Cleaning Cap and Ball Revolvers With Hand Cleaner

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Mike 56

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I came across an old article that Ed Haris wrote. https://www.camp22.org/black-powder-pages/handling-cap-and-ball-revolvers In the article he talks about cleaning cap and ball revolvers using waterless hand cleaner. After going to the range yesterday I thought I would give a try in the past Ed and his writings have never done me wrong. So tried it using GoJo hand cleaner. The stuff melts black powder on contact I gave everything a light brushing and wiped everything down the metal never looked better and it left everything with a light oil coating. The paper towels in the chambers worked really good as well. I will be keeping a close eye on my guns to make sure I don't get any rust, I also want to see if I have any issues with fouling the next time I go to the range.

Mike
 
I came across this article when searching about cleaning a BP revolver.
Sounded very interesting but I haven’t tried it yet. I’m in the moose milk camp. I bring a bottle with me to the range for periodical cleanings while shooting. People complain about the smell but I don’t mind it.
 
I have always cleaned with water and blow dry everything with air. Then I do a quick clean with moose milk. The hand cleaner cleans like nothing I have ever used and it oils everything at the same time.

Mike
 
I'm not surprised that GoJo works. Hell, everything else does. Why BP has such a reputation for difficult cleanup I'll never know.

My only concern is that GoJo contains a pretty good dose of petroleum distillates. Hopefully it won't cause the usual troubles along those lines. Please let us know.
 
There was a poster who used GoJo as a patch lube.
It was originally developed for rubber workers to remove carbon black from their hands.
It's a good solvent to clean Pyrodex residue, including your hands at the range.

Hazardous components

Alkane/cycloalkane 30 - < 50
Mineral Oil (Paraffinum Liquidum) 10 - < 20
Trideceth-9 1 - < 5
Propylene Glycol 1 - < 5
Petrolatum 1 - < 5
Sodium Hydroxymethylglycinate 0.1 - < 1
Chloroxylenol 0.1 - < 1

https://images.salsify.com/image/upload/s--oD86605g--/o8dvenhrsd22ym1cuuqa.pdf
 
When it comes to cleaning i am a fan of moose milk...BUT since i makw my own primer/percussion caps that are corrosive i need to use a lil extra something to give me peace of mind. I experimented with every cleaner. Dawn, murpheys oil, ballistol, windex with vinegar, tons of name brand stuff ...just way too much to list. Then i tried "L.A. Totally Awesome", its a cheap spray cleaner and degreaser found in dollar stores. Oh man this stuff is amazing. I water it down with distilled water and it gets EVERYTHING clean. It gets out the waxy oily lube we use that mixes with fouling that gets stuck in the steels pores. You can clean a gun very well with other cleaners and then use this stuff and ur patch will show all the stuff that was left behind. I have some white bristled brushes made for cleaning baby bottles and nipples.... i use to them clean and scrub my barrels and after a few uses turned black and dingy...couldnt get them clean no matter what...even brake and carb cleaner didnt work. Nothing did. Then i used the L.A. Totally Awesome and it cleaned them good as new...yet its gentle to the hands and on bluing. I ask that you all give it a try...its amazing stuff. Ive turned a few people onto it and have had nothing but great feedback. It was also the only cleaner i used that will clean out stubborn Pyrodex fouling with one cleaning. Its only a dollar and can be watered down as much as 1:5 and it will still work great and last a looooong time.
 
Corrosive primers aren't that hard to deal with. I shoot surplus rifles and I still have a good supply of surplus ammo including 303. I clean with Ed's red or Hopes and I finish up by pouring hot water down the barrel dry and oil. My guns are rust-free I have been doing this for a long time. You can clean black powder the same way it's a lot more work. I am just testing the hand cleaner so far it's working. The big test is the next time I shoot them will I get hard fouling? Like everyone learning to shoot black powder is a process. When I first started we shot balls powder and wheel bearing grease. What a mess. Then there was Crisco it was a lot better. At the time I was still using gun oil so I was still getting hard fouling. On black powder forums, guys were saying remove gun oil from your barrel and cylinder before shooting with alcohol. Shooting from a dry unlubed barrel makes a good surface for fouling to stick to not good. Everything changed when I removed all the petroleum oil and started using Ballistol and cleaning with plain water, not stripping the oil from the metal. Now I don't get any hard fouling, cleaning became much easier most the fouling washes away with water without a cleaning rod, very little fouling on the hammer. With Pyrodex or black powder. When loading my NMA I check the cylinder pin if it's tight I put a few drops of Ballistol. I shoot once a week a hundred ball at a time. Before I shoot I lube the barrel with patch lube. The first cylinder is on the loose side after that it's fine. When I am done shooting while the barrel is still hot I push one dry patch down the barrel. Without using a brush or solvent the barrel looks almost clean very little fouling. best of all no hard fouling. By the way that LA cleaner is good stuff, I used to use it to remove cosmoline surplus rifle stocks.

