cleaning between shots

[ihuntbear]

Good Morning fellow casters..just bought a new pedersoli tryon...with the old gun I cleaned between shots with a spit patch but after many shots I seemed to wear out the barrel..long story short waiting for a call or email from Thompson center...but with this new one should I be using something better then a spit patch?? if so what are the recipes???Ive been searching all week end for one but have come up empty other then somebody said they used w/w antifreeze another said they use rv antifreeze.but either one said what the recipe was...any help would be appreciated...thanks

[snapshot]

Your spit was prob just not cleaning the groves well enough, any of the over the counter lubes work well, buit if you really want to try making your own try a solution of 50% mutton tallow are lard, 40% bees wax and 10% castor oil does real good use it all the time.

[ihuntbear]

Your spit was prob just not cleaning the groves well enough, any of the over the counter lubes work well, buit if you really want to try making your own try a solution of 50% mutton tallow are lard, 40% bees wax and 10% castor oil does real good use it all the time.

that sounds more like a lube then a cleaner..for a lube I use bear fat ,bees wax,and bagbalm for muzzle and spg for my sharps 45 70

[johnson1942]

ive seen a lot of guys mix car antifreeze about 1/3 and 2/3 water. usually one damp patch and two dry will do the trick between shots. about every 5th shot clean a little better. oh yes if you really want to make the antifreeze mixture even better add a little ballistol to it or machinest cutting oil to the mix. that is a very good mix.

[bob208]

it all depends on what your load is. I have shot matches for over 20 years. with the 50 and 54 I had to wipe the bore every 5 shots. most times it would be 1 cleaning patch wet with spit. with the .40 and .45 with 40 gr. 3f I could shoot all day. and I used spit patches. now if I went up to 45 gr. to reach out the 100 yd. target. I had to wipe the bore.

[waksupi]

One part water soluble oil, to 8-10 parts water.

[Maven]

One part water soluble oil, to 8-10 parts water.

Ric pretty much said it all. In fact, I had great results with Kleen-Draw WSO diluted 1 KD:10 H20 at a woods walk yesterday. I only damp patched the bore after the 6th and 12th shots (There were 18 targets + 1 fouler, with loads ranging from 50 gr. Diamondback FFg to 75 gr.) to see how well my Kleen-Draw solution worked, which was very well indeed. To wit, I could have shot the entire course without cleaning the bore.

Also, 1 Ballistol : 6 H20 works as well as Kleen-Draw as does commercial, e.g., Winchester Sutler's "Moose Milk." For use when the temps. are below freezing, you can add 1 part 70% or 90% rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol to the mixture.

[ihuntbear]

ive seen a lot of guys mix car antifreeze about 1/3 and 2/3 water. usually one damp patch and two dry will do the trick between shots. about every 5th shot clean a little better. oh yes if you really want to make the antifreeze mixture even better add a little ballistol to it or machinest cutting oil to the mix. that is a very good mix.
that cutting oil is that the stuff they use on a fluid cooled metal cutting band saw

[koehlerrk]

that cutting oil is that the stuff they use on a fluid cooled metal cutting band saw

Maybe, usually it refers to the cutting fluid used on a lathe or mill, but I'd imagine a metal cutting bandsaw would use something similar.

[starmac]

Wore out the barrel. Try drinking orange juice for breakfast instead of sulfuric acid. lol

Curious how many shots would you estimate went down the tube?

[MarkP]

Caution.......... in cold weather ice crystals can form with some recipes.

[swathdiver]

Well Ihuntbear, you are an excellent candidate for Dutch Schoultz's "The System". It'll be the best $20 you ever spend on black powder.

Now, one patch of anything isn't going to clean your barrel. Wiping between shots is done for consistency. You clean at the end of the day. We wipe to return the bore to its previous condition before the last shot was fired.

Dutch can be found over at the muzzleloading forum or you can get his email address and phone at blackpowderrifleaccuracy.com.

[bob208]

you can wear out a barrel fast if you use the wrong rod. the fiberglass impregnated rods are like running a file up and down the bore. if you don't push the rod straight and rub it on the muzzle you can bell a muzzle.


how many shots I don't know. but I have a .40 cal barrel that has had more then 3 number 10 cans of ball s shot through it and it is still going strong.

[fouronesix]

Good Morning fellow casters..just bought a new pedersoli tryon...with the old gun I cleaned between shots with a spit patch but after many shots I seemed to wear out the barrel..long story short waiting for a call or email from Thompson center...but with this new one should I be using something better then a spit patch?? if so what are the recipes???Ive been searching all week end for one but have come up empty other then somebody said they used w/w antifreeze another said they use rv antifreeze.but either one said what the recipe was...any help would be appreciated...thanks

I assume when you say "spit patch" it means simply spitting on a patch and using that.

I find it difficult to believe you can wear out a bore by shooting BP in a muzzleloader and cleaning/swabbing between shots with whatever solution- unless it's sulfuric acid, as has been posted :) The only thing that would do that, as has also been posted, would be using a bad rod and wearing out the lands by abrasion- usually near the muzzle. Or, not cleaning the bore correctly or in a timely manner after shooting.

Endless formulae for solutions for swabbing between shots. I use moose milk. Some use alcohol based solutions. Some use spit. Some use water. Some use soapy water. Some use Murphys, peroxide and water/alcohol. Some use auto window washer. Some use Windex. Etc. and so on ad nauseam.

[dikman]

I agree, swabbing between shots shouldn't "wear out" a barrel. It has to be something else causing that. I swab between shots, using what Waksupi said.

As has been mentioned, join the Muzzleloading forum and you'll find so many methods of cleaning between shots that you'll probably end up a trifle confused! Same applies to patch lubes!!

[Sharpsman]

From shooting BPCR for 20 some odd years I can tell you now that unless you wipe after each shot...you won't get the best accuracy that your rifle will deliver! I use a mixture of 1-7 'cutting oil' aka oil to water...just plain ole water and the cutting oil is nothing but an oil like a machinist uses when he's cutting metal on a lathe! I run one wet patch through the bore using a plastic brush on a rod and it drops off when out the muzzle. This method isn't possible with a ML but it can be down and back and then taken off the brush! I then run two dry patches...both up to the muzzle and back and I have gotten excellent accuracy out of my Shiloh Sharps rifles doing this! Some folks use a blow-tube but I have found that the wet wipe plus dry delivers the best accuracy!:-o:idea:

[True.grit]

I use Murphy's soap and 90% rubbing alcohol mixed 50/50. Patch lube as well as cleanning between a string of shots. It is cheap and readily available. I only clean when I'm done with my string of shots. No less than 10 shots between cleanning. I only shoot patch round ball and it give me more shots down range with out stopping to clean. I only use real black powder.
By pushing a patch round ball down the barrel it cleans on the way down. I have not found that my accuracy is affected. Just my 2 cents for what its wearth. :)

[mooman76]

I use good old fashion spit. I always have plenty and never forget to bring it.

[54bore]

Windex, the one with ammonia in it, I watched a video of Idaho Ron shooting 300 yards and swabbing between shots with windex, I tried it and it works great