Barrel Seasoning

[GregLaROCHE]

I admit I am relatively new to muzzle loading, but I have never heard about barrel seasoning. What’s the real story on it? Can you really let a BP gun go for a week without cleaning it?

https://youtu.be/xTTOkUjmijs

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello Greg,

I use TC Bore Butter.
As for leaving your BP Gun without cleaning, my answer is NO!
I haven't used Real Black Powder for years.
Nobody around home carries it, so we've been using Triple Seven.
Most of my rifles are hooked breech, so I tear down for cleaning.
After a shooting session, I still use Dreft Baby Soap for cleaning, in Hot Water.
After scrubbing, I flush with clear hot water & fresh patch,
then I place a small funnel in the muzzle and run fresh hot water through it.
I like the barrel hot then run a single dry patch through and place the barrel muzzle down and allow it to dry.
After it's been sitting for half an hour I run a couple patches of Bore butter through it.
I even take the used patch and smear a coat over the external parts.
A lot of people say to use cool water, but when you heat up the barrel it evaporates faster.

That's how I do it, AntiqueSledMan.

[indian joe]

I admit I am relatively new to muzzle loading, but I have never heard about barrel seasoning. What’s the real story on it? Can you really let a BP gun go for a week without cleaning it?

https://youtu.be/xTTOkUjmijs

He says in the video dont leave your guns (like I do) clean them straight after you shoot - the best bit of advice in the video.

I have a different take on seasoning.
Some barrels you can and some not - if you get it - seasoning comes from cleaning with cold water - (not above room temperature) - and leave the harsh detergents out of it - look at the science - blackpowder cleaning is mainly about getting enough water through the barrel to neutralise the salts left in the residue - these set up for rusting your barrel by taking moisture out of the air and that activates the corrosion
a cold water clean (and dry after) will neutralise the corrosive residue, flush out most of the soot, and leave a coating of oils and fats embedded in the pores of the metal as a semi protective coating - this helps the gun shoot better, load easier, but while it may slow the process a little it does not stop it rusting .

Clean your guns !!!! its not that big of a deal - you dont need to buy anything fancy bottle cleaners to do it - dont need to use hot water, thats just another un necessary complication that some fellers like to do - its no harm but no gain - scour the protective coating out with boiling hot water, flash rust the barrel while you getting the dry patch on the jag, then replace the protective coating with stuff you bought in a bottle

- so I can "get away with" not cleaning my guns for maybe ten days because I live in a low humidity environment - it takes some time for the powder residue in a barrel here to soak up enough moisture from the air to initiate rust - also takes a little time to forget that the gun you put back in the rack went back dirty not clean - life happens - you come back three or six months later and a perfectly good barrel is ruined

[sharps4590]

I clean mine exactly as Antique describes except for the Deft soap. I use what's under the sink in our second, downstairs kitchen...usually Dawn. Everything else is the same.

Joe brings up a good point about location. Here that could include the time of year as well. Ordinarily 10 days here without cleaning would leave a barrel at least pitted. But the last month humidity has been pretty low. Next week it goes up. Winter is usually dry, summer sucks for humidity.

[RU shooter]

If I let my barrel go 10 days without cleaning it would be rather rusty ! I just use regular old room temp tap water . Plug the flash hole fill it up let it sit while I clean the lock , dump it out patch it a few times with sloppy wet patches . A few patches with wd40 dry it and then oil patch I'm done i don't scrub it till the patches come out Snow White either but never had rust .

[toot]

very good thanks for showing it.

[charlie b]

'Seasoning' was advertising hype.

After cleaning the bore put some type of rust preventive in there, especially the chamber area. You can use your bullet lube or some other chemical, but, it needs something in there to protect the steel from moisture.

[pietro]

I admit I am relatively new to muzzle loading, but I have never heard about barrel seasoning.

What’s the real story on I t?

Can you really let a BP gun go for a week without cleaning it ?




Even a BP gun with a seasoned barrel will need some attention after a day's shooting.

The idea for seasoning came (IIRC) about when T/C introduced Ox-Yoke Bore Butter and stated the barrel would be good for 1,000 shots.

