RE: Seasoning a barrel ??
this is the one place cayugad and I go stray in our thoughts...
i dont know if "seasoning" the bore does any good...but this is how i clean:
Ill start in the wash tub full of HOT HOT water. put TC #13 bore cleaner on a patch and the breech end of the barrel in the water. swab it and fill the barrel with water and keep pumping it in and out. change patches a couple times till its clean and no black water comes out the touchhole.
then after i know its clean and the barrel is HOT the whole way through...usually to the point i dont wanna hold it bare handed...ill pull it out and quickly get clean dry patches in there..i hold the barrel upside down to make sure i get all the water out. i pump it hard to try to force it out the touch hole...i can hear when its out of the breech area where i cant reach with my patches.
then when its DRY and my patches are 100% clean(drying patches should always be clean or start over!) ill run a 91% alcohol patch down the barrel. i dont know how much it works but alcohol is used in gastanks that got water in them and makes the water go away so i use a patch with it hoping to get rid of any possible moisture. then ill run another dry patch or 2 through to MAKE SURE. 91% alcohol dries very quickly naturaly and also leave no residue..thats all i use at the range.
after that ill put bore butter on a patch and swab the barrel. the metal should still be pretttttty hot if your water was hot enough and you heated it through with the water. the metal of my barrel is thick so when its hot all the way through its hot a while. it melts the bore butter and i think it gets in the pores of the metal..to test the idea of my theory working i started doing the same thing to the outside of my barrel. i have no speakable rust and ive let the rifle sit that way a few months at a time. i make sure the touchhole is clean and free of bore butter...then when it all dries and is cool ill whip the outside down with a clean rag and run a clean patch through the bore to remove extra bore butter. i let the barrel cool upside down so i dont get a buildup of it in the breech area...
thats how I clean...now..weather or not it does much good i dont know. i dont have no rust ever..no brown patches ever...accuracy is GOOD...and i can shoot patch and ball all day and never NEED to clean. accuracy is still there AND fouling never gets bad enough for me to NEED to.
not saying my method is the best...or it even works..but i dont have problems doing it that way. i believe it was Matt/PA that taught me that..he had some other steps and such but thats where i picked up the basics of my method i believe