I shoot them seldom. Besides with my arthritis I can't really shoot them well. Age has done me wrong there. Rifles aren't so bad, fairly straight forward. I shoot rifles a whole lot more as they are less complicated to clean but I still ain't crazy about it. My guns deserve to be maintained and I maintain them, I just don't like doing it. Also I'm not a gun fondler. I guess it takes all kinds.

 

[Fred Hulshoff]

After a shooting session with my blacpowder revolver the inside of the barrel was completely black from resedue, not enymore, using the right wads containing paper, beeswax, and vegetable fat, the barrel is always as clean as after the first shot.
Also resedue between the barrel and the cylinder is at a minimum so it doesn't prevent shooting after about 5 loads anymore.

 

[SOLANCO]

I like my cap and ball revolver but rarely shoot it any longer. I spend more time cleaning and maintaining it than I do shooting it. An invention that could have waited on smokeless powder. Guess a Civil War officer could just hand it to a private to clean it.