doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Black Powder Field Cleaning - Comments?

jOe, have heard memphis aint safe...sorta like a mini no...

Beale Street is neat music theme venue to see. Peabody Hotel where they bring down the Mallard ducks everyday to their water pool by elevator and march 'em through the lobby. The Pyramid Bass Pro is their biggest, finest store.

Germantown is a nice safe area with tons of nice restaurants and shopping in Eastern Memphis. Check out my brother's new restaurant concepts "Babalu", one in Midtown/Overton Square and another in Germantown. Great trendy food.

Memphis Gun Club is a great place to shoot a round of Sporting Clays.
http://www.shoottn.com/contact.html
JR

It is interesting, but sort of depressing to see how complicated this has been purported to be.

I shoot high-end, custom, long-range, target rifles (ie., guns where any corrosion would be criminal!). I also shoot bp in damasacus English doubles for hunting, and I would NEVER do some of the things that are reported here..

If you want to clean in the field (not necessary even for several hours in a "humid" AZ), then do it completely. With any breech loader it is super simple and fast.

Use straight, dihydrogen Oxide, Hydrogen hydroxide, or plain water. Your choice. Nothing else. On patches, pushed through the barrel on a brush or jag. A half dozen will suffice for each barrel at most. Then dry, then oil. DONE.

Keep the soap, the hydrogen peroxide, the mystery oils, the soluble oils, etc, etc at home for use on your pets, or tractors or tonsils, but not on your guns.

This is not hard, not super critical, not something that takes tons of gear or preparation. H20. It works. Every single time.

john: thanks for tips re memphis...

That is your opinion, and you're certainly entitled to it. But, that does not make it gospel. I have been shooting and competing with very accurate BP rifles since 1983. Three of my rifles have won state championships in offhand and bench rest categories, numerous times. Some of the solutions you mention as things you would never use are, in fact, some I suggested. My rifles are as accurate after all these years as they have ever been. I have a .45 cal. round ball competition rifle that will shoot 5 shot 5/8" 100 yd. groups, and I can prove it. You do not maintain that level of accuracy in a BP rifle by doing a poor job of cleaning it. You may shoot ultra accurate long range rifles of some genre, and black powder shotguns, but that does not mean you know all there is to know about BP rifle cleaning.

If this is all it takes to get you depressed, you are much to be pitied. Use your plain water all you want, nobody said it won't clean BP fouling out of a gun. But, don't be bad-mouthing others who have many years experience maintaining accurate BP rifles.

SRH

SRH, these methods are so needlessly complicated that they discourage people from ever taking up BP in the first place, never mind using it in the field. Why make it so needlessly complicated?

This also furthers the internet myth that bp fouling is somehow ridiculously corrosive. It is not. It will generate rust in very damp or wet conditions but it's not something that will eat your gun in an hour or three. There is simply way too much hype about cleaning blackpowder. It is simple, cheap, fall-off-the-log easy.

And I never said I was preaching gospel either. Just trying to make it a little less daunting for those who have yet to go there and try it.

My experience agrees with Brent.

There is nothing at all complicated about using the mixture I suggested, and that I use. I am anal about my rifles bore cleanliness, I admit, but over the years I have gone through the whole menu of cleaning methods, from your plain water method to what I now use. And, I prefer the mixture. I've used other methods and ended up with a red bore a few days later. No more.

The way you worded your post was disparaging of other's methods besides your own. That's why I suggested you thought it was "gospel". Again, nobody is saying water won't clean a BP bore. It will. I, and hordes of others, just think there are advantages to other methods.

SRH

The point of the question is cleaning and there are many ways to accomplish the task easy and effective. Plain water or various solutions all get the job done. I use plain water to clean my muzzle loader's at a rendezvous or in the field. I favor hot water when the opportunity of a camp fire presents itself. My breech loaders clean completely with a solution of water and water soluble oil. A few patches, dry and oil...done. After a heavy day with the shotguns the dish soap and water make quick work of cleanup. The thing is to get people to enjoy a black powder experience and not over clean or worry about rusting their fine firearms. With common sense it just does not happen. When it is time for a strip and clean, a light coat of oil on the internal parts is sufficient. Any fouling that gets into the action will setup on top of the oil film and not cause problem. (45 years of cap and ball revolver shooting have proved this to me). On breech loaders, the seal of the case or hull and the cartridge rims provide a pretty good stop of blowback powder residue. Heavily used guns a strip and clean once a year is about right. There is just no reason to completely strip the firearm every time it is used with black powder. Load some black powder and give it a try. Fun, effective and not a chore to clean up. Your fine firearms will not turn into a pile of rust and you will get to experience what shooting was like a hundred and fifty years ago.

I agree with Eric except when it comes to revolvers. For years I shot pistol on the national range at Friendship. After a day of shooting [ around a 140 shots ] the inside parts were quite dirty and we would completely dissemble the pistol. I now shoot smoke on occasion in my Parker or Remington hammer guns and it's always fun. Everyone in my squad wants to try it, and the clean up only takes about 10 minutes as Eric described. I do hot soapy water with first a tornado brush then patches, clean hot water with patches, dry patch, WD-40 soaked patch, then a oiled patch.