Prior to shooting, I also take an alcohol patch and swab the barrel clean of all oils. I want the barrel very clean when I start. I also use teflon tape on the breech plug, but I smear some anti seize on the tape so that it coats the rifle breech threads.

After I am done shooting for the day, The first thing I do is break the rifle down. I remove the ramrod and then pull the barrel from the stock. I also remove the trigger assembly. I then pull the breech plug right away and put that in some water and dish soap to soak. I also put the hammer in there as well to soak. I use a 32" range rod to clean my rifle by the way.

First clean the exposed breech and hammer/striker area of all fowling you can reach. This is a very dirty area and will take some scrubbing to do so.

At this point I clean the scope if I was using it. After the scope is clean,I take a patch with eithersoap and water or a cleaner like Simple Green and saturate it. I then push that from the breech to the muzzle simply to wet and remove the fowling. I do about three of them.

I then switch over to the bore brush. I wrap a patch around the bore brush and saturate that patch with Simple Green. I then push that up through the breech and into the breech plug threads of the rifle. I now turn that brush in a clockwise direction at least four turns as I move it forward. I then push all of that up through the barrel. Changing patches and saturating the next patch I again do the same thing.

After two or three passes of the bore brush, I change back to the cleaning jag. I then put a patch on that and saturate it with a quality solvent such as Birchwood Casey bore scrubber, Butch's Bore Shine, Birchwood #77 or Rusty Duck Black Off.

This solvent patch will normally bring out the final fowling in the barrel. If you're getting fowling make sure it is not coming from the striker area of the rifle. Run a few of them if you need to.

I then take some dry patches and patch the barrel until the barrel is dry and the patches come up clean. After that I run an oil patch (Birchwood Casey Sheath) through the striker area and barrel area.

Once I know the barrel is spotless and oiled, I take the breech plug and hammer and clean them. I use Q-tips to get into the hard to reach places and a brass bore brush for the stuborn places. I get them spotless. The brush will remove any of the excess breech tape from the threads. One they are clean I wipe them all off dry. I also wipe the spring down as well with a oil cloth.

This is where I clean the trigger assembly. I take some brake cleaner, take the assembly outside and spray it clean. I then take and wipe it down to make sure it is dry. I also then give it a spray of gun oil, and set it aside.

I take a patch and wipe out the laminated stock of any fowling that might be there. I then reassemble the breech plug, attach the trigger assembly next, hammer, spring and lock nut. I put the scope back on, and then wipe the barrel clean of all prints and fowling. After all of that is clean I then put the barrel back in the stock. I put the locking lug bolts back in and do not crank they down, but turn them tightly in place.

Look the rifle over carefully and then wipe it down for the last time. I was told some people store the rifles without the spring in place which I think is a good idea and I am going to start doing that once I figure a way not to loose it. I am one of those people that can set something down on a table in front of them and never find it again.....