cleaning Hawkins .50 cal

[Angeleyes]

I have no previous experience with black powder weapons. I recently purchased a Traditions .50 caliber Hawkins. I am concerned about the instructions to clean the inside of the barrel with hot soapy water.
  I understand that after cleaning, I should flush the inside of the barrel with very hot water to help the metal to dry. However, I am concerned that there may still be some moisure in the crevices where all other parts at the other end connect to the barrel. Thus, the most likely problem of rust forming.
  Can anyone tell me if there is something that I can do to make sure that it is totally dry where the breech plug and nipple connect to the barrel? Any advice would certainly be helpful to me.

[wildman1]

I take the barrel off of my muzzleloaders and drop the breech end into a container of very hot water and dish soap. Work the cleaning rod with patch up and down in the barrel briskly to flush all the fowling from the end of the barrel by the breach plug. All of this should be done with the nipple removed. I then pull the barrel up out of the water and dump boiling water down the muzzle until it reaches the top, let it drain out run a dry patch thru it and then lube it with Bore Butter. You also could dump a little 91% alcohol down the muzzle just ta make sure ya get all the water out. If ya have any more ? just ask or pm me if ya need ta. WM

[Major 2]

wildman's way is the time honored way....

'Cept  I used soapy water in the toilet    pissed the wife off no end    then just flush

Boiling water then followed, and sprayed WD40 dry patched I've also use alcohol sometimes too...

[sail32]

Like wildman1, I dismount the barrel and take out the nipple and place the breech end in a bucket of hot mater and use a patch on a range rod. The rod pumps the water through the nipple opening, you may need two or three buckets and use a glove or cloth as the barrel gets hot.
After black water stops coming out of the nipple opening, I reinsert the nipple and pump hot water through the nipple to clean it.
I dry the barrel inside with patches and the outside with a cloth, and then clean as I normally would.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I'd let it sit somewhere warm & dry for a bit before it goes back into the gunsafe.  As well as that, I agree with all of the above.

BTW;  Wildman1;To avoid chicken feathers mucking up the works (fowling), I'd adopt a method of cleaning the FOULING from the new piece.
          Angeleyes;  Did you mean that you now own a HAWKEN rifle?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawken_rifle

[wildman1]

I'd let it sit somewhere warm & dry for a bit before it goes back into the gunsafe.  As well as that, I agree with all of the above.

BTW;  Wildman1;To avoid chicken feathers mucking up the works (fowling), I'd adopt a method of cleaning the FOULING from the new piece.
          Angeleyes;  Did you mean that you now own a HAWKEN rifle?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawken_rifle

Sir Charles are you related ta BS?  Angeleyes, I fergot ta say I wear an insulated rubber glove when the boiling water goes down the barrel. WM

[cpt dan blodgett]

If you can get it out, it helps to remove the screw in the end of the thimble and reinstall with some anti seize compound once things are dry, just like one does on the nipple.

[wildman1]

Capt DB is correct, if yer Hawkin(s) has one. Mine does not. WM

[Dick Dastardly]

My .45 Cal. Tompson Center front stuffer gets cleaned by removing the barrel and putting the muzzle up and the back side down in a spa of Moosemilk.  Then, I run the ramrod with cleaning jag and a rag up and down the barrel pulling Moosemilk into the barrel and out thru the muzzle.  As soon as the Moosemilk pumps clean I push out the residual fluid and swab with dry rags till they come out dry.  The Moosemilk contains enough Ballistol to lube the bore for storage till I need the gun again.

