Question on pinned barrel

[2 shots]

if it was not said yet keeping the gun wood side up should help some.

 

[hunter thompson]

flint

Rarely do I need to remove a barrel from the stock to clean it! It's just not necessary and actually increases wear and risk of damage to the stock! There are flush adapters for both flint and percussion - some folks like then! On either type I plug the vent/nipple with a toothpick, pour a tablespoon or 2 (depending on caliber) of cleaning solution (I use Track of the Wolf's brand) or water down the bore and scrub the bore using a nylon bristle brush! I let the barrel sit for a few minutes and empty the contents! Follow with dry patches until they come out reasonably dry and then proceed to the standard wet/dry patch until the bore is clean. Doesn't take long after you get the heavy crud out of the bore.

Thank you very much.

 

[hunter thompson]

As others have said, first plug the touch hole. You can use a toothpick or a rare earth magnet with some electrical tape as a gasket. Do wrap the lock mortise with an old towel to catch any water. Pour some water in the barrel. let it set for a while and pour the water out. do this several times until the water pours clean. You will still have embedded fouling that has to be wiped out using a damp patch on your jag. Unplug the touch hole. The towel will catch any water. Once the fouling has been removed, proceed with the dry patches, alcohol patches (or WD40) to displace any remaining water. Brush the touch hole. Oils with a rust inhibiting lubricant. Install the lock.

The magnetic flush tube works too.
THE LUCKY BAG

Thank you very much

 

[hunter thompson]

Here's my method a guy taught me. Takes me about 10 minutes. (Flintlock)

Take lock off.

Toothpick in touch hole, wrap a strip of t shirt or fabric around wrist (in case water seeps past toothpick when gun is standing, that way it doesn't get a stain from a streak of fouled water running down over the buttstock)

Place a small funnel in end of bore, pour a small amount of warm water in bore.

Stand it up, let it sit while you clean your lock.
I'll skip how I clean the lock since that's not your question. Your question is how to clean a pinned barrel without pulling...

After lock is clean, (2 minutes later) grab gun put your finger over muzzle and flip back and forth to get that water rolling around.

Dump it out. Add water a 2nd or 3rd time, just dump it right back out that 2nd and 3rd time.

Pull toothpick, (Keep that flash hole facing away from any thing you don't want sprayed with minor fouling, like your shins! Ha

Now run dry patch alternated with patches that are wet or sprayed with simple green till no more fouling.

Then I run a patch with WD40, down, then a dry patch.
I use that oiled patch to wipe the outside of the barrel down just because....
Put lock back on and you're doone

Thank you very much..

 

[rp77469]

This thread from a couple months back might be of interest to those wanting a magnetic flush tube. My new way of cleaning......with a magnet !!!

 

[Twisted_1in66]

HOW do you effectivly clean a barrel(flint) when you dont have wedge pins and the barrel is pinned on...guns with wedge pins is all ive been shooting for years.Thanks

First of all, you don't need to remove the barrel every time you clean it. I typically remove the barrel once a year to check for rust under the barrel and to clean any gunk from the bed the barrel lies in. After removing it once a year, I put some car wax on the underside of the barrel to help protect it from rust if any moisture gets in under that barrel.

It's best to remove the pin with with a long nose punch. About 1/16" diameter if I recall. However, if you don't have a punch, a finishing nail of the appropriate size (slightly smaller than the diameter of the pin) works just fine. Don't try to drive it out with one hammer stroke because you may chip the wood if the pin sticks to the wood. So tap it out. With my rifles it seems that once I get them going, they come out easily.

Keep the pins next to the stock by the holes they came out of. It's not unusual to have them be different lengths and you want to put them back in the right holes. I remove mine completely. If you don't remove a pin far enough and try to pull out the barrel, you'll damage that pinhole. If you remove it far enough to disengage the pins from the barrel lugs and leave leave it hanging out of the holes, any little accidental bump that pushes sideways against that pin can damage or enlarge the hole the pin goes into.

After cleaning your barrel and applying some car wax to the underside of the barrel, tap the pins back in from the side the came out of. Not sure that makes a difference, just how I've always done it. If you lose a pin, it's not a disaster. Just about any hardware store cares pin stock. You may have to buy a 3-ft long piece of the right size (should be the same as the other pin) but it's only a couple of bucks and you have more than enough.

Ideally you'll cut or hacksaw off a piece just about 1/16" or so shorter that the pin hole. You do NOT want it sticking out at all. If it's 1/16" shorter overall, it will be 1/32" inside the hole on each side. Now get one of those wood filler crayons in the closest shade to your stock (hardware store) and crayola that over each of the pinholes to fill them in. Wipe off the excess with your thumb (smears it a bit on adjacent wood) and it will make the hole disappear - you won't see the pins.

