Welcome. Your addiction has only started. Soon, you will have many more black powder arms or atleast want them. Seriously, you will get many opinions on ways to clean your rifle. They are generally all good and everyone seems to choose what "works best for them". For me, personally, It is a very simple process. I try to stay as traditional as possible. Water and lube. That's it. After a shooting session, if shooting a flintlock, I remove the lock, plug the vent hole, poor water down the barrel. Room temperature water, it doesn't necessarily have to be boiling hot water. For me, personally, boiling water causes too many problems with flash rust no matter how much I try to prevent it. I just use water from my canteen. If shooting a caplock, remove the nipple and plug that hole and do the same. Pour the water out. It will be thick and black. Fill your barrel again with water and pour it out. It will be black, but not as much as the first time. I now screw the "jag" onto the end of my ramrod and run some water soaked cotton patches down the barrel. They will get a little cleaner each time. Now, I do the same with dry patches until they are clean. Now for a little lube. In the "old days", folks found that beef tallow and other fats from animals worked as a good lube and rust preventive on firearms. I use a product sold by Dixie Gunworks in Tennessee called "old zip". It comes in a can resembling a large can of shoe polish. It is a mixture of mutten tallow and beeswax. I have found it to be an excellent lube for both the bore and exterior wiping down of the barrel. Flush your nipple out with water, dry it good and use a pipe cleaner to lube it, but don't actually block the hole. That is how I clean my arms. I am forty now and I have been cleaning them this way since my late 20s and my guns have stayed clean and do not fail me. Others prefer modern solvents and things of that nature and that is fine. Send us a range report :hatsoff:
