How far down do you clean?

[SwampBilly]

Question for cap and ball. When you shoot just how thoroughly do you clean when you were done?

I have an 1858 Pietta bison. When I am done I take the cylinder out and I remove the nipples. The nipples I clean was solvent since they are stainless slix shots.

The barrel and cylinder I use good old hot soapy water. As far as any further disassembly I will usually remove the loading lever. Because that assembly is near impossible to clean and oil after cleaning, without removal.

I have also removed trigger guard and grips before. The bottom of that trigger guard was really gunked up and I don't think the previous owner ever cleaned the internals.

I'm a fairly mechanical guy and I have watched hours of YouTube and I am almost ready to do a full disassembly and cleaning... Stripping down to the frame.

Usually when I go out and shoot I shoot from 2 to 4 cylinders. How often should the parts be stripped all the way to the frame?

 

[rusticbob]

Every time for me. I strip the internal parts, wash and clean, then dry and oil everything. A lot of work, but it’s not too hard once you have the proper sized screwdriver. Takes me about a half hour

 

[APG]

Every time I shoot any of my black powder shooters I take them down to the frame. When I do shoot them I'll put 60 plus shots so they do get pretty gunky. Same with my long guns.

 

[SwampBilly]

Every time for me. I strip the internal parts, wash and clean, then dry and oil everything. A lot of work, but it’s not too hard once you have the proper sized screwdriver. Takes me about a half hour

Is there any truth to what I've heard about not using any petroleum-based lubricant or oil? I read that it makes the fouling very hard to remove

 

[Bunk]

Is there any truth to what I've heard about not using any petroleum-based lubricant or oil? I read that it makes the fouling very hard to remove

Petroleum based bullet lubes react with the heat, combustion products, and pressure of firing. There is some complex organic chemistry involved I do not understand but the result is a very hard to remove tar like substance.
DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW!!
On cleaning usually I strip down to the frame about after every 50 to 75 shots that is with with Colt open tops.
I know absolutely nothing about Remington revolvers..
For the rest of the gun either arbor or internal parts lightly oiled is enough.
As far as greasing usually put a tiny bit of lubriplate on the cam and hand spring.
For bullet lube "if you can't eat it don't shoot it" pretty much is the rule.
I hope this helps.
Have fun
Make smoke
Bunk

 

[SwampBilly]

Petroleum based bullet lubes react with the heat, combustion products, and pressure of firing. There is some complex organic chemistry involved I do not understand but the result is a very hard to remove tar like substance.
DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW!!
On cleaning usually I strip down to the frame about after every 50 to 75 shots that is with with Colt open tops.
I know absolutely nothing about Remington revolvers..
For the rest of the gun either arbor or internal parts lightly oiled is enough.
As far as greasing usually put a tiny bit of lubriplate on the cam and hand spring.
For bullet lube "if you can't eat it don't shoot it" pretty much is the rule.
I hope this helps.
Have fun
Make smoke
Bunk

I shot 12 rounds yesterday and I actually took and smeared some real butter in the bore before shooting. Just on that first shot but I do believe it did make hot soapy water clean up easier.

The butter was all that I had. Lol.
I also do something else that some people might scoff at. And I have been doing it for years with no chain fire.

Between my powder and lead ball I will use one square of the cheap Scott toilet tissue as a wadding. I only shoot 25 to 30 grains so in addition to using it for a wad.... It also takes up some of that dead chamber space.

 

[Gtrubicon]

My 58 Remington is my most shot percussion pistol. I tear it down completely every time I shoot. I also have a 1860 that I bought last fall. I was also tearing it down completely for clean up. About 6 months ago a completely packed the internals with mobile 1 synthetic grease. I have shoot multiple times since. Clean up is quite fast now. I just remove cylinder, barrel and loading lever and clean them as usual with water and then wipe down the frame. No rust, still looks like brand new. I like it enough that I want to pack the Remington with grease.

 

[leadhoarder]

Is there any truth to what I've heard about not using any petroleum-based lubricant or oil? I read that it makes the fouling very hard to remove

That is something that I do not know for a fact is true but I treat it like it is. I use petroleum based lubes in the action but not in the bore, nipples, or anywhere else that the combustion takes place.

 

[user 34300]

Is there any truth to what I've heard about not using any petroleum-based lubricant or oil? I read that it makes the fouling very hard to remove.

That is two different questions. For lubing the mechanism and preserving the gun from rust defiantly use petroleum lubes and preservatives. Fluid film (lanolin) is good in the bore too. Using animal fat of veg oil for mechanical lube or bore preservative is not a good choice in my opinion.

