Percussion barrel cleaning.

[oldwood]

One small help I've not seen mentioned , is no matter what liquid put down the bore ,once the entire cleaning , oiling , preserving , whatever , process is completed , store the gun, muzzle down. Amazingly , any liquids , goo , etc. goes down away from the breech where a quick wipe w/ a patch on a r/r finishes the cleaning process . Works flint or percussion. Gun's ready to load.........oldwood

 

[SDSmlf]

To those that use WD40 on there barrels keep using it and in time you will see the solder ribs leave the barrel especially on originals

Interesting observation that I have not heard in years. Remember hearing it from a German gunsmith that specialized in working on doubles and drillings, and if I remember correctly, did warranty and custom work for Browning and other manufacturers. He claimed that the ‘modern’ penetrating oils like WD40 and Kroil if used too liberally would work it’s way between the solder and the steel, weakening the joint over repeated heat cycles as the gun was used and shot. Kind of how water breaks up pavement and brick as it freezes and thaws in the winter. He also warned that those penetrating oils would foul powder in cartridges as it got past the primer and crimped bullet, but not a topic for here. Remember him telling how he started his apprenticeship in Germany when he was eleven years old, a real old school gunsmith. He used to talk about working as a gunsmith during ‘The War’ (WWI) before eventually coming to the US.

Personally, I have never known solder joints to degrade from the stuff, but I’ve really only used WD40 to dry out bores after cleaning with water (discovered early on it gums up mechanisms, especially in cold weather), and have found Kroil Oil good at helping to lift leading from rifled bores.

 

[Griz44Mag]

Buy a Bissell Steam Shot , remove the nipple put the tip in the hole and pull the trigger with the muzzle in a pail and watch all the crap from the fire channel and barrel flow out. Swab it

Same here, the pressure always makes me think I am double loading. Half cocked no cap no misfire possibility.

Just drop it in a small cup of MAP for a few minutes. All the carbon and crap is gone.

 

[SDSmlf]

Just drop it in a small cup of MAP for a few minutes. All the carbon and crap is gone.

Always thought that, until I got a borescope. This a brand new barrel with 50 shots out of it. 80 grains of powder, felt wad, paperpatched bullet. First picture is after multiple cleanings and an overnight soak with MAP.

Second photograph is the same spot in the same barrel after cleaning with very hot water followed by a modern bore cleaner. Finding the borescope telling me things I don’t want to believe.

 

[oldwood]

I see copious amounts of tooling marks , but have little to compare them to. Is this barrel a m/l gun factory production barrel , or a modern custom barrel factory rendering??? In case it is from a modern barrel supplier , please don't mention the name.. Everyone has a bad day on occasion , and if there is a problem ,keep it between you and the mfg.er.. I got two roughly rifled .58 Jaeger barrels from a prominent maker 35 yrs. , ago. Both were replaced promptly .
Compered to some original m/l barrels , this ain't too bad to shoot......oldwood

 

[SDSmlf]

I see copious amounts of tooling marks , but have little to compare them to. Is this barrel a m/l gun factory production barrel , or a modern custom barrel factory rendering??? In case it is from a modern barrel supplier , please don't mention the name.. Everyone has a bad day on occasion , and if there is a problem ,keep it between you and the mfg.er..

The reason I posted the photographs was to show the carbon build up and the difficulty in removing it.

I have half a dozen barrels from this modern barrel manufacturer, and they all look about the same. You magnify something enough and it looks rough. Part of the point I was making about being able to see a whole lot more when you use a borescope rather than dropping a fishing bobber light down the bore. This particular barrel has been a tack driver from the first group I shot with it. The only barrels that you will see smoother, at least from what I have seen looking at 40 plus bores now, are the button rifled ones, and they all had very shallow rifling, not what you want for patched roundballs, though the one in the photographs is a conical fast twist barrel. Also have roundball barrels from the same manufacturer and they look about the same. This is what cut rifling looks like. The best looking cut rifling bores I have seen have a carbide sizing die run through them after rifling by the manufacturer, and it just knocks down the burrs, not really removing all the machining marks. They also shot very good.

If you don’t want to see it, don’t look.

 

[oldwood]

SDS.........Thanks for the clarification. It's always interesting to see things never seen before. At that level of magnification , can you imagine the forces exerted , when a load of powder is ignited and starts a patched ball down the bore.??? Thanks again.......oldwood