Thank the Big Guy for the forum

[newkid60]

Well another day an other problem.
I just bought 100% cotton cleaning pads for my new .32 cal Pedersoli.
They are from Kleen Bore supposed to fit .28-35 cal. (WRONG)

DON't Fit even when I cut some off!
soaked in bore cleaner and squeezed out excess, got 6 inches in and barely got out.
T handled nipple wrench worked ok but cleaner needle doesn,t go through hole.( I can see through it though)
Bought .32 Cal bronse brush got it so stuck, I had to use brass swag on other end of rod in the vise to pull it back out.
The point is the people at the stores don't know their products and being real NEW to BP I'm the perfect sucker!I can only assume the cleaning pads and bronz brush were for a pistol probley not even BP! The T handle came with the gun. :m2c:

 

You are right! The Kleenbore and other "brand" stuff are for rimfire/centerfire arms where you can push the jag/brush out of the barrel/cylinder. A full caliber brush in a BP will get stuck because the bristles are bent backwards on the down-stroke, and now you can't change directions because the bristles have to turn forwards and you can't do it inside the bore (even in a centerfire arm).

The solution would be to usa a .30 brush. I just use jags and cut the cleaning pads from Wal-Mart flanel (1yd = $1.37).

 

[ryoung14]

Courage, Oleman, courage. In time this will all be sorted out and you'll wonder what the fuss was about. I wuz in the same boat back in '98 or '99. New to muzzleloading and just picked up a nice .36 Seneca. Everything went wrong. Broke the ramrod trying to use .018 patches, got patches and jags stuck in bore. Put a load down with a patch already in the bore (didn't know it) and was then faced with getting the whole mess out. Wondered why I bothered with that gun at the time. Now I laugh about it and the gun is one of my favorites.

Buy your black powder jags, rods and brushes mailorder from people who know muzzleloaders. Track of the Wolf, the Possibles Shop, Dixie Gun Works and Mountain State Muzzleloading all know their product. I've only dealt with the latter two but, with them, a call with a technical question about what to order and how to use it will get you good information.

Dixie has a great selection of jags and brushes but pay attention to the thread used to make sure it'll fit your rod. The muzzleloading brushes seem to withstand reversal in the bore better than brushes meant for breechloaders. It still takes some force though.

For patches I often use .30 cal. cotton patches from Midway arms. These are meant for centerfire guns but work well for drying out a bore after cleaning. Another good source of patches is Babywipes. Cut 'em to the size you want and use them double thickness. I prefer to let them dry out and then wet them with solvent. But they do pretty well straight out of the box wet with whatever works on baby's butt. They're pretty tough, some are made of cloth, and in double (and sometimes triple) thickness, work well for me.

One caution about using patches that are tight but cut a bit small: When quickly pulling the jag/patch combination up out the bore you can pull a pretty good vacuum in the barrel. When the patch reaches the muzzle, the vacuum can pull it off the jag and suck it right back into the bore. Might want to slow down a bit, wait for the vacuum to dissipate and make sure you can grasp the patch before pulling the jag completely out.

This too shall pass...
Bob

 

[roundball]

Dixie has a great selection of jags and brushes but pay attention to the thread used to make sure it'll fit your rod. The muzzleloading brushes seem to withstand reversal in the bore better than brushes meant for breechloaders. It still takes some force though.

PS:
Be sure your brushes are the design which has the twisted wire passing through the threaded end...if you get the cheap kind that are simply crimped onto the threaded end, they can pull right off and be stuck downbore.

Also, if you get a new, tight brush hung up downbore, often with a T-handle or a Ball on the other end of the ramrod, you can simply rotate the brush and that will start to swirl the brush tips enough to loosen their straight-out grip on the bore and let you slide it back up out of the bore OK.

Lastly, if a brush comes off the ramrod and is hung up downbore, a piece of thin walled tubing from a hardware store, just small enough to fit in your bore, will slide down, past, and around the brush bristles, "capturing" it inside the tube, then you can just slide the tube up out of the bore with the brush inside it.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Lastly, if a brush comes off the ramrod and is hung up downbore, a piece of thin walled tubing from a hardware store, just small enough to fit in your bore, will slide down, past, and around the brush bristles, "capturing" it inside the tube, then you can just slide the tube up out of the bore with the brush inside it.

I wish someone had been around 25 years ago to tell me that instead of selling me a breech fitting jig to remove the patent breech and pound the brush out.

Now I ALWAYS use the kind with the spirat wire threaded through the screw base instead of just swaged in.

Thank the Big Guy for the forum

Yeah! Thanks Claude. :winking:

 

[RussB]

Lastly, if a brush comes off the ramrod and is hung up downbore, a piece of thin walled tubing from a hardware store, just small enough to fit in your bore, will slide down, past, and around the brush bristles, "capturing" it inside the tube, then you can just slide the tube up out of the bore with the brush inside it.

I wish someone had been around 25 years ago to tell me that instead of selling me a breech fitting jig to remove the patent breech and pound the brush out.
Now I ALWAYS use the kind with the spirat wire threaded through the screw base instead of just swaged in.

Thank the Big Guy for the forum

Yeah! Thanks Claude. :winking:

Of all the information, advise, tips, whatever, that I have learned while being a member of this form, this has to be the number one thing... yet, so simple ! Why, on God's green earth, did I not think of this, or hear of this, in the last fifty years??
I will now be looking for tubes with the right OD, to fit the bore of all my muzzleloaders. I would suspect gas lines (natural gas) would be the place to start since the majority seem to be in brass or copper, although in this case I would imagine aluminum would serve the purpose also.

Many, many thanks! :redthumb:
Russ