Do You Remove Your Barrel?

[Smokey Plainsman]

I’ve got a flintlock couple guns with the usual pinned barrels. But, removing those itty bitty pins has me a bit worried I’ll damage something or blow out the wood around them.

How often should one remove the barrel? Is it actually needed for cleaning and maintenance or should it be left alone?

Thanks!

 

[William Sublette]

Good question. I have one that's pretty cool, but I'd like to have it bored out to .54, or .58.

I don't want to start pushing pins on a really cool rifle.

 

[deerstalkert]

Smokey, you really don't need to remove the barrel.
I remove the lock, turn the vent down with a tin to catch the smut that comes out.
then i use windex and squirt some down the barrel. follow with a wet tight fitting patch on a jag.
repeat until clean.
alternative,
get one of those hoses with the magnet that fits over the vent, pump water just like if you took off the barrel.

 

[deerstalkert]

see if @davec2 still sells his gizmo. i use it on all my pinned stocks.

 

[Dave Marsh]

This is what I use. Works like a champ.
https://www.luckybag.us/MagneticFlushTube.html

 

[ETipp]

I seldom remove the barrel on my Crockett rifle to clean it. All my others I do remove the barrel.

On my Crockett, I do apply a thin layer of Bore Butter in the stock to act as a gasket when squeezing the barrel back on the stock. This has worked out very well and prevents any water or moisture from getting between the bottom of the barrel and the stock.

 

[French Colonial]

Asked and answered two weeks ago, search for cleaning rituals, the following was my reply then

This is for cleaning a flintlock with a pinned barrel.

First you must have a pattern makers vice on one end of your bench and a support on the other for the stock.

Clamp the buttstock in the vice while the other end is supported, remove the lock using gunsmith specific screwdrivers.

Using a pin punch with a concave point made especially for removing barrel pins, tap the pins part way out and using flat face pliers remove the pins and then using gunsmith specific screwdrivers remove the tang screw.

Inspect the pins and straighten if needed by tapping with a jewelers hammer while on a perfectly flat surface.

While the stock is in the pattern makers vice stick a dowel rod in the barrel and gently pry up while pushing down on the stock, careful so you do not crack the stock.

Remove the breech plug and the vent liner, clean both thoroughly.

Scrub the interior of the barrel with your favorite gun cleaning juice until the white cleaning patches are spotless, oil the barrel inside and out with Ballistol, tell the wife the cat farted

Completely disassemble the lock, place the parts in a fine mesh bag and run the securely fastened bag and parts through the dishwasher, promise the wife you will not do it again while her good dishes are in there.

Rub all the lock parts down with Ballistol (damn cat) and reassemble. You probably should have already ordered the replacement fly for the lock by now.

Coat the bottom of the barrel with a good paste wax, apply another coat of polyurethane sealer to the inside of the barrel channel of the stock to keep moisture from penetrating.

Reassemble and apply a good coat of paste wax to the entire gun.

And that is how YOU should do it, I do it like the evil Mike Brooks (Comfortably Numb) does and have for forty years. This will mean you new guys will go do something else to avoid the hassle instead of shoot BP which means more BP, flints etc. for me!

I fill the barrel with water with a toothpick in the vent. Let is sit for 10 minutes and pour it out. usually add water again and pour it out immediately. Then a couple dry patches followed by a couple Windex patches then dry with a couple more then oil. No real time involved at all. For BPCR I just use maybe four Windex , a couple dry and then oil.
I never ever remove a barrel for anything other than to change a vent liner every 5 or 6 thousand shots.

 

[nchawkeye]

No need to, put a toothpick in touch hole fill with water, pour out most of the fouling, run a couple of patches through, repeat as often as needed to get fouling out...I then run some rubbing alcohol down to finish drying, and lubricate with a good gun oil...

 

[PathfinderNC]

No.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

NEVER

 

[Johnny Tremain]

My first flinter was a crappy production gun. it came a part.
The custom rifle a built is pined, and glass bedded in. Aint going nowhere.

 

[Kevin]

Only time I remove a barrel is if it needs to be bent straight when sighting in a new one. Like to keep the sights in the middle of the flats. After that, leave it alone.

 

[waksupi]

I remove them once every ten years or so, to see if they need another fresh layer of wax applied. Don't be taking them apart for anything else. You'll just bugger up the stock.

