Take the lock off when cleaning?

[Sparkitoff]

Do you take the lock off every time you clean the rifle/gun? I shot 10 shots from each of 2 rifles the other day. I was going to take the locks off but they are fit very well and the external lock area was not really dirty. I left them on this time and cleaned the barrel and the outside.

What do you do? Pro's and Con's..... I am thinking to take them off when real dirty, exposed to dirt or moisture (hunting) or otherwise annually.

Thoughts? Thank you

 

[Boomerang]

On my flintlock I take it off every time, but on my caplock I take it off about every other time. If your lock fits tight, I just loosen the screw a few turns and push or tap on the screw and the lock will pop right out.

 

[BrownBear]

Pro's and Con's

Big con for me, perhaps reflecting my cleaning methods. But if I leave locks in place I can't seem to help drizzling powder-fouled water down inside them. Talk about a formula for disaster if I don't also remove the lock and get rid of all that fouling in the lock workings. Better for me anyway, is to remove the lock for separate cleaning and lubing before water ever meets bore.

 

[Kansas Kid]

On my flintlock I take it off every time, but on my caplock I take it off about every other time. If your lock fits tight, I just loosen the screw a few turns and push or tap on the screw and the lock will pop right out.

Same thing here.

 

[Sparkitoff]

What I meant by my lock being a tight fit is that nothing is getting in the seams other than a liquid, so I don't suspect a lot of fouling could get in there.

 

[Kansas Jake]

On my cap locks, I don't take them off every time, but do every time on my flintlocks. I'm in the same boat as BrownBear.

 

[Okie Hog]

i remove the lock, clean and lube same every year or two.

 

[lyman54]

I take the lock off my caplock every time I clean up. Scrub it rinse in water, dry it a bit then stick in oven to dry completely just for a few minutes then oil. The hollow in the hammer gets a buildup in time so I use a small screw driver to scrape it out. Never did that with my Lyman GPR and that part corroded out. The lock is as important as the barrel why clean 1 and not the other.

 

[Col. Batguano]

I pull the lock and barrel each time. I completely disassemble the lock about once a year of the guns I shoot. Less often with those I don't. I do the same thing with my cartridge guns. That is particularly true for bolt guns and DA revolvers. Old oil can get sort of gummy on you.

 

[Patocazador]

I only have 2 flintlocks and remove the locks on them after plugging the touch hole and cleaning. It is mainly to make sure water and gunk is not in there.
I remove the lock on my caplocks when I perceive a problem .. which is not often.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I always take the locks off. Not being the best craftsman in the world, none of my locks fit really tight in the mortice and come out with no difficulty. Even with a tight fitting lock, priming powder and soot will find its way inside. I clean the whole lock before regreasing and reinstalling.

Now I don't remove my pinned barrels. On them, I always clean the bore with the gun sitting upside down, with the muzzle slightly lower than the breech. Any water that does drip out of the touch hole is easily wiped off the barrel and being upside down no water will get down between the barrel and the wood.

 

[Don H]

To keep water from getting behind the lock when cleaning I take out the touch hole liner and use a piece of rubber tubing that fits tightly in the hole.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I use one of these.

 

[Don H]

I need a fancy jug like that.

 

[Ames]

On pinned guns I remove the touch hole liner and screw in a bolt of the same thread size, with Teflon tape.

 

[Griz44Mag]

I pull the lock on mine, drop it in a tub of MAP and then clean the rest of the gun.
Last, I use a nylon brush and clean the lock, blow it clean and dry with air, then immerse it in ED's Modified Red to displace any residual H2O and lube every nook and cranny with a protective coating. I will add a few drops of heavy oil (FP10) to the mechanism as a final lube and then put it all back together. It seems to work great and I never see cancer on anything I clean this way.

 

[Sidney Smith]

I need a fancy jug like that.

Ha. It doesn't come with the jug! You need to furnish your own liquid container.

 

[arcticap]

I place a piece of masking tape on the stock under the barrel to cover up the opening that exposes the lock works.
It effectively blocks residue from entering the lock works.
After shooting I'll use a cotton swab with solvent and will find hardly any trace of powder residue.
Then I'll swab lube inside the lock and remove any excess.
Underhammer lock parts do get removed each time for cleaning but not guns that have lock internals that can be sealed off with tape.
A new piece of tape gets installed after every cleaning.

 

[Rat]

If I only fire a few shots just to check zero, I won't remove the lock. A long session of working up loads/trying different loads/patches/charges, I will. Normally maybe every third cleaning...but again depends on how many shots fired. I don't seem to get much blow-by powder residue into my locks when shooting.

Before hunting season, and right after a zero-check, clean lock for sure. One of the reasons I don't clean with water is to keep water out of the lock mortise. So I don't have to remove the lock for that reason.

I never clean my flintlock locks with water, and then oil them, as the oil will seep up into the pan, and make it look like the prime is "absorbing moisture from the air". I carefully clean my locks with a toothbrush, by hand if they need it, and then only grease the moving parts. Maybe a tiny minute drop of oil in some places.

Some people throw the locks in the dishwasher, dry them with heat, then hose them down with WD40, or something like that, slap it back into the gun, and when their prime goes bad, they think it's the humidity. Not so. !! However, probably nothing wrong with that as far as cap-locks go.

 

[SDSmlf]

At a minimum I’ll remove the lock and clean it with q-tips, if I’m home and/or have compressed air I will drop the lock in soapy water and let it soak for a bit. I will then wipe it clean before blowing dry with the compressed air. I then spray it down with a 6:1 mix of water and Ballistols, then blow it off again. I’ll very lightly lubricate (using a small toothpick) and then clean the pan and frizzen with alcohol on a q-tip. Before loading for a hunt I repeat the alcohol wipe of the pan and frizzen. Remember to clean the bottom of the frizzen that covers the pan.

May seem like a lot of steps, but the washing goes fast. I have a mesh basket that all the small and/or loose parts go in so that I can dip everything in and out of the water at once and then hold the parts while using the compressed air.