Finally got a chance to use my little steam cleaner.......

[oldracer]

I bought one a while ago and I kept forgetting to use it to clean out the powder barrel and bottom of the barrel before a match! Well Saturday night I finally remembered to shoot into my long rifle and boy was there some goop and tar and who knows what that came out! The gun had been well cleaned (I thought) a month ago after our monthly match? No so well I guess and NO hang fires or other issues at the start of the match!

To night I hooked it up again and the sludge came out again and I steamed it very well until the stuff coming out of the barrel was clear. I had to remember to wear gloves as the barrel gets really hot! I wiped it and oiled it slightly before it cooled off. I am a happy boy for sure.

[OverMax]

oldracer
Can you tell us the name of your steamer please? I would like to give it a look see, maybe even buy one as I shoot allot of fouling homemade screened. Such a steamer cleaner would be a handy tool to have for me.

[Toymaker]

Three people in our muzzleloading club have rifles that are famous (infamous) for hang-fires and misfires half way through a match, especially when it's very humid. Two of them asked me to use my steam cleaner system on their rifles. Through two matches neither has had a hang-fire or misfire.
I found the steam cleaner is not the ends-all cleaning solution. You still have to go at it with patch and solvent or a bucket of water. But it does take out the hard-core stuff that gathers in the nooks and crannies, which can be a surprising amount. A blast of WD-40 to get rid of any residual moisture and a good coating of oil and you're set.

[oldracer]

I bought mine from Walmart on line, it is the "X-Tech Multi Purpose" and is now $29.98 or so. I also took the lock off as it had some oil and goop build up and it sure cleaned the nooks and crannies out great and I immediately soaked it with CLP afterwards. Gun oil smell pretty neat when sprayed on a hot surface! Anyways, my main issue was a hang up on the first shot even if snapping several caps. This cured that for sure but just remember to wear gloves as things get very hot.

The instructions say to use distilled or pure water so I bought a jug of it when I stopped at Walmart and so far no crud build up in any parts of the cleaner machine.

I used a piece of copper tube and ran some 1/4-28 threads on it so I could screw it into the nipple hole as a regular nipple has nothing much to grab hold of. A section of heavy duty hose connects all together.

[Boz330]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Hand-Hel...QAAOSwxN5WYM2S

[varsity07840]

I bought mine from Walmart on line, it is the "X-Tech Multi Purpose" and is now $29.98 or so. I also took the lock off as it had some oil and goop build up and it sure cleaned the nooks and crannies out great and I immediately soaked it with CLP afterwards. Gun oil smell pretty neat when sprayed on a hot surface! Anyways, my main issue was a hang up on the first shot even if snapping several caps. This cured that for sure but just remember to wear gloves as things get very hot.

Have you had any issues with flash rust?

[Toymaker]

I've not had any issue with flash rust, but I'm really quick about running 2 dry patches, a blast of WD-40 and oil. If I'm going to clean more I'm using Moose Milk, then blast it with WD-40 and oil. The long rifle gets used every month so it's good. The Rigby gets used April through September. In September it gets RIG instead of oil. The heavy bench rifle and equipment needs to be sold.

[reloader4410]

My little red steamer I use filtered air conditioner water & windex does a great job. also great for cap & ball pistols. HAPPY TRAILS.

[bigted]

ive looked for a utube video using these steamers on rifles and revolvers but cant find even one. wish someone would bite the boolit and make a vid showing these lil hummers in action on our gunz.

[oldracer]

The only deviation from exactly following the included instructions is to make some sort of adapter to screw into the nipple threads in the powder barrel. I used a piece of 1/2 inch brass rod cut to about 2 inches and then drilled a small hole all the way through the axial direction. I threaded on end a little and attached it to one of the short adapters with Kevlar reinforced fuel line left over from my race car days. The parts to attach have to be stout as things get pretty hot and regular tube turns to mush!

[bigted]

i am waiting for my little steamer to get here. im bettin it will be obvious how to use it to clean rifles, shotguns and revolvers. maybe with this little jewel i can get back to playing with building the fast and simple paper cart for my revolvers with small worrie as to the cleaning process.

[OverMax]

I'm anal when it comes to cleaning my B/P barrels.
Going to get me one of those steamers and give it a try-out oldracer as I'm always up for new gun gadgetry. If such steamer removes anymore gunk from my barrel/s (being its as clean as I can get it by hand) I will be totally "hammer struck up side the head surprised." Anywho thanks for the Tip sir.

[oldracer]

Thanks for the kind feed back everyone. In Ned Roberts' book he talks about using boiling or at least very hot water once the barrel is pulled off. I would say this is close to that? The way I have been cleaning was to pull the nipple, insert one that was drilled out and hooked to a plastic bottle. I then sprayed the "three part" cleaner into the muzzle and wipe with patches soaked in the same cleaner. Once the liquid and patches look clean I dry the barrel and spray in some Remoil. The first time I tried the steamer, I was shocked at how much sludge came out the barrel! I think the stuff was in the rough finished area at the breech and this could not come out with patches?

When I was in the US Navy as a nuclear machinist we had to keep the engine rooms sparkling clean! The pipes are all covered with lagging and then painted but the surface is not smooth and has a lot of pin holes, ETC. So I designed a nozzle and suction line that hooked to a low pressure steam line and drew in standard US Navy soap from a large container. Went turned on and sprayed over the lagging......boy oh boy did the dirt come out of the cracks and crevasses and once dry it looked like new! Sort of like these little guys do inside a barrel?

[DakotaElkSlayer]

Thanks, oldracer!

Jim

[fiberoptik]

I picked up a little steam cleaner the other day. Cost me 250 big ones!


($2.50!) gotta love thrift stores!


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[fiberoptik]

Was half off blue tags.


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[idahoron]

One thing I want to remind you guys. There was a post that I put up a little while back that discussed these steamers. 54Bore used one and while he likes it for cleaning DEEP. The issue for him was the first shot out of the gun the "cold clean" shot was way off every time. If you use one make sure to test if your first shot after cleaning still hits where it is supposed to.
I bought one but so far have not used it on a gun. I did use it to help clean the skull on my son's deer.

[Bent Ramrod]

I also bought one of those Wal-Mart steam cleaners and used it on my muzzle loader via a Tygon tube and threaded adapter in the nipple hole. Like Oldracer, I was amazed at the volume of black goo that came out of the barrel that I work so hard to clean after a shooting session. I use Ballistol/water and Ballistol on patches for that job.

I did find that extra watching and care was needed after the steam treatment to avoid flash rusting. Also, the first few shots after steam cleaning were quite wild, but gradually settled back to normal as the shooting progressed.

It might be valuable to clean a recently purchased used gun in this way to start with pristine conditions, but it appears that the steam cleaner removed the “conditioning” that had built up in my barrel which provides consistent, if not pinpoint accurate, shooting. Of course, a .32 is very finicky, and mine more cranky than most, so it may be that other rifles and larger bores don’t behave this way. But I think I’ll be using the steam cleaner around the house more than I use it on my muzzle loader in the future.