Flintlock swabbing process? How to clean between shots?

[Greg Blackburn]

OK.....almost ready to begin shooting my .45 Thompson Center Hawken flintlock. However, I am a bit concerned swabbing might push fouling down into the breech. Does the TC flintlock have a patent breech to worry about?

I've shot my CVA caplock over 100 times, usually swabbing with a wet patch (soapy water) then drying with two dry patches between each shot. Can I do the same with a TC flintlock and it shoot each time?

 

[Carbon 6]

Add alcohol to your soapy water. 50/50

Squirt some down the barrel every 5th shot and quickly swab shooting the liquid out the vent. You could shoot for eternity that way.

 

[Greg Blackburn]

Rubber alcohol OK for this?

 

[Carbon 6]

Rubbing alcohol OK for this?

Ya, I'd use the 90% though.

MAP (Murphy's oil soap, alcohol and peroxide) works the best for swabbing/cleaning. IMO.

 

[tenngun]

A cleaning patch piped in my mouth and chewed a second like a piece of gum. Or just a splashed out of my canteen and squeezed.

 

[Zonie]

OK.....almost ready to begin shooting my .45 Thompson Center Hawken flintlock. However, I am a bit concerned swabbing might push fouling down into the breech. Does the TC flintlock have a patent breech to worry about?

I've shot my CVA caplock over 100 times, usually swabbing with a wet patch (soapy water) then drying with two dry patches between each shot. Can I do the same with a TC flintlock and it shoot each time?

You are right. Done incorrectly, "swabbing" can cause a lot of fouling in the bore ending up in the breech of the bore and in the small flame channel that connects it with the vent hole. Once that happens, misfires will become common.

Yes. The TC guns, both caplock and flintlock have a fairly long, small hole that connects the breech with the nipple or vent hole.

My recommended way to "swab" the bore is to use a cleaning patch and a cleaning jag on the ramrod or range rod.

Dampen the patch with water or something similar like MAP (or a lot of spit) to the point that it is almost dripping. Then, squeeze out some of the water so the patch is very wet but not dripping.

Place the wet patch on the muzzle push it down the bore using the ramrod and jag. Don't rush it and don't "pump" it up and down. It must be one smooth movement down the barrel. It should take about 2 seconds to push the patch completely to the bottom of the bore until it stops.

Let the wet patch sit there for at least a count of 5 to 10 seconds and then slowly pull the ramrod and patch back completely out of the bore.

The 5 to 10 second wait will allow the fouling that was on the bore to absorb the water from the patch and soften up. When you pull the patch out of the bore, it will wipe off almost all of the fouling that was on the wall of the bore.
After the now filthy patch is out of the bore, change it for a clean one and run it once, up and down the bore on the jag to dry the surface and your ready to reload.

The way NOT to swab a bore is to use a dripping wet patch. The excess water will wet the entire breech area leaving it soaking wet. If that happens, especially with the guns with a "patent" or "chambered breech, the water will wet the new powder charge and keep it from blowing down thru the flame channel to the nipple or vent hole.
Another way NOT to swab a bore is to put a slightly damp patch on the ramrod jag and pump it up and down the bore. Doing it this way will break off the fouling and push it down the bore to the breech where it can plug up the flame channel. Of course, if the flame channel is plugged with fouling, the new powder charge doesn't stand a chance of getting to the nipple or the vent hole.

 

[Sidney Smith]

Ya, I'd use the 90% though.

MAP (Murphy's oil soap, alcohol and peroxide) works the best for swabbing/cleaning. IMO.

No, and Ive said this before, do not use peroxide it is a weak acid. Just Murphy's and alcohol mixed is all you need for a range cleaner.

 

[Zonie]

Folks should use water instead of hydrogen peroxide. Then they could call the stuff MAW. Who would know better than your MAW about cleaning up stuff?

 

[Grenadier1758]

The T/C Hawken has a chambered breech. By the way, its quite likely that so does your CVA.
So, if it works for your CVA, your wiping method will likely work for the T/C.
Listen to Zonie and Sid.

 

[Art Caputo]

No, and Ive said this before, do not use peroxide it is a weak acid. Just Murphy's and alcohol mixed is all you need for a range cleaner.

The concentration of drugstore grade peroxide which is used in MAP is 2-3% concentration in water, less then 1% when mixed in a MAP formulation. In the process of cleaning the black powder residue from the barrel , the small amount of peroxide acts as a chelating agent expending itself and solubilizing the corrosive black powder residues residues into the MAP solution. This chemical reaction is what makes MAP such an effective black powder cleaning agent. For the 5-10 minutes that the solution is used to clean the barrel, potential damage to the barrel/steel is nil, and more so when lubricant is applied after cleaning. The exposure of spent black powder in contact with the barrel is many times more corrosive then the heavily diluted peroxide in MAP. I have been using MAP on a half dozen rifles for over 20 years with no evidence of corrosion.

 

[appalichian hunter]

SPIT PATHCH between about every 4th shot works for me, if your worried about fowling in the breech pick the vent, why complicate things, I am a pouch shooter so the less I carry the better.

 

[Carbon 6]

No, and Ive said this before, do not use peroxide it is a weak acid.

That's good because powder residue is basic.
So is Murphy's oil soap. So they neutralize or at least it lowers the PH of the fouling.

