cleaning

[jim foley]

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who shoots a lot of BP and he told me not to waste my money on bore butter and all the fancy cleaners. He said he has used crisco for patch lube for years and never had a problem. He also said that he uses winshield wiper fluid and murphys soap to clean with and runs a patch with crisco down the barrel before he puts it up. I got into taxidermy several years ago and quickly learned that a lot of products with fancy names could be bought at craft stores for half the money of what the supply houses were charging.

 

[MikeChapin]

I just use a soapy water solution to clean with. I use Ballistol to protect the barrel after it is cleaned.

The problem with windshield washing fluid is that if you aren't careful you can wind up with a hard silvery cake in the breech. Make sure to get at every part of the barrel with it. The same can be said of any other bore cleaning method but they generally don't make any crud left behind cake up so hard.

As far as using lard to protect the barrel, it is not the best stuff to use. A few years back someone did a test of various protective oils. As I remember Ballistol and Sheath came out about the best. You can try a search and see if you can find those original postings. Bore Butter has a bad habit of clogging the rifling over many uses and can drop the accuracy of the rifle unless it is completely cleaned out.

I used 30 weight motor oil for years to protect the barrel. It protected alright but made the barrel gunk up when firing the gun with it in the barrel. Probably wouldn't have happened if I had run a couple of alcohol patches before I started shooting but didn't know the problems of using petroleum based lubes then.

 

[jim foley]

I think i will try Ballistol.I dont remember seeing it at bass pro but i will check again next time im in there. thanks

 

[Rafsob]

Water and alcohol or water and vinger will do just fine. If you use Balistol, make sure it is not mixed with water. To use it as a lubericant for protective reasons it must be straight and not mixed!!!

 

[Little Wattsy]

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who shoots a lot of BP and he told me not to waste my money on bore butter and all the fancy cleaners. He said he has used crisco for patch lube for years and never had a problem. He also said that he uses winshield wiper fluid and murphys soap to clean with and runs a patch with crisco down the barrel before he puts it up. I got into taxidermy several years ago and quickly learned that a lot of products with fancy names could be bought at craft stores for half the money of what the supply houses were charging.

That "lesson" works well here too. There are a 1000 ways to do it and the cheapies seem to do just as well. I REALLY like formula 409 to clean with myself BUT warm water w/a dab of soap does pretty darn good too.
I personally choose a "gun oil" to wipe with to store my guns BUT.....a seal aganst moisture IS the primary objective.

 

[hanshi]

I really don't like the expensive bore butter type greases; they smell good but that's about it. Crisco is a good substitute. But Crisco is far from being the best. I clean with soapy warm water, dry and protect with modern gun oils.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Crisco, lard, olive oil,castor oil, sperm whale oil (considered the best for a couple of hundred years),and many other vegatable,& animal oils all work well . Most people settle on what they like and use it.While IMHO none of them are as good of a rust preventive as petrolium based oils they all make good lubes.For cleaning warm water&any type of soap work quite well. Alcohol works well in freezing temperatures as well as mixed with water (which is what windshield fluid is ). Since most of us in this game are really cheap just use what you find works well for you and doesn't cost much so you will have more money left to buy powder!

 

[Nichols Creek]

Moose milk....1/3 each of Murphys oil soap, alcohol, and hydrogen peroxicde. The protect the metal with Ballistol...can't go wrong.

 

[ebiggs1]

Go over to the Flintlock forum and read the thread "Your story".
A bunch of guys are telling what they like best because they work.
EB