Maintenance ~ Trad Muzzleloaders

[Second-rate Marksman]

Glad to hear from ya Eric. Been pretty quiet lately. Nice to have a young pup on here once in a while.

Thank you! Nice to have someone notice my absence. It's great to see activity ramping up a bit here on the forum. I've got to say... seemed like a ghost town for a while there, or is it just me?

You're so right. There's no shortage of muzzleloaders out there that have obviously been rode hard and put away wet.

[No Powder]

Several days ago, I made a post concerning getting the barrel dry after cleaning. I mentioned the size of my cleaning patches. I'm not suggesting the patch size I use is right  wrong or otherwise. But I would have liked to hear what size patches others use. I recently read about another individual who was using 1" patches in his  .32, and 2" in all other calibers. Just was wondering if I've finally flipped my lid, or are those that agree that patches most often used may be on the small size.

[Rob DiStefano]

.54 to .75 smoothbores get 2-1/4" to 2-1/2" patches.  Patch thickness needs to be whatever allows a "snug" fit so that it will apply a "scrubbing effect", even when wet with water or Ballistol or WD40.  Patching that appears too tight and are of a goodly size can be placed off center on the muzzle to make them easier to push down/out.

Bbls that don't seem to want to come "clean" (light grayish look), or have leading that doesn't seem to wanna come off, can benefit from the Lee Shaver bbl cleaning treatment of making up a special patch by unrolling and cutting off a width of 0000 steel wool, place over a patch, saturate with oil, push down steel wool forward, and pull out.  The overall thickness of this cleaning patch must yield a more than snug fit that will initially require some serious effort to push down past the muzzle (but will go down easier after that).  It helps heaps to use a brass rod.  Extract the cleaning patch and throw away, make another one,  After using up an entire steel wool pad, yer done.  Not only will the bore come clean it will be lapped it at the same time.  Lee has done this process to brand new bbls and without even shooting the gun in practice has won matches (well, it helps to have a world class shooter eye and trigger finger, tool!).  I've done the Lee bbl cleaning to more than a few old and new guns and he's spot on with the results.

[Nessmuk]

I'm probably the only person in the world to do this, as a final wipe I use paper towel patches. Plain paper towel cut to patch size, a single piece for .32 / .36,  double for .40 and above. I use them dry, of course.  they're cheap and available everywhere. if flash rust is a problem, paper towel patches are aslo mildly abrasive and can remove it fairly quickly.