When using BlackHorn 209, how often do you clean your Breech Plug?
I see some just clean out the barrel after a shooting session and drill out the plug, but not take it out. How often should you clean the threads. Could you get away from not cleaning the plug for lets say 6 weeks?
D
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Thumb-Hole Omega 50cal with Nikon Omega BDC
After every range session the BP gets a total cleaning. After I clean the fire channel with a drill bit, I coat the thing with Blue Wonder and let it sit while I clean the rest of my rifle. I then take a nylon bore brush and scrub the BP quickly with it, then rinse it off in the sink. Whatever didn't rinse off, I just rub with a small bit of super fine steel wool and it looks like new with very little effort.
If I fire the gun in the field I don't bother cleaning the BP.
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"Well if it ain't loaded and c0cked, it don't shoot." -Rooster Cogburn
Doug, I think you are oversimplifying. Shooting Blackhorn and as far as that goes I have had them do it with 777, the flame channel from the base of the 209 to the touch hole carbons up. Now you can let it go until it causes misfires but most people like to clean it out with a drill an 1/8 inch if the BP has not been modified letting the BP carbon up past about 12 shots in most guns will affect both the group and the ignition. This is variable in some ways when I started modding my breach plugs I was working with this also that's why the flame channel in my modded BP are longer than the mods used by some of the others. I clean mine when I clean the gun after I shoot. You mentioned the threads, If the threads are wrapped right there should not be much cleaning involved if you are using grease instead of Teflon tape you have a bit more mess to clean up. If you use 777 be careful if is known to freeze BP's.
At the end of the day, after EVERY shooting session, I remove the breech plug, clean the threads, plug and rifle thoroughly.
The only exception I see some HUNTERS doing is when they load up for the season, they do not clean the rifle at the end of the day. But it would be interesting to hear from them, what do they do if say... during the course of the day you have three shots. Do you leave the rifle and plug for the future hunts without cleaning, or do you take the rifle, break it down, and thoroughly clean it?
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"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."
I told this story on some forum, but i'm not sure which one, so if i'm repeating myself. I'm old.
I always clean my gun after shooting it. One day after shooting I came home and got busy. I completely forgot to clean the gun. I went to bed and my eyes popped open at 3am. I remembered I had forgot to clean the gun. I couldn't get back to sleep thinking about it. I gave in, and got up and cleaned it. I went back to bed happy, and slept like a baby.
So, not cleaning my guns is not an option for me.
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Accuracy is everything.........Wyatt Earp
At the end of the day, after EVERY shooting session, I remove the breech plug, clean the threads, plug and rifle thoroughly.
The only exception I see some HUNTERS doing is when they load up for the season, they do not clean the rifle at the end of the day. But it would be interesting to hear from them, what do they do if say... during the course of the day you have three shots. Do you leave the rifle and plug for the future hunts without cleaning, or do you take the rifle, break it down, and thoroughly clean it?
I use BH209 and I took 8 deer last year with my MLer over a 2week period and did not clean my gun, the entire time. humidity was high as it rained or snowed most of that 2 weeks. I wiped the outside down after being in the rain but other than that nothing. No rust, another plus to your devil advocate post
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2010 TenPoint Phantom CLS
.50 cal Thompson Center Endeavor Limited Edition
At the end of the day, after EVERY shooting session, I remove the breech plug, clean the threads, plug and rifle thoroughly.
The only exception I see some HUNTERS doing is when they load up for the season, they do not clean the rifle at the end of the day. But it would be interesting to hear from them, what do they do if say... during the course of the day you have three shots. Do you leave the rifle and plug for the future hunts without cleaning, or do you take the rifle, break it down, and thoroughly clean it?
I'm not this type of hunter, but I've witnessed many of the guys I hunt with act in a similar manner. I personally clean my rifle at the end of the day. It doesn't matter if I fired it 3x, or not.
When it comes to the rest of the guys I hunt with it seems we have two groups. A handful of them clean it after shooting it occasionally, but most of the time they just load it again and hunt with it the next few days. Sometimes they clean them on the weekends after hunting all week, but more often than not they wait until the end of the 2 week hunting season and then clean them. I don't know anyone that shoots BH209, so usually by this time the barrels are pretty rusted and are pitted by the time they do clean them. However, they shoot well enough for them and they don't seem to have any problems other than having a muzzle loader in worse shape than I'd like it to be if it was mine.
The other group shoot's theirs and doesn't or very rarely cleans them. These things literally look like the bore has been in the ocean for years. It's rust caked up inside of it. I tried to tell one friend he needs to start cleaning these things, and he proceeded to tell me that there was no point in cleaning them because he'd never seen a muzzle loader with no rust. I then had to mention to him that mine had no rust, and it was because I cleaned it. It saddens me because he owns several and several of them are pretty nice, and they are just basically ruined. His solution is "shoot" the rust out each year. Last year he was complaining because his wouldn't shoot well at all and they had trouble getting it sighted in. Hmm, I wonder why. There are about 5 or 6 guys I hunt with that have this same attitude, and their guns all look horrible and most of them shoot horrible.
This is just my experience with the majority of hunters in this area. I don't know how other hunters are.
Every time I shoot, I remove and clean the breach plug after. It's just that sometimes I don't get to it for a few days. Never had a problem, even less so now that I use Teflon tape instead of grease.
How often do you clean your Breech Plug?
