Met a guy at the range today

[WildmanJack]

Met a guy at the range today. He had a nice Tc muzzle loader he was cleaning and cleaning. After about a half hour, I asked him just how clean he wanted that gun. He told me that last year he loaned the gun to his son, who then shot it and put it away without cleaning it. He cleaned for another half hour and left without ever firing a shot...
Sure hope he makes his kid clean that thing till it shines..
Jack

[TCLouis]

Nothing that a new TC or GM barrel won't fix.

Unfortunately that is likely the minimum required!

[JeffinNZ]

He'll need new woodwork also...........after he breaks the stock over his sons head.

[chris112]

Make brat come up with the money for a new rifle, Brand spanking new. That one becomes dad's. Then hand him the one he messed up and say "This is now YOURS, it needs cleaning. Don't plan on shooting it until it passes my inspection."
Have him start cleaning on a Saturday morning, early. Let it maybe pass inspection 16 hours later. Sometimes the only way to teach someone is to make them have to clean up the mess they caused. They seldom forget the lesson.:bigsmyl2:

[Pepe Ray]

Sense he raised the "kid", I doubt that any of these ideas will transpire.
Pepe Ray

[mooman76]

Nice idea but if that was going to happen, he wouldn't have been out at the range cleaning it himself!

[jack19512]

Sense he raised the "kid", I doubt that any of these ideas will transpire.
Pepe Ray






Sometimes you can try and try but it just doesn't take hold. :mrgreen:

[Sven]

If you know who the guy was, he might enjoy reading this article on fire lapping muzzleloaders from Beartooth Bullets:

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/48

I am seriously concidering doing this next summer to my Lyman Great Plains .54 .

[jonk]

My dad built a muzzleloader using an original 1803 Harper's Ferry barrel. Someone had bored it out to .63 cal smoothbore. Probably as a trade musket for the indians, we're told.

Now, he never intends to shoot it much, but wanted to shoot it at least to say he'd done it, ok? Using light loads. Well when he got it, while the outside was in very nice shape, the inside was rather rusty. He cleaned that thing for hours and couldn't get the rust out.

He shot it, rust and all, about half a dozen rounds, then cleaned.

Something in shooting it blew the rust out. It now sparkles. And, I might add, using a .62 roundball and double patch, it will shoot about 3" at 50 yards. Pretty good for a smoothbore and a 205 year old barrel.

Point is, I think shooting it would have helped his cleaning efforts a lot.

[jschance]

I inherited a muzzle loader from a deceased uncle this summer. He had passed three years ago. It was the 4th of July and his wife approached me at the family picnic about it. Seems that he has shot it to sight it in for hunting season, hunted and during hunting season got sick enough (he was battling cancer) that he couldn't go out again. She was pretty sure that he had never cleaned it before he passsed.

I took it home that night and after the kids were in bed got to checking it out. Sure enough, the bore was a nice red rust color, nipple rusted over, breechplug pretty nasty looking. On a hunch, I put the ramrod down the bore, marked it then checked it against the side of the barrel. Sure enough, it was not only dirty, but still loaded.

I tried to pull the ball to no avail, so I ended up making a breechplug tool out of a 7/16" socket, taking the breechplug out, and driving the ball and charge out the back side of the gun. I scrubbed the bore out, soaking it in solvent several different times, and finally have it in 'shooting shape'. I've shot it a bit using a sabot and .44 cal bullet, and so far it seems to shoot "OK". I'm hoping to get a 50 caliber mold and cast up some lead bullets to use in the near future.