This gentleman is right about #13 solvent. As a matter of fact, I have yet to find any so-called "black powder solvent" for sale by anyone that can clean a rifle better than just plain water! NO, I have NOT tried them ALL, but I have tried a sufficinet number to have become skeptical of manufacturer's claims!

I clean my ML's by pouring boiling water through the bore, followed immediately by four or five clean, dry 2.5"X2.5" GI cleaning patches. This removes ALL traces of powder fouling and water. Then, after thebarrel is cool enough to touch, swab it out real good with a patch soaked in Birchwood-Casey SHEATH (now called BARRIER??). If you are shooting an inline, you have already removed the breech plug to pour the boiling water thru the bore, (I use a funnel that fits into the barrel breech) and when you took it out, you put the plug in a glass of hotwater that has dishwashing detergent in it. So now that the bore is clean and preserved, you scrub all the crap off the breechplug and out of the flash channel resulting in a spotlessly shiney clean breech plug!. They you use a rag to dry off the plug, and use your SHEATH patch on it too before screwing it back into the breech. Now take your SHEATH patch qnd wipe all the ferrous metal surfaces on the OUTSIDE of the gun. Now you can safely store it until next time.

Another advantage to the SHEATH is that it dries, leaving the protective coating in place, BUT since it is dry, you DO NOT have to wipe the bore out the next time before you can you load the gun to shoot! It is not likeoil or grease that you have to wipe out before loading, if you used oil or grease to preserve the bore!

If you are using a sidelock instead of an inline, you have to remove the lock, and tilt the barrel to the side slightly to pour the boiling water into the muzzle and let it run out the cleanout screw hole in the bolster or drum of a caplock, or the touch-hole of a flinter. Then, when drying the bore, you have to rotate a patch against the face of the breechplug to dry it as well. This is no problem, because with a caplock you have to remove the lock anyway to clean the fouling off the top of the lockplate,the back of the hammer, andthe recess in the hammer nose. Flintlocks require similar lock cleaning.

I have been cleaning my ML this way since 1968, and have NEVER experienced any problems with this method of cleaning. I don't know when SHEATH first became available, but I have been using it to keep rust off ALL my guns since at least 1963. It is an excellent product.

Amount of boiling water needed:

1 quart: .36 caliber & under
2 quarts: .38-.54 caliber
3 quarts: .56-.62 caliber
4 quarts:.66-.75 caliber