[jr45]

I am wondering if there is easier way to clean a muzzle loader.

Background: I am using a Traditions .54 side lock rifle. When I go hunting, I always perform a fouling shot to ensure no hang or miss fires. When I am finished hunting, I discharge the rifle (into soft soil). When I get home, I have to disassemble and clean the rifle with soapy water.

Question: Is there any product or simpler method of cleaning since I will be heading out again the next day or maybe two days? I dread having to spend 30+ minutes cleaning the rifle everyday.

[kwhi43@kc.rr.com]

I have been cleaning black powder guns for 50 yrs. The best and easy to use
is just plain old winter verson car window washer fluid. The blue stuff. It will
disolve the fouling. You know black powder fouling is water soluble. After the
gun is clean, just spray with good ol WD-40. Never any rust. Been cleaning
my high dollar black powder guns and protecting them like this for 50 years.

[PRM]

You may be having some overkill in worrying about ignition. I keep my C&B revolvers loaded in my home all the time and have not ever had an issue with failure to fire. I make sure there is no excess oil left in the chambers by swabbing them good with clean patches prior to loading (barrel would be the same). I use clean pipe cleaners on the nipples to make sure any excess oil is not left in them. Before putting a nipple back in, hold it up to a light and make sure you see it shinning through. Use pipe cleaners on the drum also.



My preference is Gibbs brand lubricant which is not bad about leaving a lot of residue to deal with in the first place (not heavy petroleum based).

www.gibbsbrandlubricant.com

Good shooting and Merry Christmas.

[Chawbaccer]

The day before I go hunting I clean my gun with 99 percent isopropyl and get all the grease and oil out. At the end of the day I don't set it off unless I have been in the rain. YOu could also use one of the dischargers to unload with and not have to clean.

[frankt]

You may be making extra work for yourself.

I wipe down the bore with Denatured Alcohol before loading. I pop two caps and then load as normal.

If I don't fire a shot and it is going to be a week or so before I hunt again, I blow out the ball and powder with an air compressor. My buddy uses one of those little CO2 unloaders, I scrape out any remaining powder and then swab the barrel with some T/C bore cleaner but windex or anything else will work.

I then bore butter or oil the bore depending on which way I am leaning at that particular time.

If I fire the gun, I give it the complete hot water wash routine.

[ilike223s]

hey I had my flint lock,loaded in my safe for 2 years,took it out this week added some pan powder, it went right off,,now it was cleaned before I loaded it 2 years ago.and now i only swabed it,with bore butter.and ran some rage down it,I;ll be using it in a few weeks,i will clean it If i decide not to take it out,
I never tried the car widow wash,I will try that for sure,
When you use that washer, do you not use hot water first,?

[WadePatton]

Try this: clean it up good, let it sit overnight, run a dry patch (don't get it stuck), pop a cap if you must, load as usual. Then at the end of the day (if no game presents itself), remove cap and leave the powder charge alone. Next day re-cap and go hunting.

note you may want to drop a wad in between the powder and projectile _if_ you're using a heavily lubed patch.

Fire it when the game cooperates or you want to clean it.

Seef that don't simplify things.

[6Gun4Fun]

I use a 3 part solution. 1 part isopropyl alcohol, 1 part hydrogen peroxide, 1 part Murphy's oil soap. I use the scented alcohol cause it just smells better then the straight stuff.

[Shultzhaus]

I guess I'm from the old school, but here goes. I use hot water, and dish soap. Flush with very hot water, and then I blow out the barrel with my air compressor (Yes, there are two water traps in the line. My air tools don't like moisture either) Swab with Ballistol, and reassemble. An old timer told me to store your MLs muzzle down, so that any oil, and condensation will run out. I have a folded towel in the bottom of my "Stack-On" to protect the muzzles. Also, I don,t know about using window washer fluid. If you look under your car hood at the tank, you will see it leaves a blue residue, when the stuff evaporates.

[redneck2]

I have read that unfired black powder is not particularly corrosive. Think about it. In all the colonial homes, a rifle was hanging over the fireplace. Bet they were kept loaded all the time.

I never fired my muzzle loader last year. Kept it loaded in my heated gun safe since last season. Fired just fine this year. I use Shockey's Gold. Non-corrosive as smokeless. I would not do the fouling shot thing. No need and makes extra work. Just hold the muzzle down to the ground and pop off a cap. You'll see the puff when the pressure comes out the barrel. If you point it against something light like a leaf or piece of grass it make it easier.

FWIW...my guns are all pristine. My Knight is over 20 years old and looks almost new.

You can get clear plastic tubing that will fit on the nipple. Put the end of the tubing in a bucket of super hot slightly soapy water. Use your jag with a patch as a plunger to slowly move water in and out. You can have your rifle cleaned in just a few minutes. The water heats the barrel to evaporate any that's left over. Light oil and you're done. If you've got a hooked breech, knock out the retaining pins and pop the barrel off.

Never use Hoppes #9. You'll find out what a mess it is. BTDT. Hot soapy water just melts everything away in seconds.

[jr45]

Thank you all for your comments and ideas...I may give some of them a try. I always fire 2 caps of prior to my fouling shot. The reason I perform the fouling shot is because the majority of the time when firing the gun for the first time (after the 2 caps) I usaully get a slight hang fire. I will relook at swabing out the barrel well prior to loading and maybe leave the gun with a charge and ball in it for a fews days and then see how it fires. Thanks again for all of your advise. By the way, the powder I am using is Perodex RS.

