Cleaning & shooting?

[cg21]

What do you guys use for maintaining and shooting your traditional muzzle loaders? I am new to the scene so curious if I am missing a good tool. Right now I am using my regular gun cleaning stuff…. Screw together rod wire brush and towel tip. I also don’t have any cool stuff for shooting all I have is a powder measurer.

 

[Leadeye]

I use whatever detergent spray cleaner the gardener is using, Simple green mostly and plenty of hot water. After everything is scrubbed out I run a patch soaked with Ballistol down the barrel and repeat until a clean parch comes out. Cap and ball or cartridge guns get some disassembly but the cleaners and oil are the same.

Hot water does most of the work.

 

[Vanderbilt]

....ask a dozen BP shooters about cleaning guns. I would wager that you'll be hard pressed to find more than 2 or 3 that have identical regimens. For traditional front stuffers, hot water seems to be the best. Followed by a lot of patches with some concoction of "moosemilk" or lately Ballistol. For the guns I shoot BP cartridge, I plug the barrel and fill them with windshield washer fluid and let them sit for a while. Then same routine with patches of the concoction of choice. Finish by lubing the barrel either type with LPS2.

Equipment, wooden bench rods are fine but get a good solid metal rod with a muzzle protector. You need a proper sized jag, scraper and brushes. Also get a worm, drop a patch and you'll understand why. You also need a ball puller, trust me, one day you will dry ball a load.

In the FWIW categorey, regarding cleaning, when I first got into this in the early 90's. I was really a fruit about cleaning a BP firearm IMMEDIATELY after shooting it. I used to do a lot of reenactments and you had raw powder setting in the barrel. Live firing with lubed patches or lubed bullets softens the fouling a bit. Now that I'm closing in on 70. I have learned, you can let a BP gun go for a day or two and unless you leave it outside in a rainstorm or a greenhouse. They are no worse to clean than any other firearm. Then again, messy as they can be, I don't mind cleaning BP guns. My .02¢, others mileage may vary.

 

[cg21]

Thank you guys, the removable breech ones I have a pretty good grasp on it is the traditional stuff I am struggling with.

My interests have shifted and most of my modern cartridge firearms are gone or leaving really enjoying the black powder stuff.

 

[warren5421]

How I Load, Fire and Clean a Traditional Muzzleloader
by Marc Hamel

Short advice on getting started in black powder guns

There are many ways folks load, fire and clean traditional muzzleloaders. Some rely on what they’ve been told by a friend-of-a-friend, old saws, or bad advice from well meaning people. Others rely on reading, research, knowledgeable friends, techniques proven over time or analyzed by scientific methods. I was fortunate to be taught by a National class target shooter who has successfully competed at the big Friendship competition shoots for many decades. Where I have varied from what he taught me was only when something better (for me) was proven to work. I am an engineer, and I want to know they “whys” behind how these guns and products work. I am sharing the information below in the hopes that it will save you much time, frustration, and money. This text applies to rifles and smoothbores shot with patched lead roundballs. I am not a wingshot, but much of what is stated here also applies to fowling pieces, though the shot loading is specifically different than loading a patched ball.

Note* When possible it is good to store muzzle loaders muzzle-down to prevent oil migration into the stock, or have the preservative oil harden and goop up the flash channel over time in a percussion gun. Horizontal storage is also good, especially slightly muzzle down.

Before loading

Use a normal Isopropyl alcohol to wet a thick cotton patch (like Butch’s Bore Shine cotton patches) on a tight-fitting jag to remove the oil preservative from the bore before each shooting session. Then, dry the bore with a dry patch on the jag. Oil in a bore can contaminate the powder and cause a misfire. Preservative grease/oil can also get baked into the bore by firing and be very hard to clean out later.

For a flintlock, also wipe out the pan, frizzen and flint with alcohol to remove protectant oil. Oil in the pan will cause misfires or hang fires.

For a percussion (cap) gun, run a pipe cleaner down the nipple to make sure it is clear. Place a fresh cap on the unloaded gun, place the muzzle near the ground, and press the trigger to pop the cap. Look to see if dirt or leaves fly. If they do, it means your flash channel is clear and you are good to load. If not, you need to clear the flash channel before powder goes in.

Ready to load……

Loading process

“Powder, ball/patch combo, ram, ignition system, fire……” Easy on the surface, but lots to understand. The devil is in the details.

