MidSouth Shooters SupplyTitan ReloadingRepackboxLee Precision
Inline FabricationLoad DataPBcastcoWideners
Reloading Everything RotoMetals2
Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 46

Thread: Best way to clean TC New Englander

  1. #1
    Boolit Grand Master


    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Aberdeen, South Dakota
    Posts
    7,136

    Best way to clean TC New Englander

    I got a 54 caliber TC new englander, and it seems to shoot quite well. I am trying to figure out the best way to clean it. I never felt good about just pumping water through. It's ok for just a casual cleaning, but for 100% reliability I like things spotless. The nipple comes out, but there doesn't appear to be any other way to clean the channel which appears to just run through the breech plug and I assume comes out dead center into the barrel. I also assume the breech plug does not come out, at least not as something I want to regularly clean. I tried fishing a pipe cleaner through, but it didn't seem to do the job. I had thought to try and hang the barrel, and rest the breech end in the ultra sonic cleaner. I have no doubts that would be the cats meow, although I'm looking for something a little more traditional. Any ideas?

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
    triggerhappy243's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Albuquerque N.M.
    Posts
    2,142
    If the barrel can be removed from the stock, put the breech end in a pot of boiling hot water squirt some dawn dish liquid in the barrel and scrub the beegeeses out of it. Then with the jag on the cleaning rod, pump the rod in and out with a patch on the jag, scrubbing aggressively. Rinse with hot water in the same fashion. Dry cotton flannel patches to dry the bore out while the barrel is still burning hot. Use the bore preservative of your choice. Sorry bout the caps, key is stuck.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master


    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Aberdeen, South Dakota
    Posts
    7,136
    Yes, but how do you scrub the channel out? Soapy water does ok, but i can still see built up gunk. I can only imagine the areas you cant see.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
    triggerhappy243's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Albuquerque N.M.
    Posts
    2,142
    T/C PUT OUT A SPECIAL SCRAPER THAT FIT THE PATENT BREECH. IF YOU PUMP THE CLEANING ROD HARD ENOUGH TURBULENCE WITH THE HOT WATER FLUSHING IN AND OUT REALLY DOES A GOOD JOB OF FLUSHING THE FLASH CHANNEL OUT. i BEEN DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    May 2017
    Posts
    3,683
    Quote Originally Posted by megasupermagnum View Post
    Yes, but how do you scrub the channel out? Soapy water does ok, but i can still see built up gunk. I can only imagine the areas you cant see.
    Jeez !! you like to make things hard -- are you shooting proper black powder - if yes - just pull the nipple - put its butt in a bucket of water and pump it with a patch on the ramrod. Dont take out the breech plug ever!
    Make sure you have a tapered muzzle protector on the ramrod.
    Cold water will do it - dont need to use hot for blackpowder residue - but need plenty to neutralise the salts and flush out the crud.

  6. #6
    Boolit Grand Master Good Cheer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    the Ark
    Posts
    5,258
    If you use a dish detergent to help remove the tough lube-powder mixed residues in the ignition pathways it's best to follow with lots and lots of clean water due to surfactants in the soaps.

    If shooting a substitute powder be double extra thorough to avoid damage from the acid residues. Make Felix Unger look like a slob slacker.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master hc18flyer's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    NE Nebraska
    Posts
    1,176
    For 30 years now I have used the natural lubes(bore butter & others), hot water to clean barrel. The heat will dry it out, standing muzzle down, then a couple of lube patches, akin to seasoning a cast iron fry pan. My New Englander and Great Plains rifles will allow a pipe cleaner down thru the flash channel. I do carefully clean my nipples too. If I do my part cleaning and fire a couple of caps, my rifles work GREAT!
    hc18flyer

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    gardners pa.
    Posts
    3,443
    I started shooting muzzleloaders in 85. all I have ever used was the hot water method in post number 2. never had a problem . I own 10 rifles and 10 pistols all cleaned that way. never a need to use a brush. the only time I ever need a breach scraper is when shooting the flat breach rifles the 1808 h-f and the 1841 Mississippi.