 

[Mulebrain]

Just ran a five day shooting match, and I don't swab between shots. Didn't even clean it with five days of shooting

 

[Carbon 6]

Just ran a five day shooting match, and I don't swab between shots. Didn't even clean it with five days of shooting

Congratulations, did you win ?

 

[cositrike]

OK.....almost ready to begin shooting my .45 Thompson Center Hawken flintlock. However, I am a bit concerned swabbing might push fouling down into the breech. Does the TC flintlock have a patent breech to worry about?

I've shot my CVA caplock over 100 times, usually swabbing with a wet patch (soapy water) then drying with two dry patches between each shot. Can I do the same with a TC flintlock and it shoot each time?

I use murphys oil soap neat for patch lube. I’ve never had to swab between shots.

 

[Griz44Mag]

OK.....almost ready to begin shooting my .45 Thompson Center Hawken flintlock. However, I am a bit concerned swabbing might push fouling down into the breech. Does the TC flintlock have a patent breech to worry about?

I've shot my CVA caplock over 100 times, usually swabbing with a wet patch (soapy water) then drying with two dry patches between each shot. Can I do the same with a TC flintlock and it shoot each time?

For range wiping -
Use a slightly modified jag, tapered on the tip so it will skip over the fouling and than the foiling will be dragged out on the return pull.
I use plain old windex - it has soap and alcohol and does an excellent job of wiping - plus it evaporates so fast there is no wait time for reloading like there is with a water and soap mix.
Process? Damp a patch - send it down the barrel, pull it back out. Then reload.
There is no reason to wipe and dry and wipe again.
I shoot all day using this method on all my guns, smoothies and rifled, Thompson, Pedersoli, Navy arms, - all of them.
I went through the issues like you are now doing, I was way overworking the barrel between shots. KISS - be simple - like the guns you love to shoot!

here are my 50 and 54 jags I use for the range.

 

[rp77469]

IME of shooting a CVA for now over 4 decades, you don't need to clean between shots if you use 3f and a good amount of lube. Lube can be just about anything: bear grease, lube 1000, wonder lube, deer tallow, mutton tallow, lard, white wheel bearing grease, various homemade concoctions ....etc. I have tried them all over the years in thousands of rounds out of my favorite rifle. They all work, some a bit better than others, but they all work just fine. I very rarely have to clean this rifle when at the range, even after 40+ shots.

When I do clean at the range, it is a spritz of Windex on a flannel (laundered twice) patch I cut from close-out flannel from the fabric store. At rendezvous, I clean with spit. I send the patch down the barrel about 6 inches, pull back 1 inch, rinse and repeat until I get to the bottom. I scrub the bottom few inches three or four times, then pull the patch from the barrel. I dry patch follows to dry the barrel.

I do have one rifle that MUST be cleaned after every shot or after 5 shots I have a 4-5 inch group on the target at 50 yards. Clean it each shot and it cuts a clover-leaf on the paper from 50 yards. The nice thing about a caplock is you can put a cap on the critter after a quick cleaning, hold the muzzle on a blade of grass and fire the cap. The grass moving shows the channel is clear.

I have two flintlocks and clean the rifle the same way as above. This is not rocket science. My Bess I clean using tow and a worm, but is essentially the same process. I bought one of those fancy touch hole cleaning siphon thingies about 5 years ago and it is still in the packaging.

There are dozens of ways to clean the bore that work. Some good advice from people who have a combined hundreds of years of experience has been posted already. Try a couple of these until you are happy with a system that works for you.

 

[olskool]

I never swab between shots. my sessions are 20-30 shots average sometimes less. that is using goex, swiss I hardly shoot anymore builds a hard ring near the breach in my 40 after about 5 shots. if you don't swab you have to beat the ball down, so it's mostly goex for me,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

[Rifleman1776]

might push fouling down into the breech

Two part answer: Those folks who have problems pushing fouling down the breech are using too large a jag. A jag does not have to be tight in the bore to clean. Most rod/jags have a narrowed area, called a rebate just behind the jag. The patch goes down without much pressure against the bore. But, when pulled back up the patch bunches up into the rebate and against the bore. This is what drags gunk back up for your cleaning. Part two: You asked about between shot procedure. Need not be complexcated. My long time method is simple. I use cotton baby blanket flannel cut into aprox. 2" squares. I wet them with spit. They are not dripping soaked, just wet. That is run down the bore for my between shots swabbing. Simple and effective.

 

[Sidney Smith]

The concentration of drugstore grade peroxide which is used in MAP is 2-3% concentration in water, less then 1% when mixed in a MAP formulation. In the process of cleaning the black powder residue from the barrel , the small amount of peroxide acts as a chelating agent expending itself and solubilizing the corrosive black powder residues residues into the MAP solution. This chemical reaction is what makes MAP such an effective black powder cleaning agent. For the 5-10 minutes that the solution is used to clean the barrel, potential damage to the barrel/steel is nil, and more so when lubricant is applied after cleaning. The exposure of spent black powder in contact with the barrel is many times more corrosive then the heavily diluted peroxide in MAP. I have been using MAP on a half dozen rifles for over 20 years with no evidence of corrosion.

As I've always said, its your gun do what you want. If someone does not have a problem then use peroxide. I have been told by many shooters not to use it. I trust what the majority tells me over the one. Again your gun do what you want. My guns will never see peroxide.