When you are loading, make sure your gun is muzzle-up and steady so it does not fall over and get broken. Some folks do not care about dirt scratching the butt of the gun, others load on top of their shoe, a rag, or a scrap of carpet to protect the wooden butt or metal buttplate.

Do not talk to others while loading, or allow yourself to be distracted. That is how guns are “dry balled” (a ball/patch loaded with no powder under it). It is not fun to get a ball out that is “dry balled”, but it is sure a learning experience. Distracted people have also left their ramrods in the bore and fired them downrange. I’ve pulled about 5 or 6 balls in my life, but have never fired a ramrod….yet. There’s always tomorrow.

There is no reason to blow down a bore after a shot, though you will see some do it. One of those old-wives-tales that has hung around. Some folks claims it “conditions” the fouling and keeps it soft.

When loading, always, say to yourself “POWDER FIRST”. Repeat after me….. “POWDER FIRST”. “POWDER FIRST”.

Measure out your powder charge of black powder (BP) into a correctly sized (by volume) powder measure. Adjustable measures are fine and are great for determining (“working up”) an accurate load. NEVER pour directly from a flask or horn into a barrel. Always use a measure. If for some reason there is an ember in the bore and it ignites, the amount of BP in the measure exploding is not too bad. The amount of BP in a flask or horn would be really bad to have ignite. Like a grenade in your hand. Always use a measure to pour into the bore.

Powder type. Always use real black powder (BP) and never substitutes/fakes like Pyrodex or Triple 7. When fake powders are fired, they leave perchlorates in the bore that will rust the steel no matter how well you clean. Never use fake powders in traditional guns you care about.

Traditionally, bores .50 and larger best use 2F powder (or ffg) for accuracy. For .40 caliber and lower, it is best to use 3F (or fffg). For .45 either 2F or 3F depending in what the gun likes. 4F (or ffffg) is a fast priming powder, though 3F can be used for priming (3F is slower igniting though). 4F is NOT for use in the bore.

Goex and Swiss are both reliable & accurate powders. For the same velocity, reduce a Swiss charge by 10% to get an equivalent Goex speed. In other words, 63 grains of Swiss 3F gives about the same speed as 70 grains of Goex 3F. Carefully pour your black powder charge from your measure into the muzzle of the gun making sure it goes down the bore and not all over the place.

Next comes the ball and patch combo. For traditional rifled firearms, a ball .005 or .010 undersized is usually used. In other words, a .45 caliber rifle would use a .440 or .445 pure lead roundball. For cast balls, make sure the nib is facing up when loading. Down is fine too, but you cannot see to center it when loading nib-down. If the nib is to one side or other, the ball is unbalanced and will fly “wonky” and inaccurately.

For accuracy (versus hunting in the field), generally the tighter the patch/ball combo, the better the accuracy. To a point. With a “tight” load, it will be difficult to load the rifle with a wooden ramrod, therefore a steel ramrod version called a “range rod” is indicated. A “loose load” would be something like a .440 roundball in a .45 barrel with .010 patching. A tight load would be a .445 roundball in the same barrel with .018 patching. A smoothed-out crown at the muzzle will greatly assist tight loading. A ball starter tool is needed to get a tight load started (some call these tools “short starters”). A loose load can be easily loaded with a wooden ramrod (and it’s more traditional if that matters to you).

Only use 100% cotton for patching. You do not want plastic melted into your bore, right? I order my patching from The Minute-Men patch company (330-262-5482), in the untreated cotton canvas. Wash the patching before use to get out the sizing. I personally to do not use a cloth that I can see sunlight through. I want a tougher tighter woven cloth if I can see light.

Your patch is the seal between your ball and the bore. A loose seal allows varying amounts of hot gasses to shoot past the ball/patch, and therefore changing velocities and results in poor accuracy. Poorly woven or thin cloth will result in lots of these “blow by” gasses. You want a patching that will hold up to the firing without burning apart or getting burn-through holes. Patches that are “blown out” are ones where the cloth is frayed, burnt, or dismembered. Always recover your fired patches and “read the patches”. This is examining the fired patch for any tiny holes when held up to the light. A good patch material will show no holes after firing.

Precut commercial patches are okay, but I have never found any that have a strong enough cloth for my use. You can cut your own pre-cut patches at home though from good canvas. I use a strip of canvas and cut my patches at the muzzle (at the range) with a SHARP knife. Pre-lubed, precut patches are usually a bad idea, as the lube breaks down the cloth integrity over time. Again, I have never found any commercial pre-lubed patches that are any good.

