how to clean between rounds?

[Swampman]

Just chuck the jag in a drill and take a file to it.

I use old t-shirts for patches.

 

[paulvallandigham]

You are new here, so you don't know that you need to start a new " thread", or topic. I have sent you a Private Topic message answering your question, however. Welcome. :thumbsup:

 

[Capt. Fred]

Funny you should suggest that Mark. I just did that the other night LOL. I used a block with 600 grit paper on it and just took a hair off but I'll keep fiddling with it. :hmm:

 

[Boomer 500]

I have my patches presoaked in melted bore butter.
Some prep work but it has worked well for me.
Keeps things slick at each shot.
To much may foul though, A light cote is enouf.
When balls get harder to load it is time for a quick cleaning with sollution.

 

[Zonie]

IMO, when a shooter wipes his bore between shots there is one goal he has in mind. Removing the fouling to make loading the next shot easier.

The last thing he wants to do is to end up with the fouling in his guns breech or touch hole.

My method for doing the first thing is to use a cleaning patch that is fairly wet and to rapidly run it down the bore to the breech and then let it sit there for at least 5 seconds.
After waiting, to allow the water to penetrate the fouling and make it soft, I thin pull the ramrod/jag/patch back out of the bore in one smooth, moderate speed pull.
On the way out, most, if not all of the softened fouling will come with it.

I then run one dry patch to the breech and back out to dry the bore. Then I reload.

An excellent way to get the fouling down into the breech or touch hole is to
1. Use a brush.
2. Run a fairly dry patch or a totally dry patch down the bore.
3. Rapidly run a wet or a dry patch to the breech and then, without waiting, remove it and then run it back down the bore several times.

Depending on the weather I can usually get at least 3 shots off before loading becomes difficult. I keep a mental note each time I load and if loading gets moderately difficult I stop and wipe the bore before the next shot.

I've found that a moderatly wet application of Stumpkillers Moose Juice to each patch right before I position and ram the ball does a pretty good job of keeping the fouling down, often allowing 6 or more shots before the bore starts to get to the point of needing to be wiped.

Just my 4 cents. (Inflation, don't you know?) :grin:

 

[Boomer 500]

That all sounds like verry sound advice.
Thanks for the 4 cents.
Speaking of inflation , I have a stockpile of bore butter and if I find some on the prize blanket I snatch it up if I can.
It is getting more expensive all the time.
Is there a good cheaper alternitave?
I do loke the Butter though.

Thanks

 

[paulvallandigham]

Boomer: You can make your own much cheaper using beeswax, and olive oil( or any vegetable oil.) If you insist on having it smell like wintergreen, you can add a drop or two of that scent compound to the mix. Just look in hobby stores, where candle making materials are sold, to find the wintergreen and many other choices of scents that you can buy in bottles. A little goes a VERY, VERY, long way!

I read where someone uses a mix of 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 Crisco shortening( the solid stuff) and 1/3 oil. Other than the beeswax, you should have the other materials at your home already. All the farm extension offices across this country- at the county level-- will give you information about the local bee keepers, and they are a tremendous and cheap source of beeswax( as well as terrific honey.)You also can do a search here for beeswax, as the subject comes up several times a year, and sources have been discussed several times.

 

[Birddog6]

This is a example of a modified jag I make for each rifle I shoot. The front land is about .010 smaller than the other lands. The dia. of the second land about .005 larger & the other lands are regular size. All of them are sharp & tapered back. The patch & jag have a arrowhead effect when you push it in with a patch, it pushes past the fouling & when you pull back the patching gathers on the sharp edges & grabs the fouling on the way out. It works very well, has for many years & keeps from pushing crud into the breech.

I swab down & back one smooth stroke with a liquid swabbing solution I make, and a tee shirt patch, just down & back & then load.

You can easily convert your jag on a drill press with a small 3 corner file. Use a mic & mic the lands as you go so you don't cut the jag too small.

The most repeated problem I see with people swabbing the bores between shots is they use pillow ticking or they use too tight a patch/jag combo to sway & they actually push all the cruds into the breech.

Swabbing between shots is not to clean the rifle, it is to keep the bore Consistant from shot to shot. The more consistant EVERYTHING is from shot to shot, the more accurate the load will be. You change any ingredient, be it powder, volume, lube, amount of lube, swabbing lube or amount of swabbing lube, how many strokes you swab, wetness of swabbing lube, anything you change will change the group...... Also you need to learn to adjust the swabbing lube & technique with the humidity. If you use a fairly dry swabbing lube amount on a wet day, on a dry day you will need it wetter, as the humidity that was helping you on the wet day is gone & you must compensate.
Also you must learn to read the crud you are swabbing out & look at it each time & adjust the wetness. If it gets soupy, cut the liquid back. If it swabs hard or is very dry, add more wetness.


