Cleaning, how much & is it ever truly clean?

[HDS]

I shot my '73 lever with black powder on friday and I cleaned it afterwards with liberal application of a ballistol and water mix, then I finished up with straight ballistol. I looked at the bore and it was entierly clean looking and shiny. I took another look today and the bore looked shiny still, but I decided to run some patches through the bore and they looked like this:


The bottom two rows where the first ones and they where all dry patches, I just pulled them through until it looked mostly white. Then I put more ballistol on and pulled more through (upper row) and they came out dirty again, I kept pulling ballistol soaked patches until it looked clean and then I pulled one dry patch through.

I'm wondering, am I doing something wrong with my cleaning procedure, is this rust I am getting in my bore or just general crud that doesn't want to let go? The color makes it hard to tell what it is. The bore never looked dirty at any stage in the procedure. I'm considering buying some Eezox which I hear is a great rust preventative and finishing up all my bore cleaning with a patch of that.

[Driver man]

You can clean forever and the bore will always come out dirty again . I give up and give it dose of crc556 till next time.

[Hickory]

The patches look great to me.
If you clean it again the next day
you'll still get dirty patches.
Don't wear out your gun cleaning it.

[concho]

Use Hodgton T7 3F cleans up great for my guns !

[HDS]

The patches look great to me.
If you clean it again the next day
you'll still get dirty patches.
Don't wear out your gun cleaning it.

Yeah I'm not that worried about a super clean bore, I'm new to BP so I'm a bit paranoid about it, if it's just crud then no big, it should have been neutralized by the ballistol/water mix I used. I was worried it might be rust.

[country gent]

I use a balistol water mix at the range for cleaning ussually 2 wet and 2 dry every 10 rds or so. I then clean at the range before coming home leaving the bore to soak on the way home.Once home and gear is unloaded and cases are soaking I dry patch with a couple patches. If clean I wet a couple pathes with shooters choice and let set 5-10 mins go out and drain cases put on towel to dry. Come back and dry patch with a couple dry and lightly oil the bore. I have been known to use a patch with the bullet lube for this. I then run a pach thru before the next session. 1 impregnated with the bullet lube to season the bore at the start.

[Don McDowell]

Ballistol will always give you that kind of crud on the patch. Try some real bore solvent, and see what comes out on the patches. If you can get it try some Montana Extreme Cowboy Blend, and then finish up with their Bore conditioning oil.

[John Boy]

For deep cleaning use IOSSO Bore Cleaner ... http://www.iosso.com/MivaStore/merch...de=GunCleaning
For regular foul removal, plain water - picture of 50 consecutive 38-55 shots

For regular cleaning, lubrication and rust preventative - Eezox
http://www.eezox.com/

[montana_charlie]

The last time I fired my Sharps rifle was on June 29th.
My cleaning patches fall into a cardboard box when they exit the muzzle, and I had a new box back on that date.
Looking in there today I see that I used six patches to clean my bore.

In the interest of full disclosure, I wipe with two wet patches after each shot when shooting paper patch bullets.
Those patches are just damp, and the mixture is 80/20% water/soluable oil.
I also wiped with two wets after the last shot on that day, before coming to the house.

Then, I used six patches to get it clean, with the first one saturated in water with a drop of Dawn.

Anyway, the gun has been sitting (unoiled) in it's cradle since the end of June, and (because of this thread) I just ran a wet patch through the bore followed by a dry one.
The wet one (simple water) is on the left.



If you can't get your barrel clean after a single shooting session with black powder, maybe you have lots of crud from years past that has built up in there.

CM

[Lead pot]

Pyrodex will give you patches looking like what you have after several cleanings over a few days after shooting the rifle.

[HDS]

Well the gun is new, I've only shot ~50 rounds through it, black powder rounds I loaded myself with swiss 3FG powder and my own cast bullets (homemade BP lube). A week before that I manually fed it a single smokeless .38WC round just because I wanted to shoot it at least once when I had just gotten it. So the gun has been proofed, shot once with smokeless and then ~50 rounds of BP. I shot almost the whole box without cleaning the gun.

Afterwards cleaning was done primarily by running a jag & patch with "moose milk" on it, then a few finishing touches of pure ballistol. Also sprayed the gun down outside with the same and wiped it down, then again with pure ballistol.

