Cleaning muzzleloading rifle for long-term storage

[zahc]

I am visiting my parents and we shot my muzzleloading rifle. Since I moved away, I do not plan to shoot it again for at least a year, possibly many years.

I shoot black powder and patched round balls. My system involves using liberal amounts of Bore Butter bullet lube which lets me shoot forever without needing to clean the bore. Cleaning the bore with petroleum solvent ruins everything, so I never do. At the end of the season, I will scrub the bore with hot water and a brush. Then I will use a patch or two of the water-based TC No. 13 bore cleaner. I do not swab the bore till the patches come out clean, just use one or two. Then I rinse the bore again with very hot water and let it evaporate dry. Then I coat the bore as well as I can with liberal amounts of Bore Butter; I lube the outer metal surfaces with CLP.

This system has worked well for season-to-season storage, but if the gun is going to sit for many years I'm wondering if I should clean the bore down to the metal with petroleum solvents and use gun grease or something.

 

[arcticap]

Considering the length of time that may pass, coating it with grease would seem to be a pretty good idea.

 

[Brillo]

Don't use Bore Butter or any vegetable based lubes. They oxidize with time and will break down and lose their protective abilities. Here is a site that might give you some good insights to long-term storage.

http://www.6mmbr.com/corrosiontest.html

 

[twice barrel]

If your rifle has a hooked breach I suggest you remove the nipple and submerge the breech in a gallon bucket of boiling hot soap water and repeatedly plunge a tight patch in and out of the bore until the barrel is so hot you cannot hold it. (Use gloves). Brush the bore thoroughly and repeat until you just cannot get anything else to show on the patch.

Follow with a rinse in boiling hot water with a patch on the ramrod and then dry patches until the bore is dry and you wipe off the exterior. Let set until evaporation has completely dried inside and out.

Other than being more meticulous this probably all sounds pretty normal to this point. Then follow with a tight patch saturated in denatured alcohol. This often removes deposits you didn't think would be there. Keep doing until nothing shows up on a clean patch. Set aside and let evaporation dry the bore well.

Now saturate a patch with a traditional bore solvent such as Hoppes and swab the bore soppy wet and let stand. Follow with tight fitting dry patches. Bet you get some more residue you never believed was there. Repeat until absolutely nothing shows on a clean dry patch that you can just barely shove in and out of the bore. Let stand and air our until dry.

Repeat with WD-40 and clean patches. Yep, you guessed it...more residue you never would have believed would be there. Keep repeating until clean very tight patches come clean.

Ofcourse you'll want to scrub everything else on the exterior real well, clean and or replace the nipples, clean the tang, lock, and trigger real well.

Coat everything with a nice coating of 3n1 oil or your favorite gun oil and stand in a cabinet with doors to keep off the dust.

Before shooting again I would just swab the bore with denatured alcohol and pop a couple of caps before loading.

You should be good to go,

TB

 

[Smilin Jack]

Wow, that's getting it really clean. I usually do the hot soapy water thing, oil and let stand a week, then repeat. This has worked for me. Maybe time to try your method.

Dave

 

[Fingers McGee]

Balistol. Nuff said.

FM

 

[Pancho]

I agree with Fingers MC Gee. I started using balistol for cleaning, preserving and lubricating my guns and could not be happier and add more confident that the treatment would achieve great results after a long storage.

 

[qajaq59]

Don't use Bore Butter or any vegetable based lubes. They oxidize with time and will break down and lose their protective abilities. Here is a site that might give you some good insights to long-term storage. http://www.6mmbr.com/corrosiontest.html

Brillo is right and dont ask how I know..... Next time I'll use grease.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

WD-40 and 3-in-1 oil are NOT designed for anthing other than surface of guns, and they WILL shellac over time. They will gum up internal parts of firearms, I have seen it many times. Left for very long periods, 3-n-1 will harden to a near plastic consistency. Boiling water merely accelerates the formation of rust. If you are going to use something to pull water out, then evaporation is not a factor. Alcohol will do so.

Complete cleaning, followed by alcohol, then either Birchwood Casey Sheath, or Ballisol, will do what you want. If I wanted a grease, I'd make it out of Ballistol and beeswax.

LD

 

[mykeal]

I agree with NOT using Bore Butter for long term storage. First, it will hide any leftover water deposits and will allow them to rust over the long term. Second, it does break down over the long term as mentioned above. Likewise Hoppe's solvent, either the original or the bp solvent, and light machine oils like 3-In-1 are not good for the long term. The best is cosmoline, but it's a mess to use. I echo Fingers' endorsement of Ballistol; however, I prefer Birchwood Casey's Shield (aka Barricade). I'm using the latter now after having used Ballistol in the past. I think either will work, I just have a preference for Shield as some folks I have a great deal of respect for have spoken highly of it.

WD-40 or alcohol will work very nicely for removing water after washing. Boiling hot water is not necessary; warm water will work just as well. While the hot water promotes evaporation by heating the metal, following washing and rinsing with alcohol is more than enough to make up for not using the boiling hot water and heating the metal.

My process: wash with warm water and detergent, rinse with warm water, dry thoroughly with patches, swab with alcohol, swab dry again, then coat with Shield or Barricade (or Ballistol if you prefer).

 

[4v50 Gary]

Rig gun grease or good old fashioned GI gun grease for the bore and exterior.