Their instructions were to first meticulously clean the bore, then heat it until the metal was very warm to the touch - then immediately heavily lube the bore with the BB.

(I also wipe down all the exterior metal surfaces with BB, until the next time I take the gun shooting)

The gun is then set aside to "season" the bore.

I have a gun I seasoned as above in 1985, still use it hunting today - and there's zero rust anywhere in/on the gun (in fact, it's still pristine).


https://i.imgur.com/vebulA7l.jpg



(I also have newer guns that I treated likewise)

The only "cleaning" I've done after a day's shooting is to flood the bore and ignition channel with T/C #10 Bore Cleaner ( aka: moosemilk), dry the bore with multiple passes with new/clean patches until the patches emerge with only a slight tint - then run a patch loaded with BB downbore (I clean remove & clean the nipple separately)

[waksupi]

You can not season a modern steel barrel. Only the old iron barrels would season. Just clean your gun after shooting, especially if using the fake powder. It can ruin a barrel in short order.

[arcticap]

I admit I am relatively new to muzzle loading, but I have never heard about barrel seasoning. What’s the real story on it? Can you really let a BP gun go for a week without cleaning it?


The newest ML gun barrel finish is a space age nitride coating inside the bore and on the exterior.
The nitride process creates a thin layer of super hardened steel that helps to prevent rust by forming a barrier that rust can't penetrate.
There's really nothing else quite like it.
However it does't mean that a person shouldn't clean their gun because it would still accumulate fouling residue.

Here's a 1:00 video about the CVA nitride coating.

https://youtu.be/xTTOkUjmijs

The nitride coating is not limited to inline guns.
Although the only traditional gun that I know of that has it is the Traditions PA Pellet Ultralite flintlock rifle. --->>> https://www.traditionsfirearms.com/category/PA-Pellet-Ultralight
However a barrel can be sent out to have the coating applied.
And Uberti also made a Remington C&B revolver that was totally nitride coated.
It was sold by Taylor's and was called the Black Rock. --->>> https://taylorsfirearms.com/hand-guns/blackpowder-revolvers/1858-remington-black-rock.html

A nitride coated barrel is the closest there is to barrel seasoning.
Factory nitride coated barrels probably cost an extra $75 to $100 more than one without the coating.
The nitride coating is similar to the Tenifer finish that is found on Glock pistols.
There may be slight technical differences with some nitride processes but the resulting finish is very similar.

General info. can be found here. --->>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitriding

[OverMax]

My way of doing is all.
Its all about oil saturation. Detergent eliminates a oils ability to saturate or cling too..
My preference for a barrel cleaner is: Dawn Detergent Dish Soap. Scrub my wet soapy barrels with a bronze bristle brush. Pump my barrels with hot hot water afterwards. Water that hasn't evaporated dry. With a fresh cleaning patch its plunged up & down the bore to near being too taught to pull out. Then liberally apply to a fresh cleaning patch a good amount of OX/Yoke Wonder Lube and plunge one last time.. Wipe dry its nipple threads than lightly coat its nipple threading with Never Seize. After a light application of Barricade to the barrels exterior. I than stand the barrel on its Tang in a corner overnight without its nipple. Following day: completely assemble rifle and store rifle for a (long or short) term in a horizontal position. Done!

[pietro]

You can not season a modern steel barrel.


That may be...…….. It also may be that the "seasoning" is what prevented any rust in my frontstuffer for the last 35 years.


.

[Edward]

You can not season a modern steel barrel. Only the old iron barrels would season. Just clean your gun after shooting, especially if using the fake powder. It can ruin a barrel in short order.

That is a fact for sure ,if you need (do the research as in this computer age )it's easy to bury the old wives tale and get educated! Ed

[megasupermagnum]

I've got three things to add. First, seasoning a muzzleloader barrel is a joke. I'm sure there are those out there who honestly believe it, as this guy in the video does. It isn't true.

The second thing is how long you can go without cleaning. Ideally you shoot and clean soon. It seems it depends on the weather as well. What type of powder you are using is also a factor. A guy in Louisiana shooting Pyrodex would not be smart to let a dirty gun sit around for more a few hours without a cleaning. On the other hand, I don't doubt someone in Montana could let a gun fired with Blackhorn 209 sit a week or two. Most people are somewhere in between. I've hunted with fouled barrels before, as that is the only way I could guarantee accuracy. 2-3 days should not be harmful with real blackpowder. I would foul the barrel, swab it, and load it. I've never seen harm after a weekend of being loaded this way. I've always subscribed the the order of "game then gear then yourself" as an order of how to do things when hunting. Lots of times it takes into the night, and then into the next day to get the meat ready to transport home. I know some would say, just spend the 10 minutes to clean your rifle before bed. It sounds good now, but after hunting all day, hauling an animal out, and cutting it up, it's nearing midnight, the only thing you want to do is go to bed. An overnight sit is no problem unless it was raining, and the rifle got wet. If you have a long drive home, it would be a good idea to clean the next morning, or at least run a wet patch through it. In short, a semi-clean, spit patched and loaded rifle should be ok for a long weekend. A fully fouled rifle should be ok overnight. Sometimes you could go longer, but why take the chance.

The third thing is the idea that cold water doesn't clean black powder. That is false. I used to do as many did, warm or hot water with dish soap. I've even tried other cleaners. Then I started to wonder why, so I tested them. I took away the Dawn dishsoap. Straight hot water did every bit as good of a job. It didn't slow me down, and it certainly didn't get less fouling out. Then I took away the heat. Not only did it do every bit as good of a job, it did even better, and does not flash rust. People tend to think of cleaning modern rifles, with strong chemicals. The real issue is modern smokeless doesn't really foul a barrel. When we clean a modern barrel, we aren't cleaning the powder so much as we are the lead or copper, plastic, etc. fouling. Powder fouling is not hard to remove. It isn't hard to remove smokeless powder residue, and it is not hard to remove black powder residue. The water both dissolves/softens the caked on stuff, as well as dissolves the salts. I have guns I cleaned with nothing but cold well water, and have not shot in a year. There is not a spec of rust on them.

[indian joe]

I've got three things to add. First, seasoning a muzzleloader barrel is a joke. I'm sure there are those out there who honestly believe it, as this guy in the video does. It isn't true.

The second thing is how long you can go without cleaning. Ideally you shoot and clean soon. It seems it depends on the weather as well. What type of powder you are using is also a factor. A guy in Louisiana shooting Pyrodex would not be smart to let a dirty gun sit around for more a few hours without a cleaning. On the other hand, I don't doubt someone in Montana could let a gun fired with Blackhorn 209 sit a week or two. Most people are somewhere in between. I've hunted with fouled barrels before, as that is the only way I could guarantee accuracy. 2-3 days should not be harmful with real blackpowder. I would foul the barrel, swab it, and load it. I've never seen harm after a weekend of being loaded this way. I've always subscribed the the order of "game then gear then yourself" as an order of how to do things when hunting. Lots of times it takes into the night, and then into the next day to get the meat ready to transport home. I know some would say, just spend the 10 minutes to clean your rifle before bed. It sounds good now, but after hunting all day, hauling an animal out, and cutting it up, it's nearing midnight, the only thing you want to do is go to bed. An overnight sit is no problem unless it was raining, and the rifle got wet. If you have a long drive home, it would be a good idea to clean the next morning, or at least run a wet patch through it. In short, a semi-clean, spit patched and loaded rifle should be ok for a long weekend. A fully fouled rifle should be ok overnight. Sometimes you could go longer, but why take the chance.

The third thing is the idea that cold water doesn't clean black powder. That is false. I used to do as many did, warm or hot water with dish soap. I've even tried other cleaners. Then I started to wonder why, so I tested them. I took away the Dawn dishsoap. Straight hot water did every bit as good of a job. It didn't slow me down, and it certainly didn't get less fouling out. Then I took away the heat. Not only did it do every bit as good of a job, it did even better, and does not flash rust. People tend to think of cleaning modern rifles, with strong chemicals. The real issue is modern smokeless doesn't really foul a barrel. When we clean a modern barrel, we aren't cleaning the powder so much as we are the lead or copper, plastic, etc. fouling. Powder fouling is not hard to remove. It isn't hard to remove smokeless powder residue, and it is not hard to remove black powder residue. The water both dissolves/softens the caked on stuff, as well as dissolves the salts. I have guns I cleaned with nothing but cold well water, and have not shot in a year. There is not a spec of rust on them.

thank you for that last paragraph !!!!!!

[Good Cheer]

Years ago, pre-thousand-mile-move to the north, I had made up a long tube with a garden hose fitting on it.
I'd put it down the barrel to the breech and crank her up. Did really well flushing out the ignition path. Think I'll fab up a replacement, another project to busy myself with during the long dark nights on the corn tundra.

[sghart3578]

Cold water to clean followed by Hoppe's Blackpowder Lube for storage. Done in 5 minutes.


Steve in N CA

[Maven]

Yes to posts 14 -17! Btw, I once owned a book that described the cleaning procedure for U.S. Army Springfield rifles and muskets during the Civil War: Just plain tepid water was recommended, followed by some kind of oily swab (mutton tallow?) once the bore was dry.

[KCSO]

First you char the inside of the barrel and then you coay iy with good Kentucky Bourbon and let it sit for a year... Sorry wrong barrel see Waksupi above>

[waksupi]

I found hot water actually sets the fouling harder, making it take longer to clean.

[Geezer in NH]

Steel does NOT season. Good Luck many here will lead away from that but the fact remains.

[rfd]

aside from the fallacy of "seasoning" steel, lotsa different takes on cleaning a traditional muzzleloader.

my take is simple - get at that BP residue ASAP no matter what.

this means as soon as the last shot is taken for the session/hunt/whatever, get something down the tube to keep the residue soft. i use straight ballistol or wd40 or patch lube on a few patches to clear out the larger amount of fouling, then wet the last patch well and leave it and the rod down the bbl.

back at the ranch, begin the real cleaning of tube and lock ASAP. i use tepid plain water and patches. when the patches come out reasonably clean, run down a dry patch or two, then a sloppy wet oily patch and again leave the patch and rod down the tube. locks are taken off and left soaking in water while the tube is getting flushed out, then it's scrubbed with a stiff nylon brush, rinsed, patted dry with paper towels, spritzed with ballistol or wd40, excess patted off, stuck back on the gun and done. my trad ML bbls and breech plugs are clean and shiny like new. if a gun isn't used within a week or two, the rod gets pulled, patch and bore examined, new oily patch sent down to kiss the breech plug face.

find whatever cleaning process that works best for you and yer guns, but the bottom line is always gonna be attacking the BP residue ASAP.

[SeaMonkey]

A number of Vegetable and Animal Fats have been used for Black Powder shooting lubricants,
and now even some Synthetics have been tried.

Has Castor Oil ever been used by any in Black Powder shooting?

It has some interesting properties including high film strength and great friction reduction.

[Maven]

SeaMonkey, Stumpy's Moose Snot, a patch lube, uses it in the original recipe. However, the lube works just as well with olive, peanut, or vegetable oil.

[rfd]

personally, i see no reason to complicate cleaning all manner of trad ML or cartridge guns that are fed real black powder. all it takes is discipline, plain tap water, and literally any kinda "gun oil" for the final lube. to me, anything else is not only unnecessary, but a waste of time and perhaps money spent on marketing stuff that's not needed.

as to patch lubes, natural tallows and oils (love me that bear oil, edward!), and "waxes" are all that's needed - i avoid all the commercial chemical crap that can do more harm than good.

[indian joe]

A number of Vegetable and Animal Fats have been used for Black Powder shooting lubricants,
and now even some Synthetics have been tried.

Has Castor Oil ever been used by any in Black Powder shooting?

It has some interesting properties including high film strength and great friction reduction.

I'm thinking price might be the biggest deterrent to using castor oil ? - on the range anyhow - moose milk (cutting oil and water) is about as good as it gets for competition PB shooting and is cheap.

For cleaning -- the corrosive elements of BP fouling are SOLUBLE salts leftover from the combustion process - best and most easily neutralised and removed with Di-Hydrogen Oxide - H2O - WATER !! -- dry the barrel with a couple or three flannellette patches - run down an oily patch - I use WD40 for that despite being told by mobs of people that it is a waste of time, will leave a residue in the barrel, and wont work - 30years so far and we doin ok - I use the stuff around the farm and there is always some in easy reach - maybe better stuff - this works at my place. I dont intend any of my guns to be in longterm storage - shoot everything on the rack at least a couple times a year.

I have a memory like a sieve and am easily distracted so my BP guns ALWAYS get cleaned before they go back in the rack. meant to do it is a bad plan for me !!!!!

[megasupermagnum]

I don't want to sound like I'm walking back on my previous post, but I'd like to point out that you can most certainly season steel, at least some steels. I cook every day in my cast iron pan, but my outdoor plate is a seasoned steel bowl/plate. I've had it for a while, but I believe it is this one. https://www.bensbackwoods.com/paderno-carbon-skillet-baking-pan-9/

It is steel, and it builds up a seasoning just like cast iron. The thing is though, the conditions required to season a pan are not at all what happen in muzzle loading. If one were to honestly season a barrel, you would need to clean it bare, then give it a thin coat of oil. Bake in an oven at 400ish degrees for an hour, and let slowly cool. Repeat 4-5 times any you would have a half decent seasoning... until you shoot it. Just loading and shooting would wear the seasoning of the bore right out.

So no, you are not seasoning a barrel by wiping some oil on it now and then. Even if you did, the act of shooting it would remove it. Consider that bluing, a much stronger finish than a seasoning, cannot remain in a barrel due to shooting.

[Lead pot]

Personally I don't want oil in a barrel or water based cutting oils when I start cleaning it. Once you get oil on the barrel it tends to trap the water under it and you have to make darned sure when the bore is clean that you get it dry before oiling it to hang it on the wall.
I shoot cap and flint shooters. The cap shooter I will run a couple wet patches down the bore to get most of the fouling out. Then I pull the nipple and I made a small barb with threads and screw it in place of the nipple and I have a surgical tube attached to the barb and I stick it in a gallon bucket filled with water and the butt stock on the ground the tube on the barb in the water jug. I put a shotgun cotton swab on a Delrin rod and dip the swab in water and push it down the bore to the breach plug. Then I slowly pull the rod up and the suction it creates will pull the water in the bore with it and then just up and down in the bore. This will even clean one of those chambered plugs. That is how I do my rifles with the wood pinned to the barrel that I cant put in a water bucket.
The flint shooter I do the same way but I use one of those clamped on adapters over the flash hole that Track of the Wolf sells.
When the bore is clean and the patch comes out as white as it went in I run several dry patches to make sure the bore is dry then I shoot some WD-40 down and a few dry patches again to remove the WD -45 then I oil the bore. The WD displaces water very well and cleans out well.
One cant be lazy cleaning the rifle. I can shine a light down the barrel and the face of the breach plug still reflects a shine. :)

[tomme boy]

Hot water will actually speed up the forming of rust It forms what some call fash rust. Don't believe me? Clean your barrel with boiling water and let it sit without anything else done to it for 4 hours. Then take a oiled patch and swab it and wipe down the barrel. Rust will be all over the patch.

And as Waksupi said, modern steel can not be done. Think of the old barrels like a cast iron pan and how you seal up the porous metal with carbon to not let anything stick. Modern steel is not porous like cast is.

[waksupi]

A number of Vegetable and Animal Fats have been used for Black Powder shooting lubricants,
and now even some Synthetics have been tried.

Has Castor Oil ever been used by any in Black Powder shooting?

It has some interesting properties including high film strength and great friction reduction.

I tried castor oil years ago when I did a full summer of testing various concoctions. The castor oil would be okay to hunt with most likely, but for range shooting, it will foul heavily in a short number of shots.

[Lead pot]

You might want to try straight Vaseline for patchiest lube. I can soot a whole 30 shot over the log shoot with out having to swab the bore to seat the ball.

[dogrunner]

Well, guess I'm gonna be a real hard head on the 'seasoning' issue..........cleaning too!

Built a buncha ML's........at least one from scratch. All turned out well and accurate too. I drank the 'seasoning' cool aid crap and found that it failed the course relative to reasonable term storage less the rust bugaboo.............wound up with a significant beginning pit in the bore of my .54 Hawken copy....wound up lapping it and restoring most of the shine back, I still get tight jaws when I think of it tho.....I'd been using only the hot water pump out with good success.............heat drying the bbl and then using a good light oil to finish....never a problem.....till the seasoning issue was tried....nevernomoreagain. I soap (soft hand soap does well pumped directly into the muzzle)...place the breach into a plastic coffee can and pump it till it runs clear............I then flush with water so hot I can't hold the bbl bare handed, it heat dries and is immediately followed with that light oil.

I have NEVER had a issue with corrosion using this approach.........I cannot fathom why some claim that hot water somehow screws up the cleaning. But I know for sure and certain that so called "seasoning" will ultimately cost you a barrel...

Be your own judge, try both methods and then make up your own mind. I damn sure did!

[waksupi]

Well, guess I'm gonna be a real hard head on the 'seasoning' issue..........cleaning too!

Built a buncha ML's........at least one from scratch. All turned out well and accurate too. I drank the 'seasoning' cool aid crap and found that it failed the course relative to reasonable term storage less the rust bugaboo.............wound up with a significant beginning pit in the bore of my .54 Hawken copy....wound up lapping it and restoring most of the shine back, I still get tight jaws when I think of it tho.....I'd been using only the hot water pump out with good success.............heat drying the bbl and then using a good light oil to finish....never a problem.....till the seasoning issue was tried....nevernomoreagain. I soap (soft hand soap does well pumped directly into the muzzle)...place the breach into a plastic coffee can and pump it till it runs clear............I then flush with water so hot I can't hold the bbl bare handed, it heat dries and is immediately followed with that light oil.

I have NEVER had a issue with corrosion using this approach.........I cannot fathom why some claim that hot water somehow screws up the cleaning. But I know for sure and certain that so called "seasoning" will ultimately cost you a barrel...

Be your own judge, try both methods and then make up your own mind. I damn sure did!

My point on hot water was it seems to set the fouling harder, than if you use lukewarm water.

[Castaway]

Two issues going on here. Black powder fouling forms polar compounds, mostly salts. Water is a polar solvent, oil isn’t. Water dissolves salts, it doesn’t neutralize salts. Oil covers up the salts but doesn’t remove them. They must be removed. Hot water dissolves salts better than cold water, but cold water works with a little more effort and water. On the other hand, heat, in most cases speeds chemical reactions, in this case, flash rusting. Do what works for you, (here we go) but I trust the science. The obvious still applies, steel doesn’t season, and oil in a dry barrel stops the rust. The trick is cleaning first

[indian joe]

Two issues going on here. Black powder fouling forms polar compounds, mostly salts. Water is a polar solvent, oil isn’t. Water dissolves salts, it doesn’t neutralize salts. Oil covers up the salts but doesn’t remove them. They must be removed. Hot water dissolves salts better than cold water, but cold water works with a little more effort and water. On the other hand, heat, in most cases speeds chemical reactions, in this case, flash rusting. Do what works for you, (here we go) but I trust the science. The obvious still applies, steel doesn’t season, and oil in a dry barrel stops the rust. The trick is cleaning first

ok ----got me on a technicality (I was one of the neutralisers) neutralise as in render inneffective ------so water dissolves and flushes out salts we end up at the same place despite the technicality difference ....... "Hot water dissolves salts better than cold" = another technicality with many ifs and buts attached. Cold water will do the job quite well.

The overall message is, before you return it to the rack, clean your Blackpowder gun with plenty of water, dry the barrel, oil it, put it away ...........the idea you can somehow season a barrel so it wont rust if left uncleaned is baloney in anything other than the short term (length of said short term determined by atmospheric conditions around the dirty gun at the time) and if you push this barrow far enough you will end up with a rusted, wrecked, pitted barrel. Not a matter of if just when (how long it will take to happen)

[rfd]

... The overall message is, before you return it to the rack, clean your Blackpowder gun with plenty of water, dry the barrel, oil it, put it away ....

