Is That Seasoning or Fouling On My Patch?

[FLTaft1948]

I don't use soaps or detergents to clean my cast iron. Wipe them out, re-oil, re-heat, wipe off any excess then back to storage location.

Amen, Brother, amen! That's what the elder ones taught me and that's how do it!

 

[wiscoaster]

...The issue is only how clean is clean. ...

I clean to light gray and then run a patch lightly soaked with gun oil (Drnch is my fave) followed by a dry patch and call it done. The bore is bright and shiny and stays that way.

 

[Tumbledown]

I have a flat breech plug and use a scraper. I'm sure there's no fouling buildup on breech plug. The brush has a loop on the end, so the bristles don't contact the face of the breech plug. It appears to me the black residue is coming off the lands and grooves. Is this a buildup of hardened carbon this needs to be removed down to bare metal before the patches come clean? The issue is only how clean is clean. I don't have a problem with rust and 50 yard accuracy is acceptable. Any input from the pros would be informative.

You might be rubbing some bronze onto the steel, then picking that up on the patch. If you scrub with a water-filled barrel, does the water come out clear?

 

[Wirehair]

I clean to light gray and then run a patch lightly soaked with gun oil (Drnch is my fave) followed by a dry patch and call it done. The bore is bright and shiny and stays that way.

This has been my standard as well.

You might be rubbing some bronze onto the steel, then picking that up on the patch. If you scrub with a water-filled barrel, does the water come out clear?

I'll try that later today and post the results. It all started with verifying my load/sight picture before deer hunting this coming week.

 

[Enfield58]

Have you tried using a borescope? I got this one for all of my firearms and it tells me more that I could have ever imagined.

You might be able to see the built up carbon fouling along the lands if that is what you suspect.

https://teslong.com/collections/rifle-borescopes/products/45inch-flexible-rifle-borescope
Also get the extra mirrors for different calibers.

https://teslong.com/products/differ...100-series-rifle-borescope-0-2inch-and-larger
For cleaning, I've been using MAP for almost 40 years now and have never looked back.

Mix three equal parts of Murphy's Oil Soap, Peroxide and Alcohol (90% is my preference) and keep in a brown bottle used for Hydrogen Peroxide. Use it like you would a regular solvent for smokeless powder firearms. After the bore is clean, dry it and oil it.

 

[wiscoaster]

I also have one of those Teslongs and it's one heck of a piece of equipment for the price.

 

[Jeff Davis]

I started shooting my TC Hawkin Christmas 1988. Between then and now I have learned: Bore Butter is the end all and you must “season“ your barrel. Never use Bore Butter. WD40 is some good stuff. Never leave home without it. WD40 is the devils spawn never let it touch your firearms. WD40 is a good barrel protecter.

Now thirty plus years later I clean with MAP. Lube clean barrel with Bore Butter and outside with WD40.

If it works don't fix it. I do the same

 

[LME]

I somewhat agree. I always clean after shooting and, most of the time, use water, ballistol, etc. On this occasion, I wanted to try and eliminate the gray on the patch, i.e., I wanted pearly white. Thus the bronze brush. So, where's the dark black coming from?

The dark or gray you are seeing occurs when the patch is compressed againest the side of the bore. I always use a tight patch and it occurs every time I clean a rifle even my modern rifles. I use to think I hadn't done a good job of cleaning but dumb me figured it out. A snug patch would come out just like it went in but not the tight ones.

 

[45man]

WD-40 was surely made by the devil! The stuff will cause rust and will also build up and nothing but scrapers will remove it. NEVER on a gun!

 

[wiscoaster]

WD-40 was surely made by the devil! The stuff will cause rust and will also build up and nothing but scrapers will remove it. NEVER on a gun!

The other side of that coin is that because Ballistol and water are inter-soluble, I never leave "moose milk" on a gun, either. Moose milk is dried off or it's replaced with straight Ballistol or with gun oil.

