After my 50-shot session Sunday with my Great Plains flintlock, I wiped the bore with three or four Windex patches, followed by an alcohol patch, then an oil patch, and wiped the lock down with an oil patch. So I needed to do a thorough cleaning today, and decided to check the time at the beginning and end of the cleaning session. Here's how it went.

1. In my junk room (computer, guns, gun stuff, hunting clothes, magazines, unused tread mill, etc.) I removed the lock and barrel and took the touch hole liner out of the barrel.

2. Took the lock and touch hole liner to the kitchen and gave them a scrubbing in the sink with a tooth brush and dish soap under hot running water. Took them back to the junk room and set them aside to dry.

3. Took the barrel and cleaning rod and old towel to the kitchen. Filled a half gallon plastic tub with hot water and squirted some dish soap down the bore. Took the barrel, rod, and tub out to the patio, put the breech end in the tub of water and pumped the heck out of the bore with a patch on the cleaning jag. Then flushed everything out with the garden hose and wiped it dry with the towel.

4. Back in the junk room (my wife calls it "his cave") I ran a few dry patches down the bore, followed by an alcohol patch, then a RemOil patch. Wiped the outside of the barrel,the lock, and the metal parts on the stockwith an oil patch and put everything back together.

ELAPSEDTIME = 31 minutes. And you know what? I enjoyed every minute of it.

may have took half an hour but when you are busy with the work, it doesnt feel like it. I did my kentucky the other day and its a pinned together stock which is a pita when you cant find something small enough to drive out the pins

I do mine in the laundry room. I get a bit of grief over the smell, but oh well.

If I only have one rifle it usually takes me about half an hour. More than one rifle then a beer or two is usally involved and it can take considerably longer. lol

Flintlocks to me are easy to clean. I pull the barrel, take the lock off, and get a pail of water. I have old tooth brushes, and with some soap in the water scrub the back of the lock off. I then remove the vent liner and clean that. I then water bath the barrel.

After all of that I swab the barrel out with some solvent, and then an alcohol patch or two. After that I dry patch it and finally do the bore with some Birchwood Casey Barricade/Sheath. I like to rinse the back of the lock off with hot water, then spray it down with brake cleaner. After that I wipe it all off and give it a light spray with Sheath.

It takes me less time to clean a flintlock then any other kind of rifle I think.

Seems like my flintlock and the caplocks are about the same. About the only difference is removing the nipple instead of the vent liner. My only experience with in-lines is the Mustang, and it sure takes longer than the sidehammersto clean thoroughly.

That is what I do in a large 4 lb coffee can, with very hot water. I have seen folks wash their lock and trigger in a dish washer, gets it real clean, just oil it after drying, not recommended unless your single.
Chap

I have a different method...Both of my flintlocks are custom made, they have pins holding the barrel, so I don't knock them out, the touch hole is not designed to be removed...

About 60% of black powder is not burned, but is either blown out during the shot or left in the barrel...I plug the vent with a round tooth pick and pour some alcohol down the barrel...I then put my thumb over the barrel and turn the rifle over a few times and pour out most of this residue...I then remove the tooth pick and used 3-4 patches to dry and clean the barrel...I then soak a couple of patches with WD-40 and run them down the barrel...Dry again with 2-3 patches and run a oiled patch down the barrel...I then remove the lock and clean and oil and I'm done...

30 minutes of time is a lot less than what it takes most people to save up enough to afford the rifle. I hate seeing new things run into the ground. Kind of like truck owners who spend $50k on a new truck and then complain about a $30 oil change.

Takes me about 1/2 hour as well. Could probably be less, since the inside of the lock & trigger mechanism doesn't seem to collect any residue. Might stop taking the lock out after every session, or at least stop scrubbing it every time. I keep doing it, and the patch or rag never collects anything except the oil I put on it after the last cleaning...

Got the gun (firstflinter)in a trade a few months back, a T/C Pennsylvania Hunter. The fellow told me it was very accurate with prb over 80 grains Goex fffg. He spoke the truth. Was thrilled after the first range session, but figured the party was over when I got home. Have heard so much about how hard it is to clean sidehammer guns, and what a mess real black powder makes. What a bunch of baloney! No harder to clean the barrel than any inline with Pyro or T7 I've cleaned, and the outside of the lock (pan, frizzen,hammer, etc.) cleans up easily with either soapy water or alcohol. And it eliminates what I always considered the biggest pain- cleaning the 209 residue from the breech plug.

Don't get me wrong, inlines are great. Most of my buddies still shoot them, from cheap to mid-range in price, and all are very pleased with their reliability. As I was with mine. I just think there's a lot of hooey out there about the difficulty of cleaning & achieving reliability with traditional muzzleloaders. The key is to gather advice from those who are experienced with them. I was fortunate that the guy I traded with took the time to show me some simple tips to help with cleaning & reliable ignition.