[Marlin 45 carbine]

ditto the winter mix windsheild washer fluid. the alky in it really cuts any crud and dries fast.
but I don't shoot out a load unless I have been in the rain.
I shoot a lot of C&B revolvers while camping and take a spray bottle with w/w fluid in it for fast cleaning. spray, wipe and scrub - then repeat and pour hot water over. wipe with clean rag and set by fire/in sun to dry before lubeing and re-loading.

[Mike 56]

I used windshield washer fluid to clean my rifle last night the stuff worked great.

Mike

[beagler]

I used to use hot soapy water for years to clean my Hawken, but for the last five years or so, I've used regular T/C bore cleaner. I just run patches down until they come out clean followed by several dry patches. I use Rem Oil to oil the barrel (I know...its a petro product, but I dont have any issues). I have never had any rust, firing issues, etc...

The only thing I notice from time to time is a white flakey material that builds up in my nipple port. I wipe it out using pipe cleaner and I'm good to go.

You guys that shoot Hawken style rifles, how do you clean your nipple port to ensure all the fouling is cleaned up? I usually just shoot Rem Oil through the port and use a patch on my jag to absorb any fouling.

[arcticap]

I use a solvent saturated cotton swab and/or a piece of cloth wrapped around a thin stick of dowel and repeatedly twist away to clean all of the threads, clean out screw hole and nipple port.
And also use a piece of wire if necessary to poke through the flash channel and then soak the nipple and clean it thoroughly.

[Macmac]

Clean the gun well, make sure it is clean, use any booze, or windshield wash, and make sure the gun is clean, load it and never shoot it untill you need to. Just pull the caps off and drop the hammer on anything rubber to seal the charge and leave the gun that way.

When I do this with my flinters they 'speak' every time they are asked too.

I use a loading rod other than the ram rod, and have a flag tool I leave in the bore, to show the gun is charged.

With a flinter to seal the charge i use a feather in the vent, leave the cock forward and the pan flipped open.

with a capper just use old inner tube, or a small bit of leather under the dropped hammer.

No need to waste powder and lead.

BE sure that cap comes off!!!!! many states count that as a felony, and it is totally unsafe.

One of my cousins had the bright idea to change hunting locations mid day, and failed to pull the cap.

When he parked at his new site, he grabbed the rifle by the barrel and pulled it from behind the truch seats.. Well that hammer hung up on something and dropped on the cap. BOOM, and he just missed himself by inches.

You can safely bank on he pulls the caps now.

[sundance44s]

Back in my hunting days ..I would swab my bore with a alcohol patch and not pop caps just load useing a dry patch and ball ...my rifle didn`t like a wet patch on the first shot with no fouling ...but with the dry patch load , it was right on the money first shot . By the time I got to the woods and loaded up the rifle the alcohol would have dried the breech and took care of any damp ness in the bore ....I never had a hang fire doing this ......but I never used Pyrodex eaither ..only real black powder ...and it lights much easyer than Pyrowrecks .

[Macmac]

i agree but I never used Pyrodex eaither ..only real black powder ...and it lights much easyer than Pyrowrecks

And so much so I see no reason why that stuff still exisits. Black works well as it ALWAYS has in flinter's which is my main thing, and nothing else does.

My flinters go BOOM upside down before the prime can fall away, so why is there any need of anything not real in the first place?

None of the other stuff seems to be faster, and it is the same old mess to clean, but it doesn't seem like a mess to me. It takes me as long to clean any bolt gun, and longer if it is corrosive ammo in a 8mm Mauser.

I load once for hunting, unless I shoot..

[BlackNet]

problem with alcohol, peroxide and other nasties like that is it will etch the metal and I for one do not want the metal being eaten away by the cleaners.

My cleaner of choice is ole' thunder bore cleaner or black-solve.

[Pancho]

I started using at home and the field and I swear by it. I use a mix of ballistol and a little water to desolve the crud and then finish the job with staight balistol. works well on gun stocks and leather.

[Smokin_Gun]

Put tygon tubing that fits tight on the cone run it to a bucket of Hot Soapy Water. Pour some water in the barrel and plung with your rod & jag, & patch syphoning the hot soapy water thru the cone, drum, breech, & barrel for a spell...rinse with hot water the same way...dry and yer cleaned.

SG

[Pulp]

Here is the World's Easiest Way to Clean a Muzzleloader, hereinafter referred to as WEWCM.

Why do you think God invented toilets? So we could apply WEWCM. Yup, pull the nipple, squirt some soap in to the toilet, insert breech end into same toilet, swab with a mop, flush toilet, rinse barrel with the fresh water. Dry and lube.

One day my wife commented on the smell. I replied, "No worse than when you leave the bathroom." That's when the fight started.:D

[Mike 56]

Pulp, I like the way you think.

Mike

[Macmac]

ewwww, You are not a hunter I hope... ;D

[scrat]

the car washer fluid stuff as mentioned earlier works pretty good. may want to add some more water to dillute it a little more water. then put it in a spray bottle with a good adjustable tip. you will find it will make your clean up a lot easier than what you are doing.

[Shultzhaus]

I enjoy cleaning my rifles with whiskey. Sometime I might even try using it in the guns.

[Elbert P . Suggins]

A pint of Old Crow will clean your bore pretty darn good.

[Shultzhaus]

A whole pint would probably clean my clock as well. I think either Scrat or SG uses Jack D for that. Not sure. I better quit, we may be getting off the original thread here.

[ArmedBear]

If you want something that isn't a liquid like washer fluid, RB-17 gel works well for black powder, and corrosive primers also: http://www.rb-17.com/line.html