I've bought eezox to calm my mind against possible rust issues, so I will try and finish with a patch of Eezox in the future. I don't usually mind a little crud, as long as the bore looks clean and shiny that's good enough in my experience with smokeless. Maybe the same holds true with smokeless? I don't know if I ought to be giving it a go with a bronze brush or not too?

[TXGunNut]

I've been using moose milk with a bore brush and patches since I read about it around here, generally quit after 6-8 patches. I follow that up with a dab of bore butter. The bore butter patch comes out a bit dirty but I don't sweat it. I know an Iosso patch will come out of most bores black but my smokeless/j-word rifles are happier with a slight bit of fouling, seems to be true w/ BP and lead as well. I know you can wear out a gun a whole lot quicker with a cleaning rod than you can with boolits.

[Lead pot]

Just water or maybe a little oil soap added is all I use. I usually run 3-4 wet patches with and 5-6 dry patches to make sure the bore is dry. The dry patches come out as white as they go in. If I see just a little gray streak on the patch the bore has some lead in it, then I run a patch with Kroil and let it sit for a few minutes then I push a tight dry patch through and this will usually lift all the lead out. I do this till that patch comes out as clean as it goes in.
If you don't clean a powder rifle "clean" it will start edging the barrel under the crud, lead or fouling, and it will give you a problem down the line.
What little time and a few patches it takes to get the bore clean will keep the rifle shooting straight.
LP

[Texantothecore]

I have not had that problem with my buffalo classic but I pour 2 cups of water down the bore and the volume of water seems to do the trick.

I am also a big believer in heavy oil in my guns so that may also help if some crud is left in the barrel.

[bigted]

my procedure is pretty simple and not unlike others procedures. as such;

1- run water/dawn [3 drops in a quart] patch in a fouled barrel and scrub it back n forth for a total count of 5 in and out strokes.
2- run a patch soaked with vinegar-Windex the same 5 times.
3- run a ballistol/water [20 to 1] patch the same 5 times.
4- clean/dry patch till everything is dry and spotless.
5- spray copious amounts of rem gun oil in bore and all over outside and into action.
6- rub rub rub till the love affair is over then put away.
7- next day run a dry patch thru the bore once to absorb most of the oil and await the next opportunity to go shooting.

if you are getting stained patch's after this 5 minute cleaning then maybe you have some lead deposits making your patch's dirty. then break into this;

1- swab with a fairly lose patch dripping with pure gum turpentine.
2- after a good 10 minute soak then swab with another dripping patch and do the 10 minute wait.
3- now with a very tight dry patch ... shove it thru the bore and out once and examine it thoroughly for slivers or chunks of lead.
4- if lead has shown on the patch then another dripping patch and the 10 minute wait.
5- repeat till there is no lead appearing on a clean dry tight patch.
6- now I take some Butch's Bore Shine and swab thru the barrel to re-impregnate the pores with an absorbing oil/cleaning solution.
7- clean patch's till dry and sparkling clean.
8- re-oil with rem gun oil and rub rub rub till dry with a clean soft cotton towel.
9- run a patch thru the next day for the oil removal inside the barrel and to ensure a clean barrel then await the next opportunity to go shooting.

all this attention with your shootin iron is time well spent as the reason you purchased the gun in the first place is that you have a love affair [as the rest of us do] with rifles and revolvers from yesteryear and the stuff dreams are made of. so enjoy your time spent and know that you follow steps that are a well worn path with other like minded souls.

[montana_charlie]

Well the gun is new, I've only shot ~50 rounds through it, black powder rounds I loaded myself with swiss 3FG powder and my own cast bullets (homemade BP lube).

In that case, maybe that brown stuff is something similar to cosmoline ... put in the bore by the manufacturer to prevent rust while waiting to be sold.

Did you thoroughly clean the bore before your first shot?

CM

[John Allen]

I have quite a few trapdoors and old sharps. I have cleaned the **** oout them and they still come out with a dirty patch similar to yours. I just lube them heavily and let them be.

[RMulhern]

The NUMBER ONE best cleaner for BLACKPOWDER is:

WATER!!

Period!!

[hickstick_10]

Agree 100 percent with Rick. Get your solvent cheap from the tap.

[HDS]

I would like to think that the moose milk I use works pretty much like tap water, given its high water content. I do not know if I ought to use a bronze brush or not, I've only used patches & jags. I got one of those o-ring jags for .357 on the way so maybe that will suffice.