hair dryer for my muzzleloader

[Dances With Coyotes]

Know this will probaly get moved ,but here goes..was cleaning my brand new Green Mountain I.B.S. barrel in .54 with a 32" length, what I used to do with the original 28" barrel was take the whole barrel and put it in the oven at low heat for a little bit to dry out after using the hot soapy water, before I move to the solvent to get the crud I didn't get and discovered that my barrel is too long for the oven, been thinking about getting a hair dryer and rigging up some kind of metal funnel to just stick in the bore and turn it on , blowing hot air through,,,anybody else ever do this????was just wondering...thank ya'll

 

[jtmattison]

That seems like a lot of work.
If you rinse your barrel with very hot water the barrel will heat up enough for the water to evaporate mostly on it's own.
I use this hot water rinse along with my air compressor to blow out the excess water and a few dry patches.
My barrel dries in seconds and allows me to apply lube while the metal is still hot.

HD

 

[rebelyell62]

Know this will probaly get moved ,but here goes..was cleaning my brand new Green Mountain I.B.S. barrel in .54 with a 32" length, what I used to do with the original 28" barrel was take the whole barrel and put it in the oven at low heat for a little bit to dry out after using the hot soapy water, before I move to the solvent to get the crud I didn't get and discovered that my barrel is too long for the oven, been thinking about getting a hair dryer and rigging up some kind of metal funnel to just stick in the bore and turn it on , blowing hot air through,,,anybody else ever do this????was just wondering...thank ya'll

I use a hair dryer all the time to dry my cap and ball pistols, don't know why it wouldn't work with a rifle

 

[hornbuilder]

dances with coyotes :

the best advice i could forward is to quit using hot water or hot anything , clean your barrel with cold water and dry with a patch then lube in your normal way ,, way too much fussing. do we think that the old timers were heating water to clean their gun? we're getting way too high tech for a primitive firearm arn't we ? :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

"...the best advice i could forward is to quit using hot water or hot anything..."

:grin: :grin:
And the best advice I could give you is to keep using steaming hot soapy water, hot water rinse, immediately patch dry the bore to avoid flash rust, let it sit 5 minutes to get bone dry from the residual heat, then plaster it heavily with lube !!
Been doing it that way on a dozen muzzleloaders for 15+ years...my bores still look like factory new...old timer rifles that are found definitely do not still look like new.
:thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

Seems like it should work fine...one of the tapered cone shaped hair dryer attachments could probably be used to tape on a piece of tubing like stainless fuel line tubing, an arrow shaft, etc...if I was going to try it, I'd probably slide the tubing almost all the way down the bore so all the hot air had to travel back up the walls of the bore...

 

[Slake]

A hairdryer?! A hairdryer!? E Gads! I don't use one of those confounded things for my hair for crying out loud let alone my gun!! Listen to yerself man! A hairdryer!!

 

[Ice Tigre]

I started useing the hair dryer the first time I cleaned with watter, I figure its worth it to get that barrel pretty hot, to make sure its dry.

I've been going to get a regular heat gun, it would be hotter and quicker.


:v
Gary

 

[roundball]

A hairdryer?! A hairdryer!? E Gads! I don't use one of those confounded things for my hair for crying out loud let alone my gun!! Listen to yerself man! A hairdryer!!

:hmm: Slake, it sounds like you're telling us that you use no modern conveniences in pursuit of this hobby.

For example, I have to conclude that you wouldn't use anything so modern as a swaged ball from Hornady or Speer, so that means you use cast balls.

Is the lead used for your cast balls melted over a campfire like the settlers did...or was that lead melted in a modern melting pot made for this purpose... :hmm:

The list could go on....
:grin:

 

[spotlink]

One has to draw the line at some point!
:shake:

A hairdryer?! A hairdryer!? E Gads! I don't use one of those confounded things for my hair for crying out loud let alone my gun!! Listen to yerself man! A hairdryer!!

:hmm: Slake, it sounds like you're telling us that you use no modern conveniences in pursuit of this hobby.

For example, I have to conclude that you wouldn't use anything so modern as a swaged ball from Hornady or Speer, so that means you use cast balls.

Is the lead used for your cast balls melted over a campfire like the settlers did...or was that lead melted in a modern melting pot made for this purpose... :hmm:

The list could go on....
:grin:

 

[roundball]

I disagree "that a line needs to be drawn" anywhere...new guys with new fresh, creative ideas and questions are great for any hobby/sport.

