Black powder

[royden]

Can anyone tell me please if there is a different procedure for cleaning a gun when using black powder . Are there any solvents i need to get? Thanks

 

[Stimo22]

I always thought that you used boiling water to clean out black powder

[Imperfection]

When i used to have a 44 black powder pistol i used to remove the wooden grips and put the entire gun including cylinder into a sink of hot soapy water for 30 minutes to soften the muck (its filthy). Then clean with normal rods/patches and spray with WD40 to blast any remaining water out of nooks & crannies.

[cervusman]

When I use black powder l only use WD40 to clean the weapon. I would spray my pistol on getting home from the range and finish cleaning it the next night sometimes. Never had any problems.

[Mr.C]

Following this as I, more than likely, have a ml revolver on its way. 

I understood dunk the lot in hot (very) water and scrub bore and chambers. Then gun oil. 

[Feltwad]

The method I have used for the past 74 years for shotgun barrel is half a bucket of hot water , put the breech end in the water same for a muzzle loader .Drop a few drops of  black powder solvent  into the muzzle end and take cleaning rod with a  fine bristle brush  and scrub the bore using a pump like action this will clean the barrel . Next take  clean cloth  patches or pieces of paper towel on a old bore wire brush and dry out the barrel  and oil the bore . I have always found this the best method  and not yet come across a good solvent.

Feltwad

[Dave at kelton]

I used to do what Feltwad does but for the last five years I have started by scrubbing out with a 50/50 mix of car screen wash concentrate and water. That will remove nearly the black powder fouling. Hot water is then used to heat the barrel and naturally dry out. Once dry final scrub and oil.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Dave at kelton

[enfieldspares]

Blackpowder....true blackpowder not the Pyrodex or Triple-7 stuff...isn't that hard usually to clean. But it's residue is also hygroscopic. Less so than the reside left by the old mercuric primers but still nevertheless hygroscopic. It tends to absorb moisture from the air. So the best defence is to give it so much moisture that it can't absorb anymore and so wash it out. So pouring water from the breech end of the barrels usually in copious amounts.

This often done with the cranked boiling funnels you see on eBay. Big and galavanised if for a service rifle of a military or militia unit use...small delicate and nickel plated if in the accoutrements of a sporting rifle.

Does it matter if the water is hot or cold or in fact boiling? Well for sure in war if they had water they may not have been able to boil it and in fact usually water was too precious to waste of pouring down rifle barrels. In fact I asked a friend who had been in Normandy in 1944 how his soldiers managed with corrosive primers as water in the early days was precious. His answer was that they pulled the barrels through every day with an oiled 4x2.

So if you've no immediate access to water a pulling through, or "rodding" every day with an oiled patch will for a short time keep the issue at bay until you can find water to pour down the barrel. So why boiling water? For the simple reason that in effect the gun dries itself in the heat the barrel absorbs from the water. But if you cannot get boiling water cold will do. But you have to then do the drying of the barrel with a patch.

The use of a cleaning rod and patch with the muzzle held underneath the water (or as I used at Bisley a mix of Young's .303 and water to make their "acqoil") is excellent. It saves wasting the water....or the acquoil...and if the receptacle that holds the water or acquoil is large enough diameter two or three can pump and flush their rifles at the same time.

The enemy is time. Get it flushed as quickly as you can if not you must pull it through or rod it everyday until you can. Doing it once hoping that the layer of oil you've put it will do the job is a mistake. It won't. You must until you can flush it pull through or rod every day.

A handy tip...to check that all the risk of rust has been eradicated with an ML revolver or pistol (or breechloading revolver or pistol you've fired blackpowder cartridges through) put on a baking tray, disassembled, the cylinder and frame and barrel, in an oven on a lowish heat about 100 C or 212 F for maybe twenty minutes enough that it heats the parts so if you touched the parts you'd a contact burn. This will accelerate the forming of any rust on a "missed" area and you can attend to it. If after that short "baking" you see no rust it is safe to re-assemble the revolver or pistol and put it away long term.

Edited December 29, 2020 by enfieldspares

[royden]

Thanks gents for taking the time to post you have been very helpful. I recently bought some bp cartridges to put through my eight bore and had heard that it was more corrosive than nitro. I dont leave my guns dirty anyway but i just wanted to be sure to get it right. Thanks again.