Patch lubes – There are many traditional and new materials used as patch lubes. There are as many opinions about lubes as there are people in muzzle loading. Some “concoctions” are old-wives-tales, and some are actually harmful to the barrel. Some are offered by snake oil salesmen (hiss) as the next best thing since sliced bread. An example is the idea of “seasoning” a bore. That is BS, and these barrels are not cast iron frying pans. Your bore needs to be clean after firing, not coated in some baked-on grease. Keep in mind that what you use for lube has to be removed from the bore later as fouling. You have to provide some solvent that will remove that lube once fired, along with black powder fouling. Mr. Flintlock is a good lube and final cleaner, and it is nice as it cuts the graphite from the bore on cleaning. Graphite is the black coating on black powder. It can build up in the bore without a proper cleaner like Mr. Flintlock. There are slipperier lubes, but the Mr. Flintlock is a good lube/cleaner in one. Mr. Flintlock is a wet lube. Another fine wet lube is Hoppe’s Black Powder Lube and Bore Cleaner. It is slipperier than Mr. Flintlock (a good thing), but I do not think it removes graphite fouling when used as a cleaner like Mr. Flintlock does.

For hunting, a good lube is one that will work but not foul the powder charge over time. Pure Mink Oil from Track of the Wolf (not the mink oil compound variety) is a fine hunting lube. As it is not wet, it will also not harm your bore (once loaded) if left a few days.

Never believe the old-wives-tale about fouling a bore before you go hunting. If you do, that one day is enough to ruin your bore. Find out where your first shot hits on target, which is rarely very far away from the rest of the shots in a group. If you shoot a “fouling shot”, and then load and leave a charge in the bore, the BP fouling will corrode the bore in a day. Once corroded, the rifling is pretty much ruined. Like I said, all you have to do is shoot a target to determine where the first shot from a CLEAN bore lands.

Wet lubing – All patches need lube. This can be spit, lard, a commercial lube, or many combinations both natural and manmade. Wet lubing is using a saturated, wet patch for loading wrapped around the ball. Wet lubing is great for plinking, range shooting or target shooting where you are going to fire soon after loading. Therefore, there is no worry about moisture contaminating the powder charge over a short time period, or moisture hurting the bore. The advantage to wet lubing is this – each load cleans out the fouling from the load before it. After firing a shot, first thing to do is pour the powder from your measure down the bore. The wet patch and ball combo is then rammed down, and the tight, wet patch scrapes the previous shot’s fouling from the bore and puts it on TOP of the new powder charge. When the shot is fired, all of that fouling is blown from the bore. The total fouling in the bore after one shot is one shot’s fouling. No build up. Some shooters subscribe to wiping between shots. They wipe the fouling with a damp patch and follow up with a dry patch and then load. This is used by target shooters often. The downside is that the fouling from each shot is shoved to the breech face (bottom of the bore), and then the load is placed on top. Upon firing, the old fouling is heat-hardened onto the breech. This builds up with each shot, sometimes blocking the flash channel or touch hole. At the end of the day, a breechface scraper is needed to remove that built-up hardened fouling. Cleanup, in my opinion, is much harder when wiping is used between shots. Wet lubing on the other hand has an easier cleanup. A neat wet lubing trick is to use ½ powder charge for your last shot, so you only have ½ as much final fouling to clean out.

Find out what ball and patch combo your gun likes before adjusting the sights. First thing is to find a cotton canvas patch material that will hold up, as poor patching will ruin attempts at grouping. Use a rest, and shoot 5 shot groups at 50 yards (even smoothbores group tightly at 25 yards). Only change one thing at a time. Like only change the patching. Only change the ball diameter. Vary the powder charge. One thing at a time. Looks for the tightest cluster of holes (or “group”). Start at a powder charge equivalent in number to the bore size. Like a for .45 caliber, start at 45 grains. After each group of 5, go up five grains in the powder charge. Look for where the groups get smaller, and then start getting bigger again. Write the charge volume onto each target as you go. The smallest group will be your powder charge.

When going up in charge weights 5 grains at a time, listen for the firing report to change from “boom” to “CRACK”. You are often approaching an accuracy load when you hear the CRACK. Don’t try to make a smaller bore into a bigger bore by massive powder charges. If you need more power, get a bigger gun. Also, muzzleloaders will never be flat shooting, so no sense in over charging. Usually something like 60 or 65 grains will be an accurate load in a .45, around 70 to 75 grains in a .50 caliber. This will vary by gun of course, as well as rifling twist.

