Swabbing between shots

[BlackRock52]

People that bring home the gold swab between shots.

Research Dutch Schoultz and The System.

No finer accuracy may be achieved with the roundball rifle.

Started reading his research -- great stuff. Thank you

 

[BlackRock52]

I was taught 1:1:1 ratio of the three ingredients.
We use the stuff to clean reenactment muskets which have the fouling of 24-36 consecutive blanks.



As for swabbing...it depends...
Some rifles do very well with a spit swabbing after each shot..., but some actually experience trouble with the second shot when this is done.
Some need a swab, and a drying for best accuracy, and some go two or three shots, THEN need a swab.
The humidity will play a factor, and so might the lube on the patch.
I've noticed that the calibers less than .45 seem to need more swabbing more often. My .40 need to be swabbed while the touch hole has the pick inserted, and the hole has to be picked just after loading, each shot, to reliably fire.

LD

Great point -- my Hawken .45 needs swabbing but thus far no set interval. Still playing with different methods to find the best for it. My Inline .50 needs no swabbing even after a dozen or more shots...might also have to do with age of barrel. My Hawken is from ~1976 and my Inline from 2007

 

[Notchy Bob]

I am not a champion shooter and I'm not giving advice. Just adding a note regarding what I do.

When I was shooting the monthly matches with our local club, the typical match involved five relays of five shots each, for a total of twenty-five rounds. I made it my practice to swab the bore between relays, i.e. after every five shots. I used a patch wet but not dripping, followed by a dry patch. I would save the dry patch (okay... I'm a cheapskate...) and saturate it after the next relay to use for the wet patch, followed by a clean, dry one to repeat the procedure.

I like T/C #13 blackpowder solvent. I have tried a few others, including plain water, but old #13 works. I don't produce enough saliva for "spit patches." I've tried that, but my mouth is too dry.

Just shooting for fun, I swab when it gets hard to load. Depending on the rifle, this may be after every other shot, or it maybe not at all. The ideal load is one that is accurate, easy to seat, and doesn't require much swabbing. In my opinion, the right type and amount of lube is a critical factor in this. Lots of lube that keeps fouling soft and fluffy rather than hard and crusty is the secret, I believe.

I recently pulled out and browsed through my copy of Walter Cline's book, The Muzzle-Loading Rifle, Then and Now. This is a classic. Mr. Cline was an absolute fanatic for accuracy, and he devoted something like a full page to a description of proper bore-wiping technique. In shooting for best accuracy, I believe he advocated wiping after every shot. One thing I had forgotten was that he also described using an over-powder wad of felt. I had coincidentally tried this, for the first time, in my last trip to the range. I found that the felt wad, saturated with grease, made loading easier, protected the patch from getting burnt, and eliminated the need to wipe between shots. I don't know if the wad helped in the accuracy department, but it sure didn't hurt. So, the old dog learned a new (to him) trick.

You've gotten lots of good input from the forum. Not everyone agrees with everyone else, but the bottom line is that you have a lot of options to try so you can determine the best practice to employ for your rifle and your style of shooting. Good luck, and have some fun with it!

Notchy Bob

 

[renegadehunter]

My TC Renegade has to be swabbed at least every other shot or else groups really open up. Damp lubes, grease lubes, chap stick lubes, doesn't matter. Patch fit is pretty tight, so it isn't because the PRB fit isn't scraping the fouling when loading back up. It simply wants to be swabbed. I've only ever tried Goex or Schuetzen in it, so "real" BP.
When I first started out, I was doing club shoots and used a damp patch lube for that. It was very nice for ease of loading without swabbing, but after 2 to 3 shots I'd really start missing targets. I finally tested at the range and found that the 3rd shot is around 6" left of POA, and shots after that were clear off the 14" box my target was taped to. I don't know why this happens, but it just goes haywire if not swabbed.
Grease type lubes, or "hunting" lubes, get so hard to load after 3 shots I'd rather swab anyway.

So, I swab every shot, shooting targets or hunting. I know that the 2nd shot will be accurate if the hunting situation ever comes up that I need to save the bit of extra time swabbing takes, but otherwise it gets swabbed after a shot when hunting too.
I swab with patches just damp. I've used spit, water, Hoppes BP solvent, Birchwood-Casey #77, all have worked just fine for me.

 

[russellshaffer]

A friend uses a nylon bore brush when it starts to get hard to load. A couple of strokes and points the barrel down and taps out the residue. It works for him but he isn't a target shooter.

 

[johnfrommd]

My rifles pretty much have their own requirements as far as swabbing and they all differ. One thing I have found to be true is don't swab .32 and .36 between shots as it is easy to dislodge enough crud to block the flash hole.

 

[FishDFly]

Ever seen a tombstone with?:

A. He swabbed between shots

B.. He did not swab between shots

 

[hanshi]

I don't and never have swabbed between shots for the simple reason that I've never had to. I know many do swab the bore often but I can't figure why the difference. In my rifles the groups stay the same and the poi never changes from a clean bore to 35 shots later. Rifles are individuals and that may have something to do with it.

