Best cleaning methods...

[7of7]

It probably has been discussed several times, but, what is your method for cleaning, and your reasoning behind it. (Including post clean applications of whatever to the bore)

[Nobade]

Plug nipple or touch hole, pour water into barrel, shake, pour out. Repeat a couple of times. Put barrel into bucket of water, pump water through with nipple removed, use paper towels to dry bore as much as possible. Wet bore and patent breech with Ballistol, wipe outside with same, done. Leave it wet while stored, if there is any water left the Ballistol mixes with it and prevents rust. When ready to shoot I dry patch the bore, wipe the patent breech with a patch on a brush, fire a blank charge to make sure all oil is gone, and it's good to go. Never have any rust problems, guns stay looking like new even though I fire the percussion ones with corrosive ho'made caps.

-Nobade

[shredder]

I use Windex with vinegar cleaner diluted 1/2 with water. Spray a couple of shots down bore, swab with soaked patches. One will come out clean very soon, this stuff eats black powder residue. For the finish, dry patch then a patch soaked with Ballistol.

I used to use hot water with dish soap then finish with 1000+ bore butter. I had rust after a few months of storage, year after year! Finally I found Ballistol.

[Maven]

"I use Windex with vinegar cleaner diluted 1/2 with water. Spray a couple of shots down bore, swab with soaked patches. One will come out clean very soon, this stuff eats black powder residue. For the finish, dry patch then a patch soaked with Ballistol." ...shredder

You can't beat this for economy & effectiveness. If you don't have Ballistol, a patch soaked with ATF, Marvel Mystery Oil, motor oil (unused), etc. work equally well. Store the clean, lubed gun with the muzzle down.

[Boerrancher]

Just finished cleaning my trade gun after a morning of squirrel hunting and target shooting, and here is how I do it every time. I pull the lock off and run it under the tap in the bathroom sink and brush it all down with an old tooth brush with lye soap on it. I then rinse the lock real well dry with a towel and hose it off with Balistol or WD40, or a light oil like 3 in 1.

With the lock set aside and ready to reinstall, I plug the touch hole with a tooth pick and fill the bore with cold water and let it soak for a bit while I get my patch ready. I wet my patch real well and then totally saturate it with suds by rubbing it against the bar of lye soap. The water gets dumped out of the bore and I scrub the inside of the bore with the patch and jag. Rinse the patch and bore with cold water and repeat a couple of times. Run a couple of dry pcs of paper towel to soak up any water and remove the tooth pick from the touch hole. Spray some Balistol, WD40, or a light oil down the bore and chase it with patches made of paper towel. Keep running dry paper towels down the bore on the patch jag until they come out clean.

Once the paper towels come out clean I slap the lock back in, reinsert the flint and check for spark and alignment. The gun is ready to go back in the rack. I have been cleaning guns this way for 30+ years and have never had one rust up even during the humid MO summers. The only thing I don't do any more that I use to is use hot water. I made the switch to cold water after a week long camping/hunting/shooting trip where I was cleaning my gun in any near by stream. I found that cold soapy water worked better than hot.

My method works with both flint and percussion guns, rifles and smooth bores, with guns that have a removable barrel you don't need to pull the the lock every time. I pull the lock on my trade gun because I don't want water to set in it. My other guns I can remove the barrels and don't have to worry about water being trapped between the mortise and lock. It takes less than 10 minutes to clean one once you get the hang of it.

Best wishes,

Joe

[waksupi]

I clean like Joe, minus the soap, and use Ed's Red in the bore when I'm done. This is a very dry area, and rust is generally not a concern. I would use a heavier protector in wetter climates.

[Junior1942]

I brush & swab with dishwater in the kitchen sink, rinse with hot tap water, wipe dry in and out, then hold the barrel over a burner on my gas stove. When it gets too hot to hold, I lean it in a corner, bore up so the chimney effect can work. When it's cool, I oil it in and out and put it back on the firearm.

If it's not raining here it's fixing to rain, and I've never had a rusty bore.

[ukrifleman]

There are many commercial products out there but, you can bet your bottom dollar the magic ingredient is WATER!
Here is my cleaning regime.
Add some dishwash soap if you wish, remove barrel from stock, then lock and nipple, immerse the nipple hole into the water and use a cleaning rod with a patch to form a piston and work it up and down from the muzzle end, to suck water into the barrel and force it out until the bore is free of fouling.
Patch out until it looks clean and dry, at this stage I run a patch through with WD40 to dispel any residual moisture then finish with Ballistol-job done!

Water has been used for the last 600 years or so to clean B/P weapons and it is still an efficient method.
ukrifleman.

[waksupi]

If you guys are going to use soap, use laundry detergent. Look at the ingredients, and you will see surfactants (sp) listed near the top. Same stuff as in commercial BP cleaning solutions.

[OverMax]

With the rifles nipple removed. And not remounted after its cleaning in the same cleaning solution as its barrel. {so its snail and firing channel are not inhibited from air circulation or its barrel's drainage.
Bore: Water diluted Ballistol used as a pumping & cleaning liquid {per the directions found on its container.} Hot clean water used to pump and rinse. A couple clean patches to wipe its bore almost dry. A clean patch soaked with undiluted Ballistol applied down its bore. And as a wipe over the barrels bluing or exterior. Your done.

O/M

[Boerrancher]

If you guys are going to use soap, use laundry detergent. Look at the ingredients, and you will see surfactants (sp) listed near the top. Same stuff as in commercial BP cleaning solutions.

Surfactants are a fancy name for soap, and are used as a foaming agent in many commercial products. In one of my breaks from the service I worked as a chemical formulator and used a great deal of them in many household products that we made and packaged. Ric is correct about the laundry detergent. When you clean black powder residue, you either need a foaming agent or a slightly basic ph of around 8 or 9 to make things go quicker, as residue from the holy black contains sulfuric acid when exposed to moisture. This is why I use lye soap. It is slightly basic in ph and it foams up a bit...

Best wishes,

Joe

[newton]

Water, water, water... lol.

I do use a drop of soap to break the tension and add suds. I'll do that till I do not see any black crud coming out the nipple. Drain water, get new tub hot water, new patch and swab again.

The barrel is pretty warm at that point so I just run a dry patch down and let it sit for a bit. Oil afterwards of course.

I am going to have to try this Ballistol. I did get a sample of Eeoxx or something like that. Came with the MagSpark I got for the new barrel. It is highly spoken of, and all indications seem to point to it working great. It claims to be heavier than water and displace it like other products.

That was the other day. I am going to swab it tonight to see if anything developed. I shined a light in the snail last night and the bore sure was looking pretty though.

[1Shirt]

Boiling hot water till clear, patch follows until dry, couple of greased patches to keep from rusting, and one clean patch to finish.
1Shirt