DD-MDA

[rifle]

Fouling can get in the threads of breech plugs/bolsters/patent breech/drums /nipples ect ect ect.
All the methods described are good fer removing the fouling from the bore/rifling and some from the threads in the breech plugs/bolsters.drums. If the bolsters like the TC's have are a .001 to .002 in. crush fit at the shoulders where the breech meets the step in the barrel(as TC executive or owner once told me they try for) there isn't much chance fer fouling or water to get in but some still can get in the micro spaces where the two surfaces(end of breech meets shoulder in barrel) meet. Some factory made and even custom made guns have a tolerance at the inside shoulder that says at the max there is a space between the end of the plug and the shoulder inside the barrel of an eighth inch. I knew a custom rifle barrel maker that instead of fitting a bolster/breech plug the right way he made an angle to the end of the plug so part of the end of the plug met the inside shoulder before the rest of the end of the plug and when tightened in the furthest protruding part supposedly moved metal at the shoulder till the rest of the plug end "caught up" so to speak. I checked his plugged barrels to find the whole shoulder didn't have breech plug end crushed against it. Too much angle to the end of the plug. Not closed up right so in time the threads would end up with fouling corrosion in them. He said he never had a problem with any of the barrels he plugged fer people but.......I think when enough time has gone by they will all have problems fer someone. Keeping the threads of the breech/bolsters clean and un-fouled/un-corroded is a good idea. Who needs a breech plug stuck in their forehead?
That is where a penetrant like BP Blaster or something agin to it can be a plus. Plug the nipple with a toothpick and pour enough of the penetrant in the barrel to raise to the level above where the end of the threads in the plug  and the shoulder in the barrel are.
Then let it sit an hour or even a day or two. The penetrant gets the water out of the threads if there is any and helps oil the places where fouling may have gotten in the threads. You can flush the barrel with some alcohol when it's time to shoot again to get out any oil or penetrant.
It doesn't hurt to let the barrel sit breech end down in penetrant or diesel fuel or even oil once in awhile to get the treads de-fouled/de-corroded/oiled. Of course you can flush anything left in the microspaces with alcohol and then dry the barrel and flash channel and then oil for storage or just flush and dry with patches before shooting.
You don't want to store your barrel with any lube that has water in it for rust protection. Some of the common things used have some water in them. I recommend using oil or better yet gun grease for storage. Oil will migrate easier when it's warm as well as grease so turning the barrels once in awhile helps.
It doesn't hurt a thing to wrap the gun or the barrel in a plastic bag with rust/blox paper in with the barrel/gun. The rust blox paper lets off a gas that stops rust dead in it's tracks. Brownells as well as other places sell that brown rust blox paper and gun storage bags. The bag needs sealed to keep the gas from the paper in it.
Some people remove the breech plugs once in awhile to check the threads and clean them of anything that may get in. It takes a special breech plug wrench to get the plugs out.
I don't take my breech plugs out since each time out and then in the breech threads get wear and that makes the plugs want to screw in more to get real tight. You don't want the threads to wear and the plug/breech/bolster to turn in further around next time. Then the tang or the bosters nipple won't line up well and will need turned out a little to line up and turn out a little means ......a little looser than before. Don't want that. That starts the trouble.
I've removed breech plugs in antique barrels fer fixin fer people and found that even though they need soaked in diesel fuel or some penetrant for months maybe the only thing that was holding them in was "corrosion".  I've found ,in some guns, where there is evidence of gas leakage at the line where the shoulder of the bolster meets the barrel on the outside of the barrel. If you ever see that "don't shoot the barrel any more till that is fixed. That means gas and pressure are making it past all the threads and out that line where the bolster meets the barrel. That means it's time fer a new barrel or at the least a new plug made a hair tighter in the barrels threads that may need enlarged a hair to clean them up. That's if there is a die and tap set close but a little larger to what the barrel and it's breech has. The pitch of the threads need the same angle cut on the bolster and the barrel and cut so the threads go deep into each other so the threads are crush fit to keep out gas pressure and fouling and......the shoulder needs the plugs end crush fit to it too. That means the sharp end of a new bolster/breech plug needs rounded off some since the shoulders corner where the threads meet shoulder is hardly ever machined exactly 90 degrees at that juncture. The sharp end of the breech/bolster end needs rounded/fit so the flat surfaces can come together.
Fitting a bolster/breech plug together so all three aspects(flat of barrel and bolster line up exactly,the "inside shoulder" and the "outside shoulder" crush fit together simaltaneously) line up at the same time is tricky to say the least. It's a shame when all that work goes down the drain when a bolster/breech plug is taken in and out too often so things don't line up right when the bolster/breech are tightened up as they should be.....real tight.
It's just better to use the penetrant type maintainance all along to keep the plug in and not corroded.

