Bore Butter or Conventional Cleaners?

[Redlg155]

I've used TC bore butter for years out of my front stuffers. Always religiously cleaned the rifle the first time with hot soapy water, went throught the 'seasoning' process with bore butter and then used it exclusively from then on. I've never noticed any advantages or disadvantages from using conventional cleaners because I've never let them touch the bore of my BP rifles. Just hot soapy water and bore butter. I've learned that since I started BP hunting 15 years from an old timer who taught me how.

Now I'm wondering if anyone uses conventional cleaners such as hoppes in their BP rifles. I'd rather just treat it like my M44. Squirt some windex in there to get the cleaning process going and then clean with Hoppes #9 when I get home.

I could understand the importance of bore butter back when having a sealed breach was the norm. Getting 100 percent of all the crud and excess lubricant out was very difficult if not impossible. Now that just about every BP rifle out there has a removable breech plug it's possible to get everything clean and remove all traces of cleaner that might affect your powder. Has this negated any real advantages to Bore Butter?

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/40

Ohh..and above is a pretty neat article on cleaning BP rifles.

Good Shooting
Red

 

[Ed]

I always used hot soapy water. Over Labor day I visited a 81 year old man who lives near my parents. He has built 83 BP rifles, and been shooting for many years. I was showing him my newly finished FL and he showed me how he cleans his. BP solovent, then Hopes #9. The man has original Ky rifles and his own which are works of art. H e cleans like that, I guess I can too.

 

[Smokey Joe]

Bore Butter vs. Hoppes et. al.

FWIW, I've been bore-buttering my Traditions caplock for years. Clean with hot (almost boiling) H2O, then bore butter when the patches come out clean & dry. My only reccommendation is, it works for me. My gun is a Hawken-style traditional, no breech plug. I shoot real blackpowder, not the clean stuff. I find that at the range, where I'm shooting a number of shots, I don't get the fouling hangups when loading, of which many BP shooters seem to complain. Accuracy stays the same for the whole range session.

Since my bbl. is easily removable, the hot-H2O cleaning is almost no more hassle than any other. Remove bbl, remove nipple, place breech endof bbl. in a pyrex pitcher of hot water, schloomp up & down with a bore mop on cleaning rod until the upper end of bbl. is pretty hot, wipe bbl. dry outside and in, clean & dry nipple that has been soaking in the hot water, remove nipple flash marks from lock (for which purpose I DO use a solvent), oil up the lock, replace nipple, replace bbl, bore butter the bore, done.

Haven't tried this with a modern breech-plug weapon, but would not hesitate to do so. Just make sure all the water is gone and everything is properly lubed and/or bore buttered when you finish. There are more worky bits to scrub, but this would be true with any cleaning method.

Advantages: No fouling problems. Gets gun as clean as any other method. Hot water is cheap and usually easy to obtain. Disadvantages: Need source of hot water. Reluctant to use solvent for cleaning if that were the only available option. (would if I had to)

So, for me it works. I have no argument with others who have other ways, that work.