Frustrated - Hopefully just the growing pains of a newbie

[Reds]

Only thing I can toss your way is about the rod you are using to pull. I would use a solid metal rod and not the normal ramrod because if it gives then you will have no way of connecting anything to the jag. I have a solid brass rod threaded on both ends and would feel very comfortable putting it in a vise and pulling like crazy but a normal rod pinned or glued could be trouble! Hope this helps! Reds

 

[Terrier]

I think I know what happened to you with this…. Switching to the 54 jag in the 58 barrel left enough slack room on the edges of the jag for the oversized patch to get doubled over on the edge(s) of the jag, and the crud ring trapped it. That’s why the windex soak was able to free it up.

If your 58 jag is too big in circumference to push a patch down, sand down the circumference. rotating the brass jag on a running belt sander works, but be careful not to overdo it. Be careful and gentle and slow. The edges of the jag will be sharp, so you’ll have to re-round if the edges of the grooves a little by hand so it won’t cut your patches. I had to do the same thing on my 54 Uberti Hawken that’s stamped 54 but is actually a .53

Going forward: Wet patch (water is fine for this) to dissolve the crud ring in short strokes before bottoming out.. may take two or three patches to get it completely cleared… then dry patch.

And ditto on the metal rod for a jag…

 

[Ponderosaman]

I love cleaning my BP shotgun because the patches always come out bright white clean at the end. With my modern weapons, I see gray on the patch no matter how many I use.

There will be quite a lot of fouling in the barrel just from one shot. Much more than a modern firearm that has had 200 rounds through it. Use lubes like olive oil or crisco or whatever you like best while you’re shooting to keep the fouling soft enough to re-load. Even the small amount of wax in my paper fiber wads helps a lot to keep the fouling soft.

For cleaning I remove the nipple and stick the back of the barrel in a bucket of soapy water and scrub the barrel with a wool attachment. Then in hot clean water to rinse. Then patches to dry. Then a very thin barrier oil for storage. This is “normal” for blackpowder, though some people will avoid soap or will even take the half a day to fight the sludge and not use water.

 

[Sir Boniface Harrison]

I love cleaning my BP shotgun because the patches always come out bright white clean at the end. With my modern weapons, I see gray on the patch no matter how many I use.

There will be quite a lot of fouling in the barrel just from one shot. Much more than a modern firearm that has had 200 rounds through it. Use lubes like olive oil or crisco or whatever you like best while you’re shooting to keep the fouling soft enough to re-load. Even the small amount of wax in my paper fiber wads helps a lot to keep the fouling soft.

For cleaning I remove the nipple and stick the back of the barrel in a bucket of soapy water and scrub the barrel with a wool attachment. Then in hot clean water to rinse. Then patches to dry. Then a very thin barrier oil for storage. This is “normal” for blackpowder, though some people will avoid soap or will even take the half a day to fight the sludge and not use water.

Why do some people avoid soap?

 

[waksupi]

Like hot water, it's just unnecessary.

Why do some people avoid soap?

 

[RRidgely52]

being Black powder, water is your friend.

Water and Dawn soap....

 

[WonkyEye]

My normal is water, balistol, Murphy's, and a bit of peroxide.

For mystery 20 year old bore crud I've been known to spend an hour going through a bunch of different solvents to get it back to clean metal. Dawn, denatured alcohol, kroil, laquer thinner, etc. whatever might cut the mystery junk. Once it's good and degreased I've also used evaporust, scrubbing periodically with a green kitchen scrubby on a patch worm, followed by another round of cleaning.

 

[Ed Pilkington]

I share your Joy brother. Cleaning and nursing your weapon will become a moment in the serenity and meditation of our ancesters.

 

[Boston Bill]

being Black powder, water is your friend.

water and dish washing soap or moose milk?

