cleaning and seasoning a barrel questions?
11-27-2004 | 02:27 PM
#11
Fork Horn
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 102
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From:
RE: cleaning and seasoning a barrel questions?
ORIGINAL: liquidorange
i have always been methodical in my cleaning through the years but have been re-thinking things lately. what got me thinking was that i use to always treat the outside of the barrel with bore butter but it didnt do much for rust. im only talking about the outside metal of the barrel. when hunting in damp or light rain conditions the bore butter didnt protect much from minor surface rust. also the burning action of the cap seemed to scar the metal on the barrel near the hammer. i dont know if was a chemical reaction of the spark and heat with the bore butter? the barrel was re- blued a while back and still looks brand new after 3 seasons with the new finish and the only thing i did differently is use birchwood synthetic oil only on the outside barrel. this got me thinking about the inside. i was always afraid to use anything but bore butter and hot soapy water because i didnt want to ruin the seasoning process whatever that is? im begining to wonder since most shoot round ball in there cap locks the rifling doesnt need to be perfect or extremely clean to get it to shoot o.k. and thats why many havent complained about poor accuracy. a round ball will probably work with no rifling i bet. im just questioning if hot soapy water has enough cleaning action to remove lead from the lands and grooves as well as burnt powder.
i have always been methodical in my cleaning through the years but have been re-thinking things lately. what got me thinking was that i use to always treat the outside of the barrel with bore butter but it didnt do much for rust. im only talking about the outside metal of the barrel. when hunting in damp or light rain conditions the bore butter didnt protect much from minor surface rust. also the burning action of the cap seemed to scar the metal on the barrel near the hammer. i dont know if was a chemical reaction of the spark and heat with the bore butter? the barrel was re- blued a while back and still looks brand new after 3 seasons with the new finish and the only thing i did differently is use birchwood synthetic oil only on the outside barrel. this got me thinking about the inside. i was always afraid to use anything but bore butter and hot soapy water because i didnt want to ruin the seasoning process whatever that is? im begining to wonder since most shoot round ball in there cap locks the rifling doesnt need to be perfect or extremely clean to get it to shoot o.k. and thats why many havent complained about poor accuracy. a round ball will probably work with no rifling i bet. im just questioning if hot soapy water has enough cleaning action to remove lead from the lands and grooves as well as burnt powder.
I don't use bore butter for barrel protection. I use a a good gun oil, inside and out, on my rifles. I run a dry patch down the bore to dry any oil before loading. I have used bore butter in the past, for a patch lube, and I never had any buildup problems with it. However I do not use it now as I believe there are better alternatives. For range shooting, I use Lehigh Valley or moosemilk liquid lubes. For hunting, I use a homemade paste lube that works as well as bore butter but is much cheaper to make. I use a thin version for patches and a thicker version for conicals. FWIW, I have a couple of Green Mountain barrels and GM has a specific warning in their manual, that comes with their barrels, cautioning against using bore butter/natural lube/wonder lube.
You can alleviate all your damage problems around the nipple by adding a flash cup. These are available from TOTW, and others, for only about $2.50 each. You simply remove your nipple, place the flash cup under it and replace the nipple. I have one on all my rifles.
11-27-2004 | 04:54 PM
#12
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
RE: cleaning and seasoning a barrel questions?
I run a bore brush down followed by a swab, before the first load. As to the outside I just polish it like you would any car. I'm not saying there's nothing better, but it's worked for me. But my main point is get it clean & dry, and seal it from moisture. Anything that does that should work. Happy daze!
