Blackpowder bore cleaner ideas

Potashminer said:
When I had an in-line muzzle loader, I was shown just to keep a patch in my mouth - make it "spit wet" - that was mostly to swab bore after firing to get next sabot down that tube. The boiling water thing - was from old British Army, I think - at end of day, that the rifles had been fired. Not two weeks later - that day ...
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Definitely that day, been there done that!
 
bearhunter said:
This/\

That's why the Ballistol.

To say BP doesn't promote corrosion???? Mix water with sulphur residue and you will get corrosion. Not right away, and if you live in a very dry area, maybe not for a few months.

If you live in a high humidity area, or store your rifles where they can get condensation on them, you will get rust, inside and out.

My firearms are in relatively dry storage, in safes or safe room but I don't take any chances with with them. That's why the wipe down with Sheath on the outside and the final film of 50/50 Kroil/Slicker.

Keeping BP rifles clean and lubed is cheap and easy, why take a chance on ruining the appearance of a valuable antique or even a modern clone???
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Plain old water works just fine I like hot water as it will evaporate quickly never seen much use for anything else in the mix and real BP fouling isn’t something that I ever needed to clean in the field as were in the modern world and shoot/hunt close enough to home/camp that it’s the least of our worries.
As for a protective coating any oil does the job just be sure if it’s petroleum based to swab put the bore before shooting or you will get a tar like substance.
If you want to go traditional tallow works well as a protective grease theirs guns that used tallow as a protective layer that look great after 150 years. Not to mention it’s a great use of resources as most animals have some fat that can be rendered down.
 
I was once told that the one thing men could do better than women was to urinate down the barrel of a musket, to wash away and dissolve black powder residue. Apparently that's actually a decent cleaning solution!
 
As far as cleaning between shots, that depends on what you are dong. If target shooting, I have never felt the need to run a cleaning patch down the bore even when shooting a 50 Round string. I use saliva for my patch lube (best there is IMO) and make my patch pretty well (not dripping but not just damp either). This will clean the bore every time you load and give consistent accuracy shot to shot. Not that it really matters but I cut my patch materiel in strips and hold the end of the strip in my mouth getting it soaked through while accesssing my powder horn and pouring in the powder charge, Then short start (sprue up if the ball has one) then cut off the patch material. You WILL get a ring of fouling near the bottom that after several shots, the the ball is not going all the way home with normal pressure on the rod (I mark all my rods so I know when the ball is home). When that develops, I just put the handle of my short starter on the rod, holding it between my fingers and RAM the ball home breaking up that ring. However, for hunting, saliva is a poor choice as the gun stays loaded for an extended period and the "lube" will dry out, For hunting I use bear grease. Make a fine lube but will offer NO cleaning on subsequent shots. For cleaning, when practical, take the barrel out of the stock and put the breech end in a pail of water, wet a patch and run it down, it is VERY important to get that patch very wet before running it down. if you run it down dry, it WILL get stuck part way down then you are in for a LOT of fun getting it back out, then run that patch up and down several times drawing the water in then pushing it back out the touch hole/nipple. In my experience, water temp is not important. When the water coming out on the down stroke is clean, dry and wipe down (inside and out) with fluid film and you are done. You can change the water in the pail (I use an ice cream bucket) as it will get grey and be difficult to tell if the water coming out of the barrel is actually clear, especially if you only have a couple inches of water in the pail. On rifles that you don't want to remove the barrel, just keep running WET patches down until they come out clean(with the lock removed). It is also a good idea to wrap a rag around the lock area to catch any water so the contaminated water does not run out the touch hole as it can/will stain the stock.
 
Licensed to kill said:
As far as cleaning between shots, that depends on what you are dong. If target shooting, I have never felt the need to run a cleaning patch down the bore even when shooting a 50 Round string. I use saliva for my patch lube (best there is IMO) and make my patch pretty well (not dripping but not just damp either). This will clean the bore every time you load and give consistent accuracy shot to shot. Not that it really matters but I cut my patch materiel in strips and hold the end of the strip in my mouth getting it soaked through while accesssing my powder horn and pouring in the powder charge, Then short start (sprue up if the ball has one) then cut off the patch material. You WILL get a ring of fouling near the bottom that after several shots, the the ball is not going all the way home with normal pressure on the rod (I mark all my rods so I know when the ball is home). When that develops, I just put the handle of my short starter on the rod, holding it between my fingers and RAM the ball home breaking up that ring. However, for hunting, saliva is a poor choice as the gun stays loaded for an extended period and the "lube" will dry out, For hunting I use bear grease. Make a fine lube but will offer NO cleaning on subsequent shots. For cleaning, when practical, take the barrel out of the stock and put the breech end in a pail of water, wet a patch and run it down, it is VERY important to get that patch very wet before running it down. if you run it down dry, it WILL get stuck part way down then you are in for a LOT of fun getting it back out, then run that patch up and down several times drawing the water in then pushing it back out the touch hole/nipple. In my experience, water temp is not important. When the water coming out on the down stroke is clean, dry and wipe down (inside and out) with fluid film and you are done. You can change the water in the pail (I use an ice cream bucket) as it will get grey and be difficult to tell if the water coming out of the barrel is actually clear, especially if you only have a couple inches of water in the pail. On rifles that you don't want to remove the barrel, just keep running WET patches down until they come out clean(with the lock removed). It is also a good idea to wrap a rag around the lock area to catch any water so the contaminated water does not run out the touch hole as it can/will stain the stock.
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I'm going to have to try the ice cream bucket idea, thanks
 
Ammonia based cleaners are good for copper fouling but offer no more cleaning advantage for black powder fouling and lead bullets than ordinary soap and water.
However one can use whatever they want, I suppose.
Cat
 
iron cat said:
Ammonia based cleaners are good for copper fouling but offer no more cleaning advantage for black powder fouling and lead bullets than ordinary soap and water.
However one can use whatever they want, I suppose.
Cat
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To take that one step further, soap and water offers no more cleaning advantage for black powder fouling than just plain water. However, adding some kind of soap won't hurt either.
 
Licensed to kill said:
To take that one step further, soap and water offers no more cleaning advantage for black powder fouling than just plain water. However, adding some kind of soap won't hurt either.
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On a rifle I think the soap helps get a tight fitting patch down the bore, but I agree, with shotguns I have used straight water and it did a good job as well.
Cat
 
iron cat said:
On a rifle I think the soap helps get a tight fitting patch down the bore, but I agree, with shotguns I have used straight water and it did a good job as well.
Cat
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Point taken. When cleaned using the flush method described in my previous post, a tight patch is not necessary as the water is pulled and pushed in and out of the barrel and will clean right to the bottom of the rifling. Having said that, I use the same cleaning patches regardless of which method I use with good results. Not a "sloppy" fitting patch but not a uber tight one either. I can typically push the patch down the bore with very little effort IF the patch is soaking wet. It does take a bit more effort on the first down stroke when it is pushing through dry fouling though but not a lot. No harm in adding soap.
 
So just as an experiment this weekend I fouled some breech plugs. Dunked them in a mix of water and aerosol AC Delco glass cleaner (very high ammonia). That definitely works wonders.

Still did the bore with boiling water followed by light oil.
 
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