For shooing lubes, if you use lots of heavy dinosaur grease it will make a mess. Think wheel bearing grease. It does not melt like fat does. The fouling mixes with it and makes nasty goop. IF you use mineral oil on shooting patches (Ballisotl) it works fine. All petroleum is not bad.

I observe some guys who leave preservative grease in the bore and try to load and shoot. They have problems with grease and oil in the breech causing misfire and no fires. That is bad procedure not a bad product.

 

[Kansas Jake]

I use petroleum based oils and grease at times for action lubrication. I also use gun oil or 3 in 1 as a rust prevention on the gun and in the bore and cylinder. I don’t use petroleum based as bullet lube of patch lube due to the concern expressed above.

 

[Ed C.]

On the Walker and 1851 Navy I installed action shields and packed the internals with grease, so on those I remove the cylinders, nipples, and barrel which I clean with a dash of dawn and ballistol in warm water, dry in the oven and coat with ballistol. I figure at the end of year I'll take it down to the frame and see what it looks like inside. My 1858 Remington, being I can't remove the barrel, I strip to the frame each time for cleaning.

 

[Bunk]

I shot 12 rounds yesterday and I actually took and smeared some real butter in the bore before shooting. Just on that first shot but I do believe it did make hot soapy water clean up easier.

The butter was all that I had. Lol.
I also do something else that some people might scoff at. And I have been doing it for years with no chain fire.

Between my powder and lead ball I will use one square of the cheap Scott toilet tissue as a wadding. I only shoot 25 to 30 grains so in addition to using it for a wad.... It also takes up some of that dead chamber space.

My choice is a lubricated felt wad between he powder and ball.
Kills two birds ( space and lube) with one wad.
the lube is lard and wax bees or paraffin no oils to bleed out
Thanks to Mark Hubbs at Eras Gone Bullets for this quick and economical lube.
Bunk

 

[SwampBilly]

My choice is a lubricated felt wad between he powder and ball.
Kills two birds ( space and lube) with one wad.
the lube is lard and wax bees or paraffin no oils to bleed out
Thanks to Mark Hubbs at Eras Gone Bullets for this quick and economical lube.
Bunk

I have heard some people are very partial to their own mixture of beeswax and lambs tallow.

That boar butter stuff is just too runny. Anytime you fire a few rounds it gets warm and starts to run right off.

 

[Ed C.]

I have heard some people are very partial to their own mixture of beeswax and lambs tallow.

That boar butter stuff is just too runny. Anytime you fire a few rounds it gets warm and starts to run right off.

1/8" durofelt wad soaked in a 50/50 beeswax/olive oil mix works well for me. Easy to obtain and works good even in Florida's heat. I usually shoot 24-30 rounds and have never had a cylinder bind up due to fouling. And yes, bore butter is useless in the heat.

 

[SwampBilly]

1/8" durofelt wad soaked in a 50/50 beeswax/olive oil mix works well for me. Easy to obtain and works good even in Florida's heat. I usually shoot 24-30 rounds and have never had a cylinder bind up due to fouling. And yes, bore butter is useless in the heat.

Not just the heat but very high humidity here in Southwest Florida right now. Praying for a quiet hurricane season. Florida born and raised all of my life and hurricane Ian last year was something else all together. I live in DeSoto county and for some reason those hurricanes like to go right up to Charlotte harbor following the Peace River.

I think I'm going to go for it and go ahead and disassemble my 1858 tonight for a thorough cleaning. I have all the proper sized screwdrivers and if I get confused there's tons of YouTube videos

 

[Ed C.]

Not just the heat but very high humidity here in Southwest Florida right now. Praying for a quiet hurricane season. Florida born and raised all of my life and hurricane Ian last year was something else all together. I live in DeSoto county and for some reason those hurricanes like to go right up to Charlotte harbor following the Peace River.

I think I'm going to go for it and go ahead and disassemble my 1858 tonight for a thorough cleaning. I have all the proper sized screwdrivers and if I get confused there's tons of YouTube videos

You will do fine. It is a fairly easy gun to take down. Just go by the basic rules...proper screwdriver, be careful of cross threading, don't force anything and don't over tighten stuff. Good luck!

 

[Bunk]

I shot 12 rounds yesterday and I actually took and smeared some real butter in the bore before shooting. Just on that first shot but I do believe it did make hot soapy water clean up easier.

The butter was all that I had. Lol.
I also do something else that some people might scoff at. And I have been doing it for years with no chain fire.

