Dutch's cleaning method

[Boerrancher]

Well yesterday after shooting my T\C Hawken I tried Dutch Schoults 99% water free cleaning method. I started out by flooding the bore with moose milk, and then swabbed it to death wit moose milk patches until they came out clean. Then I ran a dry patch through it and it came out clean. Following Dutch's instructions I saturated a patch with WD 40 and swabbed th bore real well. The patch came out clean. I put the rifle away.

This morning I pick up the rile and it looks good on the outside, so I run a patch down the bore and it came back orange. Real Orange. I tore he rifle down and gave it a good bath in hot soapy water, scrubbing the heck out of it. When the pathes came back white, I dried it off, and oiled it well. I will check it in the morning again.

Bottom line Dutch's cleaning method did not work for me, but feel free to try it.

Best Wishes,
Joe

[curator]

Were you shooting real black powder or one of the substitutes? WD40 does not prevent rust in Florida, I can tell you that with certainty. It's great for starting wet engines but does not neutralize acids from shooting Pyrodex or black powder. I use either Ed's red or Automatic trans fluid for rust prevention. Works every time with no "after rust."

[gnoahhh]

That was my thought too as I read the OP's post. I wouldn't rely on WD-40 as a rust preventative. I had too many failures in that regard over the years with all manner of sporting equipment. Once I wised up and switched to CLP 20 years ago, my rust problems ceased.

[Geraldo]

Another Floridian here, and there's no way I'd try that. My rifles get cleaned with hot, soapy water, then dried, oiled, and just to keep moisture out I fire a shot of WD40 down the barrel. Then I wipe it with a dry patch. The guns live in a part of the house with no climate control unless I'm there as well, but there are heating rods in the safe.

This is not scientific or definitive, but I don't have rust in my barrels. If you do something different and it works where you live, that's great.

[Boerrancher]

Dutch who lives near ST Louis, swears by moose milk and WD40. Now here is how I clean. I fill the bathroom sink with boiling hot water and pump it through the nipple and out the top of the barrel with the rod and a patch jag. I drain the water and do it again, repeating as often until the patch comes out clean and the water comes out clean. I run a couple dry patches through it and while the barrel is still hot I hose everything down with WD40. I run a couple of WD40 soaked patches down the bore, pull the nipple, clean it, and reinstall. I run a couple of dry patches down the bore to dry up the excess WD40. I use moose milk to wipe off the stock and lock area, and then I reassemble. I use a small dry patch between the hammer and nipple, run one last WD40 damp patch down the bore and stand in the large window sill. A day or two later I will run a second WD40 damp patch down it just to check it. I have never had the couple day later patch come back dirty or rusty. When I get ready to shoot I run a dry patch down the bore a time or two, and the pressure from the patch blows out any oil accumulated in the nipple. I remove the patch between the hammer and nipple. Load as normal and shoot. I have cleaned my ML's this way for 30 some years and have yet to have any rust, or a hang fire. No I don't even fire a cap on an empty barrel to clear out the oil. It has worked for 30 some years, I should have never tried anything new.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Shooter]

You can't go wrong with warm water to clean, and olive oil for rust prevention.

[725]

If the WD-40 system works for you , stay with it. I only do that with camp guns that I know another class will be shooting in a day or so. I've had better luck with PB Blaster, Kroil, Corrosion X, Fluid Film, or any of the synthetic motor oils. Have tried the moose milk and have had too many occasions of rust later on. Some of my friends swear by it, but not me. Besides the fumes off Balistol make me choke.

[Good Cheer]

Water, soap, oil and WD40 for moisture displacement (belt and suspenders).

[Reaper]

Water. Flush completely with cold or hot water followed by WD-40. Run patches till dry. Then run a patch soaked with Ballistol. Put the used Ballistol patch on the nipple and lower the hammer. You can run a patch soaked with Ballistol over the exterior metal and stock. Does not leave any gummy residue. I have rifles that haven't been out of their cases for years that show no rust after using Ballistol. For patched round ball, you can soak of your patches in a 50-50 mixture of Ballistol and distilled water and let air dry. Downside is the wife thinks it smells like dirty gym socks. Smells great to me.

http://mag-out.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/1_Ballistol-2010-Amazing-Story-Flyer-PROOF3.pdf

[405]

This morning I pick up the rile and it looks good on the outside, so I run a patch down the bore and it came back orange. Real Orange.
Best Wishes,
Joe

Wye heck fire, ya ruint it! That orange goo was the first layer for the makins of the oft quoted and famous "bore seasoning".
:kidding:

[Boerrancher]

Wye heck fire, ya ruint it! That orange goo was the first layer for the makins of the oft quoted and famous "bore seasoning".
:kidding:

I don't doubt that at all. I have heard of that "bore seasoning" and I don't want it. I like my bore nice and shiny. I would have had less rust had I have just put it up with out cleaning it. I have on occasion when on week end hunts left one dirty all weekend, because I was shooting it several times a day. I have also cleaned it in the nearby stream on weekly outings.

