first post season cleaning, arrrgh rust!! assistance requested

[Pittsburghunter]

I use water to clean my rifles (sometimes) but whatever I use to get rid of the crude is followed by a good water dispersing solvent. I then dry the barrel real good and use a fine gun oil to preserve it.

Flinters usually get warm soapy water then clean rinse water and after they are dry Hoppes dry patches again then good gun oil. If I have only taken a few shots I use BP solvent then Hoppes and gun oil.

Believe it or not most of the BP solvents I have tried work pretty good. Right now I am trying Hoppes Elite BP solvent and the results are very good so far. It was expensive but makes cleaning a rifle that you have just taken a few shots out of very easy.

 

[JOHN L. HINNANT]

Good Morning Ricky,

Yes..., Hoppes Number 9 Plus has been around a lot time now, and it is a very good product. If memory serves me correctly, it came out not long after the introduction of the T-C Hawken. The T-C Hawken gave a shot-in-the-arm to the nearly dead activity of muzzle loading shooting.

While there are personal concerns about the T-C rifling style, I will always applaud T-C for giving the American Shooter a quality muzzle loader at an affordable price.

I personally believe that all of the fine muzzle loading rifles and accessory products are the result of what T-C started with their "Hawken Rifle", and Hoppes Nine Plus is one of the products.

My memory not does recall Nine Plus being on the market before the introduction of the T-C Hawken Rifle.

My ONLY problem with Hoppes Nine Plus is that is a bit too thick to work well in the "flush" method of cleaning. The thinner water-base Black-Solve works better, FOR ME AT LEAST, in flushing through a patent breech or drum and nipple.

For a bore cleaner, it ranks at the top. In this respect, no other product is significantly better.

If Hoppes Nine Plus was the only commercial cleaning product available to me, it would not be not be a disaster.

Best regards and good shooting,

John L. Hinnant

If you are not an NRA or NMLRA Member, why not? I am carrying your load.

 

[Dphar]

Hello all,

New to muzzleloading. I have a Lyman Trade flint 50 rifle. Bought it for late flintlock deer season in PA. I did my first post season cleaning and I believe I have a problem. (I have done barrell cleaning after sighting in and hunting and have not had a problem)

Post season cleaning:
I cleaned the barrell out w/ hot soapy water (cleaning jag and cotton patch). Then with hot water (almost boiling point). Then I ran patches through it until it was dry. Then I ran a few patches of ballistol. Then I ran dry patches until they came out dry. Then I set it muzzle down in my house for 2 days (was recommended so that any liquids would drain out).

First.
Hot water will always "brown" the inside of the barrel. Hot water is not needed for blackpowder fouling. I think this process is a carry over from the old perchlorate primer era when hot water was a good idea. Tepid, warm or even room temperature water with some soap (I use window cleaner with vinegar mixed 2:1 water/cleaner) is all that is needed so long as you do not use the BP "substitutes" some of which are far harder to remove.
Fixed breech:
I remove the lock so it can be cleaned. I plug the touch hole with a round toothpick. I pour in aboit 6" of cleaning solution. I put my thumb over the muzzle and slosh the solution back a forth a few times. Then run in a wet patch down and back a few times and dump it out.
Repeat first process.
I have a brush that is made by soldering a 8x32 or 10x32 screw into the drilled primer pocket of a straight walled cartridge case 38/45 pistol type. (I know its disgusting talking about brass suppositories). In the open end I glue/epoxy the bristles from an appropriate sized Japanese type artists/letting brush. The pointed type with the bamboo type handle.
I screw this on the rod and use it to brush the the out breech while I still have solution in the bore. Wet patch a time or tw then dump
I dump the solution again and follow with room temp to tepid clear water as a rinse. Wet patch a couple of times. If they look clean I dry the bore with patches.
Note: There may be some black iron oxide scrubbed off by the drier patches. If you feel this is fouling try a tight wet patch. It it comes out clean the black is not fouling.
I use G-96 gun treatment as a rust preventative. I have used it since the 1960's (was G-66 then) and have never had a reason to cuss it.
I shoot a shot down the bore and then follow iwith a patch. The the patch comes out pretty soaked I am done except for turning it muzzle down on several patches over night to keep oil from creeping out the touch hole and into the wood.
If I have a hooked breech I clean in a bucket with about 6" of soapy water (takes too much window cleaner mix). Finish up as above.
I finally got tired of the brown finish in the barrel and quit using hot water all together.
If feel you must use hot water for some reason then use a water displacing oil (g-96 will work as will WD-40 but WD-40 is far less effective as a protectant) as soon as the hot water is drained out. This will allow the water to be wiped out without rusting the bore since the oil will keep the water off the steel. I would turn it muzzle down for a couple minutes after a very good dose of water displacer. Then wipe it till pretty dry then reoil and store over night muzzle down.
NEVER use a water soluable oil.

