Originally Posted by
Oldtimr
When you clean your rifle, just remove the barrel and fill a deep sink with hot soapy water, dish washing detergent works well to clean black powder. Remove the nipple and put the breech end in the water and pot a patch on yor jag on the ramrod and move it up and down in the barrel changing patches perriodically untill the patch comes out pretty clean. Then run dry patches through the barrel till you get no more moisture, then put a light lube in the barrel and put the barrel back in the action and replace the nipple. The follow the advice of Cayugad. Some folks pour boiling water down the barrel after they clean it and the metal will flash dry from the heat. I never botheres with that.
Dianoga,
As Oldtimr says, a good flush with hot soapy water (just hot tap water) is all that's necessary for cleaning black powder and Pyrodex or Triple Seven residue from your barrel. If you don't want to use your sink, a clean bucket works fine. I bought a large stainless steel pot at a yard sale for a few bucks and dedicated it to that purpose. I swab my bore with a few patches saturated with any good BP solvent prior to flushing as that helps loosen any crud prior to flushing. Always remove the nipple first as you'll be able to flush the bore much easier by doing so.
After flushing with hot soapy water, I always flush again with hot clear water to remove any soap residue and then begin the drying process. Once you feel you've dried the bore thoroughly, use 91% Isopropyl alcohol to "pick up" any possible remaining moisture that the patches didn't absorb.
The best way I've found is to plug the nipple port with your thumb or finger and pour a couple tablespoons or so of the alcohol down the barrel and then plug the bore with a finger from your other hand (the one you poured with). Tip the barrel back and forth three or four times and then dump the alcohol out. Stand the barrel muzzle down on a towel for a few minutes to allow any of the alcohol to drain away from the breech. Now run a few more dry patches to remove any excess alcohol, there won't be much, it dries very quickly.
Pass a patch saturated with Barricade or Rem-Oil spray up and down the bore a few times and spray some into the nipple port. Wipe the exterior of the barrel down well and spray the sights down making sure you spray into and underneath the rear sight and into the dovetail of the front sight then wipe off the excess.You can clean the nipple with an old tooth brush and a pipe cleaner with either the solvent or soapy water. Dry it good and then give it a little spray and put it back in the barrel.
Wipe the exterior of your lock off and pay attention to the "hammer cup" as that tends to collect a lot of crud. I usually remove my lock and give it a good scrub with an old toothbrush and hot soapy water and then rinse it under hot running tap water and shake vigorously and wipe off the excess. I set my oven to 185-190 degrees prior to doing this and when it comes to temp, I then place my lock in the warm oven and give it 20-25 minutes just to dry any moisture I couldn't shake or wipe away. When you pull it out, let it cool to room temp and then spray it with a good rust preventative spray lube and let it drain on a paper towel for a bit. Wipe off the excess and put it back on the rifle. You're now ready to put it to bed until the next shooting session.
Side note...
When you get ready to shoot again, use an alcohol saturated patch or two to remove any oil residue from the bore. Remove the nipple and pour some alcohol in a small container (an old pill vial works fine) and drop it in while you run a few dry patches in the bore. Blow the excess alcohol out of the nipple and put it back in. Snap a cap and make sure all's clear. Now you're ready to load and shoot.
A nipple wrench is the only thing I saw that's missing from your list of muzzleloading accessories. Looks like you have everything else. Also, you didn't mention what powder you're using...
BPS