Corrosion scare!

Brutus

Brutus

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West of most places....and in Alberta
Cleaned the new to me muzzleloader (Sunday using very hot water and soap) and on Monday reoiled the barrel. Tuesday I checked it with patches and was horribly surprized to observe red brownish color on the cotton patch. Scrubbed with TC #13 and reoiled again. Wednesday morning more red stuff! Picked up 0000 steel wool and WD40 today and vigorous scrubbing is presently showing a cleaner barrel. The near future should expose any missed steps from myself.
I have no basis of prior experience because my percussion pistol is a smoothbore and the barrel and breech get frequent oil baths and the blunderbuss has an easy to care for brass barrel.

Is this typical with BP rifles?
Am I overreacting??
I like keeping my new(er) to me firearms spic and span!

Going to protect the dry and cleaner barrel with TC Bore Butter later on this evening.
Am I missing anything fellas???

Cheers.........
 
Clean with hot soapy water, rinse with hot water, dry with soft cotton.
protect the surface with a quality gun oil.
Try to avoid pryodex, fouls less but the fouling is more corrosive.
I have used hot water to clean my B.P. guns for almost 50 years with no damage to the guns 0r rust.
 
I use hot tap water not boiling. Found years ago that boiling water seemed to give a flash rust. I use a mix of Ballistol and water for swabbing between shots and strait Ballistol for storing it away. I have not seen any rust since I started to use Ballistol, good stuff!!
 
I don't use plain water in the bores of my guns...Water + Steel = Rust, I use a mixture of water and dish soap with some anti-rust stuff that I got from a machinist. The anti-rust stuff is used to cool tools as they are machined and it prevents rust on the machines as well. After cleaning with this concoction I run a few patches through to dry it then finish up with an oil drenched patch..never had any signs of rust so far.
 
first off it is oxygen in the air that causes rusting. The boiling water cleans the metal so that oxygen can get to it and rust it immediately.
Oxygen dissolved in water is slightly acidic.
Hot soapy tap water is best.
I use a dollar store shower hose that fits on my faucet to run water through till the metal is hot.
Then a few patches and it is dry,
then an oily patch. I have yet to have a b.p. gun rust using hot soapy water.
 
The anti rust stuff Skinny refers to is water-soluble cutting oil - essentially same as Ballistol. Hot water with or without soap will do the trick, as will a 50:50 mixture of water and ethylene glycol antifreeze, that contains rust inhibitors. I have used both with good success. I found that to prevent the brown residue on patches later, I had to dry the wet but clean barrel immediately with 5 or 6 flannel patches then an oily one while the barrel is still warm - assuming you used hot water. Some will wipe the dry barrel with WD-40 to displace any residual water but I have found dry patches followed by oiling to work reliably and well. Good luck.
 
Brutus; I too had this problem not so long ago. No more water for me, I use WD40 exclusively and no more issues. Long term storage solution I'm toying with is a lubriplate type assembly grease swabbed down the bore, the only thing holding me back is I'm not sure how much of a b1tch it is going to be to clean out after its dried {solvent and waxie grease}.
 
Interesting - I've always used boiling water with dish soap, never gave it two thoughts. Was taught that 25 years ago, never stopped, never noticed any rust - always oiled the bore (and surface) immediately. Not sayin' it hasn't happened, just haven't noticed... will watch closer...

Thanks
 
My campaign against a rusty bore has been won. Perhaps I was overly concerned about the rifle gunmetal "sweating" after the intial cleaning and fellow BP shooters up here say this is probably closest to the truth. Presently the rifle bore is protected with Bore Butter.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Cheers.........
 
Brutus said:
My campaign against a rusty bore has been won. Perhaps I was overly concerned about the rifle gunmetal "sweating" after the intial cleaning and fellow BP shooters up here say this is probably closest to the truth. Presently the rifle bore is protected with Bore Butter.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Cheers.........
Click to expand...

G96 or CLP will do the same job
 
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