I was the old soap and water user. One time in the field I cleaned out the fouling with just a hand full of snow.

 

Water with a squirt of liquid soap. Best served hot. I almost always return the next day and re scrub bores with a bore solvent. That should take care of any stubborn lead deposits. Love BP, go old school.

 

I got away from hot water it can cause flash rust. I will use warm water and a touch of Dawn or Murphy oil soap.

 

Moose milk. or T/C black powder solvent. yrs ago a gun store was closing he had a lot of it. 50 cent a bottle. I bought em all. also ive used isopropyl alcohol.

 

yep, i tried the moose milk and it does work, but nothing beats Windex.

 

I'm with Tanter, as nothing dissolves calcium carbonate (the fouling) better than water!
After drying, I wipe the bore down with BP bullet lube that protects them until the next time that I shoot them.

 

Soon as possible after you shoot it no matter what you use helps the most.

 

I use a little Dawn and hot water in a long wall paper tray. It is an inline so it is easy to take the barrel off and dump it in the tray for a good soak.

 

I'd say nothing cleans better than hot soapy water, just remember one small thing, your wife will vehemently object to you using the shower. 40 years and I still hear about it!
Like I said, hot soapy water does it. Windex works well, a baby wipe will give you a good quick bore clean too, don't ask how I know that! But I like Ballistol mixed about 2 parts water to 8 parts water. Cleans extremely well inside and out. I follow up with a patch with full strength on it. Rust is not making any progress on my black powder guns.

 

I'd say nothing cleans better than hot soapy water, just remember one small thing, your wife will vehemently object to you using the shower. 40 years and I still hear about it!

Tell me about it. Its the vegetables all over again. Still, if you need a wash, save water.

 

Blackpowder fouling is hygroscopic. Every time you set off a charge you invite water vapor from the air into your bore. So using water to clean isn't really a problem, unless you do it wrong and leave moisture in the barrel.

For a long time I thought I was doing a good job with gumout carburetor cleaner. It works, but it doesn't work as fast as plain old water.

Rusty Duck Black Off is the absolute best chemical type cleaner, but the tree huggers must have shut that down because you can't find it anymore.

 

Hot soapy water,then flush and rinse as hot as you can stand,you want the metal hot enough to dry itself when your done,that usually is sufficient, however next day I might use hopes No.9 like a smokeless rifle just to make sure it’s clean.then lube.I have heard that petro products gum things up with black powder,but never had a problem,natural or petro based it all works if it’s clean.Ballistol is a great water based product proven through many wars by the Germans.

 

I used to clean my BP percussion revolvers in the sink with scalding hot water and dawn dish detergent. Put Bore Butter (tm) in the bore and chambers after everything had dried out but while the metal was still warm. Since I used scalding hot water the revolver dries out quickly and the Bore Butter melts and runs into all the crevices and pores etc. Never had any pitting or rust using this method.

 

I agree,bore butter on hot steel,I have heard negative things about bore butter but never had a problem myself.

 

I use windex and/or T/C BP cleaner. After that is all done and the rifle has dried--bore butter goes in the barrel.

 

Pathfinder65 reminds me. After a good soak and scub with soapy water I tend to spray with WD40 to remove water from every nook and cranny. Works on the guns as well.

 

Soap and water for over 40 years has been just fine but I have a specific method I use to clean my MLs to ensure it stays fine!

 

I use Windex with Vinegar to clean them up quickly. Oil them up with Balistol unless its long term storage and then I use regular gun oil.
When Im out shooting the Guns with BP i use the mix of 50/50 Balistol and water. The mixture keeps the wheel guns from binding up in competition.

 

I use hot water with Dawn dishwash liquid. Scrub good then rinse and then scrub again. Then I open the nipple (rifles) and blow out the barrel with air from my compressor (90-100 psi). With pistol I remove all nipples on the cylinder and soak them in paint thinner. Then scrub and swab out with Hoppes #9 for black powder followed by a swab of break free CLP. Never had any rust even after storage. Let them bake in the sun before storage.

 

Yikes. That description kind of reminds me why I drifted away from BP shooting. I spent an hour shooting and then spent three hours cleaning up afterwards

 

Water/Ballistol mix. BP is simple and easy to clean up unlike smokeless fouling. Keeping it simple is much better. The reason I like water ballistol is once the water evaporates it leaves the oil behind. This is nice after a silhouette match as I can clean my rifle up and head home and I don't have to come back to it for a few days if I don't feel like it. Same with my flinters.

I'm actually interested in trying windex. I wonder if the ammonia has something to do with melting away the BP fouling?

