Mauser06,
I do exactly what you do exceptI never thought of the alcohol. That makes perfect sense for evaporation. I only use that procedure on side hammers blued/browned barrels. TC bore butter imho is excellent. The older TCmanual as I remember states most of the same things. Since they have doing castings and have a full metal engineering staff their procedures must make sense. When I'm done for the season I bore butter all my bores and wipe all my rifles down too. I have yet to put a petroleum bases product down my Hawken barrel but it did take about 250 rds before it shot right. The reason for this was my ignorance. I started back in early 80's w/ RS/ RS Selectand #11 w/ conicals and it just would not shoot right. Evently I switched to Goex BP and the first 3 shots grouped like what you would expect a real rifle to do. After that whenI use # 11's I only use BP. I save the substitutes for 209's. Never tried the musket caps.
I think that brown patch dealmight the barrel wasn't totally devoid of alpowder and not totally dry before application. When that barrel is so hot to touch all mositure dissappears and then when you recoat w/ butter it stays sealed like the cast iron pan and very slick.....
Just my take on blued barrel seasoning.
Not sure what really happens w/ plastic fouling in SS barrels. So far I have used a bronze 50 call brush and scrubbed hard to remove plastic w/ Hoppes #9. Don't know if it really helps for not. My older Omega is a great shooter and have only scrubed it hard twice in 4 yrs. Probably have shot 400 rds out of it. Never keep records except on the bottom of targets. I do wipe the bore @ the end of the season w/ bore butter just out of habit.
Curious what you all do on the SS barrels!
SHills