Tell me how to clean my barrel

[roscoe]

Sharps Shiloh #3 .45-70

I'm switching over to black powder next week and I need to know the proper way to clean my barrel. I did a couple of searches but didn't come up with what I was looking for.

I don't shoot competition but shoot on a weekly basis. I plan on wiping between shots and before I leave the range, I plan on giving the barrel a decent cleaning and then in my shop a good final cleaning.

I have access to hot and cold running water in my shop. I have read some reports where people scrub the barrel with a brush and patch soaked with Dawn liquid. Others have report just running hot water through the barrel until it's clear, dry patch and a light oil patch.

So what is the best way that y'all are cleaning the barrels.

[Vann]

Windex is what I use most of the time.

[Outpost75]

The only thing wonderful about Windex is that it is water-based, mildly detergent and has a convenient dispenser.

It works fine, but so will plain, ordinary water with a few drops of any dishwashing detergent.

If you have a long drive from home to the range and want to soften the fouling and prevent rusting until you can do a hot water cleanup, use ordinary GoJo or Fast Orange waterless land cleaner, the smooth formula without any pumice, to swab out the gun at the range and leave it wet. When you get home then do the water water washout and flush with any good water displacing oil. I use Ed's Red for this, but others use WD40.

[dave roelle]

at the range after your finished shooting------Water damp patches until fouling is eliminated ---usually 4 or 5 patches------- 2 or 3 patches to dry the bore and chamber----wipe the muzzle,--------one oiled patch down the bore with your favorite bore oil

Drop the block, remove the rear dovetail plate and remove and clean transfer bar, firing pin and pin spring, re-assemble and lightly oil-----------wipe the inside of the action and lightly oil---replace the block and extractor---------DONE

Stay safe

Dave

[stubbicatt]

I have a small container with 1 to 6 Ballistol/water mixture. The water does the work with patches on a nice snug jag, the Ballistol leaves a protective film in the barrel. Works for me. Rarely does it require more than 2 or 3 wet patches, one dry patch.

[koger]

I use this in all my ML an BP cartridge rifles. It is a cleaning mix formula that a person at Friendship came up with called the 3 patch cleaner for ML's using black powder. It will clean the residue off guns and your hand great, I swab out breech loaders with 2-3 wet patches, and 2-3 dry, then a oily patch and done, here is the formula.
2 pints alcohol
2 pints peroxide
1 pint Murphys oil soap
Mix in a yellow gallon milk jug or antifreeze jug, so daylight does not kill the peroxide. I have ML rifles, with over10,000 rounds down the pipe, cleaned with this from day one that look new inside! Be sure and dry the bore good, and follow up with lube of choice, I use Breakfree, CLP

[13Echo]

Whatever method you use the idea is to dissolve and mechanically remove the fouling to bare metal, usually with some water based solvent, remove the cleaner residue (dry the bore), protect the bore, reinspect the next day.

BP fouling is pH basic and responds nicely to mildly acidic solvents such as glass cleaners with vinegar. It also does just fine with plan old water wet patches followed by dry patches followed by a decent gun oil with inspection again the next day. The water in regular windex with ammonia will dissolve the fouling but it is basic (ammonia) and won't neutralize the basic fouling and it can potentiate rusting if not completely removed. I have had excellent results with plain water, dilute antifreeze, Windex with vinegar, and windshield wiper fluid. For pitted barrels in my trapdoors I follow the dry patches with a water displacing oil like WD40 to make sure the pits are well serviced and then dry patch and oil.

[w5pv]

They don't call this the learning forum for nothing,thanks guys for your informative post,I don't shoot bp but have thought about in my 45c.

[Petrol & Powder]

All good advice. I'm a big fan of hot water, dry patches and followed by the oil of your choice.

I've used Windex and it works well but plain old hot water works just as well with BP.

[country gent]

I clean at the range with windex vinegar window cleaner or windex multi surface vinegar formula. few squirts in the breech 8-10 strokes with a nylon or bronze brush. followed by dry patches. the 3 one normally only shows some light gray streaks. I clean like this between strings and before leaving for home. I have a spray bottle of 30-1 water ballistol mix in the range box and on cleaning to come home. A squirt of this down the barrel and 1 damp patch to even distribute it evenly. for the ride home. Once home and ready to fully clean. I give a couple squirts of the ballistol water and brush good. A few dry patches and then shooters choice lead remover just in case. let this soak for a short time patch dry. I do occassionally clean with JB Bore cleaner also. The final passes are a patch on a jag with the bullet lube Im using rubbed into it. 2-4 passes back and forth. Then 1 dry patch to even out and thin the lube coat. This protects against rust very good ( most bullet lubes for black powder are a wax natural oil and or lanolin all decent rust perservatives). These lubes are thicker than oils dont run or mitigate to where you dont want them. The bore is coated with the same thing you shooting so not as many first shot issues and the first round isnt thru a dry bore.

