How much "trouble" ...

[roundball]

Cap, I'm the same way...I enjoy the whole break it down, thoroughly clean and lube it, put it back together activity that's part of the whole muzzleloading experience...and have continueously fine tuned my cleaning/lubing process over the years.

I use a Craftsman 5 drawer tool chest that's about waist high with a 2ft x 4ft piece of carpeted plywood on top...makes an excellent work station for guns.

The drawers hold cleaning / lubing supplies, small parts, etc, and a few spare ramrods hang on the wall with different caliber jags and a ball puller.

Come back from the range or a hunting trip, flip on a little old leftover TV, and clean away...it's good therapy!

:winking:

 

[cayugad]

Like a lot of you... cleaning the rifle is really not a chore to me. I see lots of posts asking, is this rifle easier to clean then that rifle. Well it really makes no difference to me.

I have my large mug of coffee at my cleaning table, and I take my rifles apart (sometimes as many as three or four rifle I shoot, in a days shooting) and then sip coffee, watch my little 13 inch TV that's in the room or reflect on my days shooting adventures, and clean rifles at my own pace. After that I take care to make sure every little part is spotless and re-oiled. Then reassemble them and wipe the barrel and stock down and put them back in the rack.

All part of the sport to me...

 

[Mark Walker]

Howdy boys, I shoot benchrest and cleaning is part of shooting a .200 or less at 100yards. I clean every match... 6 to 10 shots. Most folks don't mind cleaning if the accuracy is there...I would'nt care if it took me 15 min. to prep the bore if the ball goes where it should. There is nothing worse than putting all that effort in your gun and not being able to count on it...


Flincher

 

[RussB]

I have to say. "I envy you guys"!!!.

Like I have said before, I certainly don't mind cleaning one, or even two, but when I've sometimes got as many as five to clean, it is a J.O.B. And, it's a JOB I don't look forward to.....The last time I cleaned five is when I bought my first can of 777 this summer. I tried it in ALL of my muzzleloaders, in one range sitting! Shot the whole darn can in one day. I read all the hype on this powder, and how easy it was to clean up after shooting, etc, etc. So I wanted to see for myself. This just sounded too good to be true! :shake:

I have to say I did like it, as far as a propellant. Seemed to work better in the smaller .50 than any of the others, ....much better than pyrodex....but still not as good as Goex. (which is all I use).

Now when it came time to clean up...there was not a nickles difference in work, or time. Crud is crud, no matter how you get on the rifle, and a certain number of steps is required to remove that crud in your cleaning process....no matter "which" process you're using. Range maintenance may have been a bit easier, maybe faster ie, wipping between shots etc. but clean up, before putting the gun up. Cleanup was still a JOB.

I very seldom take only one rifle to the range. Even when I'm going to a match. I may only shoot one, but I've always got two with me.
Normally it is two that I do shoot when I'm just playing around on the range, and I've learned to limit it to only two, because of the cleaning involved....I do clean! And I do clean good! And that takes time, at least for me.

Try to stay awake, this gets better....
When the day is done and that inevitable cleaning time rolls around... about O dark thirty, I like to have a little drink of "cold spring water" while I do my little cleaning chore. And, too many guns means too many drinks of that "cold spring water" and I am very prone to get sleepy, and put the cleaning off until the next day. :snore:

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
Russ

 

[crockett]

If you are completely new, you want to strongly consider a percussion lock versus a flintlock. That saves a lot of bother. You want a hooked breech so you can easily take off the barrel for cleaning. A flash cup or leather wrapping around the percussion nipple will eliminate a lot of cleaning in that area. Percussion caps are much more powerful than generally assumed.
After a day's shooting, take off the barrel and stick the breech end into a hot bucket of soapy water. Run a patch up and down the bore. Your barrel will be cleaned fairly quickly. If you are shooting a patched round ball, there will be no lead or plastic fouling in the bore. Personally I think the sabots and conicals are over rated. If you are new, start out with a patched round ball.
After the water runs clear put an oiled patch up and down the bore and wipe off the metal parts. Some folks like to use a non-petroleum "oil" because they feel a petroleum based oil reacts with black powder to create more fouling.
If you are out hunting and don't shoot the weapon, use a CO 2 ball expeller. Black powder is only corrosive if it has been fired. If you didn't snap a cap or fire the weapon you can expell the charge and forget about cleaning.
How much effort do you put into cleaning a center fire rifle? If you use a copper solvent do you keep running patches until all traces of copper fouling are gone? Cleaning a black powder rifle is easier or certainly no more work than a centerfire.
By all means try black powder, you won't regret it.

