Cleaning BP Revovers

There was a big thread on this some months back. I think most do not. I don't. I just do alcohol, boiling water and bore butter on the front half and cylinders. I do remove the nipples. The back half of the Colt clones just gets 100% alch rubs on the outside followed by bore butter. A teardown of the inner frame is too tricky to do after every shooting and liable to do more harm than good from what I can see.

No. I do a complete teardown after 8 or 10 matches or every 3 months or so.

It depends on how many rounds I shoot.

Does everyone do a complete tear down of their 1858 rem or Colt 1851-60-61 etc. every time they shoot them.

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No.

No.

NO!

No!!!

NO !!!!

What fingers said, and no.

My 1851 just gets tossed in a hot soapy bucket of water and then hosed off with WD-40.

What I do for my Colt is take the grips and brass trigger guard off which involves 6 screws then take the frame and submerge it into a bucket filled with hot soapy water. I brush the frame with either and old toothbrush or a brass bristle brush to get the gunk out. Then I spray the frame with liberal amounts of WD-40 and wipe clean. The barrel and cylinder and nipples are cleaned completely with the proper brushes and pipe cleaners to get the nipples. Only about once a year in the winter do I tear the guts out of the frame and clean the parts and screws. I’ve been doing that since around 1976 with no ill effects so I’m pretty confident it’s working out pretty well. But sometimes getting that hand "paw" back in is a real PITA.

I do a tear down when something breaks.
Not so often.

Field strip the 1851s and 1860s: Remove barrel and cylinder, wash them in hot soapy water and rinse in clean water, dry with paper towels and spray with Ballistol.

Wipe off arbor, water table, and hammer. Spray with Ballistol. Lube arbor with Bore Butter.

Takes about as long to do it as to write it.

Cylinder and barrel every time of course. Insides get done every 4 to 5 days out. And since they are typically used for my Cowboy Action events this means every 120 to 150 shots.

What I do is to make sure I don't overtighten the screws. I'd describe it more as "pinching" the screws or "snugging" them down. I check the main and frame screws once a day to make sure they aren't creeping out. They hardly ever need a tweak despite the low torque values I use. By doing it this way I can be sure that I'm not distorting the threads over a long term situation. There's also far less risk of the flat driver point coming out of the slot.

No, but when it is time for a good cleaning, the dishwasher works very well. Just don't let the wife know.

4v50 Gary said:

I wouldn't.

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You wouldn't... Let the wife know?

Hot soapy H2O for ROA & the Uberti, then really hot H2O rinse followed by Ballistol. Use a Flitz nylon bore brush. So far no issues.

Mine get a spin in the Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner in hot soapy water and then some olive oil for protection. Works wonderfully.

I pull the cylinder, scrub all the cylinders with hot, soapy water, dry, WD40. I don't pull the nipples, never had a nipple freeze up.

Then, I scrub the gun with the grips off it with hot soapy water, bore, anything I can get to. I dry, blow WD40 down the innards, put all back together. No complete strip, but I take the grips off and the cylinder out.

I used to run my stainless ROA in the dishwasher, but I'm a little scared to put a blued gun in it with Cascade. I'm not sure what's in that stuff.

A dishwasher with a few tablespoons of Ballistol stuck into the soap dispenser ought to set the wife over the edge! ...

I happen to like the smell of Ballistol, but others may opine otherwise.



My drill: Field strip, hot water, Ballistol, and air dry. Wipe down, reassemble, and forget it.


Willie

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