Mike

Mike
 
I do like balistol and distilled water mix and its my main cleaner...but every so often i like to really get the metals pores clean. Thats when i use the L.A. Totally Awesome and distilled water mix...it will take the waxy lube and gunk out of your barrels pores that the balistol and other cleaners miss. I always thought my barrels were clean till i ran patches with that stuff in a clean barrel...they would come out dirty. It solves that sticky pyrodex fouling issue that some folks get no matter how well they clean their guns yet still get a bit of surface rust. So ballistol and distilled water at a 1:4 / 1:3 ratio and then every so often the L.A. Totally Awesome for a deep clean. If anything you all should try it to clean your barrel brushes, works great..better than carb/break cleaner yet gentler. Ive heard some folks in competition are starting to bring it out to meets also. I tried some track of the wolf. Brand liquid cleaner and i was not impressed....i really wanted it to work actually.
 
Hot water with a bit of soap has always worked for me. The residue is basically carbon and salt and washes clean very easily.
Once the parts are clean and dry, I follow up with Hoppes #9 to scrub the bore with a bronze brush.
Then oil with light machine oil and reassemble.
 
Oh...forgot to mention i finish with Barricade. I get the liquid, not the spray. It works great as a rust preventative. That stuff has never let me down.
 
A friend gave me a spray bottle of CVA branded black powder solvent. This stuff works wonders! 6 patches sprayed with the Stu and all chambers of an Army Colt are clean as a whistle. I don’t even disassemble the gun if I haven’t fired more than a couple cylinders full. (The actions are pumped full of lithium grease) I just clean from the muzzle end, advancing the cylinder as I go. Wipe the hammer, hammer slot, frame and exterior and lightly oil with Eezox. The eezox dries to a film in a few minutes and I can reload immediately. I’m happy with this stuff.
 
One thing that is likely good about using hot water is the small traces evaporate off the hot metal after wiping down I would imagine. Using hand cleaner sounds interesting. I do wonder if all hand cleaners are safe to use on bluing.
 
Mr.woodnbow, the lithium grease that you use, is it the white paste? I have some and used it in the arbor and didnt likd. Not sure if its the same kind as yours. Mine didnt feel too "slick" either. I started using mobil-1 synthetic grease and i have since made a weird mix that works great for internal and arbor lube/grease. Its mobil-1 mixed with lots of raw shea butter (great natural lube for black powder) and lanolin. This mix is slick and stays put. I love it. If anyone has these ingredients try it out. I usually melt the raw shea butter and mix it with the lanolin and then mix it with mobil-1 red grease.
 
Mr.woodnbow, the lithium grease that you use, is it the white paste? I have some and used it in the arbor and didnt likd. Not sure if its the same kind as yours. Mine didnt feel too "slick" either. I started using mobil-1 synthetic grease and i have since made a weird mix that works great for internal and arbor lube/grease. Its mobil-1 mixed with lots of raw shea butter (great natural lube for black powder) and lanolin. This mix is slick and stays put. I love it. If anyone has these ingredients try it out. I usually melt the raw shea butter and mix it with the lanolin and then mix it with mobil-1 red grease.
I've been using the Mobil Red grease straight in my stainless ROA's for a few yrs now, I even went an entire year without opening up one of my ROA's, after an entire year with no internal cleaning I opened it and found after degreasing with brake free, there was no pitting and all internal parts were free of rust so now I pack all my revolvers with the grease and tear down much less often. I used to do a complete tear down after each range trip, now it's bore and cylinder and general exterior wipe down, almost like modern gun cleaning. I use automotive antiseize on the nipples and also only remove yearly, I do clean openings with running water and tooth pick. Been working fine for 5 yrs that way.
 
Hand cleaner round two, I have been keeping an eye on the guns I cleaned and were protected with the hand cleaner they had no rust. That said I live in Ca where it is hot and dry I have a few days to clean guns that I have shot using Black powder or Pyrodex. When done shooting a gun for the day I run one dry patch in and out the barrel and wipe the outside of the gun with a rag. Cleaning with hand cleaner was easy the hand cleaner melts the black powder fouling. I found using paper towels worked even better than rags the paper towel wicks up the hand cleaner and fouling. After brushing the chambers and nipple recesses I packed the chambers with kleenex one half in each chamber. Cleaning was easy put it on wipe it off and I was done. I tried using the hand cleaner as over the ball lube. I used a small amount from a small squeeze bottle It sounded real lose when I shot it but the accuracy was better. My best groups of the day were shot using hand cleaner as lube.
 
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