eldeguello

I consider a pinned-in barrel to be a real pain to take out of the stock because of the pins. In addition, taking the pins out and re-inserting them a lot will eventually enlarge the pin holes through the stock making them fit loose, and this can adversely affect accuracy.

If you use that tube-nipple arrangement to make sure you don't get water between the barrel and stock, disassembly can be minimized.

My caplock rifles have a cleanout screw in the drums, so I put a patch over the nipple, lower the hammer to hold it in place, remove the cleanout screw, and pour two quarts of boiling water through the bore and let it drain out the cleanout hole. Then a quick wipe of the HOT! bore with four or five clean, dry patches removes all fouling! After it cools, I swab the bore with a patch wet with Birchwood-Casey SHEATH. The bore is now clean, preserved until your next shooting session, and the SHEATH does NOT have to be swabbed out of the bore before you canload up and start shooting next time. (This method is for Black Powder AND ALL substitute powders like Pyrodex, etc.)

I wrap a towel around the barrel at the muzzle endand twist up the end of the towel tightly for a handle while doing this, so no hot water gets on my hand, the outside of the barrel, or the rifle stock.

Here's a drum with a cleanout screw...The threaded section on the left is screwed into the barrel breech.





Welcome to the black powder community! Good luck. I'm sure you will enjoy black powder - it's lots of fun!