Tell me of your cleaning rituals

[Old Sparky]

I am into totally disassembling it. And I submerge the breach in hot soapy water and pump away with a cleaning Jag followed by some dry patches and WD-40 to chase the moisture away. I will soak the lock in the same bucket and use a toothbrush on it followed by the same WD-40 treatment . I always have a cigar and some Crown Royal to make the whole experience relaxing. I would love to hear what some of the more experienced guys do.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

I almost never completely disassemble.

I remove the lock and stick a toothpick in the touchhole, then use a funnel and cup and fill the bore about halfway with hot water w/ a drop or two of Dawn. Put my thumb over the muzzle and shake it all up, dump, and repeat a second time.

Then I let the gun sit muzzle down to drain the water while I use some moose milk (Ballistol and water mix) to scrub the lock with an old toothbrush. I take the **** apart but that’s all. Wipe it dry and blast with my air compressor. Squirt some ballistol in the lock works and rub the outside with WD-40 corrosion inhibitor (different than standard WD-40).

Take about 5 minutes to clean and reassemble the lock. By this time the bore is reasonably dry so I remove the toothpick and clean the area around the touchhole, wipe of the metal furniture, and run patches down the bore. I alternate with dry and slightly damp moose milk. Usually takes only 5-6 passes to come clean.

Next, I wipe everything with the corrosion inhibitor and run some on a patch down the bore.

Takes about 20 minutes to thoroughly clean the gun and reassemble. Every so often I’ll detail stir the lock but honestly it’s rarely needed in my experience. Then I’ll touch up my flints and tend to my shooting pouch to get it ready for the next outing.

 

[tenngun]

Crown Royal sounds like a good idea as the process goes on. I like a good dark beer.
I don’t like to pull a barrel. So I plug the touch hole and fill with water and dump several times. Scrub wipe and dry, oil next.
Wipe the lock, I only disassemble after several times.
Rub the wood down with oil.

 

[NorthFork]

Witches. Lots of witches and maybe the occasional warlock. Lot's of scorcery and chants under full moons with barrels of newts.



Really though, pump water (cold at first with a touch of Dawn, then hot to flush) through the touch hole or nipple till clean. Then liberal amounts of WD-40 to drive out moisture. Sits muzzle down for an hour. Then patch out WD-40. Run patch with favorite oil (Brownell's #2) up and down. Lock work gets scrubbed and re-oiled. Done. All my blackpowder arms are rust free.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

I can clean a flintlock rifle in 10 minutes. The only part I take off is the lock.

 

[Eric Krewson]

I just discovered this stuff, 3 sopping wet patches, 3 dry patches, I give the barrel a squirt of WD-40 and dry it out again then use an oily patch with 30 weight motor oil to lube the bore if I am not going to reload any time soon. Like Mike, I only take off the lock.

Seems to do a very good job;

 

[BillinOregon]

Mike, do you use the hot, soapy water in the barrel technique?

 

[wiscoaster]

On a flintlock, I always take off the lock. There's always black powder residue that gets inside. And you don't want it in there any more than you want it in the bore. Any further disassembly kind of depends on the firearm and how much use it got.

 

[Cruzatte]

• Dismount lock, clean & oil
• Plug touch hole with a toothpick
• Fill barrel with warm water to which has been added a drop of dish washing detergent
• Sit on the porch, light pipe during warmer seasons.
• Afterwards, empty dirty water from barrel
• Attend barrel with tow, paying special attention to the breech plug face
• Dry
• Oil
• Remount lock
• Have an adult beverage, if none is available, light pipe and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

 

[.36Rooster]

Take the barrel off stock, Fill a metal bucket with boiling hot water. Add a squirt of dish soap. Remove nipple and drop in the bucket, put breech into bucket, put a patch on a cleaning jag and hydraulically pump ramrod up and down sucking water up into the barrel in and out like a syringe. Then use a brush, and switch back over to a cleaning jag, and pump aggressively to flush fouling out of bore. Remove from bucket, and run dry patches until it comes out clean. All metal surfaces inside and out will dry almost within a minute after removing from the bucket due to the high temperature of the metal taken on from the hot water, and the gun will be entirely dry before your patches start coming out clean.
Put oil on a cleaning patch and ring it out, run it down your bore for precisely one stroke, clean nipple with a pipe cleaner and a tooth brush, wipe down the outside of the barrel with an oiled cloth, and you're done. Put the gun together and forget about it.

 

[Adam in WI]

Any issues ever with crud building up on the inside of white lightning touch holes? I never cleaned a ML that wasn't hook breeched before, so any additional pointers appreciated. Good stuff so far gents.

 

[Indy Durtdigger]

Any issues ever with crud building up on the inside of white lightning touch holes? I never cleaned a ML that wasn't hook breeched before, so any additional pointers appreciated. Good stuff so far gents.