You don't want to unpin and remove your barrel every time you clean it though or you will enlarge those holes. The more you take it apart, the more chance you have of knocking off a V-shaped splinter from the edge of the holes. Unless you do something really crazy with your rifle, once a year is plenty.

When I clean my longrifles, I remove the lock and put a round toothpick in the flash hole (vent). Then I pour a couple of inches of my cleaning solution (MAP), or water if you don't use a solution, down the barrel and stand your rifle upright. Then I clean and oil the lock. After letting the breech of my barrel soak a bit to loosen things up while I clean and oil the lock, I'll wet a patch with my cleaning solution and slowly start to push it down the barrel. I'll get to a point where I can feel some hydraulic resistance to pushing farther, and that's the time to stop pushing. Now I carefully point the vent hole away from anything that is sitting within about 6 to 7-feet of me that I don't want to permanently stain.

I then reach down and pull the toothpick out of the vent hole and immediately push the ramrod all the way down quickly and forcefully. That will shoot a stream of this black dissolved powder and water a good 6-feet out and will permanently stain anything it hits. So make sure you don't point your vent towards a tent! Then I'll fun a few more wet patches down the barrel until it comes out clean; run a dry patch down it, and then run a patch with some gun oil down it. Just re-mount the lock and you're done.

Besides cleaning regular breeches really well, this jet of water cleans patent breeches thoroughly as well without needing to use a small size brush to clean it.

 

[M. De Land]

flintlock thats brand new but the barrel is pinned on..it is a custom gun with beautiful maple stock ..hate to get it wet..but i dont want to pull those tiny pins and align everything after either..whats the deal..?dump down the barrel?

I clean mine up side down in my shooting box cradle with a tooth pick in the flash hole. It keeps almost all the water that escapes the muzzle dripping off the the barrel instead of getting in or on the stock. It is a good idea to give the underside of the barrel in the stock a good coat of wax to prevent rust from moisture most often gotten while hunting and carrying the gun upright.
The lock should always be removed though as fouling will blow down into the lock mortise between the pan and the barrel wall no matter how closely fit ,in my experience..

 

[French Colonial]

I use a piece of pin material stuck in a piece of wood as a pusher, push the pins out gently and then I stick them in order on a piece of masking tape in the order that they came out. That way if its a couple of days before they go back in they do not get mixed up.

 

[Grenadier1758]

If you do need to make a pin punch from a finishing nail, be sure to grind the point of the nail flat and chamfer the tip. The point can easily slip on the surface of the pin.

 

[hunter thompson]

I clean mine up side down in my shooting box cradle with a tooth pick in the flash hole. It keeps almost all the water that escapes the muzzle dripping off the the barrel instead of getting in or on the stock. It is a good idea to give the underside of the barrel in the stock a good coat of wax to prevent rust from moisture most often gotten while hunting and carrying the gun upright.
The lock should always be removed though as fouling will blow down into the lock mortise between the pan and the barrel wall no matter how closely fit ,in my experience..

THANK YOU..appreciate that

 

[hunter thompson]

First of all, you don't need to remove the barrel every time you clean it. I typically remove the barrel once a year to check for rust under the barrel and to clean any gunk from the bed the barrel lies in. After removing it once a year, I put some car wax on the underside of the barrel to help protect it from rust if any moisture gets in under that barrel.

It's best to remove the pin with with a long nose punch. About 1/16" diameter if I recall. However, if you don't have a punch, a finishing nail of the appropriate size (slightly smaller than the diameter of the pin) works just fine. Don't try to drive it out with one hammer stroke because you may chip the wood if the pin sticks to the wood. So tap it out. With my rifles it seems that once I get them going, they come out easily.

Keep the pins next to the stock by the holes they came out of. It's not unusual to have them be different lengths and you want to put them back in the right holes. I remove mine completely. If you don't remove a pin far enough and try to pull out the barrel, you'll damage that pinhole. If you remove it far enough to disengage the pins from the barrel lugs and leave leave it hanging out of the holes, any little accidental bump that pushes sideways against that pin can damage or enlarge the hole the pin goes into.

After cleaning your barrel and applying some car wax to the underside of the barrel, tap the pins back in from the side the came out of. Not sure that makes a difference, just how I've always done it. If you lose a pin, it's not a disaster. Just about any hardware store cares pin stock. You may have to buy a 3-ft long piece of the right size (should be the same as the other pin) but it's only a couple of bucks and you have more than enough.