Between my powder and lead ball I will use one square of the cheap Scott toilet tissue as a wadding. I only shoot 25 to 30 grains so in addition to using it for a wad.... It also takes up some of that dead chamber space.

if you had used Grits for filler it would have smelled like breakfast time in Georgia
J. L. "Bunk" Stagner

 

[SwampBilly]

if you had used Grits for filler it would have smelled like breakfast time in Georgia
J. L. "Bunk" Stagner

I had considered grits actually. But I just went with my time tested one square of cheap Scott toilet tissue. Of course you wouldn't want to be shooting in a very fire-prone area because the toilet paper sometimes catches fire when it comes out.

 

[prob]

Question for cap and ball. When you shoot just how thoroughly do you clean when you were done?

I have an 1858 Pietta bison. When I am done I take the cylinder out and I remove the nipples. The nipples I clean was solvent since they are stainless slix shots.

The barrel and cylinder I use good old hot soapy water. As far as any further disassembly I will usually remove the loading lever. Because that assembly is near impossible to clean and oil after cleaning, without removal.

I have also removed trigger guard and grips before. The bottom of that trigger guard was really gunked up and I don't think the previous owner ever cleaned the internals.

I'm a fairly mechanical guy and I have watched hours of YouTube and I am almost ready to do a full disassembly and cleaning... Stripping down to the frame.

Usually when I go out and shoot I shoot from 2 to 4 cylinders. How often should the parts be stripped all the way to the frame?

I used to completely disassemble and clean every part of each of my revolvers every time I shot them. After a while I began to ask myself if it was even worth it to shoot the darned things. And then one time I bought an Uberti Replica of an 1861 Colt that was used but in excellent condition (from a fellow selling in this site!). Upon receiving it, I took it apart to make sure everything was as it should be and found that there was a bit of black oily gunk in the guts of the gun.

And then it hit me like a lightning bolt - the previous owner never disassembled the gun after shooting it. The oily gunk was in no way affecting the operation of the revolver, it did not promote corrosion, and it was easy to wipe off.

That was my black powder revolver epiphany. I realized then that you do not have to do a complete disassembly after every shooting session.

Now I clean the barrel assembly and the cylinder. And because I have greased each of the nipple threads with an anti-seize compound, I don't even have to remove the nipples.

After cleaning the barrel and cylinder, I simply spray or drip a lubricant, preferably a water displacing lubricant, into the recess for the bolt, hand, and trigger.

Since I've been doing that, I've never encountered any rust or corrosion of any sort and my cleaning time is cut by at least half. An added benefit is that I am not always fooling around with screws that are easy to bugger.

I think tearing these guns down all the time only promotes unnecessary wear, and with today's modern water displacing lubricants, clean up, though still a chore, ends up being much faster and less painless.

 

[SwampBilly]

I used to completely disassemble and clean every part of each of my revolvers every time I shot them. After a while I began to ask myself if it was even worth it to shoot the darned things. And then one time I bought an Uberti Replica of an 1861 Colt that was used but in excellent condition (from a fellow selling in this site!). Upon receiving it, I took it apart to make sure everything was as it should be and found that there was a bit of black oily gunk in the guts of the gun.

And then it hit me like a lightning bolt - the previous owner never disassembled the gun after shooting it. The oily gunk was in no way affecting the operation of the revolver, it did not promote corrosion, and it was easy to wipe off.

That was my black powder revolver epiphany. I realized then that you do not have to do a complete disassembly after every shooting session.

Now I clean the barrel assembly and the cylinder. And because I have greased each of the nipple threads with an anti-seize compound, I don't even have to remove the nipples.

After cleaning the barrel and cylinder, I simply spray or drip a lubricant, preferably a water displacing lubricant, into the recess for the bolt, hand, and trigger.

Since I've been doing that, I've never encountered any rust or corrosion of any sort and my cleaning time is cut by at least half. An added benefit is that I am not always fooling around with screws that are easy to bugger.

I think tearing these guns down all the time only promotes unnecessary wear, and with today's modern water displacing lubricants, clean up, though still a chore, ends up being much faster and less painless.

Makes perfect sense. I got my 1858 from the pawn shop so that would mean I am at least the second owner. Upon removing the trigger guard there was a lot of crud on that so I'm sure there's more up inside.

So I'm thinking I'll go ahead and disassemble it to give it a thorough cleaning but certainly not every time it's fired.

But I do think I will remove the loading lever assembly for cleaning each time since it's only one screw and it's almost impossible to get in there and clean and get just a trace of oil on each pivot without disassembly.

I noticed the rust really likes to set in, in that area