Heres a trick I believe that I may have come up with for using bore butter effectively:

Using one of those hand held steam cleaners ( you or your wife may have one already, I got ours at Wal MArt for $30) shoot steam through the end where the breech plug fits - so that the scalding water which is produced runs out he muzzel.

The barrel will get so hot the you wont want to touch it, so with a towel or t-shirt, hold onto it so you can run your cleaning patches through it a few times. them dry the outside and inside thourougly with a towel and dry patches inside the barrell.

At this time, the barrell is still extremely hot, but dry. Run a patch saturated with bore butter thriought once or twice, you will be able to feel it get sort and melt with the heat.

Then you have a perfectly cleaned barrel - like the day you bought it, and a perfectly stored barrel. The bore butter will come out more the yellow color it was when you put it in instead of a gunky brown and black color.

ive been using bore butter for the past 3 days now in my 45 and so far so good. I take advantage of the hot sun we've been having and let that heat up the barrel. No rust so far. Every 5 or 6 outings, i'll use a bore brush and scrub the bore clean and do it all over again.

NO!Harold, it sure ain't overkill! ANY component of your gun that gets BP or substitute fouling on it will eventually corrode if it is not cleaned! Even stainless steel!

You remove the nipple, and use a round toothpick and hot water & detergent, and wash all fouling off and out of the nipple (so you can see thru the little tiny hole)before you squirt it with SHEATH and put back in the drum -which is also clean because you took the nipple and cleanout screw out of it and let the hot water run out of the drum when you poured it through the barrel.

After I remove the nipple, I like to take a pipe cleaner ( get the white ones at the Dollar Store) and dip that into solvent. That pipe cleaner will slide right into the nipple port and you can then scratch around in there and make sure there is no fowling. Use the other end dipped in isopropyl alcohol and that will make sure it is nice and dry, after a water bath. Then take a Q-tip dipped in alcohol and push that in there and scrub the threads where the nipple goes. Make sure there is no fowling there. The last thing you want to corrode is the threads of the bolster because a nipple canl come loose and fly out from back pressure when you fire,should the threads wear away from rust and use.

love the birchwood casey stealth. im in the process if trying out the shooters choice fp-10 .its another highly recommended oil.