Continuing the loading process…..

You need to get the ball and patch combo into the muzzle, either by ball starter or your ramrod. If cutting at the muzzle, make sure the ball is just below the face of the barrel before cutting. No sense in dulling a knife and damaging a roundball.

Once the ball/patch is started, the combo needs to be “rammed” down onto the powder charge with the ramrod of your choice. Short, 10” or 12” thrusts at a time will prevent breaking a wooden ramrod. Think “choking up” on the rod. Once the combo is seated all the way down onto the powder, give a firm push onto the rod to make sure the ball is firmly seated and the charge is compressed. Failure to make sure the ball is all the way down is dangerous and can result in a bulge in the barrel. In other words, NO AIR GAP between the powder and ball/patch. A crud ring can form where the charge seats in the barrel over several shots, so the firm pressure makes sure that you are all the way down. You’ll sure feel it during seating if a crud ring gets formed, and you “crunch” through it.

In the old days, the military taught their soldiers to throw the metal ramrod three times onto the ball/patch/powder to make sure the ball was seated in the heat of battle. These smoothbores had mediocre accuracy, but a wide line of opposing men made accuracy irrelevant. The metal rod slamming onto the ball no doubt deformed the ball, but the military cared more about a fully seated charge than a deformed ball hurting accuracy. For modern day shooting, there is nothing to be gained by “bouncing a rod”, and accuracy will be lost by the rod deforming the ball. Don’t bounce or slam your ramrod into the ball. Just use consistent (a key word) firm pressure.

Ignition System

On a percussion gun, cock the hammer to half-cock, and place a cap onto the nipple. Sometimes a slight squeeze of the cap will help hold it onto the nipple. Bring to full cock and fire.

For a flinter, put the cock on half-cock, wipe the pan, frizzen and flint with a patch or rag (fouling holds moisture and will result in hang fires or misfires). If the fouling is really stuck on the pan, dampen your rag with alcohol or blue WWF. Run a non-steel (copper, brass) vent pick into the touch hole. This makes sure the touch hole is clear and makes a channel into the powder charge for faster ignition of the main charge. A steel pick will wear your touch hole larger over time (not good). Prime the pan with a pan-full of 4F or 3F, and close the frizzen from the muzzle side of the frizzen. If you pinch the frizzen to close it, you’ll trap your digit between the spring loaded frizzen and a very sharp flint. Cuts result. Put the cock on full cock and fire.

When you use the pick in the vent hole, feel for a “crunching” from the compressed powder. If you do not feel this, the charge is not loaded and compressed firmly enough. Go back and re-compress the load.

Consistency is important. Do the same thing every time. Only change one variable at a time. Once you find the smallest group, and have played with all variables (ball size, patch type and thickness, powder type, powder granule type, lube type, etc.) then adjust your sights, and have a powder measure made that matches the arrived upon charge volume.

Cleaning

There are again many traditional and new ways to clean a traditional muzzle loader. The main thing to remember is to never be lax. Clean you bore completely immediately after each firing session. Black powder fouling collects moisture and will hold it right to the bore and corrode the metal. Fast. Be diligent.

Plain old room temp water will clean out BP fouling. Pure and simple. It was used in the old days.

DO NOT USE HOT WATER to clean you gun. It will cause flash rust, so fast that you cannot lube the bore fast enough to prevent rust and corrosion. The hot water will evaporate due to the heat, and dampness drying on steel equals rust. There is absolutely no need for hot water or hot bore cleaner. Another old tale that actually harms your gun. There was a lube back in the 1970s that used wax. It would get melted into the bore on firing, mixed with BP fouling. The only way recommended back then to dissolve the wax and clean it out was using HOT water with soap. The hot water was needed to melt the wax. This is where that bad hot water practice came from. No need to do that now, as it harms your bore.

That said, while plain water cleans out the BP fouling, cheap blue windshield washer fluid (WWF) does is faster and better.

The first cleaning thing to do after firing is to stop up the ignition system. In a percussion gun, use a foam earplug between the hammer and nipple as a fluid seal. In a flinter, push a dry round toothpick into the touch hole. Fold a patch around the toothpick and close the frizzen on both to hold them steady. Push the toothpick in again to make sure it is still seated. I personally wrap a rag around the wrist of the gun to stop any drip that might escape. A fluid mixed with BP fouling can eat an unsightly line into the buttstock finish, so be careful.