Fairly new to these OG style muzzleloaders myself, in second year with them. My cleaning regimen is pretty much what Cruzatte does. I run a bore scope down them frequently and so far no issues. One thing extra I do is use nylon bristled carburetor jet brushes in the coned liners being careful not to wallow the hole out.
I also use a "Moose Milk" made with water and a water soluble oil. Ballistol works well but there are cheaper and less smelly options out there. Use the moose milk on the outside parts. You don't want that oily mess inside the chamber area.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Crud doesn't build up inside the white lightning liner, anything you clean with will blow out the liner when you compress the air in the barrel as you swab the bore. I drape a paper towel over the vent and hold it in place with a spring clamp when I clean a gun, the crud comes out of the vent with some force. I forgot the paper towel once and now have the back wall of my shop above my workbench permanently decorated with spots of black crud.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Mike, do you use the hot, soapy water in the barrel technique?

I fill the barrel with water with a toothpick in the vent. Let is sit for 10 minutes and pour it out. usually add water again and pour it out immediately. Then a couple dry patches followed by a couple Windex patches then dry with a couple more then oil. No real time involved at all. For BPCR I just use maybe four Windex , a couple dry and then oil.
I never ever remove a barrel for anything other than to change a vent liner every 5 or 6 thousand shots.

 

[IanH]

I don't take the lock apart, either, just off the gun. Scrub the pan and frizzen with toothbrush and plain water, not letting the dirty water run into the tumbler area. Rinse with clear water, let it flash off, and re-oil with a shaving brush. Barrels I get 90% clean at the range with water, follow with a wet moose milk patch, and just rinse/wipe and oil once home.

Stripping the barrel out and pumping boiling water through it after a range session is crazy talk to me unless you have a standing-breech double with one screw and one key holding it together.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Boiling water is not a good idea.

 

[shaman]

Cleaning my Brown Bess goes as follows:

I remove the lock and dump it in a container of hot water and Dawn and let it soak. I then run the crud cutter jag down the barrel and scrape out everything I can and pour it out.

I plug the touch hole and then squirt Dawn down the barrel and then fill with hot water. I invert the barrel and swish things around and then dump and repeat with plain cold water to rinse.

I now take 4 2X2 patches and run them down the barrel stacked on the end of the jag. On each pass, I change the order of the patches so a clean patch is always on top. At the end of this process, I have 4 dirty patches and a clean bore.

The lock now gets brushed with an old toothbrush and rinsed under cold water and it and the rest of the Bess are left out to dry. After about an hour, I come back and then use lard/beeswax on tow to coat the bore and lock inside and out.

 

[TreeMan]

I’m not gonna add my cleaning regimen because others have already covered that. I will say that pulling a pinned barrel is totally unnecessary. You will eventually woller the holes in the stock or chip the wood removing the pins and reinstalling them. Coat the barrel in car wax and install it in the stock. Turtle wax works. Put it on and don’t polish it off. Leave it that way. I pulled the barrel on a SMR I built in 1999 to refurbish the stock after years of use. My wax was still present and there was zero rust present on the underside of the barrel.

 

[Juice Jaws]

I am into totally disassembling it. And I submerge the breach in hot soapy water and pump away with a cleaning Jag followed by some dry patches and WD-40 to chase the moisture away. I will soak the lock in the same bucket and use a toothbrush on it followed by the same WD-40 treatment . I always have a cigar and some Crown Royal to make the whole experience relaxing. I would love to hear what some of the more experienced guys do.

Sorry but I just clean my firearm, some warm water a little soap, toothbrush here or there, some oil done.

 

[French Colonial]

This is for cleaning a flintlock with a pinned barrel.

First you must have a pattern makers vice on one end of your bench and a support on the other for the stock.

Clamp the buttstock in the vice while the other end is supported, remove the lock using gunsmith specific screwdrivers.

Using a pin punch with a concave point made especially for removing barrel pins, tap the pins part way out and using flat face pliers remove the pins and then using gunsmith specific screwdrivers remove the tang screw.

Inspect the pins and straighten if needed by tapping with a jewelers hammer while on a perfectly flat surface.

While the stock is in the pattern makers vice stick a dowel rod in the barrel and gently pry up while pushing down on the stock, careful so you do not crack the stock.

Remove the breech plug and the vent liner, clean both thoroughly.

Scrub the interior of the barrel with your favorite gun cleaning juice until the white cleaning patches are spotless, oil the barrel inside and out with Ballistol, tell the wife the cat farted

Completely disassemble the lock, place the parts in a fine mesh bag and run the securely fastened bag and parts through the dishwasher, promise the wife you will not do it again while her good dishes are in there.

Rub all the lock parts down with Ballistol (damn cat) and reassemble. You probably should have already ordered the replacement fly for the lock by now.

Coat the bottom of the barrel with a good paste wax, apply another coat of polyurethane sealer to the inside of the barrel channel of the stock to keep moisture from penetrating.

Reassemble and apply a good coat of paste wax to the entire gun.

And that is how YOU should do it, I do it like the evil Mike Brooks (Comfortably Numb) does and have for forty years. This will mean you new guys will go do something else to avoid the hassle instead of shoot BP which means more BP, flints etc. for me!

I fill the barrel with water with a toothpick in the vent. Let is sit for 10 minutes and pour it out. usually add water again and pour it out immediately. Then a couple dry patches followed by a couple Windex patches then dry with a couple more then oil. No real time involved at all. For BPCR I just use maybe four Windex , a couple dry and then oil.
I never ever remove a barrel for anything other than to change a vent liner every 5 or 6 thousand shots.