Gun Cleaning

[btech]

I know this topic has been kicked around on this forum for years, but I need some advice. I’ve been reading posts for years about cleaning your gun just using hot water and dish soap. I have not had any success with dish soap or any other bore cleaner.

Here’s my cleaning method:
I swab the bore several times before leaving the range. When I get home I mix up hot water and a bore cleaner. I swab out a few times, pumping the water up and down the barrel. Then I pump a bronze bore brush up and down several times. Then I go back to pumping and swabbing the barrel until the rag and the water out of the barrel are clean. Then I wipe the barrel with a clean rag to dry it.

Now I follow up with a rag with Barricade down the bore. Every time I do this step, no matter how much washing and pumping I’ve done, the rag comes out with powder residue on it. It takes 7-10 wipes with Barricade to get a clean rag.

For bore cleaners, I have tried Butch’s Black Powder Bore Shine, Hornady One Shot Muzzleloader Cleaner, Ballistol, Murphy Oil Soap and even windshield washer fluid (suggestion from a guy at the range). I always end up with the same results. It takes many swabs with Barricade soaked wipes to get a clean bore.

I shoot Pyrodex 3F. Am I not doing something right? Am I missing a step?

 

[RC]

try go-jo the cream w/o pumice.. wipe a dry(no fluids first) dirty barrel with it,,up down about 5-6 times change patch add a lil more go jo,,swab 5-6-7 times..pour some water or windshield washer fluid or whatever, in it,,swab 6-8x , rinse, repeat and dry barrel...works for me!
..and everyone i've shown,,lol :thumbsup:

 

[azmntman]

I have a few guns like that, most all mine are easy to clean but my CVA .36 bobcat is a bear. I too have to use about 10 times more patches to get it to stop coming out black no matter what.

 

[necchi]

the rag comes out with powder residue on it.

Black?

Somewhere's down the line of shooting, cleaning and oiling, the gun was fired when there was still a good amount of oil (Barricade) still in the bore.
The heat and residue from fired Black powder when mixed with oil turns into a substance that is very much like tar.(aka; Asphalt)

The only way to get that stuff out is with a petroleum solvent. I have rescued several barrels with this condition by doing the pump method cleaning only using gasoline as the wash component. A soup can is enough, and do it outside,, then follow up with brake cleaner to remove the gas.
Keep that up till a white patch comes out white.
it's the only way to beat it. Water and bp solvents won't do it, the commercial bp solvents are just water and soap any way.

 

[azmntman]

I shall try that and advise. Thank you!

 

[Rifleman1776]

I shoot Pyrodex 3F. Am I not doing something right? Am I missing a step?

Yes. The step you are missing is this:
Take the Pyrodex to your wifes garden and sprinkle all over it. Drive to wherever real black powder is sold and buy some.
Go shoot. Clean gun as you described and you will find the results to be what you want. :grin:

 

[azmntman]

I use pyrodex ALOT and all most all my gns clean up easy or easier the my 3f goex?

Per above I have 1 or 2 that may need the gasoline trick as they behave poorly at clean up time NO MATTER WHAT (goex or pyro they still take 10 time more patches to come out clean) ?

 

[dcalef3]

I agree with Rifleman, Pyrodex is nasty stuff. I shot 4 loads from a brand new can and gave it away. Get some Goex....waaaay easier to clean. I think youre cleaning will be cut in half from what youre doing now.

 

[azmntman]

Only thing I can think of is humidity? We have none here, shade works in AZ :thumbsup: . Like I said mine all shoot and clean the same or easier then my Goex :idunno:

 

[Billnpatti]

Let me tell you what I have done for quite a few years that has worked for me quite well. First, I have a mixture of 1 part Ballistol, 1 part Murphy's Oil Soap (or Pine-O-Pine) and 10 parts water. I use it to swab my bore at the range before leaving. When I get home, I clean the barrel up with warm water with plain old dish soap until the patch comes out clean. Then I use a few dry patches to dry the barrel. After this, I spray WD-40 down the barrel to remove the last traces of moisture. Then I swab out all of the WD-40 with several dry patches. Once it is free of WD-40, I swab the bore with a patch with Barricade on it. When I first started using this technique, I went back almost every day and ran a patch with Barricade through the bore to see if any rust had appeared. Once I was satisfied that nothing was going on in the bore, I quit worrying about it. Now, I look at the patch that I use to wipe out the oil before loading it the next time and my patches always come out with nothing more than oil on them.

You might want to give this technique a try and see if it works for you as well as it does for me and several others.

 

[George T.]

You will find that most of us use variations of soap and water and oil. I stay away from WD-40 myself but many use it. Going back a couple of days after cleaning will show you how well your doing. When three days pass and there are no rust stains your on the right track.

Geo. T.

 

[azmntman]

90 days in AZ here the shade works and the humidity is LOW

 

[mooman76]

I used to use Hopps #9 (not the BP stuff, the regular for smokeless powder) after shooting with Pyrodex for allot of years no problems or ill effects. That was before I found out you needed water based cleaners. I followed up with WD40. I may just go back to it.

 

[Captjoel]

I have noticed that once in a great while after thinking a flintlock rifle barrel is clean, I get to the last swab with a RIG patch. Pulling this patch I find a small streak of black. My conclusion regarding this is that the inner cone of the touch hole liner is the source of this remaining fowling. I now always use a pipe cleaner soaked in my cleaning solution through the touch hole as another step during the cleaning process.

 

[btech]

I always swab my barrel before shooting to remove any oil residue from cleaning.
I have tried Goex 3F with the same results at cleaning.
I'm very hesitant to clean my gun with gasoline. Most gas has all kinds of additives. It is not pure, besides major safety issues.
This was new barrel so I don't think it had a build up of hydrocarbons in it. Besides, I cleaned it with alcohol before final assembly.
The patches I dry with come out clean after washing. It's not till I swab with Barricade do I see the residue.
I see this same issue with my Kentucky 45 and my Zouave 58. So it's not the particular gun.
Could it be that water-detergent washing is just not getting the residue out of the rifling grooves?

 

[Rifleman1776]

cleaning only using gasoline

This thread is the first, and only, time I have ever heard of using gasoline to clean an ml rifle. Too many downsides for me to consider trying. I'm surprised :shocked2: , and saddened to hear the suggestion coming from an experienced guy like you.

 

[azmntman]

YEAH! I could have been blown up! Dad said I shouldn't use gas for nothing but the truck. I will get some carb cleaner instead?

 

[necchi]

I know, but it's not for cleaning the gun, it's for removing the tar build up that's been left because of improper care to begin with.
It's a soap can,
It's outside,
It's less dangerous than fueling a hot lawn mower
And I can't be held responsible for Darwinism.

I can't count how many guns I've gotten then sold that started with;
"This thing won't shoot, gimme a few bucks an you can have it!"

 

[azmntman]

I may try it....beats me why one gun from same lot will be a BEAR to clean and the other a total of 5 patches and done? I've tried everything so far and my lil bobcat will just NOT come clean without about 25 patches n scrubing with brushes etc etc etc

 

[btech]

I think a lot of people wash, then wipe dry. When the rag comes out clean they stop. They never check with any bore cleaner afterward. A guy that shoots a flintlock at my range makes 2 rinses with windshied washer fluid and pronounces the gun clean! Even the guys I know that shoot modern black powder tell me the water/detergent wash doesn't get it. I've had residue build up around then nipple that soap and water won't cut. If that same stuff is in the barrel rifling, no wonder.