    don't try to reinvent the wheel or over think a simple process.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master


    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    North central Ohio/Roane County, W.Va.
    Posts
    1,419
    I use the method Indian Joe suggested, I do use real hot water and liquid soap. After the water coming out of the nipple hole is clear, I prop it up in a corner, muzzle down and when dry but still warm, run a patch coated with Bore Butter and it's done. Never found a speck of rust in any of my black powder guns.
    “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.”
    ― Mark Twain
    W8SOB

  10. #10
    Boolit Master

    pworley1's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Mississippi
    Posts
    3,248
    Try using a pipe cleaner for the flash channel.
    NRA Benefactor Member NRA Golden Eagle

  11. #11
    Boolit Grand Master
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Posts
    5,271
    All the above works fine. I also, from time to time, get a small soup can, or the like, add Windex, and pump it in and out through the nipple, via a tight patch on the cleaning rod. Pretty good at removing gunk. Then I remove the nipple, clean it with a pipe cleaner and then turn the pipe cleaner into the bolster channel. Work it back and forth. At this point, I drench the barrel and other parts with PB Blaster penetrating oil and work that through every possible nook & cranny. The lock gets the whole treatment, too. I like to get penetrating oil down into the threads of the breach plug; a place no cleaning jig could ever get to and let the oil do it's thing to. I let the penetrating oil do it's thing for a time. Dry it out and reassemble. I do this on my ML's and the "camp guns" I use to teach with. I shoot those camp guns twice a week all summer in a ML'ing program. They get hundreds of rounds down range and have been going strong for almost 20 years. Not bad for CVA youth and mountain stalker side hammers.

    Do whatever it takes to make 'em clean.

  12. #12
    Boolit Grand Master

    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Southern Illinois
    Posts
    6,134
    Use a smaller brush, like 32 cal or so to clean the patient breech area. I use pipe cleaners and Q-tips for under the nipple.
    Aim small, miss small!

  13. #13
    Boolit Grand Master


    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Aberdeen, South Dakota
    Posts
    7,136
    Quote Originally Posted by 725 View Post
    All the above works fine. I also, from time to time, get a small soup can, or the like, add Windex, and pump it in and out through the nipple, via a tight patch on the cleaning rod. Pretty good at removing gunk. Then I remove the nipple, clean it with a pipe cleaner and then turn the pipe cleaner into the bolster channel. Work it back and forth. At this point, I drench the barrel and other parts with PB Blaster penetrating oil and work that through every possible nook & cranny. The lock gets the whole treatment, too. I like to get penetrating oil down into the threads of the breach plug; a place no cleaning jig could ever get to and let the oil do it's thing to. I let the penetrating oil do it's thing for a time. Dry it out and reassemble. I do this on my ML's and the "camp guns" I use to teach with. I shoot those camp guns twice a week all summer in a ML'ing program. They get hundreds of rounds down range and have been going strong for almost 20 years. Not bad for CVA youth and mountain stalker side hammers.

    Do whatever it takes to make 'em clean.
    Thanks, I don't have window cleaner, but I put my barrel in a can of PB blaster. I worked it in and out a few times, and it has now been sitting for a few hours. The liquid has turned black, and seems to really be working. I took the lock off, and there was all kinds of crud in there. I don't know how it gets there, but I'll be sure and clean that every time in the future.

    I looked up a breech plug scraper, that should really do the trick! It looks like track of the wolf sells them, I need to get out there anyway. I did find some bigger/thicker pipe cleaners, and will give them a try, the small ones go through, they just don't scrub much.

    I've only shot 15 rounds so far, and all with FFg black powder. I don't know what the previous owner(s) used.

    There is a huge difference between 99% reliable, and 100% reliable when it's snowing, 2 degrees, 8 hours into the hunt.