Nothing like tossing a bed roll and a few things together, grabbing one of the Hawken rifles, and spending a week or so wandering the river valley, catching fish and barking squirrels off the side of the trees with the 50 cal. I would sometimes find a corn field and have fresh corn on the cob to go with my fish and squirrels. Oh the great times I had as a kid. I often wish I didn't have the responsibilities that I do today just so I could walk off into the woods and be gone for a week or two.

Best wishes,

Joe

[frontier gander]

WD40 sucks.

Warmy soapy water bath, use some birchwood casey gun scrubber " a lighter product but close to carb cleaner" flood the bore with a good strong spray and spin the barrel around so it soaks in the breech good, it helps take the water and moisture out the bore before you dry patch it. I always run a patch with gun scrubber on it to make sure that all the moisture is out.

[izzyjoe]

i done some test year's ago when i had some spare time on my hands at work. i took a flat piece of mild steel, it was 6" wide and 12" long. it was new steel that had no rust on it, and i drew six lines down it, then i applied different oil's in each square. i used WD40, ATF, 10w30 GTX, PB blaster, liquid wrench, and some crappy lubricant that came from Wally World. the last square was left raw steel. and i left it outside on the ground by the scrap pile for a week. well the clear winner was good ol' WD 40, there was not a speck of rust in that square at all. the rest of them had some rust, some worse than others. the ATF was about the worst. but in that week it only rained once, but it rained all day. and i did urinate on it once just to see if it made a differece. ;-) but that being said, i still don't use WD40 on my gun's.

[Newtire]

Water Displacement Formula #40 was what the machine shop instructor told us about that stuff. As a solvent, it removes all the oil from the pores of the metal and guarantees rust is what they said. They made us cover the metal after cleaning with something called "Boe-shield". I'm going to get a can of it and start using it. Maybe they'll have it at the gun show today, putting it on my list...

I just moved from coastal California , where the fog moves in that grows those big giant redwood trees. That place would rust a piece of plastic. WD-40 only made it worse. I just moved to Idaho and am hoping that the dry climate is more agreeable to my firearms.

After seeing all the varying results of everyone, I'd say, see what works for you.

[Maven]

Here's a link for Boeshield (originally developed by Boeing Aircraft): http://boeshield.com/ I use it on my bicycle derailleur, chain and shifting mechanism, but it hadn't occurred to me to use it in my ML bbls. as WD-40 works perfectly. So does ATF and Marvel Mystery Oil or a combination of the two for that matter.

With respect to Dutch Shoultz's cleaning method or "dry" patch advocacy, he no longer recommends water soluble machining oil as it has too many ML-unfriendly additives these days. Rather, he now suggests using 1 part Ballistol to 5 to 7 parts water for moose milk. I use that combination as a patch lube and bore swabbing solution when I don't feel like using a spit patch.

[Boerrancher]

Maven, the mess I had in my barrel about 18 hours after cleaning it was cause by cleaning with just the 1/5 Ballistol and water moose milk. As I said I swabbed it and pushed moose milk through it until the patches were clean, and then swabbed it with WD40, just like Dutch's article stated. 18 hours later it had developed a nasty orange crust. I pulled the barrel off andgave it a hot water bath, scrubbed it good with a bore brush and then patches, dried it off and then swabbed it out with WD40. It has been raining for 3 days now and I just checked it a few min ago with a white patch and it came out the same shade of white that it went in. From now on I am going to stick with my hot water and WD40 for the bore. I also just checked my flinter that hasn't been shot in a month or more, that was cleaned with hat water and swabbed with WD40. The bore is just as bright, clean and shiny and it was the day it was made, maybe even more so.

My Cap and Ball revolver hasn't been shot in 20 years and looks new. It was cleaned with hot water and WD40 20 years ago and put away, and many of the conditions it has been stored in were not the best for a gun, i.e. damp basement under a pile of junk. If WD40 doesn't work for some of you then don't use it, but in 30 years of shooting black powder guns it has never let me down yet.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Maven]

Joe, My only use for moose milk is as a patch lube or to swab the bore when seating a patched RB or saboted CB or Maxi Ball in my in-line rifle. And like you, I've learned not to leave the bore damp or wet with any water-based solvents, certainly not overnight or even the 20 minute drive from our range to my home. Moose milk is OK as a patch lube when the temperatures are above freezing though.