Another vent plugging option is to use a rare earth magnet the size of a Tums tablet. Cut the fingertip off of a rubber glove (to use as a gasket), and drop the magnet down inside. Remove the lock, wipe off the fouling around the vent hole, and place the magnet over the vent hole. With a strong magnet, it makes a good seal to stop liquid from exiting the vent. This does not work on round barrels, only octagon.

Some folks pull the barrel from patent breech, easily removable barrels held in with wedges or keys for percussion guns. They then place the barrel breech in a bucket of water and pump water in and out with a tightly patched ramrod. This works, but is not desirable with pinned in barrels, which are generally not meant to be removed.

So, once you have stopped up the nipple or touch hole, use a funnel and carefully fill the barrel with WWF or room temp water. Let it sit for five minutes or so to work on dissolving the BP fouling. Then pour it out. I turn the barrel front-sight-down when pouring to keep water from getting under the forearm. Run a few patches down the bore to start removing the fouling.

A nylon brush is not a bad thing to use on your ramrod at this point. Just make sure and turn the rod and brush ¼ or ½ turn at the bottom to keep it from jamming. A copper brush may well jam inside.

Refill the bore as before, and let it sit another 5 minutes. Pour out and use WWF on patches on your rod until the bore appears clean with no black or grey showing on the patches. Dry out the bore with dry patches. A key to all of this is to use a tight-fitting jag (fit closely to the bore inside) on your rod, and thick, strong cotton patches (not stretchy knit) to clean. This will ensure the grooves get cleaned.

Now the BP fouling is cleaned out. There can still be baked on lube and/or graphite still in there that is not soluble in water or WWF. Once well dried, switch over to Mr. Flintlock Lube on tight patches and get the graphite out. It’ll show as black on the patches.

Once all is clean, dry the bore well. Soak a patch with WD-40 (moisture displacer) and run it in and out of the bore.

The following day, run dry patches down the bore to remove the WD-40, and then apply your choice of bore protection with wet patches on your rod/jag. Rem-Oil is fine, and I use Break Free CLP as it is thicker and doesn’t evaporate. Most good lubes work for normal storage in an air conditioned house. The bore is now clean.

On the day of shooting, once you get past the WD-40 stage, take the lock off of the gun (keep the lock bolts in order in case of a flinter), and clean the lock. I use Break Free CLP and a tooth brush, Q-Tips and patches until it is meticulously clean. It actually doesn’t take long. Wipe off excess oil and reinstall, paying attention to which bolt goes where on a flintlock with two bolts. One is longer.

Using a light oil on a patch or rag, lightly wipe the metal surfaces to prevent rust from handling.

Cleaning is now done. Ready for the next range session. I leave the hammer or cock in the down position to take the pressure off the main spring in the lock. Don’t snap a lock as it can damage the lock (or nipple). Lower it slowly by hand.

 

[ol' poke]

Ballistol is your friend. Clean your guns as soon as possible, or spray them down with Ballistol to prevent rust. I shoot 1873 revolvers with BP. I squirt Ballistol on the hand/pawl and insides. Clean the rest as good as I can. Over the winter, I tear the guns apart for a complete cleaning. Other than all the black goo/gunk on the insides, which easily wipes off with warm water, there is no rust.
The smell is a love/hate thing, but from what I've heard, you can drink the stuff. (mp personal experience, here) Not at all nasty llike other gun cleaning products.

 

[Leo]

I am a big fan of this product from Thompson Center. I can target shoot all afternoon, and the bore does not clog up, it cleans up easy, and a patch full in a clean bore protects from rust all year.

https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/1077109-tc-arms-3-oz-tube-t17-natural-lube-1000-plus.html

I just use boiling water and soup to clean.

 

[walkercolt]

I clean my flintlock rifles and percussion revolvers all the same .

I rinse them out with water well, followed by a brush and patch and repeat. I'll also spray the metal with Windex as the ammonia is supposed to neutralize the salts in black powder, I know many don't do this and have good results and I do this and all my guns look brand new.

I always use Remington gun oil, CLP

 

[BigRed]

Another fan of Ballistol here

 

[G192127]

Dish soap and hot water then wd40. It's worked for me for years...