 

[Grenadier1758]

A many have written; water and dish soap are right at the top of list of solvents for black powder fouling. The water is very effective on the dissolving of the fouling, and it only takes a little bit of a grease removing dish soap to remove the oils in the bore. As for Moose Milk, it runs from a simple mix of water-soluble oil and water that makes a white, milky liquid through all sorts of variations to what I call MAP, which is a mix of equal parts of Murphy's Oil Soap, rubbing Alcohol and hydrogen Peroxide. It really has an appearance of effective cleaning as the hydrogen peroxide foams up. MAP does clean out fouling very well, but so does water and dish soap. A mix of equal parts of dish soap and water makes an acceptable patch lubricant, but of course, so does spit and thousands of other variations.

@Boston Bill, are you mixing up a cleaning solution or patch lubricant? Either one is a good cleaning solution. Both will effectively clean black powder fouling and the fouling from the substitute powders. Once the gun is clean, be sure to use a good anti rust, filming lubricant to protect the gun for storage. Birchwood Casey's Barricade is very good. When done cleaning and lubricating, store the firearm muzzle down to let the remaining oils run out and not pool up in the breech. Left over cleaning oils are notorious for leading to first shot misfires.

 

[azmntman]

water and dish washing soap or moose milk?

Yes

I have had a few patches stuck. They can be FRUSTRATING. Mostly, as per above NEVER run a dry patch down a dirty bore. If a patch comes off and you cant grab it with the patch puller dampen a few more and cram in there good and tight then blow out with the c02 thingy (and YES you need one) or an air hose. Standing by for dry ball (YES you need the C02 thingy).

 

[Rob M.]

Thanks a lot for the replies. A lot of valuable information in this thread for newbies.

Thankfully I have fixed the problem. I poured a good amount of Windex into the barrel and let it set for just a few minutes. I then pushed the ramrod gently to the bottom and it pulled right out, along with an outpouring of dirty liquid.
After that, I ran at least 10-15 patches with Ballistol down the barrel, followed by dry patches.

I've got it pretty clean now. It was very dirty, much more so than it should have been from firing 4 or 5 shots. No telling how dirty that thing was already.
But I'm on the right track now. I ordered a .50 cal jag. I'm going to try and use it with the Scotchbrite pads.

ALRIGHT !!! Good going !! Thats great !! Happens to us all till we get the right combination of patch jag , patch thickness , etc. figured out ... I like extended jags and hooks too so there's more ramrod to get ahold of at the muzzle when the ramrod is down at the breech too . Been there too many times !! Take care ...

 

[Ed C.]

Like hot water, it's just unnecessary.

May not be necessary, but sure works good!

 

[Ed C.]

Water and Dawn soap....

With a dash of ballistol to avoid flash rust when drying the barrel. Blow out with compressed air and place in either the hot sun or oven depending on the day. Then coat the barrel, interior and exterior with ballistol. Store muzzle facing down and you'll be ready to load 'n shoot right out the door.

 

[Sparkitoff]

Been there, done that. I like hot water, a wet patch and some dry patches after the water flush, and then one with WD40 last. I use one size smaller jag than the caliber and use one or two patches on it - you figure it out. For loading, I would use a thinner patch or one size smaller ball. I used to think a very tight patched ball would be more accurate but after much experimentation and stubbornness, I figured out sometimes a loose patched ball works best for loading and accuracy.

 

[Lead Nuggets]

Anyone ever use a bore brush wound with never dull? Works great on old gun barrels.

 

[Lead Nuggets]

Old barrels best friend!

 

[WonkyEye]

Old barrels best friend!

Nevrdull! I forgot how great that stuff is. I need to get a can, ran out a long time ago and been using flitz because it's available locally but not as good. sometimes brasso just doesn't cut it. I never would have thought to use it to polish a bore.

 

[Lead Nuggets]

Nevrdull! I forgot how great that stuff is. I need to get a can, ran out a long time ago and been using flitz because it's available locally but not as good. sometimes brasso just doesn't cut it. I never would have thought to use it to polish a bore.

Sometimes it’s the simple things we let slip by that puts a smile on our face.

 

[kh54]

I’m not familiar with Nevrdull but I’m wondering if there’s an advantage to using a metal polish on a bore that’s in good condition anyway?