After getting back from shooting a TC Thunder Hawk/ 209 system with my son. Proceeded to remove bolt and nipple.Inserted nipple with rubber hose siphon attachment I use on my Renegade.Pumped hot soapy water through etc. What a mess.Also had to remove barrrel/action lubricating to prevent rust. The mainspring is new and a bear to re-install. I have a couple cans of CVA barrel blaster. Can this be used without stripping the entire gun or will it rust? It has a Timney trigger as well.I know the bolt needs to be removed but the stock as well? Hornady .44 240gr HP's and two Pyrodex pellets/CCI primers went into a little over two inches at 100 yards.May try IMR White Hots and Fed primers.Was using green TC sabots and have the black Hornady as well.What do you use for lubing the bore when putting it away? I ran a patch with bore butter on it for now..more load development to follow........Harold

Best to tear down that rifle and clean it properly. I know its a pain in the butt, but if you don't, you'll end up having to replace the entire rifle.

Muzzleloading isn't for everyone...

I have both the Thunderhawk, and the Firehawk. Both have the same basic action. When I clean, I remove the barrel from the stock, 2 screws if I remember, and then remove the end cap, spring, and bolt. I find it much easier to remove these with the barrel out of the stock. I then remove the nipple, and trigger group. On the Thunderhawk, there is an allen screw that holds the trigger group in, very easy to remove. Now I have just the barrel, which I use the bucket of hot soapy water method to clean. That way you get all the small areas, that are hard to get to. I use a breach plug brush to scrub the bolt area, and an old tooothbrush to clean the bolt, and boltface. After doing this a few times, you will find that it is not all that difficult, and time consuming. I can completely strip, clean, dry, re-assemble, and lube mine in about 1/2 hour or less, and when I'm done, it is completely clean.

A little trick I use prior to breaking the rifle down is, lean the rifle at a good angle outside against your shooting bench. Open the bolt. Now, with a spray bottle, squirt from the bottle, down the bore. You will see the windex or what every, run out down through the nipple.

Now saturate a patch, and swab the bore. I do three such soaked patches, then a dry one or two. When you get to where you will fully clean the rifle, it will surprise you how fast the rifle will clean. That's because a lot of the fouling was removed prior and the rest got a soaking of sorts.

But like my Black Diamond, you have to really break the rifle down for the final cleaning.

This is true. However in your post you stated that you used hot soapy water to clean. Although this is fine and will clean your rifle, with the new substitute powders like the White Hots you're using, you can use the modern black powder substitute cleaning solvents. T/C's T-17 is one good example.
But you should remove and clean and lubricate (protective lube) any part which comes in contact with burnt powder residue. IF you don't you will have a problem later on.

Not me, never used hot, soapy water...With real black powder it isn't necessary...On my flinters I just plug the touch hole with a tooth pick, pour a few ounces of water down the barrel and pour most of the resudue out...A few patches, one more soaking, dry, lube and I'm done with the barrel...Then I remove the lock, spray with rubbing alcohol, dry, spray with WD-40, wipe off and she's done...

Inlines are actually a bit harder to clean than a flinter...

NC that post wasn't directed at you but at Pioneer. I was just agreeing with you on ML is not for everyone. I don't use the hot water method anymore myself nor do I use bore butter anymore. For my lone inline I use T-17 and Montana Xtreme Cowboy Blend and for all my sidelocks I buy Cabela's Citrus BP solvent by the gallon.
I just plug the touch hole or nipple with a round toothpick, pour about 2 oz down the bore and slosh it around by tipping the barrel back and forth and then let it set for 10 mins. Dump it out and remove touch hole/nipple swab the bore until I get a clean patch, run an alcohol patch down and dry patch followed by one or two Cowboy Blend patches. (usually the first CB patch picks up some more residue).
That being said however, a good hot soapy water bath followed by a hot water rinse, drying and oiling is guaranteed to remove all BP residue. Ain't no where for it to hide. For those that are no thorough with just using solvent and patches, they can easily not remove all powder residue from all the nooks and crannys which can lead to corrosion.

I think in-lines aren't for everyone as my Renegade + Hawken are a piece of cake compared to these......not my gun, it's my son's and I won't be rushing out to buy one.........Harold

its just an old design that out dated and messy. Sell it and get a new break action if you want easy to clean. I cleaned my Optima the other day with 4 dry patches, 3 wet and 3 more dry patches.