Also attached a photo of a modified breech scraper. This is a 2 minute mod. & makes cleaning off a breechface so much easier. Be Sure you file the correct way so the scraper cuts as you turn the ramrod Righty Tighty... :wink: 2-3 twists & this lil mod will cut the fouling off the breechface in a heartbeat.
If I am shooting a long session at the range, I have a separate rod there with a jag such as this & about every 10-12 shots I scrap the breech to insure no fouling is building up there & helps keep the load consistent for groups..

 

[miles fenton]

I always use one wet and one or two dry, changing the patch wetness according to the day.
I ALWAYS use a loading tube down the barrel with small funnel on the top so I can deliver all the powder to the breech. Otherwise you can get powder grains sticking to the rifling and that will jam up the ball or bullet when you ram it down.
Admittedly this technique is only good for the range but keeping powder particles off the side of the bore is the secret to smooth loading.
By the way I use a false muzzle(or ramrod guide) too and am shooting paper patched bullet for long range.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Miles: The cleaning technique works pretty well with shallow rifling, usually what is found on guns that shoot PP bullets. However on RB barrels with grooves twice as deep( or more ) than that conical barrel, Birddog's method will work better.

With a RB barrel, you don't have the same problems with powder " sticking " to the bore or grooves as you describe with your gun. As long as you clean and dry the barrel between shots, there is Nothing really to stick to!

The real problem for shooters who refuse to clean between shots is that some of that moisture in the powder residue will foul some of the next powder charge, and that will lead to greater inaccuracy from shot to shot. Since you can't control how much moisture is absorbed by the powder residue, nor how much powder residue you have in the bore, shot after shot, you create an unnecessary inconsistency in your loading method.I have never found a need to use my breechplug face scraper, but Birddog's systematic approach to its use makes sense, too.

The vents on my flintlocks are set forward of the face of the breechplug enough to allow a lot of crud to build up before there is any interference with the vent. A damp cleaning patch between loads cleans the crud off the face of the plug rather well, so I don't really have much of any build up going on.

 

[Birddog6]

Paul, The use of the breech scraper now & then is to keep a large accumulation of fouling from building at the breechface. Eventually if you have a large accumulation there it will build up to the vent hole & could cause fouling of the vent hole when you load.
Now I am talking about allot of shots, not 1-12 if you are achieving a good burn of the powder. But eventually it will build & by scraping the face now & then, you help keep Everything consistent in the breech area.

I know one time I bought a case f Elephant powder :shake: :surrender: and it was a total nightmare for fouling. By 15 shots if you didn't scrape the breechface the my .54, .58, .62 rifles started fouling at the vent. That is what got me to scraping the breechface. Until that powder was gone, it was a every 5 shot ordeal.
With the Goex or Scheutzen, I don't really have to scrape it that much, but if I am shooting fro groups or working loads, I want everything the same from shot to shot, including the chamber at the combustion source.

Now on a smallbore with Swiss 3F, I seldom swab or scrape the breech because it burns so much cleaner than the other powders. It is the cats meow in a smallbore rifle........

:thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

"...I wanted to report a happy ending: fired steadily for two hours, issue free, using liberal amounts of Hoppes lube. Worked great.

Its fantastic stuff for sure...and when I get home to thoroughly clean the ML, there's hardly a trace of color that comes out in the bucket of hot soapy water

 

[Tsegoweleh]

Oatsayo All,
I havent read all the posts, so i dopnt know if someone has poseted this as yet.
I think the problem is you are using Too tight a load.
In my .50 i use a 490 ball and a .10 patch. Could probaly go to a .15 but i like it to load smooth. Try a thinner patch. :wink:

 

[sproulman]

if you swab on every shot, which i do,i dont think there will be a build up to be pushed into the breech area.

i have never used a breech scraper in 38 years.

am i wrong on this,thanks :shocked2:

 

[sproulman]

38 years with hawkins t/c flintlock and never had trouble like you sayUNLESS I DID NOT CLEAN AFTER THE 5TH SHOT.

i use .018 pillowtick with bore butter in it cut at muzz and swab between shots with alcohal patch and it slides right in fine.

i would scrub that bore with hot water/soap with a bore brush.

then use a bore paste to shine things up.

i bet your bore is not cleaned good.