Dan

 

[Dphar]

When you clean the barrel with hot soapy water, you need to rinse it with hot water then let tit dry for a little while. The heated barrel will dry fairley fast. Then you need to oil it very well for at least three days in a row. The hot soapy water will clean the fouling, but also remove the natural iol in the barrel, opening the pores. The barrel will be very susceptilbe to rust, if the posre are now reoiled. The oil will soak in overnight, and leave the surface dry again. Three days is usually enought to stop this rust. As for cleaning the rust you now have, try some fine valve grinding compound on a few patches. It will not remove it all, but what is left will not harm the barrel. Then reoil the barrel.
The touch hole liner should be screwed in until tight and flush with the surface of the barrel. Don't use lock tight, because you may need to replace the liner in the future.
I use Simple Green as a cleaner after shooting, and it works well with out the heat. You may want to give that a try. Good luck. Robert

Simple Green is great stuff. But it will streak the heck out of a traditional oil finish on stocks.

I don't think TH liners should be removeable. I would use the easier to remove locktite to seal the threads if the threads are exposed to powder gases. This will seal them and unless some drastic touch pick is used a SS liner will last through a lot of shooting and the low strength locktite its not that hard to disassemble. I make mine so they seal against a shoulder on the inside and the threads are not exposed to powder gases. I do this after finding a storebought version had gas cut around the threads about 25 years ago. Mine don't do this and locktite should also prevent this was well.

Dan

 

[renovato]

Really hot water can flash rust the bore. I used to use it but have recently switched to just warm water. It still dries out pretty fast. Since you said it looks like something dribbled down and rusted it, I'm tempted to think you might have still had some water in the breech when you turned it upside down. Try to get as much water out with a dry patch as you can. You can pour a small shot of 91% rubbing alcohol down the bore to remove the rest of the water. Dump it out and it'll take the water with it. This is where Ballistol comes in handy because it'll mix with any small amounts of moisture that are left and help protect the metal until it evaporates. Wiping out the Ballistol after you apply it reduces it's effectiveness. I wet the bore down nicely with it and let it set. I run a dry patch before shooting to absorb any that has puddled, and pop a couple caps (or a light blank charge in my flinter) to blow out any that's in the nipple/vent.

I also use CorrosionX and it's an incredible rust proofer. You'll need to clean it out thoroughly before firing though. I had some project guns in various states of disassembly in my shed. Sprung a water leak in there and it was some time before I noticed it. Most of the guns had rusted badly, including an SKS that had rusted even under the painted finish. Rusted up a lot of my tools too. There was one gun that didn't have a single speck of rust on it. My .22 rifle that I had apart for restocking. It had never had anything used on it but CorrosionX and it was the only steel in the room without even a freckle.

As for getting out the rust that you have now. Try wrapping some 0000 steel wool around a nylon brush or jag, wet it down really good with Ballistol and work it back and forth in the bore. I'll pull the rust out of the metal. Then you can take a look at the metal and see if you need to lap it smooth. You probably won't need to unless there's deep pitting.

 

[dlocke]

I use cold water. I run water thru the bore til it comes out clear, then plug the vent or nipple and pour in some homemade bore cleaner (2 parts rubbing alcohol, 2 parts hydrogen peroxide, 1 part Murphy's oil soap), let it set a couple minutes and slosh it around and pour it out. Then I run a couple patches of this bore cleaner through, scrubbing real well. After that I take it back to the tub and rinse all that solvent out with cold water. A few patches to dry the bore and finish with a patch with some Breakfree CLP, then finish off with a dry patch, and I've never had a rust problem. I had rust whenever I used hot water.
DJL

 

[AeroncaTAL]

I use cold soapy water, followed by clean water rinse. Then a wet patch of alcohol and finish up with Ballistol. Working pretty well so far. Yesterday, I went and looked at a muzzleloader I saw for sale in an add in the paper. I dropped a bore light down down the bore and the entire barrel was rusty. I mentioned that it didn't look like the rifle had been cleaned. The owner said that he had shot it a couple of days ago and cleaned it with a brush and hot water...
Scott

 

[Dphar]

There's a possiblity you did not get the patent breech area dry and some of the moisture from there ran down the barrel. I use a 9mm jag on a 30 cal. cleanig rod to clean and dry that area.

It doesn't make sense to me NOT to remove the touchhole while cleaning. I have the GPR in flint and always remove the touch hole. I don't take it out until I've put the barrel in a bucket of water and ran a few tight patches up and down the barrel. That will loosen up whatever crud is in the threads enough to get the touchole out without damagiing the screw or allen slots. Once everything is clean and dry I put a small amount of antisieze on the male threads and screw it back in finger tight.

Old Salt

Most factory made MLs will have fouling traps in the breech, generally from improperly installed breechplugs. This includes some big name, relatively high dollar products.
Putting a liner in finger tight invites gas cutting, in a high pressure application it's a mistake.

Dan