Cleaning a muzzleloader
Animeniac
I have always wondered about statements regarding cleaning with hot
water and how black powder attracts moisture.
I'm going to clean a Knight rifle that whoever had it last must have put
it away in a beach house without cleaning after a day of heavy shooting.
The barrel looks like it is lined in red fur. The breech area looks
like a severly corroded battery terminal.
I don't know where to start.
Water, soap, bore cleaner, sand blast?
Any advice is appreciated.
JR
Anime arimasu ka? (Got Anime?)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Learn about rec.guns at http://www.recguns.net
--------------------------------------------------------------
RBnDFW
# I have always wondered about statements regarding cleaning with hot
# water and how black powder attracts moisture.
#
# I'm going to clean a Knight rifle that whoever had it last must have put
# it away in a beach house without cleaning after a day of heavy shooting.
#
# The barrel looks like it is lined in red fur. The breech area looks
# like a severly corroded battery terminal.
#
# I don't know where to start.
# Water, soap, bore cleaner, sand blast?
#
# Any advice is appreciated.
Is the finish gone? If so, get some Evaporust and soak the barrel. done
deal, except for the refinishing.
If you leave it in the solution for a week or two it will blacken
almost lick a real bluing job. You may find it to be good enough, though
I don't think it's nearly as durable as real bluing. The depth of
blackening appears to depend on the carbon content of the steel, so
results may vary.
Still got a finish? Remove the worst of it with soap and hot water,
which will also kill any remaining salts. Then bore-brush it clean.
External finish use 0000 steel wool and WD40 or other light oil.
If you can remove the breech plug do so.
LC
followed by patches with cleaning fluid, hoppes,
followed by jb bore paste
then clean oiled patches
till it's clean again
and LOTS of ELBOW GREASE
LC
Louis Boyd
# I have always wondered about statements regarding cleaning with hot
# water and how black powder attracts moisture.
#
# I'm going to clean a Knight rifle that whoever had it last must have put
# it away in a beach house without cleaning after a day of heavy shooting.
#
# The barrel looks like it is lined in red fur. The breech area looks
# like a severly corroded battery terminal.
#
# I don't know where to start.
# Water, soap, bore cleaner, sand blast?
#
# Any advice is appreciated.
Get a pail with hot (150-180F soapy water. Remove the barrel from the
stock and immerse the breach end. Use tight patch to pull the hot water
though the barrel. You can also pour water down the muzzle. use
something to keep from rubbing the cleaning rod on the muzzle and crown.
It will either come clean or you can buy a new barrel.
Gerald "Brick" Brickwood
"Animeniac" <otak...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:he69nl$nb9$1...@news.albasani.net...
> ...
I think I would start with just a dry brush to get the loose and easily
removed stuff out first, then see what the condition is. If there are
indications of heavy pitting and real damage, I might then just stop and
consider buying a new barrel if the rest of the gun was usable.
The idea of using hot water for cleanup after shooting blackpowder or
corrosively primed smokeless powder is the salts left behind after shooting
these things are water soluble, that means they dissolve in water and are
easily removed by water. But if they are not cleaned out and are allowed to
remain the salts are anhydrous, which means they attract water (which is why
table salt clumps in humid conditions or calcium chloride is used to hold
down dust on some roads, it attracts and retains water) and the water causes
the metal to oxidize.
Very hot water is used because it warms the metal and the water will run off
or evaporate very quickly off the metal making cleaning up the water easier.
A light coat of oil is then used to protect the metal surface from the
remains of the cleaning water and humidity.
Have Fun!
Gunny_2009
# I have always wondered about statements regarding cleaning with hot
# water and how black powder attracts moisture.
#
# I'm going to clean a Knight rifle that whoever had it last must have put
# it away in a beach house without cleaning after a day of heavy shooting.
#
# The barrel looks like it is lined in red fur. The breech area looks
# like a severly corroded battery terminal.
#
# I don't know where to start.
# Water, soap, bore cleaner, sand blast?
#
# Any advice is appreciated.
# JR
Step one, check to see if it is loaded!! Think about it. The last person to
use it may have loaded it and NOT fired it. You need to be sure. This is
not as easy as with a cartridge rifle. Drop a rod down the barrel, mark the
depth, then lay it alongside the outside of the barrel. If the marking lets
the rod go clear to the rear of the barrel, the gun is not loaded. If the
rod shows there is something in the back of the barrel you will need to get
a bullet pulling jag and get it out before cleaning.
Because this is going to get messy and you don't want to saturate your stock
with hot, very dirty, soapy water, take the barrel off the stock and work
with it separately. You can clean up the area around the nipple with hot
water and a metal brush. You can always touch up the area with some cold
blue when you are done. From your description, I don't think you need to
worry about the bluing in the area anyway. For the bore, go ahead and pour
hot water and dish detergent down the barrel and then give it a good
scrubbing with a bore brush. This is a job best done out in the back yard,
not the kitchen. It will get really messy as water comes out the nipple
hole and back out the bore. Every 30 seconds or so, upend the whole thing
and empty the barrel. Repeat. Keep doing this until the hot soapy water
comes out clean. Fire up your wife's tea kettle and boil up some water.
