I am confused about the hotwater cleaning

[slsail]

So why don't i use the "modern leaning solutions" .

Is this a once a year thing with the water. I use presaturated cleaning patches then some bore cleaner wipe it clean the lube.

Why the hot water???

[BowHuntingFool]

I'm no expert by far but I'll clean mine with hot water when I'm done shooting it for a while. If I go to the range and shoot when I come home I'll clean it with hot water. My Muzzleloader hunting season will be done this weekend and I'll clean it with hot water on Sunday night when I get home form the evening hunt! The hot water gets in those tight spots in the barrel. One thing I did learn is to have all your cleaning patches ready to go before you start the hot water cleaning, the surface rust sets in quickly!

[lemoyne]

water is what they call the universal solvent. Hot water opens the pours of the metal and properly used will clean them out; the residue in the pours is quite capable of being the starting point for rust. It is eay to rust up a barrel that properly taken care of much less one that is not. Lee

[cayugad]

Lee is right one the money there. The other reason I use a water bath is.. cost!!! Very hot water and some dish soap. I steal it right out of the kitchen. And they used to claim I did not know where the dish soap was kept..

Actually there is no powder fowling that hot water will not remove. Now I am not saying that the solvent is not a good thing.. Not by far. I take and give the rifle a HOT water bath. This will remove 99.999% of the fowling from the rifle barrelI CAN SEE. I then like to pour boiling water down the barrel. And yes I know people will say it causes flash rust. Well it never happened to me. Wearing some gloves, I grab that hot barrel and swab it with a good solvent patch. This solvent patch now has access to the open pours in the metal. It will pull out anything that the water might have missed. Also the solvent or alcohol will displace moisture. Also a very hot barrel will dry it self. So I have the water bath, now a couple solvent patches, now use some dry patches to insure that barrel is bone dry. Now I swab the barrel with a good gun oil patch. This oil also gets into the hot pores of the metal bore, and as it cools down, that oil is in all them pores and surface areas. That barrel will not rust. I never had flash rust or a barrel rust.

After I am sure the barrel is spotless and oiled, I now take Q-tips and start to really clean. I pour some solvent in a cap of a plastic #11 tin. (use the bottom as some brands have a very small hole in the top to allow moisture to escape and it also allows solvent to leak out). With solvent covered Q-tips I clean along and through the scope bases, around the sights, etc. I take a patch and soak out the lid solvent when I am sure the rifle is clean, and use that to wipe out the breech plugs (after a water bath of their own) and any strikers, scopes, etc. When I am sure all those parts are clean, I use the oil patch again and wipe all that down, and then reassemble the rifle like normal. At this point I swab the barrel one final time with a lightly oiled patch. There will be no rust on it.