Removing the barrel on a hooked breech rifle for cleaning, yes or no??

[Daveboone]

When I got my first flintlock I made sure the barrel was removeable (hooked breech/wedges) , particularly to make one less thing to worry about. I still lose sleep about my long rifle with its pinned barrel...

 

[Ben Meyer]

I finish with patches of Barricade as well. That's great stuff! Usually, one wet patch worth, wait 5 min, then another wet patch. Then I wipe down ALL the steel parts with it before hanging it back on the wall.

 

[MSmith]

No, there is no need to remove the barrel just for cleaning after shooting. My guns are cleaned in the field long before returning home. I used to do the bucket & water method for years. Then several years ago I found an easy, quick and very effective method. Needless to say, I enjoy going shooting more so I tend to shoot more often.

 

[Crockford]

I always remove my hooked barrels. It makes cleaning them faster and easier for me. And I have never noticed a change in shot placement.

 

[TFoley]

Original Pritchett rifle with hook breech - gets removed to clean every time....

 

[rusticbob]

No, there is no need to remove the barrel just for cleaning after shooting. My guns are cleaned in the field long before returning home. I used to do the bucket & water method for years. Then several years ago I found an easy, quick and very effective method. Needless to say, I enjoy going shooting more so I tend to shoot more often.

Care to extrapolate?

 

[TDM]

That is a splendid looking rifle @TFoley.

 

[vintovka]

Large laundry tubs somewhere out side the main house are best thing ever.

 

[Patched]

No, there is no need to remove the barrel just for cleaning after shooting. My guns are cleaned in the field long before returning home. I used to do the bucket & water method for years. Then several years ago I found an easy, quick and very effective method. Needless to say, I enjoy going shooting more so I tend to shoot more often.

Teach me how you get away without the bucket method…
nothing Ive been able to try works as thorough, fast and with the least amount of muzzle wear with a rod as …pulling two wedges on a hooked breech and several pumps of a rod while the barrel breech sits in a coffee can of hot soapy water.
I’m ready to learn.

 

[James S]

If it has a hooked breach it gets pulled to clean.

 

[Grenadier1758]

There are alternatives to pulling the hooked breech barrel from the stock for cleaning.

There is Dave Crisselli's magnetic flush kit for flint locks. It works pretty well unless you have a round barrel or extra wide slot in the touch hole liner and the magnetic gasket can't seal. Remove the lock and seal the adapter over the touch hole.

http://luckybag.us/MagneticFlushTube.html
I have two rifles with a tang breech with wedges holding the barrel. It is a simple matter to remove the wedges and unscrew the tang bolt to pull the barrel and flush the bore out. I usually do the pull the barrel cleaning at the end of the year in preparation for long term storage.

Track of the Wolf has flush kits (threaded for both SAE threads and metric threads) that replace the nipple and have a long tube to drop the end in a bucket of cleaning solution. It is best to add a weight to the tube to keep the end in the bucket when flushing.

https://www.trackofthewolf.com/List/Item.aspx/158/1

 

[chorizo]

I use the flush nipple system when in the woods hunting as I don't have to heat up more than an empty coffee pot of water pour into a small folgers coffee container. But they aren't near as effective as the bucket method to get them clean. But for field expedient method after you have taken a couple of shots and are putting the gun away for several days, it works just fine.

Typically I will heat one pot, start cleaning while heating a second. After the soapy water is good and black, I will dump it and put in rinse hot water to finish the job.

But more often than not, I will pull the barrel and do the same thing.

 

[th1840]

I figure keys on hooked breech gives credence to barrel removal and I saw slits in my keys so I never have to worry about dropping one stopping the possibility of losing one

 

[mushka]

I'd tell you how I clean my rifles of both styles but about thirty members of each style have mentioned their way and I'd just be another boring report of the same thing.

 

[LSB]

I remove the barrel every time on a hooked breech rifle for cleaning. It makes cleaning easy and more effective. I cannot imagine why you would not take advantage of that system of barrel attachment.

 

[TFoley]

That is a splendid looking rifle @TFoley.

Thank you, AND it's the real deal, having been one of the last made by Robert Taylor Pritchett before he went bankrupt and was forced to shut up shop forever.

Luckily for him he was very handy with a paintbrush and water colours, and rapidly became Queen Victoria's favourite painter. His works grace the walls of all the royal palaces in England, Scotland and the Isle of Wight.

Even with the wrong bullets and WAG load of 2Fg, it can still make a group like this at 50m - first time out for me, too.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

do you routinely remove the barrel after shooting for cleaning?

My barrel is pinned and glassed in, only way to take it a part is to break the wood.
That aint happening unless its over someones head.

 

[Dale Allen Raby]

Thank you, AND it's the real deal, having been one of the last made by Robert Taylor Pritchett before he went bankrupt and was forced to shut up shop forever.

Luckily for him he was very handy with a paintbrush and water colours, and rapidly became Queen Victoria's favourite painter. His works grace the walls of all the royal palaces in England, Scotland and the Isle of Wight.

Even with the wrong bullets and WAG load of 2Fg, it can still make a group like this at 50m - first time out for me, too.


Count me impressed.

 

[rkg1]

remove it every time

 

[chorizo]

I'd tell you how I clean my rifles of both styles but about thirty members of each style have mentioned their way and I'd just be another boring report of the same thing.

Now that is boring.....how can we argue with you if you refuse to take a stand? HAHAHAHAHA