This is a series of patches from wet to dry, cleaning up about 60 rounds of fouling from my CPA 44-1/2 with my 45/70 barrel doing a little bit of load development. Water/ballistol 50/50 mix. Works well.

 

Only thing about Ammonia is you cant leave any trace of it or it can corrode other metals like brass, aluminum, etc.

 

Excellent point.

 

Moose Milk, boiling hot water, birchwood casey black powder cleaner(pink liquid), WD40, Yamaha outboard motor carburettor cleaner (another good one not sold anymore due to lab rats getting cancer of the pancreas) are all tried and tested ways I used to clean my B.P. firearms, not anymore!
A couple of years ago, on a drunken whim, I made contact with one of those "home shopping" companies. I wanted a ladder just like the one another bloke from my local gun club/ range has. When it showed up, unknown to me, you receive a free gift. This was a Steam Mop! What the bloody hell do I do with this? It was actually in the rubbish when I came back from B.P. day at the range when I noticed that without the stupid mop head on the hose would go down the barrel of my Hawken!
It was quickly fished out, filled with water and plugged in.
I now have several different attachments made from copper tubing of different sizes wrapped with leather and lacing to form a insulated handle on all of them.
Nothing eats black powder fouling like the power of steam!
My Ruger Old Army revolver has only ever been this clean since the day it left the factory! The steam eat all the fowling away from around the nipples and cylinder. You could see the stainless steel visibly more shiny after it's first steam clean!
Get yourself a Steam Mop!

 

I love history, and read a lot of it. More than a few times I have wondered about the soldiers that used BP, whether in muskets, revolvers or single shot pistols. How often did they get cleaned and how did they do it? Think about the barrel of a typical BP revolver after a dozen rounds. Then imagine being in battle with it. I know for the most part we fire more rounds in a range afternoon than they would in a month or more, but still. Consider with troop movements, advancing or fallling back. Digging in, or occupying a strong point. Cleaning brushes, jags, hot water? I cant see it.

 

I love history, and read a lot of it. More than a few times I have wondered about the soldiers that used BP, whether in muskets, revolvers or single shot pistols. How often did they get cleaned and how did they do it? Think about the barrel of a typical BP revolver after a dozen rounds. Then imagine being in battle with it. I know for the most part we fire more rounds in a range afternoon than they would in a month or more, but still. Consider with troop movements, advancing or fallling back. Digging in, or occupying a strong point. Cleaning brushes, jags, hot water? I cant see it.

Modern soldiers carry cleaning kits and are

My understanding is the average soldier was given 40 shots, and wasn't expected to survive to fire anymore between engagements. Makes you wonder. Black powder really isn't all that corrosive. What ate up military muskets was the advent of percussion ignitions and the mercury fulminate in the caps, and then the advent of the substitute propellants and their propensity to blow up guns if left with an air gap in comparison to BP is why we have the myths of today.

In regards to mercury fulminate, this is why you'll see military flintlock muskets often times in better shape than their percussion counterparts.

 

Travis 186, thanks for that. Very interesting.

Oh, here is something I found useful for cleaning, dental cleaning brushes. Like a tiny bore brush, but will fit inside a nipple, as well as the little spaces, say between extractor and bolt on some guns. These are .5mm.

 

I use those as well. Great for cleaning the revolver nipples before shooting.

 

The process I used when I owned an 1874 Sharps rifle to clean-up the BP residue.
After removing the wood stock: Disassemble all small metal parts into a jewelry basket and the action barrel placed into a Deep Sink with *Hot Soapy Water. After a thorough brushing all parts and barrel, a very hot water rinse, drying. Applied lubricant inside and out. Reassemble.

Old Creek

 

The process I used when I owned an 1874 Sharps rifle to clean-up the BP residue.
After removing the wood stock: Disassemble all small metal parts into a jewelry basket and the action barrel placed into a Deep Sink with *Hot Soapy Water. After a thorough brushing all parts and barrel, a very hot water rinse, drying. Applied lubricant inside and out. Reassemble.

Old Creek

What kind of Sharps did you have that you would break it down like that. I have a Shiloh Sharps in cartridge.

 

Straight up Windex with ammonia to neutralize the acids. Wipe dry then oil. I can clean my competition musket in about 5 minutes.

 

I have scratch build quite a few rifles, mostly Hawkens. I take the barrel with the nipple off, put a tight patch on a plug and stick it in a bucket of warm water with a little soap. When it is clean I put very hot water in the bucket and pump, then run a few patches to dry. Once it is dry I run an oiled patch thru it. The owner of a large BP supply told me to make it simpler and do the initial cleaning in the toilet. Just be sure you end up with a bone dry barrel and then an oiled patch.