BPCR In Lever Guns

[Guy La Pourque]

Well boys, I did it, I loaded up 20 rounds of 45-75 with the manly GOEX FFg propellant, and I fully intend to stink out the range both figuratively and literally in the next little bit.

My question is - how far down do you have to strip a lever gun to clean it when it has been shooting black powder? My first batch of bullets was lubed with Bore Butter - and this stuff is sticky and gross and I worry about it gumming up the works of my Uberti 1876. How hard is it to clean these guns? And what about the dies? They must get gummed up at some point too, right? Do any of you have any tricks to impart about cleaning those?

I can't wait to get this big gun out and shoot it. Not looking forward to the clean up though...;)

[fouronesix]

No big deal cleaning the gun. Turn it upside down in a cleaning cradle or gun vise. Use a muzzle guard on the cleaning rod. Clean from the muzzle using a jag with patches. The patches will fall out of the action and not down into it. I start with moose milk on patches. Usually only takes 2-3. Then a couple of dry patches, then a patch with good oil. I use CLP or MPro7. Since it is a bottle neck cartridge, you might want to take a little extra care getting the chamber clean. The smoked-on fouling that gets on the exterior of the gun will come right off with a moose milk rag, then dry rag then followed up with an oil rag.

You need to decap the cases and wash in soapy water. I use a bottle brush that fits into the case and a Qtip or similar to clean the primer pockets. Rinse and dry.

[Nobade]

Yep, what he said - as long as the cases are sealing the chamber properly there is almost no fouling in the action. I will strip my '92 down every few years to clean the innards, but otherwise just clean the bore and make sure the action is wet inside with Ballistol before I put it up. If there is any fouling present, the oil keeps it wet and it doesn't hurt anything. Your '76 is even easier to clean since you can remove the sideplates if you want to.

-Nobade

[ndnchf]

Good advice given above. One thing I do at the range is use a bore snake. Get it wet, wring it out well. Feed it in from the breach and pull it out through the muzzle. It will pull all the fouling out the muzzle with 1 or 2 pulls, leaving the bore sparkling clean with no mess in the innards.