 

[gunpa]

Just to be different ( weird) I made up some tight fitting Durofelt wads lubed with Natural lube 1000 ( blue and smells purdy) and my barrel stayed very shiny for many shots. Barrel got scrubbed good. More testing to come as mud dries up.

 

[morehops52]

Trying to find if there's any consensus on barrel swabbing between shots. Using Real BP or Pyrodex Select. After every shot? After every ______ shots? Swab with what? T/C 13 or 17, alcohol, Ballistrol (Moose milk), etc.?

I can shoot for hours without swabbing if I'm shooting Maxi balls lubed with T/C 1000. When I switch to RB I have to swab every three shots or so. I have all my rifles sighted for maxis so I rarely swab until I'm done.

 

[leadhoarder]

I wipe the bore everytime I put the next lubed patched round ball down down the bore.

 

[Lonewalker]

For target shooting the routine includes a damp and a dry patch between each shot. I resisted it for a long while taking more pride in I can shoot X times without swiping etc...but when true reliable consistant accuracy became the goal things changed. It has proven beneficial for me after much test and tune. There's a couple more buts.....
BUT each rifle is surely an individual and some seem more or less needy than others. BUT a consistent routine is good for safety and accuracy so I do it now.

 

[satwel]

When I started shooting rifle matches, I swabbed after every shot. Then I realized swabbing between shots created more problems than it solved and I stopped. My scores improved immediately. Now I wait until the end of the relay to give the barrel a quick cleaning. Unless it's a hot humid summer day, I can fire between 12 and 15 shots before I have to run a cleaning patch down the bore.

 

[French Colonial]

This hobby of ours is so diverse.

For those of us who have the goal of walking through the woods and loading from the pouch in a HC/PC manner and then shooting offhand at targets of unknown distances swabbing between shots is a non-starter. You should be able to go at least 25 shots or so without swabbing.

I shoot from the bench when adjusting fixed sights but do not swab between shots so I can do the above.

Others have the goal of shooting the teeny tiny groups from a benchrest and loading from a fixed loading bench with a shooting box full of goodies and bottles of magic elixir to insure the bore is as clean on shot 25 as it was on shot 1.

But we are all shooting BP so we are all family.

 

[Lonewalker]

This hobby of ours is so diverse.

For those of us who have the goal of walking through the woods and loading from the pouch in a HC/PC manner and then shooting offhand at targets of unknown distances swabbing between shots is a non-starter. You should be able to go at least 25 shots or so without swabbing.

I shoot from the bench when adjusting fixed sights but do not swab between shots so I can do the above.

Others have the goal of shooting the teeny tiny groups from a benchrest and loading from a fixed loading bench with a shooting box full of goodies and bottles of magic elixir to insure the bore is as clean on shot 25 as it was on shot 1.

But we are all shooting BP so we are all family.

I would add some are even so adapted that we can do all those things depending on which shoot we attend.....and which game we choose to play on a given day

 

[Joemolf]

Fire up to 75 shots during some trail walks. I have never swabbed, ever.

I’ve comfortably loaded 15 to 20 rounds.018 patch .440 ball in a 45 caliber rifle using Swiss 3F Caviar with TOTW lube. I never tried 3F GOEX before this past weekend in this rifle but have used 1 1/2 Old Eynsford in Bess so you really can’t compare fouling between the two. Those big bores get dirty and the performance out of a paper cartridges fine for my purpose is fine. Anyway I had to hang on my steal range rod after the second and third shots in the 45 and the touch hole needed cleaning. I swabbed before the fourth loading. More lube helped but man that barrel got dirty fast and it seemed to foul further up the barrel with the plain old no longer available goex 3F? So since the fouling was further up the it obviously burns slower. Have others seen similar. I read somewhere that Shutzen is really dirty recently after I just purchased some in 3F. Oh well I’ll just use it in metallic cartridges and filthy up my revolver easier to clean.

 

[Widows Son]

Ever seen a tombstone with?:

A. He swabbed between shots

B.. He did not swab between shots

I don’t mean to be dense, but I don’t understand the tombstone reference ?

 

[Widows Son]

I‘ve come to suspect that the climate has an effect on bore fouling. A dry or humid environment makes a difference, as does the ball size, patching and lubricant.

I push my ball down the barrel with a moist moose milk patch on the loading rod. It doesn’t add any more time to the loading process and wipes the fouling from the previous shot at the same time.

 

[LME]

I swab after every shot when I want good accuracy. I also swab with a dry patch. The one thing that is imperative is to go down about ten inches and then pull the patch back a little and then repeat this untill you are to the bottom . I point the muzzle down and tap the stock to remove any thing that fell down the barrel. If you don't pull the patch back a little every 10 or so inches it will get stuck and next to impossible to pull out! I learned the hard way.

 

[BP Addict]

MAP = A mixture of Murphy's oil soap, Alcohol and Peroxide. It also makes a good cleaning agent.

I still use it as a field cleaner but when I used it as a patch lube in hot weather, the alcohol would evaporate, and it was harder to load.

Just my two cents,

Walt