black powder cleanup for the 1860 and the 1866

[Cliff Fendley]

Been using the off brand window cleaner from Kroger for a couple years now.

Couple squirts down the barrel, brush and a couple clean patches followed by a couple patches with ballistol...Done.

[John William McCandles]

I always use hot soapy water and paper towel patches, run wet patches down barrel until they come out clean, then a dry one. Clean action then run a mop with ballistol down the barrel.
Always use a gun vise/ rest and turn the rifle over so the residue runs out and not into the action.
Take it all the way down once a year for a good cleaning of the action.


JW

[griswold]

When I shoot my replica Griswold with BP and after returning home, I put a large pan on the stove with water and dish liquid. (doesn't matter I guess but I use Dawn).......get it up to boil, pull the nipples, the lever and dump the cylinder, nipples, barrel and lever into the pan. After 10-15 minutes all the gunk is floating on the sudsy surface and I (using big kitchen tweezers) remove the big parts and lay them on a towel. The lever screws and nipples are fished out with a spoon.The metal is hot and boils the moisture away leaving a clean surface. A little oiling and I'm done with that.
I oil while the metal is still warm and it tends to get soaked up into the steel a tad.

Wipe excess oil off, wipe the frame down with an oily rag and reassemble.

Been doing this since I bought the thing in 1970. Boiling turns the blue to grey and gives it a certain old look. Not recommended for those who wish to keep the shiny blue new look.

[tommy4toes]

Dawn & hot hot hot water.....I use a rubber #2 test tube stopper in the chamber and fill the barrel. Let it sit awhile, then empty it out. One pass with a Bore Snake(more hot soapy), then patch dry and swab with a mop & CLP BreakFree. Cases get de-capped in a milk jug with hot soapy at the range.

The old timey buff shooters swore by urine......

t4t

[tommy4toes]

and the action gets the same with a toothbrush eventually - I usually do a full teardown & relube after shooting BP.


t4t

[reno]

I have used Windex or soap and water for years, on my 60, 66, Sharps, all my rifles and has worked fine. Also I will turn my rifles upside down when cleaning the bore, and have a paper towel under the chamber to catch the gunk when I run the rod down the barrel, that way nothing falls down in the action.

Reno

[Bunk Stagnerg]

Somewhere i posted the method of fire forming .44-40 cases to shoot in the ,45 Colt rifle.
That thin case mouth with a full charge of Gun Powder (Holy Black) will keep the lifter and internal parts clean as a whistle.
It is a of of work to do, but well worth the effort rather than taking the gun apart with those butter soft screws.
respectfully submitted
Bunk

[greyhawk]

If you use the empty case in the chamber you don't need the cradle. One less thing to drag along to a match, and we all have empty cases at the end of a match. Just stand it up in your cart. Or lean it against your car. What ever works.

I go along with Buck, clean em upside down ina cradle - but first I pour water down the barrel from the chamber end - then one patch then more water - nuther patch - do that cycle three times then a patch soaked in wd40   - YES! wd40 - works at my place - wipe the outside down with the oily patch n put her away- Takes about a whole four minutes.   

fixed spellin mistakes

[Coffinmaker]

NECROMANCERS!!!  Run for the hills .... the NECROMANCERS are loose!!!   

It is some fun to revisit some of these older threads.  Cleaning a Henry is something near and dear to my heart.  I only shoot four of the things.  Plus a couple of 1866s.  And they are ALL ... .45s ... whoops, except one .44 Special.

Inna Wabac (think Perfesser and Sherman) I was one of the proponents of running 44-40 cases thru my 45 Colt dies and fire forming 45s out of em.  I still am.  Blow-By in .45 rifles, or actually any of the straight walled cases is a real PITA.  Switching to 44-40-45s resulted in really clean Carrier Blocks and Actions.  I had a real problem with my 44 Special '66 Trapper.  Chamber so bad it refused to run with BP or Subs.  Would foul out the chamber in 3 - 5 rounds.  Tried every cure I could think of.  Actually wrote the rifle off and stuffed it inna safe and was gonna sell it off as a "Smokeless Only" (Gag, Puke).

Then I ran into OD#3 right here in River City.  I had always considered annealing something lunatic fringe bench resters did for sport.  No applicability to what we do ...... right??  Wrong.  OD#3 shamed me into annealing straight walled cases.  The experiment was first applied to the "write off" 44 Special.  I annealed about 100 44 Russian cases (close proximity to 44 Henry Flat) and headed for a CAS match (Never, ever, test at an empty range first).  WOWZERS.  The rite off 44 Trapper ran like gangbusters.  Occasional sticky extraction from an over-annealed case, but whom care'd.  It RAN!!!  So I became an annealing fool and now anneal ALL my 45 Rifle ammo (not pistol) which includes 44 Russian, 45 Schofield and C45S.

SO::  What does all this have to do with cleaning a Henry, you might ask.  Well .... go ahead ..... ask.  When the Carrier Block of a Toggle Link rifle fouls, the only way to get it really clean is to pull it out of the gun.  When running annealed cases thru my Toggle rifles, I find the need to pull the carrier block is greatly reduced.  Reduced to "once in a while" and I just hit the carrier with a drop or two of oil.  My cleaning routine for my Toggle rifles is to chamber a fired case, squirt the bore with PAM, run a wet patch or two thru, run dry patch, run oil patch and wipe down w/oil rag .... DONE.

For those whom have been fighting Blow-By in straight walled cases, anneal them suckers and be done with Blow-By.  45 rifles that will run as clean or cleaner than a 44-40.