[rfd]

for both fouling control (single wipe between shots), and after shoot cleaning, i use a 10:1 (or so) mix of ballistol and distilled water, and a final patch of break free before casing.

[vrh]

Ditto with what K

[vrh]

Ditto with what Koger is using. Good stuff. Last forever it seems.

[BCRider]

You fellows using "gun oil" and Breakfree don't have any issues with the fouling getting tar like and sticky? By all accounts I've read most regular petroleum based oils are said to get sticky and tar like when mixed with BP fouling.

I'm a fan of some detergent or other soap in the water simply to aid in cutting through the oils or bullet lubes that may be mixed in with the fouling.

If you're set up at the range to wipe between shots or at even to wipe the bore at all you may as well keep going for the extra 5 to 7 minutes at the end of the day and take a clean and ready to put away gun home. As mentioned Windex cuts any oil and the water is more than good enough to clean the fouling. If you don't use Windex or when you run out just plain water with a touch of laundry or dish detergent will work just fine. As suggested the bottle is a super handy dispenser for at the range benches.

I'd likely set the gun up with a slightly muzzle down attitude and spray down the bore. Then I'd run a few wet patches until they push through clean. Then a few dry patches and finally oiled patches. I would not run a dry patch after that. Instead I'd leave it oily and run a dry patch before starting to shoot the next time.

Usually we see Ballistol suggested as a good black powder oil. There may be others but that's a typical one. Or swab the bore with Bore Butter which is also supposed to be a good corrosion inhibitor.

[M-Tecs]

Windex with vinegar followed by Ballistol is what I am currently using.

When that is gone I will try

"2 pints alcohol
2 pints peroxide
1 pint Murphys oil soap
Mix in a yellow gallon milk jug or antifreeze jug, so daylight does not kill the peroxide".

[rfd]

i fouling wipe with a water/ballistol and use that to clean after shooting. after the bore is swabbed dry i run a breakfree/clp wet patch that gets swabbed out before shooting again. really, if yer loading/shooting black powder i find that all i need is plain ol' water, and then after drying out the tube swab out with most any kinda oil for a preservative.

before shooting, just gotta swab the oil out best as possible and for that i use a few patches of the water/ballistol and then 1 dry patch, all done using the solid delrin fouling rod. for after-shoot cleaning i use a 3/8" carbon fiber rod along with a BRBCP chisel-tip delrin patch jag and bore rider brush guide to further protect the muzzle.

[kywoodwrkr]

Usually we see Ballistol suggested as a good black powder oil. There may be others but that's a typical one. Or swab the bore with Bore Butter which is also supposed to be a good corrosion inhibitor.

Ballistol is WW1 German bore cleaner.
Therefore its no surprise it worked extremely well with BP as they transitioned from BP to smokeless.
For those interested in bulk, it is available from Wiseman Trading.
https://wisementrading.com/hunting/ballistol.htm
It's now only $249/5 gal + $20Shipping.
They also have smaller quantities.
It's extremely good at removing smoke crud from items after a house fire.
I can attest to that.
OH, it can be used on steel, wood, paper, plastic and .....
I've cleaned up some old calipers putting Ballistol on the little gear tracks and mechanisms.
Smoother than when they were new.
As was mentioned it leaves a what I'd call 'waxy' film.
I find it very similar to bore protectors Swiss use immediately after a firing session.
YMMV

[Earlwb]

I use liquid Dawn Dish washing soap. I squirt some into a bowl of hot water. I scrub it with a brush of course. Then I can pull and push a relatively tight patch through the bore with the barrel end in the bowl. The wet patch seals the bore good enough to let me pull the bowl of water up and down through the bore. That cleans it really good for me. Then I dry and oil as desired. I haven't seen a need for any of that new cleaning stuff people use nowadays.

[flint45]

I have used everthing in the last 30 years and have decided for me Simple Green works best and easy 3 or 4 wet patches 1 to dry and 1 to oil done all my black powder guns get that treatment black powder guns clean up easier then smokless.

[Biggs300]

I am a fairly recent convert to Ballistol and now it is pretty much all I use for gun cleaning….black powder or otherwise. At first, I was skeptical but, the stuff really works.