[TommyT]

Here's a recipe for an excellent BP solvent. Mix 2 parts hydrogen peroxide, 2 parts rubbing alcohol and 1 part Murphy's oil soap. After shooting your smoke pole, pour some down the barrel. Swish is around a bit. Dump it out then one patch wet with the solution and then 2 dry patches and your barrel will be sparkling clean. Then use your oil of choice. I've been using this method for nearly 25 years on my Civil War firearms that I shoot in competition.

[Boerrancher]

Maven,

I tried the moose milk for a patch lube today in my 32 cal. I pre-cut some patches and soaked them with Ballistol made moose milk. I shot about 15 rounds, and just like my spit patch there was no trouble loading and no reduced accuracy. I wasn't shooting at paper I was shooting at my son's spinning squirrel target at 30 yards. At the first 7 shots I was aiming at the body, and then got bored with that and started aiming for the head. The next 8 shots were all at the head and I only missed once so I guess I should be ready to go in a month and a half when squirrel season comes around. I also want to comment on the cold weather use. If you keep it warm enough to not freeze before you load it, it won't matter. I have heard stories of how a wet patch will freeze in the bore and not lube properly. It may freeze in the bore, but once that powder charge goes off, that ice will melt before that patch moves a quarter of an inch.

I normally don't use precut patches, as I have found they are not generally as accurate, but for squirrel hunting, being able to reload quickly for another shot is critical considering them little suckers scatter to the four winds at the first shot. I found though that if I cut the patch in to a larger square that is bigger than the barrel it doesn't matter as much, because there is enough patch everywhere for the patch to seal, and the excess patch is wadded up on top of the ball. I only missed the squirrel target once and that was my fault because I wobbled off of it before the gun went off. In a month and a half I will head to the woods with a cap tin full of precut patches soaked in Moose Milk.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Ragnarok]

I bought a can of TC foaming bore cleaner just to try on my percussian revolvers.

Sort of messy...but seems to work really well...at least on short guns.

[Black Powder Bill]

Like the others mentioned; wd-40 is not for rust prevention. It is a water displacer. I like CRC power lube as my preservative. For long term I find that Lee liquid bullet lube thinned down works great.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

we use 1/3 rubbing alcohol, 1/3 hydrogen peroxide , 1/3 Murphy's oil soap , as patch lube ,
when leaving the range several sprays of that down the barrel helps to keep it all very soft on the way home , then nearly boiling hot water with dawn in a pail , breach in the pail , patch on the ram rod and scrub , change water , scrub , funnel in muzzle pour boiling water down flushing the barrel then , dry patches , the boiling water gets it all so hot it almost drys on it's own like a hot skillet .

when dry , oil with ed's red oil inside and out

a friend who wants to be very sure his nipple and flash channel are dry squirts some zippo lighter fluid on them and sets them on fire

[RBak]

FWIW; I've been using Ed's Red for both patching and cleaning for many years now and I find no problems with it whatsoever.

For patching round ball I soak a stack of patches and squeeze 'em out in the vice between two pieces of thin plywood that's cut and used just for that purpose (they clip on the steel jaws of the vice)....the patches feel dry to the touch when loading but they are still damp enough to work well for wiping occasionally.

I never ever worry about having having to clean my muzzleloaders as soon as I get home, that is if I make sure they were wiped at the range with Ed's Red before leaving.
Otherwise, if I'm playing around with, Spit-balls, Balistol, Magic Moose Milk, or some other Witches Brew, you can bet they are going to get scrubbed, dried real well as soon as I get home, and then I wipe the bore good with Ed's Red... there's just something about that stuff that makes a believer out of you.

Russ

[C.F.Plinker]

I've use MAP as the cleaner, chase that with WD40 to get the water out, and chase the WD40 with Breakfree as a protectant for short term stroage since I will be shooting again within a few months. Get to the range and run a patch with Moose Milk on it to clean out any Breakfree. Never have seen any rust at this point. Then fire off 25 grains of FFFg without ball or patch to prove the channel, wipe with another MM patch, load and go.

I don't know where I picked up using Breakfree after the WD40 but it has served me well.

[JudgeBAC]

To clean: 50% Ballistol 50% water followed by boiling water then oil with straight Ballistol. This is the greatest stuff ever invented. Water soluble although it does smell a little odd; kinda like a locker room.

[Boerrancher]

I love Ballistol. It is some amazing stuff. I mix it with 70% water, and use it for patch lube and a quick clean up on my black powder cartridge guns. Swab with Ballistol until the patches come out clean, I check it every three days for a couple of weeks to make sure. I can't seem to get that method to work in my MLs, I guess it is because the soot it pushed back into the barrel with the next loading.

Best wishes,

Joe