And this category is not any of the categories that deal with precise, historically correct means, methods, accutrements, etc...this is a general 'shooting accessories' category.

More power to him and others like him...
:thumbsup:

 

[Slake]

you wanna put Hornady balls in a category with a hairdryer?! A hairdryer?!

 

[jtmattison]

Gentlemen,
Let's keep it on topic :nono:

HD

 

[roundball]

:grin:
I'm sorry you're opinion isn't universally accepted but that's just life...if he wants to dry his barrel with a hair dryer it's really nobody elses[url] business...In[/url] fact, I'm going to rig one up and try it myself
:thumbsup:

 

[fatboy]

Everyone has their own little ways of cleaning I would choose to use plain old tap water and if you wish a bit of soap but you really dont even need the soap wipe dry with patchs and lube with balistol , or wd-40 I havnt had a rust problem yet. There is no real need to heat the barrel up like that but if it something you want to do go for it .

 

[musketman]

In fact, I'm going to rig one up and try it myself
:thumbsup:

I can envision a metal funnel afixed to the end of the hair dryer so it is tapered down to the bore's size...

In the jet engine course I took while in the Air Force they taught us the use of convergent/divergent ducts, when (in this case) air goes from a larger source to a smaller opening, velocity is increased/pressure is decreased...

The jet engine makes use of convergent and divergent ducts to control the pressure and velocity of the air so it is quite important to explain this point now...

So as the hot air is forced through the funnel (or reducer), the air's velocity is increased...

Would this work the same as a fire piston as the air is piled up in the breech? :hmm:

The vent or nipple channel can only allow so much air to pass through at any givin time...

 

[paulvallandigham]

I used to pour very hot water down my barrel for cleaning, but then found that I could not dry it fast enough and then lube the barrel to avoid rust forming on the lands. On the advice of a friend, I tried cleaning with tepid ( warm) water and soap, instead of boiling water and soap, and HEY! what did I find but that my barrel was cleaned just as well. The difference was that I didn't grow rust because of the faster drying from heating up the barrel. Black powder does leave some salts, and, of course, carbon in the barrel. The lube burned will leave behind some altered hydro carbons, so a little soap in the water is okay. Just don't over do it. Cool to tepid water is sufficient to clean your gun, and you dry it by upending the barrel to pour out the water, and then running several dry cleaning patches down the barrel to soak up. I blow through the barrel to push any drops out either the touch hole on a flintlock, or out the drum or patent breech of a percussion gun. ( Remove the nipples for a separate cleaning, and re-oiling before putting them back in the gun.) I use a pipe cleaner to clean out the threads for he nipple, before oiling them lightly and putting the nipple back in the gun. A clean patch run down the barrel to the face of the breach plug tells me if there is any gunk left on the face of the plug. If so, I clean some more. Or use a scraper attachment, or in my flintlock, use a pipe cleaner through the touch hole with some solvent on it to clean the face off. Then I re flush the barrel, and then dry it again. I have been using Wonder lube lately for lubing the barrel to prevent rusting during storage. I am trying some different things, based on recommendations I have read in this forum, so this may change. Mineral oil is next on my list to try.

 

[jimeckersley]

Ballistol is predominately a very high grade of mineral oil. It penetrates the pores in metal very well. Unlike most oils, it will mix with water. When the water evaporates, the Ballistol remains, protecting the metal.

That’s why I just run a few dry patches down the bore after the soapy water and then a good coat of Ballistol inside and out.

Paul, you’re right about the hot water and rust. When I use hot water I immediately hit the bore with Ballistol after the dry patches to avoid the flash rust. If I’ve used cold or tepid water, there’s a little more time allowed before flash rusting will occur.

So, I suppose if a person has fun using a hair dryer on their shoot'n iron ...it's their business.

 

[Russianblood]

I use a hair dryer religiously when I clean my cap-n-ball revolver and also when I clean my half stock barrels in hot water. Works great for getting rid of that "hard to reach" water. :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

No, the missing ingredient would be the pressure (and subsequent heat) that would be generated by the mechanical piston / ram present in a fire piston action...the hair dryer would just be hot air blown by a tiny fan...