 

[Grenadier1758]

It is not necessary to remove the barrel from a pinned stock for cleaning. @waksupi removes his more often than needed. It is far too easy to splinter the stock by removing the ins and that can occur when using the correctly sized pin punches. Use a toothpick in the touch hole or get a rare earth magnet, place a round gasket of plastic electrical tape to seal the touch hole. Fill the bore with the cleaning solution. Dump that several times to get out most of the fouling. Wipe the bore with cleaning patches wet with the cleaning solution. Wipe the touch hole with a small pipe cleaner or dental flossing brush, dry the bore with a clean patch and remove remaining water with rubbing alcohol or WD40. Apply rust inhibiting lubricant for storage.

Now there are some who do remove their pinned barrels for cleaning and will be bragging about it. Being from Missouri, I would have to get better verification of that process.

@Smokey Plainsman, do keep the vent hole pointing down so any solution will not drain out on the stock. Dave Crisselli's magnetic vent flusher from "The Lucky Bag" is a good device if the vent liner is flush on the barrel and your vent liner does not have a slot that is wider than the magnetic seal.

 

[TreeMan]

Nope. Never. Coat the underside of the barrel with past wax, pin it and use it the rest of your life that way.

 

[Rob M.]

I’ve got a flintlock couple guns with the usual pinned barrels. But, removing those itty bitty pins has me a bit worried I’ll damage something or blow out the wood around them.

How often should one remove the barrel? Is it actually needed for cleaning and maintenance or should it be left alone?

Thanks!

Ya get used to removing those pins when your a builder , esp. when you have to keep removing the barrel to bend it , well , straighten it to get the windage right a dozen times or so ...BUT ... if for regular cleaning , if you take the barrel out once a year that'd be about max but no real need to remove the barrel , unless you drop it in the creek by accident ! LOL ... pins SHOULD be flatted on top and pointy on the bottom., but man , ive seen some BAD ones!! Ive seen pins by a well known builder and he obviously just snipped both ends of the pins with cutter and drove them down without flattening the top or makin a point on the end ! Geesh !! ....and the pins should be started on the lock side and drove out to the side plate side ....use or make a very slightly under sized punch and slowly tape the flat side of barrel pin till the end starts out the stock and you can grab it with pliers ...go slow ... When they are all out and tag screw out , wrap hands around barrel and stock , and tap the buttplate heal on bench or floor , easy ...the tang will pop out with out taking a chunk of wood out neat the tang ...

 

[Sidney Smith]

I never remove pinned barrels. I've been doing as nchawkeye mentioned. Toothpick in the touch hole, pour hot water down the barrel. Hold a rag over the muzzle and shake the gun back and forth a few times. Swab out the crud, then repeat a couple times. Dry the bore with patches, then blow hot air from a hair dryer through, then oil the barrel.

Now for my barrels with wedge pins like my Lyman GPR, I remove the barrel and dunk the breech end in a bucket of hot water, and pull water up the bore via a patched jag and rod. Then dry as above.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

It is not necessary to remove the barrel from a pinned stock for cleaning. @waksupi removes his more often than needed. It is far too easy to splinter the stock by removing the ins and that can occur when using the correctly sized pin punches. Use a toothpick in the touch hole or get a rare earth magnet, place a round gasket of plastic electrical tape to seal the touch hole. Fill the bore with the cleaning solution. Dump that several times to get out most of the fouling. Wipe the bore with cleaning patches wet with the cleaning solution. Wipe the touch hole with a small pipe cleaner or dental flossing brush, dry the bore with a clean patch and remove remaining water with rubbing alcohol or WD40. Apply rust inhibiting lubricant for storage.

Now there are some who do remove their pinned barrels for cleaning and will be bragging about it. Being from Missouri, I would have to get better verification of that process.

@Smokey Plainsman, do keep the vent hole pointing down so any solution will not drain out on the stock. Dave Crisselli's magnetic vent flusher from "The Lucky Bag" is a good device if the vent liner is flush on the barrel and your vent liner does not have a slot that is wider than the magnetic seal.

Thanks! That is exactly how I’ve been cleaning. I now know removing the barrel isn’t needed.

 

[deerstalkert]

This is what I use. Works like a champ.
https://www.luckybag.us/MagneticFlushTube.html

there she blows! that's the animal!

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

tired of the idiocies on how to clean your gun...if you dont know how...well maybe thats a problem. If the barrel comes readily with a wedge it,s much easier. hot water will do the trick with copious amounts of lubricant there after. for pinned barrels there are many posts here on how to clean it up after shooting.
.