How do you clean your smoothie?

[sherpadoug]

I have been shooting Bess type flintlocks for a little over a year now, and I think I have boiled down the contradictory advice and gotten good at cleaning them. I would still like to know what others do or think of what I do.
Most of my shooting is blanks, but I do a little target shooting and I want to keep the bore in good shape so I could go hunting some day. The guy who first taught me to clean my musket was a reenactor and his musket looked good and the lock worked well, but his bore was badly pitted.
Here is what I do:

1) Remove the lock and rammer, and plug the vent with a toothpick.
2) Fill the barrel with cold water and brush it out several times.
3) Fill the barrel with boiling water and brush it out several times.
4) While the barrel cools I use a main spring clamp to hold the frizen spring and take off the frizen and flash guard.
5) With a toothbrush and 50/50 Murphy's oil soap and Isopropyl alcohol I clean the outside of the lock and the lock area of the barrel.
6) With a Q-tip and WD40 I clean the inside of the lock.
7) Reassemble the lock and oil all the friction points with 5W30 motor oil (what my car takes).
8) Unplug the barrel vent and place the musket vent down on the bench.
9) Wet a patch in the 50/50 solution and run it down the barrel.
10) Put on my plug scraper and scrape the breech plug.
11) Use dry patches till the brown rings are very faint. This can take from 3 or 4 to several dozen patches, using each patch 8 times (4 corners on 2 sides). I use wet patches about every dozen dry patches. I have no idea why sometimes it cleans quickly, sometimes not.
12) Run down a mop soaked in WD40 to chase out any remaining moisture.
13) Run down a patch with mink oil.
14) Polish all the hardware with Nevr-Dull.
15) Make sure the lock mortice is good and dry and replace the lock and rammer.

So what do you do?

 

[Rebel]

Sounds like yer musket should out last you the way you clean it. :: What you are doing should be sufficient to keep any rust away. I do pretty much the same thing, but don't seem to use quite as many patches as you do, and don't remove the frizzen every time. About once a year is all to check and lube. But then i don't do a whole lot of shooting either.

 

[Mulebrain]

I have heard, that boiling water is not choice, but warm water

 

[mikee51848]

I also have a Bess, so I:

1) Remove the lock and rammer, and plug the vent with a toothpick.
2) Fill the barrel with cold water and brush it out several times.
3) Run several patches of Butch's Bore Shine down it til patches come out clean.
4) Dry the barrel with clean patches.
5) Run a gun oil lubed patch down the barrel.
6) Wash the lock in hot soapy water and rinse in clean hot water. Dry thoroughly.
7) Oil the screws and movable parts of the lock.

In the field, just damp and dry tow the barrel.

 

[Rebel]

Yea, i forgot about that. I just use warn or even cold water. I have had problems with flash rusting using boiling water. But then some people swaer by it, so who knows. As long as you get it Clean, Dry, and Lubed, it will be fine.

 

[redhorse1955]

:m2c:All my guns are percussion so when I clean up I remove the barrel, pull the nipples [in the case of my 10Ga double] and drop the nipple end in hot water. Then using a cleaning rid with a brass brush I swab the barrel with a rag over the brush. The rag seals the barrel and acts like a piston pulling the water in through the nipple hole. I continue this until the water flowing out of the nipple hole is clear. Other than that I use a commercial black powder cleaner on the external surfaces and lightly oil and reassemble everything when I'm done.
I may not be as particular about cleaning as others but then I got my guns to shoot... not to look at. ::

 

[Rebel]

You might want to change your cleaning habits with the double barrel.Putting the breech in a bucket of water could allow water to seep into the seam in the rib berween the barrels and cause rust between the barrels and the rib.

 

[roundball]

:m2c:All my guns are percussion so when I clean up I remove the barrel, pull the nipples [in the case of my 10Ga double] and drop the nipple end in hot water. Then using a cleaning rid with a brass brush I swab the barrel with a rag over the brush. The rag seals the barrel and acts like a piston pulling the water in through the nipple hole. I continue this until the water flowing out of the nipple hole is clear. Other than that I use a commercial black powder cleaner on the external surfaces and lightly oil and reassemble everything when I'm done.
I may not be as particular about cleaning as others but then I got my guns to shoot... not to look at. ::

I clean my Navy Arms SxS .12 the same way, then I powerflush the rib area with WD-40 to drive out any moisture

 

[Dave K]

I agree with Rebel. If there is a chance for moisture to get in, it will by submersing the barrels in water. I leave the nipples in and have just plugged them with tooth picks.Take a brush and scrub the bores. Replace the water and do it again till the water runs clear. Then I fill the barrels again and remove the tooth picks, allowing the water to jet out the nipples when I send a patched jag down. Do that until clean. Then use a water displacer to help remove the residual water and then use your favorite bore protectant. I have seen so many old SxS's that are loosing their ribs at the breech end. I am not sure how they were cleaned or why they are loosing that rib, but I wouldn't take that chance.

 

[AJFedak]

For cleaning my firearms I bought a garden sprayer and a longer spraying wand. I remove the barrel/barrels, fill the canister with tap water, take it outside (wife suggested that), pump-up the canister, insert the wand and power blast the inside.

Then a final clean with a mop, wipe the barrel dry an oil for protection. Using a tooth brush and a citrus cleaner I clean all the firing mechanisums and lubricate the moving parts.

I leave the firearm parts separate until the next day. Check the parts and re-assemble. I haven't had any problems doing it this way.

With the high humidity we've had this year I check the firearms every couple weeks. So far so good. Only found one spot with surface rust, on the side of the trigger gaurd. Fixed that up and nothing since.

AJ/OH

 

[weirdjack]

I'm lazy.....I clamp a tube over the vent hole, drop the other end into warm water, spritz a little cleaner down the bore, and start pumping with a jag/patch. When the water starts getting light grayish in and out of the vent hole, I replace it and start pumping in fresh warm water. When it's all pumping clear, I dry with patches, then oil.
Perhaps not as PC as tow on a worm, but in my basement the PC-Police don't see me!
Jack

 

[Ridge]

I'm even lazier.......I fill the barrel about a third of the way full of tap water (after plugging the touch hole) and put my finger over the muzzle and shake it back and forth a few times. Then I dump the water. I repeat this until the water comes out fairly clear......then I use the patches. After my initial "cleaning" it usually only takes 3 or 4 patches to finish.

 

[mhogan]

What do you plug the vent hole with?

 

[Mike Brooks]

What do you plug the vent hole with?

tooth pick

 

feather :results:

 

[Stumpkiller]

Matchstick whittled to a point (sometimes just my thumb in a leather glove).

 

[mhogan]

Thanks guys.