Cleaning black powder rifle

Answer 1

Cleaning your black powder rifle is fairly simple, albeit a bit messy. use a dry copper or brass brush of the proper size to scrub loose powder accumulations in the barrel. Then pour hot water into the muzzle. A small funnel helps. Place the butt of the gun so that you can allow the dirty water to exit from the touch hole ( if it is a flintlock. If you have a percussion, 'cap' gun, remove the nipple prior to cleaning with a nipple wrench). Just keep pouring hit water into the barrel until it runs out below clear. Use dry cotton patches with your cleaning rod, and wipe with patches until they emerge clean. Use pipe cleaners dipped into hot water to clean touch holes and nipple ports. You should also clean any powder residue from around the touch hole or nipple port with a wet cloth. wipe residue off your cock, flint and frizzen also. Sometimes when using this cleaning method, water will seep into behind the lock plate. Remove the screws and pull free the lock. wipe it off, dry it, apply a bit of white lithium grease to the moving parts and replace. After cleaning, dry with clean patches and as a final measure, run a lightly oiled patch down the barrel before putting away. Clean any powder residue from the nipple port, and the nipple. Replace all parts. It doesn't hurt to wipe down the entire gun with a lightly oiled rag, including the wooden parts.

The hot water method works well for pistols and percussion revolvers. Just remove the cylinder and barrel from the gun and hold unter the hot water tap. It'll mess up your kitchen sink though!

An alternative to using the messy hot water method, is after scrubbing loose the powder residue with youbrass brush, is just run cloth patches soaked with solvent down the barrel until they come out clean. the run dry patches until the come out unsoiled. There's a plethora of solvents that can be used. I find that good old windex or other window cleaners with alcohol work well and are cheap. Windshield washer solvent works equally as well.

After you've cleaned up your arms and stored them, check them every month or so for rust in the barrel. Just run a clean patch down them occasionally.