ORIGINAL: andrewjoseph

Ive put this is a post before, but no one has really siad much - dumb, pointless, good idea, creative and life changing.

After reading Metaldonnies problem about getting the nipple saturated and stuck full of bore butter (possibly) I wanted to call attention to this method which , in my opinion, is the best way to not only clean your BP, but to apply bore butter effectively.

Remove breech plug and spray scalding hot steam from a handheld steam cleaner down towards the muzzle - with the muzzle resting on a wadded up towel or something to absorb the moisture.

Do this untill the barrel becomes superheated, so that you cant even touch it - then run your patches down the muzzle with or without cleaner. Anything will just melt away with the first four patches and be as clean as you can get.

Dry the barrel thouroughly inside and out with towels and dry patches. Whisle the barrel is still super hot, then apply your bore butter, less on the patch that you ususally would - and swab. You can feel it melt and coat the barrel in a thin manner. This keeps it from globbing up and gumming up for when you are ready to shoot next.

It cleans out easier the next time you go to shoot, it is more of the yellow color instead of a brown black sludge which seems grimy to me sometimes.

The difference between this and holding it in hot soapy water is temperature. This steam comes out hotter than boiling water so it breaks sludge down and cleans better and keeps the barrel hotter for bore butter applying.

I like to use bore butter because it feels natural to me and I like the smell. If there is something to the "seasoning" of the barrell, I want to be abvle to have it. I know that some people think that the seasoning is for cooking pots, but the people at TC mention it and its importance whenever they talk about cleaning.

Mabye that was too long - do whatever works for you. But if you already have a steamer like this I reccommend trying it once, it is faster and easier to me.