Help with cleaning jag and wet powder!

Ugly Sauce said:
Yes. chuck it in the drill press and take a file and steel wool to it, until you get the perfect size. No drill press? Put the hand drill in a vise, with the jag chucked in it, and do that same thing. No vise? Can't help! :) The perfect size: whatever lets the jag and patched go down a fouled bore easily.
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I've turned down brass jags by chucking them in a hand held drill and holding a file to them. Worked just fine. You don't need super precision here.
 
4v50 Gary said:
Hacker Martin told Wallace Gusler told, "All you need are two big dumb guys to make a barrel."

Update Darth-Vang? We are living vicariously through you and your success is OUR success.
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Hey! Sorry stuff got in the way, i just poured peanut oil down the barrel and it seems that the oil isn’t going past the stuck jag? I’ll let it sit for a week and then I’ll try to remove next weekend.
 
Cleaned the Varmint a moment ago, got a vid of the bore scope going down into the rifle, I noticed that there was smoke like stuff in the barrel??? Not sure what the smoky stuff was, I used Rem oil to oil the barrel.
 
Darth-Vang said:
Hey! Sorry stuff got in the way, i just poured peanut oil down the barrel and it seems that the oil isn’t going past the stuck jag? I’ll let it sit for a week and then I’ll try to remove next weekend.
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A stuck jag and patch should/would make a pretty tight "cork". I wouldn't expect any oil to go past the jag. The hope would be that it would saturate the patch.
 
Darth-Vang said:
Cleaned the Varmint a moment ago, got a vid of the bore scope going down into the rifle, I noticed that there was smoke like stuff in the barrel??? Not sure what the smoky stuff was, I used Rem oil to oil the barrel.
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Do you mean the color of smoke? A light colored fouling? Burnt powder can look like that, but it should have turned dark after being saturated with oil. ? "Good question". ! Sounds like you are using some pretty thick oils, have you considered washing those out, and going with a thin penetrating oil?

Or, is the Varmint not the one with the stuck jag? I guess not. ? Apply above comments to the stuck jag! :) If the Varmint barrel has been cleaned, the bore should not have any "stuff", smokey or otherwise, in the bore. How and with what did you do your cleaning with?
 
MEHavey said:
Consider it a dry ball problem.
People are going to hate me, but -- were it mine* -- I'd remove nipple, feed 4F (maybe 5-6gr) in through the flash hole, replace nipple, ensure powder is at rear of barrel, ...and fire it downrange
(It'll go maybe 10-15 yards)

*Lawyerspeak: YMMV, so take care
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Nothing wrong with that, no hate, but I believe his breech and previous powder charge is soaked with wet powder, and not just wet but wet with solvent/oil, so even a six grain charge is not going to work. I think the wet powder will just soak up the force, pretty much extinguish the flash. In a small .32" bore, that would be a pretty big lump of mud. Or that's my theory anyhow. ?
 
A grease zero of the appropriate thread will work too. Guaranteed. Use the grease gun to forc the jag clear, resize the jag on your drill motor, remove the threaded zero and then use the resized jag to push the grease back out through the flash channel. Easy peasy…
 
I sure hope either one of those will work. I suspect that it would take more force to expel a brass jag and patch, that has been pounded down dry, then a lead ball which has some give to it. Might not be so easy peasy. However, yeah I'd say the next step for sure.

What is this "peanut oil". Are we talking literally peanut oil? When I used to 1/4 mile race, I'd hear guys talking about putting peanut oil in their fuel, but never understood if that was slang for something else, or actual peanut oil.

If it is, that is pretty thick oil, not sure if it would have much penetrating properties. ?? Just a thought, but I'd flush that bore out with kerosene, or something like that, alcohol, gas, or what ever, (don't light up a cigar) and then put some serious penetrating oil down the bore to soak. I think even WD40 would be better, or liquid wrench. Or something other than "peanut oil" or Rem oil. Probably some other products out there more suitable to your "situation". Then I'd try to grease or blow it out.

Don't feel too bad. I have a replica 1861 Springfield, and when I first got it, got to looking at the tulip shaped tip of the ram-rod, and got to thinking: "that would work as a jag". So I tried it, seemed to work great. Then I tried it in a fouled bore. No kidding, I was pretty sure the barrel would have to be un-breeched. I mean, it was STUCK, and no "give" to a steel "jag" and a steel bore. But, it finally came free after some soaking, (but clamped in the bench vise will all my weight and strength pulling on the rifle) but I sure thought I'd bought the farm for a couple of days.

Well Darth, good luck, hope you get that out soon. One steep learning curve, aye?
 
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Why would you use peanut oil? Liquid Wrench or Kroil would be better choices. The CO2 discharger or grease would be the better choices. I don't know how strong the discharger is but grease will definitely work. I've used grease to push out pilot bushings in crankshafts.
 