 

[French Colonial]

The dark or gray you are seeing occurs when the patch is compressed againest the side of the bore. I always use a tight patch and it occurs every time I clean a rifle even my modern rifles. I use to think I hadn't done a good job of cleaning but dumb me figured it out. A snug patch would come out just like it went in but not the tight ones.

A dry bore will leave gray on a tightly compressed patch, It is almost like burnishing.

 

[longcruise]

Wrap some fine steel wool around your jag and work it thoroughly in the dry barrel and see what comes out on it.

 

[M. De Land]

Funny how people have different experiences and form different opinions. I'm in the WD40 "devil's spawn" camp. Though I do use it occasionally if I have to use water on a cartridge gun and use it then just for what it was invented for: as a Water Dispersent. Then it immediately gets displaced by "real gun oil".

I think these differences lead me to conclude that:

pretty much anything and everything works.

I've noticed the one ingredient all of these successful cleaning regimens have in common is H2O !
All soap does is make water wetter !

 

[M. De Land]

WD-40 was surely made by the devil! The stuff will cause rust and will also build up and nothing but scrapers will remove it. NEVER on a gun!

W-40 used as designed is for water removal after it (water) has dissolved powder residue not for metal protection against oxidation.
Cleaning needs to be approached in a three step proposition the first being fouling removal , secondly all water removal and thirdly metal protection from oxidation.
I think we get into trouble when we try to combine all three in a single operation.
A wet barrel from cold water use stays wet in the breech and rifling corners after patch drying and the WD40 lifts it out of the pours and corners where it can be wiped out and evaporate.
If one uses hot water than surface oxidation is immediate but the corners and breech dry quickly. Trouble here is each time it happens more flash rust pitting is happening although microscopic and gets progressively worse over time.
Ideally we want to remove the fouling and maintain the bore in as close to broken in profile as possible.
So cold or no more than warm water should be used for fouling dissolving/ cleaning with or without some soap and then all moisture removed (WD-40) followed by a good metal oxidation protect-ant.
When we try to incorporate all three requirements simultaneously for speeds sake then we are compromising some where.
We are tempted to think the old dead guys had it all figured out but I have noticed from reading of their era that they were very often having to have their bores "freshed" out every couple of years and I think that was as much from improper cleaning as it was loading rod wear at the muzzle which only requires a bit of barrel shortening to remedy.
I should add the one caution about using WD-40 as a protect-ant is it dissolves bluing over time and use so keep in only on the inside of the barrel to lift water out . I found this out the hard way on modern rifle barrels after wiping them down with it.

 

[LME]

Wrap some fine steel wool around your jag and work it thoroughly in the dry barrel and see what comes out on it.

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.

 

[Wirehair]

This has been my standard as well.

I'll try that later today and post the results. It all started with verifying my load/sight picture before deer hunting this coming week.

I

You might be rubbing some bronze onto the steel, then picking that up on the patch. If you scrub with a water-filled barrel, does the water come out clear?

 

[Wirehair]

This has been my standard as well.

I'll try that later today and post the results. It all started with verifying my load/sight picture before deer hunting this coming week.

You might be rubbing some bronze onto the steel, then picking that up on the patch. If you scrub with a water-filled barrel, does the water come out clear?

The water was clear and a patch had a very light gray color. I'd say there are no residual fouling issues. Whatever the bore brush is producing is not black powder fouling. Perhaps I'm just removing the seasoning we all work so hard to establish?

 

[Tumbledown]

The water was clear and a patch had a very light gray color. I'd say there are no residual fouling issues. Whatever the bore brush is producing is not black powder fouling. Perhaps I'm just removing the seasoning we all work so hard to establish?

There is no such thing as seasoning.

 

[flntlokr]

35 years down the road.34.5 years bore butter free! I use soapy water for lube and cleaning. The only petroleum product down the pipe is G96. the patch used to spread the G96 in the barrel gets used to wipe down the exterior metal, and a squirt at the lock workings. No rust, no build-ups. Works for me.

 

[Wirehair]

There is no such thing as seasoning.

I was trying to be funny. I gave up on the bore seasoning nonsense a couple of decades ago.