Water temp for cleaning

[Loyalist Dave]

I use tap water, followed by some rubbing alcohol to get rid of the moisture. Then a bore grease.


I have seen flash rust, especially on any of the Italian made muzzleloaders.

LD

 

[nw_hunter]

If I clean in the house, I use hot water. Outside, I use cold from faucet.I notice the hot water cleans with less swabbing, but both do nicely.Haven't had the flash rust problem outside or in the barrel.

 

[Billnpatti]

Yep, you really stepped in it with this one. Everyone has their own way that they like to do it and will tell you that it is the only right way to do it. Personally, I like to use water about as warm as I use to wash my hands. Hot but no so hot that it is uncomfortable. It just seems to cut the crud better when it is good and warm. However, I have been in situations where I couldn't easily get hot water and I would use cold water. it takes a bit more scrubbing but you can get your gun just as clean with cold water as with hot water. Over the years, I have found that plain old dish soap in hot water does a good job of cleaning my rifle. I still have my first muzzleloader. It's over 40 years old and its still as sweet as the day I got it. It's just what works for me.

Another good cold cleaning method is to use a mixture of 1 part Ballistol, 1 part Pinesol and 10 parts water. Just use lots of patches wet with the mixture until your patches come out clean.

After cleaning your bore, you need to rinse it, dry it and oil it.

 

[Wes/Tex]

Guess I ought to toss out my version. Had an old house near the place with plumbing still hooked up. Sort of an all concrete version, like you'd find in a trailer park...classy, huh? Anyway, I'd take a shower with the guns and scrub away to my heart's content. So the answer to your question was...no hotter than my hide could stand! :haha:

 

[Billnpatti]

Whatever works for you. You are not the only person who has said that they clean their rifle in the shower. I like to use dish soap but I am sure that Dial, Ivory or whatever you use to get the crust off your hide will do the job on your rifle. Different strokes for different folks. :thumbsup:

 

[Wes/Tex]

Actually, I got the soap the guns got water and good scrubbing! Never found soap necessary when using that type set up! :wink:

 

[palladius]

Yep, you really stepped in it with this one. Everyone has their own way that they like to do it and will tell you that it is the only right way to do it.

I suspected I might but I appreciate all the different perspectives! So is there a concern with guns that have pinned barrels? Obviously one isn't going to unpin the barrel to clean the gun. Will using very hot water on such a gun affect the wood in the stock if the barrel is very hot?

With my M. 1777 the barrel comes out easily enough for cleaning but with my FDC (and now my heavy dragoon pistol) I was wondering if there was potential to harm the stock if the water was too hot.

 

[pargent]

The trick is to not spill water onto the wood , and I find that the barrel heating up due to water temp. and then over warming the wood is no different then what happens shooting in a match .It is my experience that hot water dissolves the lube crude and build up quicker and cleaner than cold water ,but I then dry and oil the gun inside and out straight away , using this method I can say that I have never had any rusting at all .

 

[Scota4570]

I reomove the barrel form the stock. I made a device with a piece of hose and brass tub that I attach to my wash sink faucit, in the garage. I run hot tap water down the bore for several minuets. It dissolves anything that is water soluable and flushes most of the carbon fouling. I then run a few patches. When clean and dry I oil. The heat drives off the water and the oil spreads out better. Never had a speck of rust. I do the same on cartridge rifles using corrosive primers but, from the breech. The brass tube is a jam fit on the chamber so it does not leak.

 

[Billnpatti]

Yeah, use the soap on the stinkiest thing. :blah: :rotf:

 

[Billnpatti]

I have two devices that help me with my gun cleaning when needed. For those caplocks having pinned barrels, I have a device that screws into the nipple hole and has a piece of plastic tubing on it. The tubing goes into the hot soapy water and I use a wet patch to pump soapy water into and out through the tubing. As long as I am careful, I get little to no water on my stock. For my flintlocks, I have found that a judicious application of a concoction consisting of 1 part Murphy's Oil Soap, 1 part Ballistol and 10 parts water does a good job of cleaning my bore. It takes a little more scrubbing and several more patches but it gets the job done without getting the stock wet. In either case, you will need to rinse off the cleaning stuff (soapy water of the cleaning mix) and then you need to thoroughly dry the bore, flush with a good spray of WD-40, wipe out the WD-40 and apply a coating of Barricade.

Not everyone will agree with me but it is what works for me.

Oh, BTW, I do have one of those brass flush tubes (that's my second device) and they work great for flushing out soapy water or the cleaning mix. Just keep your muzzle pointed down a bit so the water that comes back out of the muzzle does not run under the barrel into the barrel channel in your stock. This concern with getting the stock wet is one reason that I varnish my barrel channel on my rifles. I also put a good coating of wax on the bottom of my rifle barrels to protect them. Of course, I don't think any of us will live long enough to ever see any significant damage done to the bottom of our barrels by rust. Probably won't happen in our great grandkids lifetime.....but I wax 'em anyway.

 

[bpd303]

Pretty much my routine also. I just watched a video that came with my Pedersoli Cabela's Blue Ridge .54 cal flintlock. It was a very interesting video about their building the rifles and at the end there was a spot about how the factory cleans the test fired guns.

It is a steam cleaner that has a wand that is inserted in the muzzle, with the muzzle slightly pointed down which blasts all the fouling and crud out, then a white patch is run down the bore which came out spotless. Then they used it to clean the lock & breech area. The whole process took less than two minutes.

I gotta get me one of those. :bow: