Vintage Gun Cleaning?

[Bazoo]

I'm interested in vintage gun cleaning techniques and equipment. Lets say from the time of just after the civil war to world war 2. I know that covers a span and will include in it's later days what we consider modern stuff. Does an have some really old cleaning stuff they'd like to share pictures of? Or know of articles or books that have information on this subject?

I'm particularly interested in gun oil and solvents. What oil was used for the Winchester rifles? Did Winchester supply oil like they did wiping rods?

Was there anything similar that predated Hoppes 9 powder solvent?

What did folks do for cleaning rods? I suppose there would be old catalogs that listed cleaning supplies to dealers? So you could go into a hardware store/store/gun shop and buy cleaning stuff?

I appreciate any insight offered.

[pworley1]

Start with this. https://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/articles/EdsRedRecipe.htm

[gunther]

A friend, who publishes pretty regularly, Uses Hoppes and a boot lace pull through on his 45-100 C Sharps. It has stood him in good stead at the Quigley for a long time. He remarked once that a fellow long range shooter put him onto it with the remark that Hoppes was originally made to deal with black powder. The rest of his cleaning system is a boot lace pull through and patches. I didn't know that Hoppes had been around that long. The formula may have changed with time, but the results have remained the same for him.

[gunther]

Come to think of it, I've got two or three bottles of Winchester powder solvent, and the display box. Probably from the 1940-50 era, because it's in good shape. Used to" "collect" old hardware stores. So, yup, they were players in the gun cleaning market. Also flashlights, lawn sprinklers, pocket knives, and a pretty fair line of hardware. Seems like they favored items that required brass forming technology. Jointed wooden cleaning rods showed up in shotgun cleaning kits. A brush, mop, and the rod in a cotton bag with a drawstring closure. If you can find an old catalog from Stoegers, that would be a start.

[Winger Ed.]

Of the few old percussion guns I've seen, it doesn't look like they were ever cleaned at all.

[farmbif]

interesting to know what kinds of oils or solvents were available and used in civil war and before times. you can bet that individuals treated weapons not only a necessary tools but prized posessions
would you pull a cotton boll right off the plant and stuff it through your rifle with a good strong stick or carry a rag you could rip in pieces for patches?

[Somebody]

This is more flintlock era, but it was valid in the Civil War too. You might find some references to "sweet oil" which is just another term for olive oil. It is entirely suitable for black powder residues. Brick dust was commonly used to polish arms to keep them in the white, but not all bricks made suitable polishing powder.

[schutzen-jager]

boiling water for fouling - sperm oil for lubrication - mercury to dissolve leading -

[HWooldridge]

One of my great uncles shot BP target into the 1920's before switching to smokeless. They lived on the family farm and didn't have access to much - he once told me he used hot water and a little homemade soap for the initial cleaning then wiped the bore with mutton tallow (they had sheep on the place and already had the fat rendered). This was on his .38-55 target rifle, and I expect he would not have tolerated something that didn't work.

[perotter]

One of my great uncles shot BP target into the 1920's before switching to smokeless. They lived on the family farm and didn't have access to much - he once told me he used hot water and a little homemade soap for the initial cleaning then wiped the bore with mutton tallow (they had sheep on the place and already had the fat rendered). This was on his .38-55 target rifle, and I expect he would not have tolerated something that didn't work.

Likely this was the most common method. Maybe the mutton tallow might might have been substituted with other animal fats.

I do remember reading in a 1st hand accounts of the use of bear grease and buffalo tallow during by trappers and hunters. It was more mentioned in passing than as how to clean a gun.

[Rockingkj]

As far as written instructions on gun cleaning civil war to WW 2 I would guess Military manuals would be the best source of instructions. Mainly because of men handling guns for the 1st time of their lives and not having the benefit of growing up with fathers , grandfathers, Uncles providing guidance as to proper care and maintenance. For those folks that was common knowledge everyone knew and why would you ever need to write it down?
Companies like Marbles were making and selling cleaning rods since the late 1800’s. Somewhere I gave some screw together wood rods for shotgun cleaning. Winchester 1873’s had a compartment in the butt with cleaning rods.

[Bazoo]

I appreciate the replies all.

I was reading The Winchester Book the other day and supposedly Winchester supplied a wooden multi piece wiping rod with each rifle whether or not that rifle had a trapdoor in the butt plate. Many of the guns that didn't have trapdoors have the stocks drilled for the cleaning rod though he says. And you could order a trapdoor by special order on any of the models that didn't have them, if you wanted it.

Not much is said about the cleaning rods except that smaller bores had metal rods, or at least I haven't gotten to that part if they are covered in detail.

[john.k]

Every military muzzle loader had a rod and a jag of some sort......in the British instructions for cleaning,its stated the bore must be maintained perfectly dry......and one would assume checked for rust several times a day........Punishments for a rusty bore were pretty draconian,so its something the soldier would avoid.

[firefly1957]

I have some old gun cleaning stuff set aside no pictures not really sure what I am going to do with it . A wood shotgun cleaning rod is in the mix it has metal ends to sew together . I have seen old brass & steel rods as well Not sure when Aluminum came into use .

I read in a old book that fine black powder guns where cleaned with Turpentine I tried it and did not like it a bit .

Above many people gave you other things that were used Mutton tallow was liked because it did not need to be salted like some other animal fats . I found the mention of "SWEET OIL" interesting as I have used olive oil to lube muzzle loading patches for years . Another popular protector of metal and wood back in the day was beeswax. Beeswax also was used to water proof cloth and leather .

You will find climate and what was available to affect what people used the military would have standardized things more then civilians that would use what they had.