I'm new to muzzleloading and shot my muzzleloader for the first time recently. I feel like I cleaned it well enough, but there's residue in the barrel a couple days later even after I run seasoning patch down. What do I do next?
Tell us a little more detail about how you cleaned it and what products you used to clean,oiland "season" the barrel with.
__________________
"Yes, well, I’m polymerized tree sap and you’re an inorganic adhesive, so whatever verbal projectile you launch in my direction is reflected off of me, returns to its original trajectory and adheres to you." - Sheldon Cooper
Not knowing how you cleaned it - let me tell you how I clean mine. Both traditionals and inline.
1. soak breach end in hot soapy water for a couple mins.
2. remove breach plug, nipple, or flashhole liner.
3. attachnylon brush to cleaning rod and dip in water and scrub bore a few times. (this step is optional)
4. attach jag to cleaning rod, wet patch and scrub bore in short strokes going deeper each time until you reach the bottom. then longer strokes. this creates a vacuum effect and flushes water through the bore.
5. rinse barrel with hot clear water. (I may run a patch with T17 through the bore to verify cleanliness)
6. dry bore with a couple patches
7.wipe bore with one alcohol patch and 2 dry patches (this removes any residual water in the bore)
8. coat bore with a light coat of quality gun oil or bore butter.
9 wipe down exterior of bore (if a caplock, pay attention to the bolster area)
10. clean breach plug, nipple or flash hole liner and apply anti sieze or teflon tape and reinstall.
I've been cleaning my MLs this way for about 30 years and never had a problem with rust.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
Troutman10 - with the little information provided,I am going to have to guess. First off, I appears you shoot a Triumph. So it being an inline I hope you're not treating the bore with Bore Butter seasoning patches. The bore butter could be your real problem if that's what you're doing.
Bronko gave a good description of how to clean a inline rifle. If you were using bore butter and you did not do everything perfect, you run the risk of rusting your bore. Also bore butter will build up in your bore.
If you have used bore butter, I would suggest you boil the barrel. Get a tea pot and get it full of boiling water. Take the barrel outside, set it some where, and pour boiling water through it. The boiling water will melt the wax out of the barrel. It will also super heat the barrel so be careful and wear some gloves when you handle it.
After you have the bore butter out of the barrel, take a patch with alcohol on it. Swab the bore good. The alcohol will help displace any water that might be in the bore. After the alcohol patch push a couple dry patches through the bore. Check them and see if they are dry after they come out. When they come out dry, then with a quality gun oil saturate a patch and swab the bore. As the barrel cools it will suck that oil up into the metal.
Before you shoot next time, take a patch, apply some alcohol and swab the bore. The alcohol will take the oil out of the bore. Then a couple dry patches, pop a primer or two, and your ready to load and shoot.
__________________
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
First time I heard about the teflon tape, that sounds like a good idea. Will it will workfor my T/C Omega breech plug?
Troutman, what kind of propellant did you use? Pellets, BP, T7, Pyro, BH209? Some foul more than others. I am only 4 months old to MLng myself and am still learning. I thought this was going to be a new hobby that I could just mosey on through but........no. I am all in. Welcome to MLng and all these folks here are great sources of information. I learn more and more every day.
Powerfisher - yes the teflon tape will work for your Omega. I use both the teflon tape and the antisieze (paranoid I guess). But a trick that I think Sabotloader and Cayugad passed on to me is to slightly overlap the tape over the leading edge of the breach plug to form a good seal and prevent blowback. I know it greatly reduced the blowback in my Genesis.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
I put some on my Omega breech plug last night and it did work well. Nice seal and none of that Breech Plug Grease to deal with. I need to get some anti-sieze though. Thanks for the tip.
Sorry I had so little info before. I appreciate everyone's responses. OK basically here's what I did. I shot 4 times with 777. I then used T/C t17 bore solvent to break up the crud ring close to the breach plug (did this a couple times to really make sure I broke the ring up). Next Irotated dry & wet patches a couple times and when Isaw patches coming out clean. I then ran a T/C t17 seasoning patch or two down to season the bore.The barrel looked nice and clean afterwards until I looked down the barrel a couple days later and saw some sort of residue between the rifling. The residue wasn't there after I originally cleaned it. I ran a couple seasoning patches down to get rid of the residue. It looked ok again, but came back a couple days later. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.
I think the seasoning patches you are using are not putting a protective coating in the bore. Clean that bore with isopropyl alcohol then a couple dry patches. After that swab the bore with a good quality gun oil, then check the rifle a couple days later.
__________________
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
Troutman - I went down and read the label on my bottle of T17. The label does say that it has a rust inhibitor added. This may be the residue you are seeing if you are not drying the bore and using gun oil.
I have found that T17 is an excellent cleaner for BP and its substitutes. My history with it was to use it initially at the range before coming home, then after a hot water bath and rinse to be sure all fouling was removed. I then dried the bore thoroughly with alcohol patches and dry patches the a light coat of gun oil while the barrel was still hot.
__________________ PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE RISING COST IN AMMO PRICES I WILL NO LONGER BE FIRING A WARNING SHOT.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
I'm not as good as I'm gonna get - but I'm better than I used to be. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point."
Barrel Residue
