Somehow I managed to find a few boxes of blackpowder loads that I had made years ago with plastic wads. I thought I had purged them years ago, but I was wrong, so today, I shot 50 rounds straight and am having lots of "fun" getting the plastic out. Is there any magic method to removing this mistake? I'm soaking with Kroil and periodically using a find, dense bronze brush. It is coming out very slowly, and I'll still be working on this tomorrow. If there is magic elixir or methodology that someone could provide, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Brent
I have used Shooters Choice plastic wad cleaner. Does a pretty good job. Comes in an aerosol can, soak the bores and leave it for a bit then run a bronze brush wrapped with some 000 or 0000 steel wool. Still gonna take a little work but it does help shorten the process...
Don
Years ago I had a similar problem. In my case the plastic had been deposited over time shooting normal loads. When I shot a round of trap using BP loads it "semi-liberated" that plastic buildup on the shotguns bores. I used a 12 gauge bore brush with a stout aluminum cleaning rod spun in the bore with my power drill. Even with that it took about 45 minutes to clear both bores.
BTW you might try plugging the barrels on one end and then filling the bores with acetone and let sit for a few hours. Just be careful not to get it on your guns wood finish.
Steve
Put a stopper in each bore. Then pour a mixture of windex and Murphy’s oil soap into each bore up to,the chamber. Allow it to soak about 30 minutes then use a bronze brush to push all the crud right out going from breach to muzzle. Any residue that is left behind can be removed by a second treatment.
Dave
I still have a few boxes of the old Republic black powder shells. When I use them, I use regular bore cleaner and spin a bronze brush wrapped in 4-0 steel wool through with my power drill. The plastic comes out in sheets...Geo
I used Windex last night and only got out about 60 or 70% maybe less. I switch to Kroil, and that helped, but it still wasn't getting the job done. So last night before going to bed, I soaked it with Kroil again really well, and this morning I was prepared to get up and try the acetone suggestion but this Kroil soaking got it done and I managed to get it clean again. I have shot plastic before, but I have never seen it as bad as this.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Sometimes you just gotta ask yourself "Is the pleasure worth the pain?". When it comes to mixing up a BP/plastic wad cocktail, my answer is NO!!
SRH
This is one of the few times that I have to agree with you, Stan. But I had to go there first to know. Even cushionless plastic cups seated over Circle Fly fiber wads, are not worth it.
Try Frotier's stainles wool made to clean rough bores. I am sure it will produce great results in a couple of powered passes.
bill
I did not know of those. Thanks!
Check out Ed's Red.
PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE STORAGE REQUIREMENT.
It weakened the bottom of my HARD plastic container in four months. Lifted the hard plastic container to use the fluid and the bottom stayed on the shelf.
Too soon ve get oldt, und ...
The easiest way to remove that plastic fowling is as follows:
Heat up some hot soapy (dish detergent) water on the stove
While waiting for the water to heat, plug the muzzle end of each barrel with a tightly wadded paper towel.
When water is hot, fill both tubes with your hot soapy water.
Let stand for a couple of minutes, then remove plugs; crud will slide out with liquid.
The heated barrels will quickly evaporate any moisture; then the barrels are wiped down and cleaned barrels are ready for the next round.
I think plastic wads in front of black powder is something people only do once. After that, they decide that if they are going to go old-school with black, better also go old-school with fiber wads.
Ithaca5E,
I tend to agree. But the fiber wads worry me when fire conditions are high. Mostly, I just go with smokeless then, but in any event, I loaded a bunch of black with plastic wads some years ago and apparently still have some left over. There are at least 2 more boxes on the shelf. Whatever happened to the loads I made last winter with fiber wads, I do not know.
I make plastic wad bore cleaner by mixing acetone 15% and kerosene 85%. Soak a cotton patch and run thru. Plug the barrel ends and let set. Bronze bristle brush and remove crud.
