Cleaning after shooting

[rfd]

SO many personal opinions about bp cleaning and SO many diverse processes.

Which one to choose?

The answer is that you may only know what's best for you through personal testing of those personal opinions.

[indian joe]

The Old Army Manual specified hot, soapy WATER, dry patches and oil. Windex, alcohol, vinegar, etc., work because all are Water-Based! Water, the hotter the better, cleans gun bores.

The Army had more guns than I ever will and knew how to preserve bores. Nuff said.

Adam

the army also strenuously resisted cartridge guns in favour of muzzle loaders , resisted repeaters in favour of single shots - they were not all geniuses and as mentioned corrosive priming compound was a major issue for military - room temperature water is quite adequate for cleaning blackpowder - hot has no advantage at all for cleaning and carries the disadvantage of flash rusting the clean bore ---nuff said?

[smithnframe]

I clean all my BP revolvers in the dishwasher. Remove the grips and I always take the action apart and clean by hand. Been doing this for decades with no hint of rust ever.

[SierraHunter]

I use hot water and dawn, but I ruined the finish on a Ruger Vaquero using dish soap last year.

My wife got away from using down and starting using 7th generation citrus scent. I **** the vaquero with some black powder and figured dish soap was dish soap, boiled some water and threw the gun in there. Cleaned the cylinder, and pulled out the barrel and frame and the finish was gone. Turns out natural based soaps have citrus, and citrus will strip blueing which was something I didn’t know. So be careful what kind of soap you use.

[Nobade]

I use hot water and dawn, but I ruined the finish on a Ruger Vaquero using dish soap last year.

My wife got away from using down and starting using 7th generation citrus scent. I **** the vaquero with some black powder and figured dish soap was dish soap, boiled some water and threw the gun in there. Cleaned the cylinder, and pulled out the barrel and frame and the finish was gone. Turns out natural based soaps have citrus, and citrus will strip blueing which was something I didn’t know. So be careful what kind of soap you use.

I got to refinish several guns for a guy who did that with the citrus based simple green. It does indeed remove the blueing quite effectively. Left a pretty interesting tiger stripe rust pattern in the metal too.

[GARD72977]

After shooting is done:
Swab bore with 2-3 patches wet with Windex with Vinegar- last one wipe down the muzzle area
Does a good job of dissolving any residual salts as well as the general fouling.
wipe with one dry
wipe with one wetted with 97% Isopropyl Alcohol
wipe dry, including muzzle
Oil into bore: RIG gun grease if not shooting again for a longer time,
and wipe down all metal - barrel, action, steel butt plate, with RIG rag
Done
beltfed/arnie

I have never heard of RIG. After looking it up , I ordered a jar

[DonHowe]

Black powder is NOT complicated chemical compounds. It is quite basic. BP revolvers and lever action rifles require more work but cleaning the BP residue is still simple. Single shot cartridgerifles BP are so easy most shooters simply don't believe it. One shooter shunned BP loads as the thought of cleaning his barrel with WATER horrified him. Seeing 19th century soldiers cleaning Trapdoors ahead of inspection would likely have caused a coronary.
I remember NCOs who had entered service during WWII boiling water in a 55 gal drum over an open fire and dunking our stripped M16s in prep for inspection. Funny to think about now.