A good way to clean your shotgun after firing BP shells

[Busyhands94]

Howdy guys, lately I've been shooting a lot of shotguns (as some of you may have heard) and shooting trap twice a week. When I'm out there I love to bring my 16 gauge and use it for singles, it works well. My loads are pretty heavy, but I am using a waxed card and some overshot card wads. Of course I use Goex BP in my shells too, and you can't have as much fun with shotguns without sending some shot downrange with BP. I have also employed this shotgun as a "gopher gitter" and an effective one might I add. Those hot loads at 3 feet make a mighty big crater!

When I get home I have a system for cleaning my gun, here's what I do.
First I put an empty 20 gauge shotshell in my muzzle, then get a measuring cup and fill the barrel with hot soapy water. I let that sit and brew a cup of coffee in the meantime with the leftover hot water.


When you pour the water in you have to be careful not to get any in the receiver or extractor. I just clean said areas with a Q-tip, works like a charm!


After it has sat for a couple minutes what I do is I push a Windjammer 12 gauge plastic wad down the barrel backwards, this acts like a squeegee and wipes a lot of fouling out. Then of course a few dry patches then two with Gunzilla or Hoppes #9 on them. That takes a lot of crud out of the bore of the shotgun and gets in nice and clean.

Again, fun loads to shoot! You can't really see the cloud of smoke in this picture but you can see the shadow of it. These are some pretty hot loads, they sound like a .44 Magnum with that BP in there.


Hope that's helpful for some of you BP shotgunners out there, keep in mind this is my system I have here. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Your Mileage may vary.

Keep your powder smokey and your bullets big, heavy, nasty and fast!
~Levi

 

[Busyhands94]

I forgot to mention, if you shoot a couple smokeless shotshells it takes the fouling out of the barrel pretty quick. If you only shoot BP from a shotgun like I do, and feed your shotgun the right way this is for you.

 

[Pete D.]

Nice. A clever idea. Care to share the load?
One question....what model shotgun is that? Does the barrel not come off? (I am guessing it doesn't or you would have but I had to ask.)
Pete

 

[eastbank]

when i shoot my 1900 rem 12ga made in 1906-1907 with 32 " F&F steel barrels at trap with BP(i have shot a 24 at trap with regular trap shells),every five shots between changing stations i fire a shotgun shell with only a primer and filled with crisco,it keeps the fouling soft. there are several guys who shoot BP shotguns and when we get toghter at the trap range its a hoot on a still day with all the smoke just hanging several feet off the ground, its hard to see if you broke the bird. eastbank.

 

[loose noose]

Busyhands, I don't use the plastic wads in my BP shotgun, I've got a lot of cork and fiber wads that work just fine, therefore, the equal parts of Murphy's Soap Oil, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide work just fine. My bores in my old double with exposed hammers just sparkle using this mixture, especially with a little bit of Thompson's Bore Butter.

 

[wittzo]

I hope you have a scrap of leather to pad your vise. When I clean my BP rifles, I skip the soap. After filling the barrel with boiling water 3 or 4 times and letting it drain out the nipple, the barrel shines. Great idea about the 20 gauge hull barrel plug. +1 on the cork and fiber wadding, though any plastic residue might be melted off by the boiling water.

 

[Foto Joe]

Levi I'm curious about the plastic hulls myself, i.e. how are they holding up to the heat of Black Powder?

 

[eastbank]

i get all the rem game load cases i want at out clubs turkey shoots for free and load them one time and chuck them,i use fff with a plastic 1-1/8 clay buster wad and #7.5 shot and load in a 600 mec., putting in the fff powder in the case in a septerate operation. to clean out the plastic that may be in the barrel i use starter fuild after the first cleaning and follow up with another swabbing after the starter fuild. and my barrels have not suffered any damage. eastbank.

 

[mykeal]

Where do those shell thingys go???

 

[Busyhands94]

Pete D, the shotgun is a Crescent Arms 16 guage single. It's old fashion and it's a good truck shotgun. The only problem is that it's NOT like say, a Browning BT-99, it's not for shooting trap. This makes hitting clay a little harder but not impossible due to the stock geometry. Of course I could pile on the moleskins onto the comb of the stock to make it fit better, but it's a truck shotgun. I keep it in my truck and take some buckshot loads with me. It's good though!

Foto Joe, the hulls tend to wear out after about 10 of my BP shotshell loads. I am using some card wads and Goex as well as Pyrodex by volume. I have also tried wrapping the shot in a little cocoon of cigarette paper, that seems to hold the shot together a little better. I also tried that with some .410's, those are an effective load, quite nasty actually! For some reason the load with the paper wrapped shot are less hard on the hulls. I haven't the slightest clue whatsoever as to why this happens. I'm using Rio brand hulls, if that makes any difference.

Eastbank, I'll try that Crisco trick. The loads I used to use all the time were 3 drams of BP and 1 1/8th ounce of lead. To give you an idea my shotgun weighs about 6 pounds. OUCH!!! I recently have started using only 2.5 drams and an ounce load. Not bad, could be better but I like that. There's a lot of space in the shell, but it's not that big a deal to me. In fact I could take advantage of that and use the space for lube!

Mykeal, now I'd give shooting 25 straight with that!