In Wisconsin we season our cars' and trucks' frames with road salt. Anybody try using that on their guns?
My old man did that for me when I was in the Marines. Leaned my rifles in a closet next to the water softener tank for a few years. I'm not allowed to use the language that still comes to mind after nearly 30 years on here though. Ruined a couple rare ones.In Wisconsin we season our cars' and trucks' frames with road salt. Anybody try using that on their guns?
The idea behind the steel wool is to see if it pulls any lead. Which it probably won't but there could be some there. It's certainly not lead from the 12l14 steel.The worn off metal will turn dark but the metal comes from the steel wool very little from the barrel. If you use steel wool on a flat piece of steel you will see the steel wool start leaving powdered steel.
I've pretty much tried about every method of lead removal from shooting heavy .45 cal bullets in black powder cartridge guns and the very best lead remover I have yet come across was a gift from my son-in-law that set on my shelf for over a year before I tried it because it had such a goofy name............... "Gunzilla" ! I read the ingredients and found it had no petroleum in it but rather various plant extracts and water. Petroleum products cause carbon fouling from black powder combustion which is the hardest of all to detect and remove once it get going.The idea behind the steel wool is to see if it pulls any lead. Which it probably won't but there could be some there. It's certainly not lead from the 12l14 steel.
The only time I've pulled black out on a patch is when using jb bore paste.
No! but after reading your post someone will! LOL!In Wisconsin we season our cars' and trucks' frames with road salt. Anybody try using that on their guns?
I am guessing the solvent is reacting with the copper/bronse bore brush. Try just using a cottonn swab and then dry with clean cotton patches, oil.I clean with water, windex or some commercial black powder solvents and then finish with gun oil. I recently cleaned my rifle and went from black to gray. Then I used a bronze bore brush w/Hoppes black powder solvent. Patches went back to black. Wiped with clean patches back to gray. Repeated with the bronze brush etc. Every time I followed a "clean" patch with the brush, the patches went back to black. Is this carbon buildup I'm scrubbing out or is something else going on?
Right. You can’t season steel. But you can season iron. We don’t have iron barrels.What is it going to take to put an end to this "seasoning" nonsense. Unless your putting pepper flake, celery salt, garlic powder, and nutmeg in your patch lube,,,,, bores don't get "seasoned"!
That makes sense to me and helps explain what I was experiencing.Actually I have had this apparent dirty patch happen regularly. When using factory lubed patches the microscopic film on the bore gets burned onto the bore upon firing. 1000 lube and anything with beeswax, water or water based solvents will not remove this film. After each cleaning, my patches apparently clean, I run a bore brush down a couple of times (they will not harm modern gun steel). Then I run a conventional bore cleaner patch down. Those come out filthy. What this is, is the burned on lube that has been mechanically removed by the bore brush. It goes away after a patch or two. Some call this gunk seasoning but it is not the same thing as seasoning iron, which is porous.
Does Rig or 1000 lube have petroleum in it?Actually I have had this apparent dirty patch happen regularly. When using factory lubed patches the microscopic film on the bore gets burned onto the bore upon firing. 1000 lube and anything with beeswax, water or water based solvents will not remove this film. After each cleaning, my patches apparently clean, I run a bore brush down a couple of times (they will not harm modern gun steel). Then I run a conventional bore cleaner patch down. Those come out filthy. What this is, is the burned on lube that has been mechanically removed by the bore brush. It goes away after a patch or two. Some call this gunk seasoning but it is not the same thing as seasoning iron, which is porous.
I once read a post by Dutch on ALR in the midst of one of the recurring WD40 debates that his long term storage was exactly that but he used WD40. There was a topic here on this forum not too long ago about an extensive test of a large number of rust preventatives. Over a long term the winner was WD40 Specialist.Next time I go to shoot, the patch comes out clean.
Modified Dutch Schoultz method.
My first TC owners manual was the '73 version. It recommended the boiling hot water method. Later versions do not. Manuals evolved along with TC product offerings. Warm soapy water works ok but just not too warm. The flash rust thing is real. I've seen it! The other interesting thing about the '73 version is the recommendation to use slivers of bar soap in the boiling hot water.What I find interesting is the T/C manual covers, several times, the importance of "seasoning the barrel" and, of course, their products are the best to maintain that seasoning. What is also interesting is in the cleaning section, the T/C manual covers "use warm soapy water". Is this contradictory to the seasoning concept?
Try some Butch's Bore Shine for BP (they make two flavors, you want BP).Hello!
I know the ideas of cleaning a black power flintlock have been beat to death but one question I have goes unanswered and I hope I can get some validation from you here
No matter how meticulous I clean the gun, I continue to get patches that are "dark" in nature. For example ... I can clean the barrel using water and Dawn until the water is clear. But I also will use several T/C #13 saturated patches until they come out clean. Follow this up with dry patches, which are clean. Then, run a saturated patch with T/C bore butter a few times and there it is, dark gray coloring on the patch (but not black like a first wipe after shooting)
I know BP is big time dirty, but this dirty? I can run through 30+ patches, easily, and still find a way darken those patches.
Maybe, at this point, is this the "seasoning" in the barrel I am removing or is this still fouling?
Thank you in advance
-Cheney
What is TSP?If you have a hooked breach percussion barrel and can remove it from the gun, the quickest and easiest way I know of to get it squeaky clean is with TSP in a small bucket and syphon it in and out with the ramrod/jag/patch. Just wear gloves. It can be hard on the skin.
1 Tbsp per 1/2 gal of water.
I don’t recommend using it on a pinned barrel. The solution will jack up the finish on the wood. But, on a removable percussion barrel, it can’t be beat.
I don’t know. For a long time I used to use 1000 lube to oil (so to speak) my bore for storage. Put some on a patch and run it up and down in the bore. In a week I’d come back and run a dry patch down the bore and it came out brownish black. Whatever the chemical makeup is seems to act as a solvent to dissolve burned on 1000 lube in the bore.Does Rig or 1000 lube have petroleum in it?
Tri-Sodium Phosphate.What is TSP?
That was my first guess, but since I’d never heard of it being used in this hobby, I had to ask. Thanks for the prompt response!Tri-Sodium Phosphate.
It’s normally available in powdered form that you mix with water. Any hardware store will have it. It’s a really strong cleaner and will strip grease, oil and dirt from just about anything with little effort. Don’t get it on your gun stock or wood furniture, but for a hooked breach gun, it makes it really easy to get the barrel totally clean without affecting the bluing/browning. Wear gloves. I’ve never noticed any fumes from it.
It makes the process of cleaning a barrel so simple and easy it’ll make you giggle!
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