How do you clean your rifled barrel?

[SwanShot]

Tapwater, sometimes with a drop of Dawn, I first pour water into the bore with a toothpick in the touch hole. After a bit I slosh the water around then pour it out. Then comes swabbing the bore with patches alternating wet & dry. The lock comes off and is cleaned & oiled. When the patches start to come out clean I wipe the bore with alcohol followed by a WD40 patch then a final bore wipe with alcohol. The bore is then patched with Barricade, outside wiped down and that's it.

The only variation I use on this technique is I use hot water.

 

[Longhunter7]

Does anyone avoid using anything petroleum based in the barrel, and using bore butter after cleaning to avoid rust, besides me?

The theory is to season the barrel like a cast iron frying pan, no oil!

 

[Muley Gil]

Does anyone avoid using anything petroleum based in the barrel, and using bore butter after cleaning to avoid rust, besides me?

The theory is to season the barrel like a cast iron frying pan, no oil!

I do. I clean with a Ballistol/water 50/50 mixture and I do use a breech plug scraper. After my patches come out clean, I use Bore Butter inside the barrel and I also wipe down the exterior metal with Bore Butter. I store my long guns muzzle down in the safe.

 

[CapPopper]

Does anyone avoid using anything petroleum based in the barrel, and using bore butter after cleaning to avoid rust, besides me?

The theory is to season the barrel like a cast iron frying pan, no oil!

Always heard petroleum products and black powder fouling don't mix very well..... Can't say myself I've never done it.

 

[nchawkeye]

Those claims came out when bore butter came out, never heard it before, even knew a fellow who made custom muzzleloaders, even the barrels and he used axle grease for lube...His guns won plenty of matches at Friendship so I never questioned him about it...I suspect it's one of those things told so many times that many believe it...

 

[S.Kenton]

Bore butter is TERRIBLE to prevent rust, I’ve never had much luck with it. In my early days on this forum, I tried bore butter as a rust preventative and used it for a few months. It was ok for a a month.. but after that rust started forming. Bore Butter is a great patch lube and that’s about it. I have known a few guys to use motor oil as a preservative with great results, If you do, just make sure you clean the bore out thoroughly before shooting. I myself use a lanolin based bore preservative, it’s worked well for me.

 

[SmokepoleSam]

Longhunter7---"The theory is to season the barrel like a cast iron frying pan" the only problem with that is the barrel is steel and cannot be seasoned. I did try lubing with borebutter in my early days of muzzleloading but it didn't take long to get some light surface rust. I went back to oil and wiping it out before shooting. I have found that for me as long as I wiped I didn't get any sludge or gunk.
S.Kenton--- Do you have to wipe the lanolin before you shoot? Do you use fluid film? TIA

 

[CapPopper]

Bore butter is TERRIBLE to prevent rust, I’ve never had much luck with it. In my early days on this forum, I tried bore butter as a rust preventative and used it for a few months. It was ok for a a month.. but after that rust started forming. Bore Butter is a great patch lube and that’s about it. I have known a few guys to use motor oil as a preservative with great results, If you do, just make sure you clean the bore out thoroughly before shooting. I myself use a lanolin based bore preservative, it’s worked well for me.

I've had similar experience with bore butter. Same with a few other things I would mainly consider "patch lube" type concoctions..... I have settled on barricade. Haven't had any issue with rust at all. Experience has shown me that a good rust preventative is almost more important than a really clean gun.

 

[RIDE-RED350R]

There are a lot of different methods mentioned here for protecting the bore after cleaning and I don't think any of them are wrong.

I am one who has used Bore Butter as protectant for many years and I've not had a single issue. My Renegade that I mentioned earlier in this thread having sat unused in my safe for about 7 years had a clean barrel when I pulled it out to check it over before shooting it again. I don't know why it works for me, it just does. Maybe it's because my barrel is still quite warm after the hot water initial cleaning when I apply the Bore Butter?? Y'all's guess is as good as mine, but it works for me and I've no plans to change what I'm doing.