Ideally you'll cut or hacksaw off a piece just about 1/16" or so shorter that the pin hole. You do NOT want it sticking out at all. If it's 1/16" shorter overall, it will be 1/32" inside the hole on each side. Now get one of those wood filler crayons in the closest shade to your stock (hardware store) and crayola that over each of the pinholes to fill them in. Wipe off the excess with your thumb (smears it a bit on adjacent wood) and it will make the hole disappear - you won't see the pins.

You don't want to unpin and remove your barrel every time you clean it though or you will enlarge those holes. The more you take it apart, the more chance you have of knocking off a V-shaped splinter from the edge of the holes. Unless you do something really crazy with your rifle, once a year is plenty.

When I clean my longrifles, I remove the lock and put a round toothpick in the flash hole (vent). Then I pour a couple of inches of my cleaning solution (MAP), or water if you don't use a solution, down the barrel and stand your rifle upright. Then I clean and oil the lock. After letting the breech of my barrel soak a bit to loosen things up while I clean and oil the lock, I'll wet a patch with my cleaning solution and slowly start to push it down the barrel. I'll get to a point where I can feel some hydraulic resistance to pushing farther, and that's the time to stop pushing. Now I carefully point the vent hole away from anything that is sitting within about 6 to 7-feet of me that I don't want to permanently stain.

I then reach down and pull the toothpick out of the vent hole and immediately push the ramrod all the way down quickly and forcefully. That will shoot a stream of this black dissolved powder and water a good 6-feet out and will permanently stain anything it hits. So make sure you don't point your vent towards a tent! Then I'll fun a few more wet patches down the barrel until it comes out clean; run a dry patch down it, and then run a patch with some gun oil down it. Just re-mount the lock and you're done.

Besides cleaning regular breeches really well, this jet of water cleans patent breeches thoroughly as well without needing to use a small size brush to clean it.

WOW GREAT DETAIL and i really appreciate it..thank you sounds very good ant the car wax ,,who woulda thought of that ..ill do that.good job thank you

 

[tenngun]

flintlock thats brand new but the barrel is pinned on..it is a custom gun with beautiful maple stock ..hate to get it wet..but i dont want to pull those tiny pins and align everything after either..whats the deal..?dump down the barrel?

I have a little brass powder funnel. This lets me pour water into the barrel and dump with out pouring hap-hazardly and spilling on the wood
Fill and dump, and keep wood dry

 

[hunter thompson]

I have a little brass powder funnel. This lets me pour water into the barrel and dump with out pouring hap-hazardly and spilling on the wood
Fill and dump, and keep wood dry

HEY YEAH THANKS..ILL DO THAT

 

[Rifleman1776]

Too much to go wrong with removing the barrel on a long rifle, I just plug with toothpick, pour water down the barrel and pour out most of the residue...I then run a couple of patches, pour in a bit more water, pour out then dry and lubricate...

Bingo! Best response yet. Especially note the comment "Too much to go wrong with removing the barrel on a long rifle". I have removed the barrel only one time in 50 years of my special long flinter. It has a great curly maple stock. With barrel removed the stock is light as a feather and those curlys take only a cross-eyed look to break.

 

[thompson50]

You can get a flintlock flush kit from TOTW. It clamps on and seals around the touch hole, put the weighted hose in a bucket of warm soapy water and clean like normal. I have one if you want to try it out before you buy one.

 

[hunter thompson]

You can get a flintlock flush kit from TOTW. It clamps on and seals around the touch hole, put the weighted hose in a bucket of warm soapy water and clean like normal. I have one if you want to try it out before you buy one.

yesss sirrr ill look it up. thank you ..i never knew ..sounds just what i need.thanks alot

 

[Grenadier1758]

I have the clamp on flush kit and the magnetic flush kit. The magnetic flush kit is easier to use.

 

[hunter thompson]

I have the clamp on flush kit and the magnetic flush kit. The magnetic flush kit is easier to use.

thank you ill get that

 

[hanshi]

I have a little brass powder funnel. This lets me pour water into the barrel and dump with out pouring hap-hazardly and spilling on the wood
Fill and dump, and keep wood dry

I do something similar to that. I have this quite large syringe that holds enough water that it dispenses near a barrel full with just 2 to 3 fills on the big bores and just one does it for small bores.

 

[Osseon]

I find it odd that so many veterans on this board are advising not to remove the barrel. Removing the barrel for me is super easy (I mean I can pull out the pins with my fingers after punching them half way). Unscrew the tang, flip the gun, give it a nice pat on the bottom and out comes the barrel onto a soft chair. Put the barrel in a 5 gallon home depot bucket and we are off to a super clean barrel!

The stock is super flimsy so take care to put it someplace that you won't trip on it, but I prefer to manhandle the barrel and flip it around while I'm cleaning it and pumping water into it and oiling up the entire thing, and I thought I was scared of hurting the thing as a newcomer!