Your Birchwood Casey Bore Scrubber will work fine for cleaning the rifle free of the packing grease. Being brand new there is no plastic, lead, or copper fowling in the rifle. After a couple patches of the Bore Scrubber, then run some dry clean patches through it. They should come out clean and dry if you cleaned the barrel properly.


CLEANING THE RIFLE[/b]

QUALITY SOLVENTS TO USE- Butch's Bore Shine, Birchwood Casey Bore Scrubber, Hoppies Black Powder Solvent, Rusty Duck Black Powder Solvent, Simple Green & Water mixed 50/50, Home Made Solvent called M.A.P. made of murphy's oil soap, isopropyl alcohol, and hydrogen peroxide.

CLEANING SUPPLIES- isopropyl alcohol, windex, cleaning jag, brass bore brush, breech plug brush, nipple brush if applies, patches for cleaning

OILS- Birchwood Casey Sheath, REM OIL w/teflon, or Breakfree CLP

BREECH PLUG GREASECVA Slick breech plug and nipple grease, or slick 50 one grease (found in automotive departments)

LOADING TOOLS T-handle short starter made by Thompson Center Arms, straight line capper or dog bone capper, decapper, range quality ramrod 32" long or longer, loading jags for the type of projectile, nipple wrench made for the rifle, breech plug wrench made for the rifle.

POWDERS Triple Se7en, Pyrodex, Black Mag, American Pioneer Powder, or Goex are all good powders. I personally use Goex Black Powder. I also like Pyrodex. Get the FFg grade for the first pound. I suggest getting loose powder instead of pellets. It will save you a lot of money and you can custom tune your rifle better. You will also need a see through plastic powder measure with the cut off funnel top.

PROJECTILES For starters I suggest getting a pack of 295 grain Powerbelts, a box of Thompson Center Mag Express 240 grain XTP's, and a box of Thompson Center 370 grain Maxi Balls.

PRIOR TO DOING ANY SHOOTING OR LOADING - Clean the rifle first. Take some patches and solvent and run that through the barrel until the rifle is good and clean. Then run a couple dry patches through the rifle to make sure there is no moisture in it. This is a good time to run an alcohol patch through the rifle if you suspect some moisture in the barrel.

Now take breech plug grease. Take your breech plug and cover the thread of the breech plug with the grease. Now screw it into the breech of the rifle but not tight. When you get the plug all the way in, turn it back out about 1/4 turn. The plug will tighten on its own when shooting.

At this point I like to pop two 209 primers through the breech plug to clean it out and to fowl the inside of it before any loading.

LOADING THE RIFLE Set your measure to 80 grain mark. Fill the measure with the powder of your choice. Now turn the funnel over and it will cut the load. Carefully pour that down the barrel of the rifle. For the sake of example, we will load a powerbelt.

LOADING A 295 GRAIN POWERBELT -Now take a 295 grain Powerbelt. Push that into the muzzle of the rifle. Taking the short T-starter, push the powerbelt down as far as the short starter will reach. Now using the ramrod with the proper loading jag head, set the powerbelt all the way down onto the power, pressing firmly. Never pound the projectile or throw the ramrod down onto the projectile like some people say to do. All it will do is damage the tip.

With the ramrod resting on the tip of the loaded powerbelt, take some masking tape. Wrap that around the ramrod level to the muzzle. This is your loading mark. The next time you load that tape should come to the same place, level to the muzzle.

the rifle is now loaded and ready to be primed

Put a 209 primer into the breech plug- this is now a loaded rifle. I like to sight them in at 25 yards for starting out. Get your same sight picture each time and fire.

SWABBING THE BORE- Before you load the next shot, take a patch and put some of the alcohol on it. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH ALCOHOL ON THE PATCH BEORE SWABBING OR IT WILL GET STUCK IN THE BARREL. Still, be caure the patch is not saturated with alcohol. Just damp. We want to remove fowling, not clean the rifle at this point. Also make sure the patch is not too large. Now swab the barrel from the muzzle to the breech plug in short strokes, working it through the barrel. Now a couple dry patches. You are now ready to load for the next shot... just follow like you did before and make sure the tape is in the same place.

When you load a sabot.. it is the same as the powerbelt. Use the short starter. Then the ramrod and note where the ramrod mark is.... When loading a maxi ball conical, be sure the conical is smeared with bore butter before loading. Load it as you would the powerbelt.

Cleaning the rifle - Take the rifle apart according to the manual. Now push patches with solvent through the barrel. This will push the main fowling out the barrel. After three or four solvent patches the rifle should look pretty clean. Now put the bore brush on and dip that in solvent. Work that through the bore for about 10 strokes. Now a couple more solvent patches. Clean the breech area very careful until there is no more powder or crud in that area.... After your sure all the fowling is cleaned out of the rifle and the bore is clean, then run a patch with gun oil through the barrel coating it.....

Clean the breech plug and all the other parts clean of fowling. Using the breech plug grease, re-apply to the threads of the plug and put it back in the rifle. Clean all the other parts, oil them and re-assemble the rifle... The rifle is now ready to store away.

Before you shoot the next time, just take an alcohol patch. And swab the bore of the rifle. This will take the grease and oil out of the bore. Now a couple dry patches. And pop two 209 primers through the unloaded rifle.... you are now ready to load the rifle...