Say! My go to load in my fowler 28 gage 54 cal is 55 garains of 2f, felt wad over powder, AA plastic wad, 3/4 oz shot and sot card over the shot , no issues with plastic fowling guess I am lucky
28, lucky you are. I hope you did not just jinx yourself.
I have heard of many people using plastic wads by putting a good non-plastic between them & the powder. "IF" you get a good seal with the over powder wad there should be no problem with melting the plastic.
I have done all my muzzle loader shooting using Card & Fiber, never had a problem with starting fires either. I have heard of people having fire problems by loading with crumpled up Newspaper, but never had any problem with the hard card wads catching fire or even smoldering.
I don't think it is the hard card wads, but the softer fiber wads, lubed or dry, they are good candidates for a slow smolder. When the corn is dry and unharvested, and I'm hunting prairie or dry cattails next to it and it super dry, I just can't take that chance and there is a very good alternative that is a lot safer in that regard, so it would be pretty irresponsible on my part to take the chance.
I don't know what it takes to get a good seal, but like I mentioned above, a thick Circle Fly fiber wad and a nitro powder wad between powder and shot cup won't stop the plastic from melting, though it seems that it should.
Interestingly, I never see any sign of melting when I seat a low density polyethylene wad directly over 80+ grs of blackpowder. Those wads can be recovered looking almost as new, so I can't really understand why the shotcups have such problems. I've wondered if steel shot wad/cups might be better somehow, but I haven't bothered to figure that one out.
Brent;
The majority of my Black Powder use has been in muzzle loaders. With them just make certain the Card wad is a good tight fit & there is no problem with "Blow By" to ignite ant thing in front of it. When loading black for a breech loader it is essential the wad column is long enough to bridge the gap across the forcing cone, from the shells end to the actual bore diameter & that the hard card is a tight fit to the bore.
As I said I have not used plastic wads with black, but have simply never had a problem with Smoldering fiber wads when seated over the proper card wad in a proper chamber for their use. This of course eliminates long cones, much oversize bores & shells shorter than the chamber.
2-piper, I have 3 times started a fire with a .45-70. Albeit, I was shooting prone. I have shot a fair amount of bp shotguns with fiber wads, but wanted the convenience of plastic shot cups, but that just has not worked out for me.
As for fire, I may be overly cautious (not something I am often accused of), but I don't want to be the guy that started a fire that turns a quarter of Iowa corn into popcorn and burns down 50 farmsteads. Just not worth the risk given that I have started fires with the .45.
What top gun said. Although, I just use hot tap water with a little soap. I've been using a nylon brush after the soak, and the heated barrels do dry right out.
(I shoot muzzle loader now, and so I go through this a couple of times a week. It's painful pour that water down the barrels that first couple of times, but once you get the hang of it, it's okay.)
On the plastic removal question. Some years ago I shot maybe 100 foreign 28 gauge shells one afternoon. Not black powder, but very dirty. At clean up time I found the bores were coated with plastic as well as the powder residue. A bronze brush, probably oversized, and Hoppe's 9 did not seem to help much so I put the brush on an electric drill. That helped some, but still the plastic mostly stuck. Finally, I tightened the cleaning rod and bronze brush joints and ran the drill backward. The plastic then just augured out .
I've been doing cowboy shooting for almost 20 years and a lot of the BP shooters use plastic wads. They either straight Ballistol or a Ballistol water mix. They give both barrels a couple of squirts and after about 10 minutes run a wad of paper towel which usually pushes the plastic out of the barrel all at once.
I use fiber wads & BP, but I do find the sooner you clean the barrels, the easier it is to get the barrels clean.
I suspect that running 50 shots straight and then letting the gun sit for 4 or 5 hrs before even attempting to clean it, had a lot to do with my problems. I've cleaned strips of plastic out with water or Windex before and NEVER had trouble like this.
But whatever happened to those boxes I loaded last winter using fiber wads? I wonder where they went.