i am on a tight budget and have heard of some cleaners that work to clean a muzzleloader, i was wondering if they work and what others i might use. i have heard that windex will clean a muzzleloader good, as well as boiling lemon peels in water and using the water to clean it. what else can i use?, i have a optima and can clean fairly easy. i have checked in stores and those factory cleaners are more than i can afford right now. my wife won't let me use the bathtub any more she don't like that black mess in the tub. so i need something besides just hot water. i will need something i can use on my back porch to take pyrodex out of the barrel good, thanks for your help.
M.A.P. = a 5 part solution consisting of 1 part Murphy's oil soap, 2 parts Rubbing Alcohol (I prefer 91%) and 2 parts peroxide (3%). Its cheap and it works great on Pyrodex. And contrary to some reports it does not cause flash rusting. Its the only ML cleaner I've used the last 4 years.
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Are we talking range swabbing cleanup, or home before storage cleanup? For the former, when I've use Pyrodex, BP or T7 I've always just used a bucket (of if the old lady will allow you to get away with it, the kitchen sink) of hottest tap water you can run with a squirt of Dawn dish soap. Swab with a "bore mop" a few times, flush with clean hot water and allow the now very hot metal to dry several minutes (it goes very fast because the barrel will be pretty hot). An air compressor with a hand-held air blower helps speed the process. Once dry, apply a decent amount of your favorite gun metal preservative (I use Break-Free CLP) to all metal surfaces and go crack open a beer, 'cause you're good-to-go.
Pyrodex is easy to clean. Pyrodex is one of the easy ones to clean. Simple soap and water like you might do dishes in. Apply it to patches and swab the bore until clean. Solvents are for the hard to remove stuff like lead, copper, and plastic solvents.
You can also use Windex, 409 cleaner, Simple Green, and as Nim said, MAP.
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I used to use plain Murphys Oil Soap in water, because some old timer back in the email group days told me to do it when I was starting out. My barrel always ended up with some rust in it no matter what I did. Perhaps the alcohol/peroxide fixes that?
Now I use 777 and plain water followed by light oil, and I have zero rust issues.
Been using Windex with vinegar since i got back into blackpowder about ten years ago. Windex with vinegar is less than five percent vinegar and it will not harm your gun. It eats the residue and crud left from firing 777, Pyrodex, Black Mag III, Pinnacle and back powder. i also use Windex with vinegar to swab between shots when using Pyrodex and 777.
Wet a rag or paper towel with it and you can wipe off the crud. Sometimes you can see the fizz as the acid in the vinegar eats up the base in the powder residue.
Mike Venturino, the former black powder editor of Shooting Times magazine, got me onto Windex with vinegar.
CLEANING:After each stage wipe off the front of the cylinder and the hammer, hammer notch, and nipples with a shop towel. If fouling around the hammer is dry and crusty, then use a shop towel wetted with Windex with Vinegar and water. If, using American Pioneer Powder, Pinnacle, or 777, you need bore cleaning between stages, something is wrong.
At the end of the day take the cylinder out. Spray it with Windex with Vinegar. Clean the nipple area with the toothbrush. Personally, I never remove the nipples. Instead I clean the outside of the nipples with the toothbrush, then turn them 180° with a nipple wrench and repeat, then retighten. Don't lube the cylinder. It's stainless. Dry it. Toothbrush fouling off the frame after dousing with Windex/vinegar. Clean and lube the base pin with lubricant of choice. Run a Bore Snake through the bore (Windex on front end, lubricant on back end). Lube with lubricant of choice. Reassemble.
I really prefer Cayugad's directions for a complete and thourough clean up... for fast and easy clean up - I use windex, but I prefer blue windex with ammonia.... Ammonia is a metal stripper as well as solvent.
The amount ammonia in windex is minimal but sufficient to be a great cleaner.
The suggestion of using Windex with ammonia came from Dan Lilja of Lilja Precision Barrels...
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Water in a coffee can on the back porch. It's all you need. Doesn't even have to be hot. Put the barrel in and swab away. Adding Murphy's or Dawn detergent is a help - to cut the dirt a bit faster but plain water will do the trick.
Minimal water use. Try this: take one cup of lukewarm water. Add 1/2 cap of Murphy's or Dawn. Seal the touch hole or nipple. Carefully add the soapy water to the barrel. Fill to the muzzle. Let the rifle stand for 30 minutes.
Come back to it. Dump the dirty water. Swab out any residue. Then swab until patrches are dry and clean.
Pete
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cheap cleaner for pyrodex?