The Hawg has spoken, get to greasing!!! Woodenbow says so too. Yes, Kroil would be a good one, "Break Free", ?, I've never used it but maybe it breaks things free. One could even play mad scientist, and make a mixture of all of the above. !!!
 
hawg said:
Why would you use peanut oil? Liquid Wrench or Kroil would be better choices. The CO2 discharger or grease would be the better choices. I don't know how strong the discharger is but grease will definitely work. I've used grease to push out pilot bushings in crankshafts.
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You're right Hawg, but if peanut oil was all the wife had at hand.... Grease does work very well in pushing.
 
Darth-Vang, you have received sage advice from the previous posters, to which I will add my recommendation to follow. Using a Zerk fitting and a grease gun will save you not only hours of frustration, but also some choice invectives that might be put to better use elsewhere. :rofl:
Best of luck in your efforts.
 
243winxb said:
Then the diameter of the bronze brush is to large. I always measure the brush diameter before using in any firearm. Some brushes are larger then what is marked on the package.

The barrel steel is harder then a brush. Not going to hurt a thing, if done correctly.
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This. ^
A brush cleans with the tips of the bristles, not the sides. Make sure the brush is the correct size for the bore, barely a snug fit.
 
Okay guys! Sorry about the late posts!, Stuff got in the way and I went to a friend's place to shoot out the gun and to no avail it did not come out. I put in 5-10 grains of black powder in the breech, now there is a solid crud blocking the channel between the nipple and the breech. I tried the CO2 but I used the regular one that costs around 25 dollars and not the more expensive specific muzzleloader adapter and it didnt work with the needle tip. I have yet to try the grease gun, what's needed and where can i get the tools and equipment?? It's either that or the gunsmith. Also i bought two cva bobcat muzzleloader and they're both getting damp powders as well, trying to get them sight in but was interrupted with a pop and not a bang after swabbing with 91% alcohol.
 
Quit using saturated patches to swab between shots. Quit using Walmart cleaning patches to swab with, they're too big and too thick. Use the same patches you use for patched balls. A little spit is all you need to swab with. A ramrod with a patched jag shouldn't be hard to push down the bore. Don't use saturated patches to load with either. You can try to clamp the ramrod in a vise and pull the rifle off of it. If that doesn't work you can get a Zerk fitting from NAPA and use a grease gun to push the load out but it's going to be hella messy cleaning it out. Or get the correct CO2 discharger. If you have access to an air compressor you can use an air blower with a rubber tip.
 
BTW, it might have a Nock Patented Chamber (look it up) which requires a bore mop (try 30 cal) to clean out. Here's a link to a thread that discusses them (along with an link to a drawing): link

In using a jag you might be pushing fouiing into the chamber thus causing more problems. Removing the barrel, placing it in coffee can & flushing with hot water could clean it out. Follow up with a 30 cal bore more to clean the chamber.
 
Darth-Vang said:
I put in 5-10 grains of black powder in the breech, now there is a solid crud blocking the channel between the nipple and the breech
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That small charge of BP really didn't ignite when the cap went off ?
 
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hawg said:
Quit using saturated patches to swab between shots. Quit using Walmart cleaning patches to swab with, they're too big and too thick. Use the same patches you use for patched balls. A little spit is all you need to swab with. A ramrod with a patched jag shouldn't be hard to push down the bore. Don't use saturated patches to load with either. You can try to clamp the ramrod in a vise and pull the rifle off of it. If that doesn't work you can get a Zerk fitting from NAPA and use a grease gun to push the load out but it's going to be hella messy cleaning it out. Or get the correct CO2 discharger. If you have access to an air compressor you can use an air blower with a rubber tip.
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And quit using rubbing alcohol. Use "denatured". And like the Hawg says, you don't saturate the patches. Having said that, I only use alcohol (denatured) for the final cleaning of a rifle that I am going to load up for hunting. It's really not something I'd use for swabbing between shots, or for cleaning the gun when dirty/fouled. I only use it to clean a clean gun.

A trick I learned from "Cap and Ball" on YouTube is to swab the bore AFTER you have reloaded for the next shot. (but not primed or capped) That keeps crud and moisture out of the breech. That is more of a serious target shooting technique, but I'm thinking it could keep you from filling your breech with oil or alcohol or whatever.

And don't SWAB. LIGHTLY moisten patch on jag. LIGHTLY.
 
Darth-Vang said:
Also i bought two cva bobcat muzzleloader and they're both getting damp powders as well, trying to get them sight in but was interrupted with a pop and not a bang after swabbing with 91% alcohol.
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Ahhh...c'mon man!!!
 
hawg said:
I would never run a bronze brush down a muzzleloader bore. When you pull it back out the bristles will reverse and a stuck brush will make a stuck patch seem like childs play.
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Wrap a worn brush with common bronze wool. In and our twice and load again
 
Update, Shot again at friends place. Decided to use mink oil from Track of the wolf, no more fouling or black nasty crud at the bottom of the breech. Duly noted that there was less fouling with mink's oil. However ignition was unreliable, i was using pyrodex since I couldn't find real blackpowder around me. What's the best nipple in use with blackpowder substitute? I read hot shot, spitfire, or nipple vent hole with .031-.035 will ignite reliably with blackpowder substitute. The alcohol tick seems to work pretty well for swabbing as I took off the cleaning screw and took a pipe cleaner and swab the breech and it was clean with little to no residue.
 
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