Yes, all that, but started as soon as the last shot of the day is taken by at the very least keeping that crud soft 'n' wet before the real gun cleaning takes place. I've seen folks at the range or woods take that last shot and immediately case the gun, then wonder why cleanup is so hard after the hour's drive home - or get lazy and do a not-so-good cleaning that leads to worse issues as time goes by. Do diligence with bp guns is important.

[megasupermagnum]

Yes, all that, but started as soon as the last shot of the day is taken by at the very least keeping that crud soft 'n' wet before the real gun cleaning takes place. I've seen folks at the range or woods take that last shot and immediately case the gun, then wonder why cleanup is so hard after the hour's drive home - or get lazy and do a not-so-good cleaning that leads to worse issues as time goes by. Do diligence with bp guns is important.

I case my gun immediately afterwards. Sometimes it sits overnight like that. I don't find it to be difficult. All I do is fill the barrel, and let is soak for a couple minutes, and it is as easy as if I did it 30 seconds after the last shot.

[mack1]

SeaMonkey, Stumpy's Moose Snot, a patch lube, uses it in the original recipe. However, the lube works just as well with olive, peanut, or vegetable oil.

I like the castor myself it stays put very well but I don't think it shoots any better.

[Edward]

Yes, all that, but started as soon as the last shot of the day is taken by at the very least keeping that crud soft 'n' wet before the real gun cleaning takes place. I've seen folks at the range or woods take that last shot and immediately case the gun, then wonder why cleanup is so hard after the hour's drive home - or get lazy and do a not-so-good cleaning that leads to worse issues as time goes by. Do diligence with bp guns is important.

What Rob said is the safe/correct way !!!! What you use for propellent is (CORROSIVE) and the longer it sets after shooting the likelihood of damage is increased and for no reason . And if you forget ,you have a nice wall hanger ./Ed

[indian joe]

I case my gun immediately afterwards. Sometimes it sits overnight like that. I don't find it to be difficult. All I do is fill the barrel, and let is soak for a couple minutes, and it is as easy as if I did it 30 seconds after the last shot.

overnight works ok most times - but I wont use a case - only have the ordinary soft vinyl gun cases - and they WILL rust a gun overnight - bad news those things - I have a couple of suede leather bags for my good guns ........................

[Lead pot]

I clean at the range after the last shot fired. When I get home I clean it again till the patch comes out as white as it went in and leave it in the cleaning rack over night and run a tight patch through again the next morning and recoil and put it away if I don't go out to shoot again.
I always have and always will do this.

[rfd]

I clean at the range after the last shot fired. When I get home I clean it again till the patch comes out as white as it went in and leave it in the cleaning rack over night and run a tight patch through again the next morning and re-oil and put it away if I don't go out to shoot again.
I always have and always will do this.

A most diligent and righteous process, sir. It becomes second nature and it insures firearm longevity ... and peace of mind.

[godzilla]

I have used the bore butter for years with good luck. I think a rendered fat would work just as well or better. I have left my barrel for a good while fouled with no ill effects(Forgot to clean it!!). I just clean it in a bucket of water using a patch as a plunger cleans out in seconds. Apply some more butter and shes clean for another year.

[Nit Wit]

Seasoning! That was one of the best "snake Oil" gimmicks to sell bore butter. If the barrels were cast iron you could season them.
I used to get a lot of rust when I let rifles sit in the pile. Stopped using it! Buy some ballistol!
Nit Wit

[cas]

When I started shooting muzzle loaders 35 or so years ago I used what was available, Pyrodex and CVA grease as lube. Possibly the worst two things in the world! :D
So when bore butter came out it was like a godsend. I still use it as a patch/bullet lube. That and Rooster Labs patch lube. (if they still make it, I have no idea)

I only use real BP now, so much better than everything else IMO. I clean my muzzle loaders and BPCR with Windex with vinegar. So much less mess and fuss than the old ways I did things. Lube with ballistol, lock, stock and barrel.

(If I'm putting something away long term I may coat the bore with bore butter or frog lube, kinda the same thing)