Getting the patent breech clean

[Bucks Co]

Some years ago I had to pull the Cherry Corners Breech from a friend's Percussion Hawken; It had been shot a lot but always cleaned religiously afterwards with hot water and oiled with 'Young's 303 Gun Oil'. The way my friend cleaned; the tip of his rod and patch could not have reached into the Patent Breech - yet it was so clean; with no tarnishing or corrosion apparent. He always cleaned as I do today with the nipple still on and a piece of tube over it to direct the water away from the woodwork. The breech had to be replaced but that was not related to the way it had been cleaned.

 

[deGheyn]

I have a Pedersoli Trade Gun, it also has that stupid breech. The touch hole liner came out with an allen wrench(be careful & don't strip it). Use choke tube lube when you reinstall. I used a .22 slotted cleaning jag with a small patch. I did it with the liner out so I could see that it made it all the way down. Since then, I only flush the barrel with water while the touch hole is pointing down & keep going until it runs clean. Warm sun helps dry quickly & then I follow with Ballistol. Haven't had an issue since.

This post might help too: https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/pedersoli-patent-breech-design.131405/#post-1826522 Scroll down to Grenadier's post.

Good luck.

 

[shorthair]

You could take a breech scraper and grind it a little at a time to custom fit.

 

[bpd303]

I modified a pump up garden sprayer that cleans every rifle I have regardless of which breech it has. It even cleans the German Jaeger with a Thovien Tige Pillar breech. Made a stand that holds the rifle with muzzle down and when the water runs clear it's clean as a whistle. With the rifle upside down any water comes out of the touch hole or nipple and doesn't get on the stock. Then dry and protect with Barricade.
Run the copper tubing to the breech and squeeze the handle, fast and easy as can be only takes a couple of minutes and done.

 

[leakytire]

I modified a pump up garden sprayer that cleans every rifle I have regardless of which breech it has. It even cleans the German Jaeger with a Thovien Tige Pillar breech. Made a stand that holds the rifle with muzzle down and when the water runs clear it's clean as a whistle. With the rifle upside down any water comes out of the touch hole or nipple and doesn't get on the stock. Then dry and protect with Barricade.
Run the copper tubing to the breech and squeeze the handle, fast and easy as can be only takes a couple of minutes and done.
View attachment 353410not a bad idea, I might try it! Is that an old CJ back there?

 

[bpd303]

It's a restored (mechanically) 1953 M38A1 Willy's Overland.

 

[leakytire]

It's a restored (mechanically) 1953 M38A1 Willy's Overland.
View attachment 353710

Neat! It's exactly as old as l am. I "need" one.

 

[morehops52]

Most of my rifles have a patent breech. My oldest is 40+ yrs old. I have never done anything than pump the barrel in a bucket of warm water. Dry patches and then when clean I put anther dry patch down the barrel set the barrel muzzle down to drain any water into the patch. I've read about all of the meticulous breech cleaning here but I nave never had a problem.

 

[smoothshooter]

My hair is up about pulling the touch holi liner, but I'm not sure why. A good fitting screwdriver will do it without issue. Don't know why that didn't come to mind!
Appreciate the feedback.

Get a .36 breech plug scraper and have it turned down to a loose-fit match of the ID of the breech plug antechamber. Then figure out a way to determine if the actual breech face is cupped or flat. ( It can be done ). More than likely it is cupped. File the corners of the scraping attachment to match the contour of the bottom end of the center hole of the breech.
Using a fitted xxscraping attachment is almost the only way to grt accumulated crud out of that area. Especially if it dried fouling from a previous shooting session days or weeks ago.

 

[maillemaker]

I've got a Pedersoli .32 Frontier flintlock with a patent breech that is approximately .22 in diameter. I'm struggling to get it cleaned, dried and oiled. Tried a 22 mop brush that didn't really fit in it.
What do you all do? I really prefer a flat breech, but I want to get good at this patent breech cleaning as the rifle is fun to shoot.

Be aware that frequently the Pedersoli touch hole liner intrudes into the chamber and thus will block any implement you try to get down into the patent breech to clean it. On my Pedersoli Pennsylvania I pulled the liner and ground it down until it no longer intruded into the chamber.