 

[S.Kenton]

Longhunter7---"The theory is to season the barrel like a cast iron frying pan" the only problem with that is the barrel is steel and cannot be seasoned. I did try lubing with borebutter in my early days of muzzleloading but it didn't take long to get some light surface rust. I went back to oil and wiping it out before shooting. I have found that for me as long as I wiped I didn't get any sludge or gunk.
S.Kenton--- Do you have to wipe the lanolin before you shoot? Do you use fluid film? TIA

Yes I flush the barrel before I shoot with alcohol or brake clean, yes I use Fluid Film.. I absolutely love that stuff. I owned a house that had a block wall basement for 17 years, needless to say the humidity level was sometimes high in the whole entire house. My unmentionables were put in a large safe with a golden rod and were never affected. My muzzleloaders were displayed and I would get some rust if wasn’t careful. I tried everything from barricade to wd-40 to 3 in 1 oil, nothing worked. Then I came across a thread here about Fluid Film and it worked perfectly. I have since moved out of that house and my new house has no basement,but still use the FF. That’s been my experience…

 

[user 48702]

View attachment 169327

I want one of those memes with chewing tobacco instead of popcorn. A bowl of tobacco flanked by packs of "Redman" chewing tobacco.

 

[e.estern]

For the MAP mixture: Denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol?

 

[S.Kenton]

For the MAP mixture: Denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol?

I use isopropyl rubbing alcohol, get the stuff that has the least water in it that you can.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Does anyone avoid using anything petroleum based in the barrel, and using bore butter after cleaning to avoid rust, besides me?

The theory is to season the barrel like a cast iron frying pan, no oil!

Since gun barrel steel is not cast iron and doesn't season, I don't "season" my barrels. What many think of as seasoning in gun barrels is a mix of fouling and burnt grease. If you remove the fouling while cleaning and the burnt grease, then there is no "seasoning" in the barrel. The oils provide a rust inhibiting coating. Even Bore Butter kind of sort of does that so for some Bore Butter works. Fluid Film, Barricade, Boesheild and a couple other rust inhibiting fluids do much better. Those of us that use Ballistol are using a petroleum based mineral oil that is quite effective in muzzleloading firearms for cleaning, but not so good for some long term storage.

Of course, there is this topic in our General Information topics of useful information.

https://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/threads/why-we-dont-season-barrels.61745/

 

[hanshi]

The only variation I use on this technique is I use hot water.

Years ago I used hot water for cleaning rifles. But when I found cool tapwater cleaned just as well as hot I started using cold exclusively instead of hot. It was less trouble with cold than than cleaning with hot.

 

[Buckskinn]

How the heck do you season a cast iron pan without oil???

 

[SOLANCO]

Some shooters use WD-40 on their firearms, some don’t. I personally do not have a can of WD-40 around my gun bench. Recently bought an unmentionable rifle that previous own had sprayed enough of the stuff in the rifle that I had to scrape all of the parts with my knife because of the WD build up being so thick that the rifle would not operate. I prefer to use Ballistol on my forearms.

Not bashing just stating my opinion.

WD stands for water displacing. It is good at that. I use it to help dry after soap and water. I do not believe WD40 was developed as a lubricant/protectant and do not use it for those purposes. Once clean and dry, Ballistol or the oil of your choice.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

When I had a 54, Id remove the barrel and take it into the shower with dawn soap and a flex rod with a wire brush on it.
By the time you get out the metal is so hot it dries before you do.

Now I have a 45 cal with a barrel that does not come out. No 13 cleaner and a pile of patches and followed by bore butta

 

[Grenadier1758]

How the heck do you season a cast iron pan without oil???

A cast iron pan is seasoned with oil or grease and the seasoning is built up every time the cast iron pan is used. The mix of heated oil and food makes a sluck coating on the porous surface of the pan.

You just don't want that build up of burnt grease, oil and fouling to fill the grooves of your rifle.

I think barrel seasoning was a theory that T/C promoted with their Bore Butter. In practice, it really isn't effective. If you let it build up.

Those that think they are seasoning a barrel but remove all the burnt grease and fouling and then oil the barrel to prevent rust are properly cleaning their gun, not seasoning a bore.

 

[Longhunter7]

There are a lot of different methods mentioned here for protecting the bore after cleaning and I don't think any of them are wrong.

I am one who has used Bore Butter as protectant for many years and I've not had a single issue. My Renegade that I mentioned earlier in this thread having sat unused in my safe for about 7 years had a clean barrel when I pulled it out to check it over before shooting it again. I don't know why it works for me, it just does. Maybe it's because my barrel is still quite warm after the hot water initial cleaning when I apply the Bore Butter?? Y'all's guess is as good as mine, but it works for me and I've no plans to change what I'm doing.

I have also used Bore Butter for many years and never had a problem!
I use it right after cleaning on the range and remove it before loading the next time I load and shoot.
Wether it seasons the barrel or not, it prevents rust and works for me.