Use this to rinse out the bore. (gloves help) When you have rinsed out the
barrel several times with boiling water, it will be clean, and the residual
heat will evaporate the remaining water in the bore. While the barrel is
hot and dry, give it a good swabbing with some patches and a good
water-displacing oil. That will lube the barrel and keep it from corroding
now that the bore is bare metal. Let everything cool, and reassemble.
One of the joys of BP shooting has to be the clean up. LOL
Roy
Start with HOT soap and water, and probably a bore brush, then use either a mop or tight fitting
patch and jag combo. Hot water should dissolve the residue. As badly pitted as the breech sounds,
I doubt it had been used with real black powder. Probably Pyrodex or one of the other substitutes.
I live just outside of Houston, so not quite on the beach, but about as humid day in and day out. I
would not expect to see that kind of pitting in (I assume) a relatively short time - month or so -
if the shooter used Goex.
Anyway, get the crud out. The salts will dissolve in the water, and the soap should remove any oils
that might still be in the barrel, but if in doubt, give the barrel a good rinse of hot water and
then try your favorite bore cleaner if you'd like.
Take a look at the barrel. If need be, wrap the bore brush with double ought steel wool and give it
100-200-1000 laps to shine it back up. Lap it some more with four ought steel wool to polish the
barrel more. Hose the breech and any other threaded areas or nooks down with WD-40 to get any
residual water out. Blow the thing out with compressed air if you can (I really like using
compressed air with my muzzleloaders) to get rid of any moisture and WD40, then use your favorite
oil. Oil it again 24 hours later, and oil it again after 1 week.
My best wishes for your success. Let us know how it turns out.
Regards,
Roy
Bluehawk99
Try hot soapy water and bristle brush first internally and see how
that goes.
If you need more agressive cleaning other than a bristle brush use a
fine Scotchbrite pad then go to 0000 steel wool then to coarser wool
like 000 then 00.
Sand blasting the bore will put microscopic pitting into the metal
which is what you don't want.
Externally, you can blast it but you will end up having to file or
sand it smooth. If the pitting is localized and not deep try sanding
first... if deeper then use a file followed by sanding.. if necessary
blast it...but only as a last resort.
dickr2
..50 cal percussion rifle. It was fun to shoot and I also
noticed he would occasionally clean the inside of the barrel with
automotive windshield washer fluid. Don't know if this applies in
this case.
FWIW
Dick
Sparkie
"dickr2" <dic...@frontier.com> wrote in message
news:he7n3j$smk$1...@news.albasani.net...
> ...
go wash the car.Come back run the brush down the barrle a couple of times.
REPEAT!! Then spray the bore with some bore cleaner, then a couple of
patches, look down the bore. If it's clean run patch with oil on it
down,then I use some bore butter (thick) down the bore.
Clean the rest of the barrel (outside) with a little oil attach barrel to
stock again then your done. Next year run a couple of patches down the bore
and your ready to use it again..
LC
# Bronze bore brush, correct size for caliber, and hoppes
# followed by patches with cleaning fluid, hoppes,
#.'m going to clean a Knight rifle that whoever had it last must have put
#it away in a beach house without cleaning after a day of heavy shooting.
#The barrel looks like it is lined in red fur. The breech area looks
#like a severly corroded battery terminal.
bore brush first
then
the steps
depending on condition of bore
Walter Martindale
> ...
Arimasen...
You may have figured this out.. If it is an older knight, like my old
LK93, it's fairly straightforward... If you haven't already, take it
out of the stock, remove the trigger, Unscrew the striker/spring
mechanism. If your rifle came with it's nipple and breechplug tool,
unscrew the nipple and then the breechplug. If you can see through
the bore, it's unloaded. If you can't see through it, there's
something there. If you dig out powder when you've unscrewed the
breech plug, it (was) loaded but still has a bullet...
Then clean it as many others have mentioned.
the Knight inlines are pretty simple devices - if the barrel's pooched
by somebody not cleaning and oiling it properly, biff it out and get
one from a store...
If there's still rifling, you might try (after cleaning as much as
possible) casting a lap into the bore and then running some valve-
lapping compound through for a while...
W
------------------------------------------------------------
Learn about rec.guns at http://www.recguns.net
Win an M1 Garand from Fulton Armory while helping the Cause!
Details of the MPFO rifle raffle are at http://myguns.org/
------------------------------------------------------------
Sheldon
Most of the methods here will work fine, just use the least destructive
first, then use more abrasive measures.
Once you get it clean, however, it should be noted that hot, soapy water is
the normal method for cleaning a black powder gun. Don't be afraid of using
water, just use hot water and it will evaporate on its own, or use plenty of
patches to dry everything well. When finished some light oil used sparingly
will prevent future rust.
Have fun with it and be careful. If you're not familiar with black powder
firearms do a little research on the net. They do require some extra
precautions.
------------------------------------------------------------
Learn about rec.guns at http://www.recguns.net