[Lumpy Grits]

Simple Green then after it's dry, use TC Bore Butter on all threads and the bore.
LG

[rifle]

Lumpy, do you know whether or not the Simple Green cleaner contains water? The Bore Butter stuff I've heard does contain some water and long term can cause rust. Don't ask me where I read that. Some gun mag most likely. TC used to make Bore Butter for use on maxi balls and the like. I think it's discontinued. It was in a plastic jar and was rather hard in consistancy kinda like bullet lube.
If yer meanin Bore Butter bein like what I call "the yellow stuff" like the soft yellow stuff in the tubes nthen I thunk it contains water.
I used that stuff backwhen they touted it as a bore conditioner like seasoning a frying pan. It ain't a bad lube atall and it has been said that it contains the "secrete stuff" that makes SPG Lube work well.
Somewhere along the line(probbly after building squirrel rifles and Hawkens rifle that seem to take a century to complete after an eternity of painstaking hand work and concentration that can drive a Hombre mad) I went to anti-seize grease in the threads of a bolster/drum/breech plug to facilitate future checks and help gunsmiths and all down the road after I'm long gone pushin up daiseys and to help keep rust and corrosion out of there.
Anywhoooo......I trust stuff like penetrant and gun oil and gun grease ect.ect. not to contain water or some other chemical that may cause corrosion. I clean like everyone else with water and soap sometimes but mostly just water to neutralize salts and acids and corrosion causing stuff then the penetrant to flush out water annd then clean from there with a bore cleaner like Butches Bore shine for black powder(good stuff) and sometimes the Butches Bore shine lead and fouling remover and then slobber oil on the bore and let the barrel sit muzzle up with the tooth pick in the nipple and then after checkin fer any "black or brown" that can still come out and the oil gets under and puts the "whatever" in suspension in the oil and I get white patches comin out I use "Grease" fer puttin the gun up till next time.
Of course I need to degrease with patches and alcohol(alcohol does contain water) before shootin again. No problem when carin fer "Ole Nelly" like my deer huntin "Hawken" with the 45/70 barrel made of ordanance grade steel and usin a bullet swag to impart the rifling to the bullets(500gr. Govt.bullet with a big flat put to the front ) sos I can get them into the muzzle.  I love that rifle and I want it to still be someones Buddy after I'm gone. No rust or corrosion in that barrels breech end cuz of all the pressure and all of the relatively small bore shootin 75gr. FFg black. I need to care fer them threads the best I know how.
My way isn't "the best way" I'd imagine but.....I don't know any other way.        I'm too danged old to even bother thunkin bout changin at this late stage of the game. Come ta think about it,"that's what she said too". ha ha ha ha ha
Except fer touchin up the muzzle crown (ram-rod wear from bein dumb and fergittin the muzzle protector) the inside of that barrel is like new(almost). I've been shootin it ny on 17 years now and it's put the bacon in the freezer plenty.

[rickk]

Ditto what Wildman1 says...

Just pump some hot water thru it with the breech end with a cleaning rod (nipple removed) in a bucket of hot water. I use whatever comes out of my hot water faucet.

Then I remove it from the bucket, run a few clean, dry patches thru to barrel to remove excess water.  The barrel will still be so hot that any residual water will evaporate in seconds.

A liberal application of Ballistol on a new dry patch will keep it from rusting. Don't forget to coat the outside of the barrel with Ballistol as well.

Rick