  14. #14
    Boolit Master


    Walks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,028
    Try the scrubbing pipe cleaners. I clean at the Range. Use the Hydrogen peroxide, Isopropyl 91%alcohol, MURPHY'S OIL SOAP. 1/3 of each. 25yrs no rust, all clean and CLEAN
    I HATE auto-correct

    Happiness is a Warm GUN & more ammo to shoot in it.

    My Experience and My Opinion, are just that, Mine.

    SASS #375 Life

  15. #15
    Boolit Grand Master


    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Aberdeen, South Dakota
    Posts
    7,136
    Quote Originally Posted by Walks View Post
    Try the scrubbing pipe cleaners. I clean at the Range. Use the Hydrogen peroxide, Isopropyl 91%alcohol, MURPHY'S OIL SOAP. 1/3 of each. 25yrs no rust, all clean and CLEAN
    Does the hydrogen peroxide have to be anything special, or will any pharmacy brand work?

  16. #16
    Boolit Grand Master

    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Northwest Ohio
    Posts
    14,420
    Ballistol and water mixed 10-1. Remove nipple and vent screw if it has one. let soak for awhile and then work thru barrel with patched jag pumping it in and out. You want pressure in both directions so don't allow rod to come out of barrel here. A little scrubbing with a pope cleaner may be needed. If it has a vent screw under the nipple a drill bit the same size as the hole can be used as a scrapper to remove stubborn crud.

    I use windex with vinegar as a wiping soulution on BPCR rifles. Its great for a quick cleaning removing powder lube fouling. Hot soapy water works well also. Cold water does about as good it just dosnt evaporate as fast. Ballistol and water works very well and has been a go to for a lot of shooters for years. Finding a drill bit that just fits the passage and use it by hand turning between thumb and finger as a scrapper removes a lot of build ups.

    You want the water there to remove dissolve the natural salts from the powder fouling, like the old corrosive ammo a water cleaning removed it best. SOapy water removes these salts quickly and easily.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    gardners pa.
    Posts
    3,443
    don't use an oil base to clean. use water or a water base water dissolves b-p fouling . oil makes it lump and get hard.

  18. #18
    Boolit Master
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    1,780
    Unless a barrel is bedded. Removing from its stock for any reason is likely to cause or lesson down range accuracy.

  19. #19
    Boolit Grand Master


    Join Date
    Apr 2017
    Location
    Aberdeen, South Dakota
    Posts
    7,136
    Quote Originally Posted by OverMax View Post
    Unless a barrel is bedded. Removing from its stock for any reason is likely to cause or lesson down range accuracy.
    These don't fit together tight enough for any of that to matter. I always take my guns apart as much as is reasonable to clean. I've never noticed any lack of accuracy, and all my guns hold their zero.

    After the soak in PB blaster a ton of junk came out, and with a little scrubbing I feel I got it as good as a person can. Using a light, the only deposits i can see are very minor on the breech end. That's where the breech plug scraper should come into play.

    I think from now on I will do the usual cleaning with water, followed by a soak in cleaner (I'll try the murphy's oil next time), and with a little scrubbing with a pipe cleaner and breech scraper, I would finish with a oil patch down the bore and reassemble. Or maybe it would be best to do the cleaner/scubbing first, and then the traditional water method?
    It's probably not needed to go this thorough every time, but certainly before hunting.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master


    Walks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    3,028
    I wonder if any one still makes the the small 2 oz bottle with the cap/tube that fits over the nipple of your front loader ?
    You'd fill the bottle with solvent or whatever you used, push a wet patch back & forth on the bore. Hydraulic action would pump solvent in & out. I then changed to a scraper on the cleaning rod and back to little bottle with solvent. Clean in 5 minutes.
    I HATE auto-correct

    Happiness is a Warm GUN & more ammo to shoot in it.

    My Experience and My Opinion, are just that, Mine.

    SASS #375 Life

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check