RE: New to muzzleloading - need cleaning advise.
I use cold water for the first stage of cleaning. A few very wet patches through the bore until they look clean. Then a bristle bore brush through the bore a few times. Then patches with a commercial cleanr (I like Butch's bore shine) following the directions on the cleaner chosen.
Then I WD-40 the barrel to get rid of any lingering moisture, soak up the WD-40 with dry patches, then lube with RemOil.