 

[vradin]

The cleaning part to me is also part of the fun. I worked up a cleaning box just for the occasion.

HA! I knew I wasn't the only one that LIKES the cleaning part of shooting blackpowder :crackup: and them guys were laffing at me... :crackup:

I don't shoot the ML much (if at all) except during the summer, they get a LOT of use in a short time- every day for 7 weeks, maybe 25-50 shots a day in 5 or 6 rifles. Granted, we use light loads of 50gr pyrodex and PRB only but needing to clean 6 ML rifles daily- well... you either love it or it proves how crazy you need to be to do this at all :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

Now if I could find a place to shoot in Northeast Illinois that didn't cost an arm and both legs in memberships or range fees... I might get more shooting time for myself. :shocking:

vic

 

Now if I could find a place to shoot in Northeast Illinois that didn't cost an arm and both legs in memberships or range fees... I might get more shooting time for myself.
===========================================================

well come on out to idaho . i have burn 10lbs of 3F and 4lbs of 2F and a pound of 4F this year alone. didnt cost me a dime beyound the powder. aahhhhh welll o take that back some of that powder got used up by the local club. they call themselves the Weiser River Beaver Ballers and we shoot every sunday , rain or shine eace:

 

[hou5ton]

WOW, I don't know if this is good or bad to ask a question that gets two pages worth of responses???

I sure have appreciated them though, and oddly enough, they have been encouraging. ... I say "odd" because the answer to the question was "Yes, it is a bit of 'trouble', but it's an enjoyable kind of trouble."

I might end up fussing with it quite a bit myself, because accuracy will be very important to me.

Anyway, thanks for all the answers.

 

[musketman]

I might end up fussing with it quite a bit myself, because accuracy will be very important to me.

Even if accuracy was not very important to you, you would still need to clean your gun, otherwise it will get ruined...

Take care of your gun and it will take care of you...

 

[albert]

You are only about an hour from me,if you would want to experience the loading and cleaning,mayby we could get together sometime after deer season,and I will let you shoot and clean some of my rifles. :redthumb:

 

[Four2]

I have to agree with several of you in that I spend about the same amount of time cleaning my modern guns as I do my muzzleloaders. I think the cleaning time "investment" is a wash...
OK, the pun was intended ::

 

[Stumpkiller]

I am beginning to feel that I am the only one on this forum that actually ENJOYS cleaning my weapons.

Oh no, I find it very fulfilling. It's the noise that bothers me. "WHAT IS THAT UNGODLY STENCH?" "TAKE THAT OUTSIDE." "I don't care if it if 15 below!" "Heat that on your stinking Coleman, not my stove." "That's not my good xxxxxx, is it?" (bowl, pot, linen table cloth, funnel, crystal punch-bowl, silver tea set, etc.) "Did you spill something on the cat?"


Deafness is God's way of rewarding longtime shooters.

 

[musketman]

It's the noise that bothers me. "WHAT IS THAT UNGODLY STENCH?"

What stench???

That is the smell of revenge...

Remember all those years of: "It's your turn to change the baby"? :crackup: :crackup:

 

Yes stumpkiller, the noise of cleaning is dreadful! Your wife must give training sessions!

You should have heard the fuss over rendering tallow on the kitchen stove!

:crackup:

In this day of sealed engine compartments on vehicles, printed circuits and preprocessed foods I find it refreshing to have access to the innards of at least one mechanical object!

Few modern shooters know their weapons as well as any of us that thoroughly clean our BP guns. If something is going wrong I usually know it by the end of a cleaning session.

When was the last time you completely and thoroughly disassembled the bolt, trigger group and every componant on your modern rifle or shotgun?

I used to make a pretty good living "repairing" guns that had nothing wrong with them except for "crud buildup" in places where the owners were scared to go! "Run a patch down the bore, squirt in some WD-40 and if she don't shoot she's broken, throw her out!" is the modern way.

Remington makes a Nylon 66 that only requires bullets for proper functioning. I sort of enjoy taking stuff apart!

:imo:

 

[Pork Chop]

"Did you spill something on the cat?"

Of course the only appropriate reply to that one is "Not spill Honey, poured is more like it...."

 

[shotgunner]

IT'S LIKE BUILDING A STICKBOW, I CAN'T TELL YOU WHAT YOUR PERSONAL REWARD WILL BE. THAT'S YOUR CALL. YOU WON'T FIND ANSWERS HERE, YOU . . . HAVE TO LOOK INSIDE AND FIND THEM . . .

SHOTGUJN