What method do you use to clean your gun?

[Stormrider51]

I'd like to ask everyone to describe the method they use for cleaning their black powder guns.  From the 1960's on I used boiling water with a couple of drops of dish soap in it.  I'd remove the lock and barrel from the stock while the water was heating.  Once the water was boiling I'd dip the lock in it and scrub with an old toothbrush.  Once clean, I'd spray with WD-40 while still hot and set aside.  Then I'd pump hot water through the barrel, dry with a couple of patches, and oil the bore with WD-40 while still hot.  I never had a problem with rusting.  Later on, when I began working on modern firearms, I was taught that WD-40 will form a gum over time.  I earned a fair amount of money because of customers who would spray their cartridge guns with the stuff and put them away.  Eventually, the gun would gum up and stop working.  I quit using WD-40 altogether and instead used Break Free CLP or one of the other wonder lubes that came along.  I still did the take-down and boiling water method.

Somewhere along the way I read about Dutch Schoultz 99% water-free method.  I quit reading at the first mention of WD-40.  After all, I knew better than to use the stuff.  Then about 4 years ago I retired and we moved to the country.  I have to be careful about the direction I shoot and the available range is short but I can step outside and shoot pretty much whenever I want.  Call me lazy but the boiling water method I had used most of my life seemed time consuming when done every two or three days.  I re-read Dutch's method and decided to give it a try.  I don't mind telling you that I was more than a little anxious and fairly certain I was going to find rust in the bore the day after cleaning.  I still removed the lock and washed it under hot tap water before spraying with WD-40.  I used patches wetted with a 6:1 mixture of water and Ballistol to swab around the vent area until clean.  Then I used more wetted patches to swab the bore until the patch came out no more than light grey.  I ran a couple of dry patches through and then followed with WD-40 soaked patches.  I gave it three of those and then left the fourth one and the ramrod down at the breech just like Dutch said.  I didn't sleep well that night and was up at the crack of dawn to check my gun for rust.  The patch came out showing grey but not a trace of rust.  I ran the same patch back down and left it for another day.  There was still no rust the next time I checked.

Dutch attributes his method to "seasoning" the barrel in the way cast iron cookware has to be to prevent rust.  I really tend to doubt that.  A steel barrel isn't cast iron.  Cast iron is somewhat porous.  I think what makes Dutch's method work is the WD-40 itself.  It was designed to displace water and does that very efficiently.  It also seals the surface of the steel from contact with oxygen.  Black powder fouling is hygroscopic, meaning that it attracts water.  No water and no oxygen means no rust.

So what method do you use?

Storm

[the Black Spot]

Window cleaner with vinegar.

[prairie dog]

Moose milk, soap and water, and Break free.

[Hanshi]

Tap water with a drop of Dawn, swab dry, swab with denatured alcohol, swab again, swab with WD40, swab out the WD40 (either same day or the next day) with alcohol, swab with Barricade or CLP and put up.  I don't remove the barrel of pinned guns but I do remove the lock, clean, dry and oil.  Wipe it all down.

[Bigsmoke]

Remove barrel from rifle, remove nipple from breech and put the breech end into a vegetable can of Ol' Thunder Bore Solvent.  Wet a patch with Ol' Thunder, put it on a ramrod with an appropriate size jag and run that up and down the barrel half a dozen times, which will thoroughly clean the barrel.  Pull the barrel out of the solvent and set the barrel down with the muzzle pointing down.  While it is draining out, I take another patch wet with OL' Thunder and wipe the stock and lock area off.  Take a clean, dry patch and dry the bore.  Might take two.  Then I rub another clean patch with Just Good Lube and swab the bore with that.  Then I put a coat of Just Good Lube on the entire rifle.
You can get the Ol' Thunder and the Just Good Lube from Fletcher.  IMHO, the best stuff on the market.  And, reasonably priced, too.
John

[Stormrider51]

John...what's a nipple?  You mean them newfangled contraptions that use a "cap"?  Won't never catch on.  Just a flash in the pan.  

Storm

[biliff]

Hooked breech guns get the breech in a bucket of hot water treatment, dry patches and then Ballistol patches.

Pinned barrels get the hot water treatment down the muzzle, drained, dried and ballistolled.

[TallTexan]

My hooked breech gets the soap and water submersion followed by clean water, dried and then Barricade.  My pinned rifles get a water/soap patch, then water patch, dried with patches and then Barricade.  I too can't bring myself to use WD-40 on any of my firearms again but I am going to try a cleaning patch dipped in the Murphy's oil soap mixture that I can't remember the rest of the ingredients right now.  I haven't been out shooting in a year now but I'm always planning a trip at least.

One thing that cuts down on a great deal of cleaning for me is the use of alcohol dampened patches between shots and right before leaving the range.  That alone removes at least 75% of the fouling right away.

[wattlebuster]

I aint found anything that will top the old water, tow scrub method an then after a good dry chase it with a bear oil patch. I even wipe the outside metal with bear oil. It works in the Alabama humidity with no rust in or out of the barrel

[Fletcher]

Thanks Bigsmoke.  When I got started about 28 years ago there were as many leaning options
as ML shooters - maybe a few more.  At the Cascade Mountain Men Trade Show - then in Enumclaw
I met Bigsmoke and told him about my ML program for the Boy Scouts.  He got me going with Ol' Thunder
and it was the best range and trail lube and the best cleaner as well.  Did not not to boil all that water.
The damp patch serves as a lube and cleaner on each shot, so not need to 'clean' after every shot or 2.
We had several Scout shoots where more than 400 shots were made per gun per day - we only did a
quick clean at lunch time then a full clean at night. Our biggest event had 196 boys and a bunch of adults as well.

