Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

A friend of mine who has alot of BP expierence and is helping me with my first ML was telling me how he was a huge believer in seasoning a barrel with Bore Butter. To me it makes alot of sense but ive read allot of people say its not needed..
Id like to here both sides of this issue.

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

There are countless shooters out there that swear by seasoning and protecting a bore with bore butter. I use bore butter to pack conicals when I shoot, and nothing more. I am not one that runs bore butter down the barrel as a preservative, or to " season the bore" . I also use cleaning products such as Hoppies #9 or WD-40 that would remove any remnants of the bore butter I have shot during the day.

My idea with the rifle is to have the bore clean. I do not want something leaving a film in the barrel as a protective agent, unless it is a very high quality oil or rust preventer. I just do not trust bore butter for that purpose. I clean the barrel as clean and dry as humanly possible then run a light coat of oil in the barrel for storage.

Others will tell you they have swabbed their barrel with bore butter and never had a rust problem. That' s fine, its their rifle. I have used oil in my bores for over 20 years and the rifles are still rust free and shoot as good as they always have...

There are many opinions on this topic. You will judge for yourself. Good Luck with your rifle.

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

I agree with you that a lot of people swear by this Bore Butter and the idea of " seasoning" their barrels!! Some of these folks are very experienced, pretty smart fellows, like Ross Seyfried!! So I decided to try it. I cleaned two guns very thoroughly with boiling water (2 quarts per barrel), then diligently applied the recommended number of strokes with the Bore Butter to the still-hot barrels, per Ross Seyfried' s instruction from Rifle Magazine. After the next five or six trips to the range, I cleaned my guns using only water-based solvent (T/C I believe), and lubed the barrels after drying with Bore Butter. Since I was shooting a couple of times each week for about two months straight and cleaning almost every other day, I detected no visible problems.

However, I never got the " ease of loading/cleaning" I had been led to believe would result from the seasoning process! Powder fouling was as bad as ever, necessitating swabbing after every shot, just like before. One of the barrels was a Green River Rifle Works barrel, the other a Bill Large. I was using two of the best quality ML barrels ever made, so barrel quality was not a problem! Then I made the mistake of leaving my .58 GRRW flintlock sitting for two weeks with nothing to protect it from rust except the coating of Bore Butter I had put in it after a thorough cleaning following my last trip to the range. One evening, after about 14 days had gone by, I got a sneaking feeling I' d better check that bore! Good thing I did! It was full of rust, which took me about an hour to completely scrub out using J.B. Bore Paste! I got it ALL out, and there were no visible pits. A patch still slides through it without any felt roughness. But had I not checked that gun that evening, it would have been ruined for sure!!

Bore Butter for patch/bullet lube ONLY! Boiling water for cleaning!! Birchwood-Casey Sheath or Break-Free to prevent rust!!

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

Eldeguello ,
I' ve used nothing but Bore Butter for lubing and storage since I started muzzleloading , and I' ve never had any trouble with rust . Is it possible that your ML was simply stored in a place with high moisture ? Did you take any other precautions to avoid rust such as keeping the gun in a silicone impregnated sock ? I just took two guns out of storage for the upcoming seasons , and there wasn' t a speck of rust in either one . Both were stored in my bedroom closet in silicone socks and soft cases .

I realize that few products ever live up to the hype that may surround them , but Bore Butter is definitely one product that has performed flawlessly for me . Fouling between shots with Pyrodex RS has been minimal , I rarely have to swab between shots , and my balls and sabots always slide down easily . The opinions on " seasoning" vary considerably , but I' ve been very pleased with both the protection and ease of load that I' ve gotten with the product .

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

Well, the rifle was on a rack over the fireplace mantel, here in S. PA, where the air is always full of moisture. It' s not like New Mexico here! But probably no worse than where you are there in IN. No, I didn' t have it in a gun sock, but I now keep ALL my guns in these things!

Now, I' ve never had to swab between shots when I use Pyrodex, either. But always have to when using real black powder!

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

I usually use the same routine, though I use hot soapy water followed by a rinse of very hot water.

I shot my muzzleloader yesterday and didn' t have time to clean it before work- it sat for about 16 hours before I cleaned it. I skipped the soapy water part and used just hot water to scrub it out. I put the barrel muzzle down on some news papers as usualy to let it dry copletely before swabbing with BC-Sheath. I checked it this afternoon - about 5 hours after I cleaned it, and the entire barrel was full of orange fuzzies[:@] I' ve never seen rust in the barrel before, and have never sen metal rust so fast unless it was attacked by acids.

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

Fair enough El ,
but we also have high humidity here in the Ohio Valley , it may have something to do with that huge river running through . ;) Those socks are great , aren' t they ? I don' t shoot BP , too messy for this lazy bones . I love having a clean rust free bore , but available time for maintainence is a real luxury for me because of the variable hours of my job . I have to use methods and products that remove the worry factor to the greatest extent . Bore Butter has really helped for me . My wife bought me a nice gun cabinet for X-mas last year , and I have a big can of silica gel crystals in it to keep humidity at bay , but I still sock my guns as insurance .

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

Yes!! They are!!

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

Where do you find these gun socks?

RE: Borebutter/Seasoning a barrel.
 

Wal-Mart , Sportsmans Guide , Cabelas , Red Head , most gun shops ...