# Muzzleloader Cleaning Problem



## deerterminator

Recently after cleaning my ML i noticed alot of build up and a small amount of rust in the barrel. i clean by:
1. i use a wire brush down the barrel
2. then i use wet patches until they come out clean
3.then i run 3 dry patches
4. then 3 patches with bore butter

thanks for reading. please give me some advice :sniper:


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## rogerw

What do you use as a solvent? Are you shooting Blackpowder, or what?

In cleaning my flintlocks and percussion locks guns, using patches simply wetted with solvent would not do. It would take too long, and would not be as effective as pouring some solvent into the breech and agitate it with the rod/jag/patch to dissolve fouling.

I use murphy oil soap and alcohol, 50/50, as a cleaning solvent for BP. I seal the breech (toothpick in the touch-hole or leather "gasket" over the nipple) and pour about an inch into the breech, then use a range rod with jag/patch to produce "washing-machine" motion in the breech, and also drawing the wet patch up the length of the barrel several times. Then pour out and drain. Use the wet patch to clean the exterior while it drains. Then repeat process. After twice, it is usually pretty clean. Sometimes three times. Pretty cheap cleaning solution, readily available, and the MOS film left behind is a protective vegetable oil film. Not good enough in very moist environments however.

You can do the same thing with hot water or cold water. Water is a great solvent for BP combustion products. Must be dried well and oiled. Very cheap....this is the way the oldtimers cleaned guns, and water was used up to WW2 even in smokeless guns to get rid of the corrosive primer fouling.

Personally I have no use for store-bought purpose-made blackpowder solvents because it is so cheap and easy to use either MOS+alcohol, or water.

I make it a practice to re-check my barrel again three days after shooting and cleaning. If any rust is inadvertently forming that is a good time to detect and correct. I find that with MOS and alcohol, I seldom have a problem like I used to.

I have almost never used a brush in an ML....just a jag/patch, and it works fine.

I am no help with an inline, no experience there. It is that removable breech that is forcing you to think in terms of wetted patches instead of pouring some solvent into the breech. I think you would have to come up with a way to seal the 209 recess to follow my scheme. Perhaps a bit of leather gasket would do it....

If you are using something other than BlackPowder, then find out what the manufacturer suggests to use.... my understanding is that some are using regular nitro solvent...Hoppes#9. I doubt that is really very good with other than nitro based powders, and is considerably more expensive for a given volume than water or MOS+Alky but what the heck!

YHS,
rogerw


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## crosshunt

ill try to keep this short:

how ive always done mine is just get a bucket of hot water with just a little bit of dawn dish soap and i remove the barell and remove the nipple from the barrel and just put the one closed end in the bucket and run the rod with the jag/patch through the barrel till you come out with a clean patch, while this whole time just letting the nipple soak in the water. once clean i remove from the bucket and run more patches through it till it is completly dry. then coat a patch with bore butter and run it through the barell and wipe down the outside the same. and for the nipple i just use a q-tip and brush. but i have never used a steel brush to clean the barrel.

once im done cleaning it before i shoot it again i fire a dry cap or 2 through it just to make sure it didnt happen to build up any moisture or anything.

but if you have an inline i dont have any experience with that so sorry


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## darkgael

I like the "barrel in the bucket" idea. 
That's what I do.
Pete


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## alleyyooper

When you use Bore butter you will some times get a reddish tint on your patch. It has some thing to the BB ageing.

Even an inline can be cleaned in a pail of hot soapy water. Stick the muzzle in the pail of soapy water wrap a towel around the breach end then pump water up and down in the bore with a patch on a jag. Don't pump so hard you get gobs of water coming out the breach end just a little works and the towel catches it. Rince the hot soapy water out with clean non soapy water.

If you inline is a Remington 700 it came with a extention tube for doing that. It used the BP threads.

 Al


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## rogerw

crosshunt said:


> ill try to keep this short:
> 
> how ive always done mine is just get a bucket of hot water with just a little bit of dawn dish soap....


I heartily agree. Although I used to use this method, my bucket got a hole in it...  But it worked fine before that.... If a inline is to be bucketed, it must go muzzle first I suppose, and I would put some padding in the bottom to receive the muzzle without damage. Other than that, it is a "good to go" idea.

Seriously, I simply found that when camping/hunting it was more covenient to clean without a bucket and soapy water.

Windex is another very effective solvent and means of cleaning a ML and much cheaper than the store-bought purpose-made ML solvents.

YHS,
rogerw


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## Savage260

Just shoot BlackHorn and use Hoppes. Much better than putting water in your barrel!!!


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## deerterminator

thanks every one. just to let you know i am shooting 100 grains of pyrodex pellets and 250 grain tc shockwaves. i will try your advice and let you know how it works out :sniper:


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## alleyyooper

Not every one has a rifle that can shoot BH 209, remember the instructions say it takes a 209 primer to light the stuff off.
Another factor is the cost of the stuff and the outlets where it cam be bought. Few and far in between unless you live near a bigger city that has the likes of a Bass Pro Shop, Sportsman outlet,Gander mountian or Cebalas.

Get a way cheaper Muzzle loader to shoot, a Savage smokeless. Powder is cheaper than most real black powders and subs. And the clean up is just like a center fire rifle.

 Al


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## wburns

Switch to triple seven. I did in my TC Hawkens and it is amazing how much cleaner it burns than Pyrodex. I too had problems with the barrel getting rust in it when shooting pyrodex, even when I used the bucket method. Now I just use CVA bore foam, fill it full let it set a couple hours, clean and repeat and then I am finished. I then run a patch with bore butter down it and I am finished. Works well for me. Others don't like bore butter as a preventive measure for rust and use other petroleum products but I have had no problem with it.


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