Bottom line - I liked it so well that I bought the company.  Now Ol' Thunder is a water based lube/cleaner
so great for shots that have little time with the patch sitting on it - like range or trail.  On a hunt where the
patched ball may go all day without firing you need a waterproof lube.  That is where I offer Just Good Lube,
an all natural beeswax and Jojoba oil concoction that works great for hunting loads and cleans up just fine with
Ol' Thunder.

I am working on Just Good 'Revolver' Lube that is beeswax and Canola oil.  It is less expensive and great for
lube and seal of black powder cylinder pistols.  The trick is getting a one size fits all temperatures.  Too cold and
it is stiff and gummy - too hot runny.  I may have to settle for 'summer' and 'winter' formulas.  Here in Montana
we can see 100 in summer and -30 in winter, and a man never lets a little weather git in the way of shootin'

[Ron T.]

With my older CVA, .50 caliber cap-lock that I shoot the most, I remove the screw from the drum, then remove the barrel from the stock and sit the barrel (butt first) into a small bucket of lightly soapy, hot (130º) tap water.  I find the hot tap water, dab of liquid soap method works for me.  

The only thing I do that might be "different" is after swabbing the dirty barrel with a clean patch on my jag, I run a .50 caliber sized, nylon bore brush up and down the barrel several times, wetting it in the hot, soapy water after a few "swabs" and running it up and down in the barrel several more times.

Then I throw out the dirty water and replace it with clean water and put a new, clean patch on the jag, and with the bottom of the barrel still in the clean water, I clean out any remaining soap scum that might still be in the barrel.  Then I once again throw out the semi-clean water and replace it with the hot, clean tap water (130º) once again... and, with the barrel still in the water, I swab the barrel with another clean patch on the jag several times.

Then I blow air pressure from a small double-tank air-pressure unit (available at Harbor Freight for about $100) down the barrel first, then when the barrel seems dry, I put the air-gun's nozzle up against the empty drum's screw opening and blow into the opening clearing the flash-hole, nipple and flash channel until it is completely dry, when I give the bore (at the muzzle) another "shot" of 100 pounds-per-square-inch air to insure the bore and flash-channel is as dry as possible.

At that point, I slide a small light down the barrel and look carefully at the lands and grooves to insure no further "gunk" remains (and the bore is usually very clean at that time).  Then I slide the light out of the bore and shut it off.

Then, with a small, pressurized can of Ballistol, I give the flash-channel a quick "shot" of the Ballistol oil, then I blow the jag dry and put a clean, fairly oily (Ballistol) patch on the jag and run it up and down the barrel at least 6 times, changing it's position after each down & up movement of the jag.

Then, I blow the excess Ballistol out of the bore and the flash-channel, then slide the little light down the bore to insure it looks very shiny, then I remove the light and slide another clean, oily patch down the barrel to insure all of the bore has a light coating of Ballistol on it, clean the debris out of the stock and wipe the exterior of the barrel with the clean, oily patch I used on the bore.  I then re-insert the barrel, lightly oil (Ballistol) the wedge and re-insert the wedge in the slot in the stock and the job is done.

I then put a folded over (several times) soft paper towel on the carpet behind the door to my computer room and place the rifle, muzzle-down on the paper towel, to allow any excess Ballistol to drain out and not "puddle" in the flash channel.  I lean the butt-stock of the rifle up against the woodwork behind the door and the job is finished.

The next time I go to the Club's rifle range to use the rifle, I fire one percussion cap close to leaves and debris on the ground to insure all the Ballistol is gone and the flash-channel is cleared, load the rifle with 47 grains of Goex FFFg, add a thin vegetable-fiber over-powder wad on top of the powder charge, add the lubed, patched ball, add a cap to the rifle's nipple... and start my shooting.

Total cleaning time:  ± 20-25 minutes.


Strength and Honor...

Ron T.

[sse]

Various ways, and I still need to read the wisdom already posted.  But, I learned the hard way that the last thing you do, after swabbing, brushing, squirting, what have you, with your favorite cleaner, always rinse thoroughly with good clean water!  Get all the substance outta there!  Otherwise, it will just harbor moisture and after covering it over with your favorite preservative, it will rust!

After the water rinse and dry swab, I will swab with 91% rubbing alcohol to get it it as dry as possible.  Then, I'll let it sit for a few days and then swab.  If the swab comes out perfectly clean, I'll swab with preservative and be done.

[snake eyes]

sse,
    Jim, that alcohol step sounds like a good move. I'll have to give it a try.
      I would like to propose another along the same lines. Do you do anything different
when storing for long periods of time. Like many here I am sure you have many guns
that don't get shot on a regular basis. I have some I have not shot for months even
a few years.A couple new ones I have never fired. My current method is just bring a
couple out every couple months wipe them down,re-oil the barrels and put them back.
Never have had a rust problem [/color]

[sse]

I never prep a a muzzleloader for long term storage...after confirming there is no rust, I swab in some bore butter.  One thing that has never happened, never found rust later on after doing this.

[snake eyes]

Jim,
     What do you consider long term.....I'm sure you don't mean forever.....you ain't
lived that long yet.....HAVE YOU? [/color]