cleaning
 

Whats the best stuff to clean a modern muzzle loader.

Depends on what powder you use. Triple 7: I use a citrus cleaner, Blackhorn 209: I use Hoppes solvent or any centerfire cleaner would work. Pyrodex/Blackpowder: use a cleaner designed for pyrodex/ blackpowder: water or citrus cleaner.

Real black powder, Pyrodex, Triple Seven, Alliant, and American Pioneer all clean up easily with a bit of ordinary dish soap and room temperature water. Any solvent for Blackhorn.

Semisane, I have found through a lot of trial and error that about the best soap for real black powder, I pretty much exclusively use Swiss, is that cheap Ajax dish soap. It seems to work the best of all of them. Dawn comes in a very close second. One little trick I ran across that makes barrel cleanup just a tad easier is to dry swab 2 or 3 strokes before you go to cleaning. Getting that layer of ash out beforehand seems to help a good little bit.

I know everybody is different so:

The two best products I could recommend are:

Plain old Blue Windex



and




Then the final thing... a true synthetic bore oil - no petroleum - no Teflon



or Slip 2000

If you want 1 product for all the ML powders take a look at Ballistol. You thin it with water for real black and most subs. Use it straight for BH209 and centerfires. It has the same main ingredient as Montanna Xtreme. Only the solvent base is slightly different. It uses a type of alcohol and MX uses a type of ether.

I do REALLY like the MX Bore Conditioner for short to mid length storage. IMO there are better rust preventers but if your bore is clean, dry then oiled rust wont be an issue anyway.

As mentioned just avoid Teflon products IN the bore. They serve no purpose IN a bore. The only thing they can do is have a negative reaction to heat when fired.

BTW a great product for drying a bore cleaned with water or to remove oils is non chlorinated brake cleaner. Just dont get it on plastics or the stock finish to be safe. It evaporates quickly taking the water/oil with it. It is rather toxic though so only use in extremely well ventilated areas.

I've been using hoppes #9 for clean up with BH209 and I used it on another gun that shot Triple 7 FFFG. Should I be using something else?? Did I hurt anything using Hoppe's with Triple 7 powder??

Hoppes Elite (water based) is probably ok for Triple7 but not #9 which is a oil based solvent. Triple7 should be cleaned with a water based solvent or just some slightly soapy water. Windex with a drop or 2 of liquid soap and some isopropyl alcohol would be at the top of my list for Triple7.

A little 91% rubbing alcohol or ISO-HEET fuel line deicer will greatly speed up evaporation of the water and prevent it from freezing. ISO-HEET is nearly pure isopropyl and easily found at any place that sells automotive stuff. Even Walmart has it. Regular HEET is methanol and should be avoided or at least avoid skin contact as much as possible.

Ahh crap.....I cleaned it with hoppes #9....

So...Just go back and reclean it. No big deal. Just use some alcohol to get that oil out of the bore the scrub away. Remember to give the bore a light coat of oil after cleaning and remove it before shooting using a dry patch.

My vote for cleaning ANY balckpowder rifle/pistol is a steam cleaner, The power of steam cleaning is absolutely amazing! Pedersoli sells a steam cleaner that is really expensive, but does nothing more than a cheap handheld unit, (they have a few youtube videos on it) but steam is steam! So why pay for Pedersoli? I am looking at getting a little bigger more efficient unit like the McCulloch MC1275 Heavy-Duty Steam Cleaner

https://youtu.be/zMJkDmsf3j8

https://youtu.be/kYSj92UasZU

Before leaving the range i swab the muzzleloader bore with a patch wet with Windex Multi-Purpose Cleaner (Formerly Windex With Vinegar). The slightly acidic Windex neutralizes the residue from black powder and the substitutes, except for BH 209.


At home the bore is swabbed dry. Then bore is swabbed again with a patch moist with the same Windex followed by dry patches. The breech plug, if any, is sprayed with Windex Multi-Purpose Cleaner and the crud removed with a toothbrush.


If the gun will be stored short term i swab the bore with a patch wet with a good light oil. A gun stored long term will have the bore swabbed with a patch and Militec 1.


Takes me 15-20 minutes to clean up a muzzleloader.