doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Black Powder cleanup after shooting

Stan;
Is this denatured alcohol or just isoprophyl or what type of alcohol?

I try to stay away from black powder, but my cousin shoots BPCR pretty often.He has been using the Balistol/water mixture for several years.I believe when he cleans the rifle at the end of the day, he dries the bore and runs a patch with Balistol alone through the bore.He never has after rust.
Mike

If you're getting rust right after cleaning and drying, it's because the water you used was too hot. It's called flash rusting.

I always use warm water with a little dawn dish washing detergent. run the patches down until you get clean.

The bathtub is a great place to clean your muzzleloader, but you MUST have a rubber mat in the tub to rest the butt of the firearm on.

Are you married? I mean, does she actually live in the same house with you? Wow, I'm impressed!

Miller,

I use the plain old rubbing alcohol. You can catch the stuff, and the h. peroxide, on sale for practically nothing. Murphy's Oil Soap is the only thing that has any cost to speak of.

I also use the alcohol to rid the bore, breech, drum and nipple of any oil residue before loading to go hunting. Have never had a misfire when I did that. Just pour a bunch down the muzzle and let it run out the nipple, then let sit 'til it air dries. Doesn't take it long.

All my best, Stan

Rubbing alcohol works well at removing BP fouling as it's 30% water.
Water disolves BP fouling.
There's really nothing more to it than that.

Stan;
When my Dad was still living & kept Beagles I went rabbit hunting a lot with him & for some years did a lot of it with a 12ga original caplock. I very quickly learned that alcohol trick to prevent a misfire on the first shot. Later I built a .45 cal long rifle & did the same with it. I always just cleaned with water though. Haven't shot either a lot recently.

Tap water has worked for me for about 15 years now. I think the after rust problem is more related to how you dry the barrel afterward than the mixture. After several dry patches I let the AZ sun heat the barrel for a few minutes to drive off the remaining water and then, depending upon how long the rifle is to be stored, wipe the bore with either straight Ballistol(short term) or BreakFree CLP for long term. But sometimes the Ballistol is in there for a year without problems. The Ballistol and Water mix is what I use for patch lube at the range. I use a grease lube for hunting. I wouldn't expect the Ballistol/water mix to be useful for bore protection if that is what you are asking.

I didn't mention before, but I have always used a moisture displacing agent after drying the bore with patches following cleanup with any of the above mentioned products. If I was competing at a weekend long match where I would be shooting the next day I would leave it at that. But, after the last cleanup of the shoot I would lastly run a patch saturated with RIG down bore a few times. I was pretty AR about my competition rifles, especially the bores, and never found an issue with the three part mix I mentioned.

Actually, if you swab as extensively as I did between shots in a match, I was shown by a national champ back in the '80s that you are not neglecting your rifle, that you plan to shoot the next day, if you simply spray WD-40 down bore until it runs out the nipple. I did this often and never saw any red rust residue on the first patch the next day. My between shot procedure was one wet patch three strokes up and down, a second wet patch three strokes up and down then turn it over and do the same on the reverse side, then a dry patch four strokes up and down. Always the same exact procedure between shots. Accurate roundball shooting is about consistency in every conceivable step of the loading and firing process.

SRH

At Joe's suggestion, I started using Windex for cleaning up my 1860s blackpowder Richard Jeffery pinfire. It works like a charm. I have seen no rust and it does come in a handy applicator. We'll see how the gun works for the pheasant opener this week end.