Any Cleaning Short cuts Y’all Want to Share?

[Dalion]

I've started shooting my pair of Pietta NMAs and been doing the standard cleaning routine. I take the cylinders out, put them in a tub of water with some dish soap, and scrub them with a tooth brush. Run a patch on a jag through each chamber.  Take the grips off and put the pistol under running water and scrub with tooth brush.  Dry and lube.


Can you pards share any short cuts to make the cleaning process quicker and more effective?

Thanks

Dan

[cpt dan blodgett]

The only thing I do differently is start with boiling soapy water.
Heats up the metal pretty good and casuse water to evaporate really fast.

Generally do not pull the grips but swish the pistol around in the bucket keeping hand and grips out of the hot water.
If I pulled the grips would stilck entire pistol in hot water with muzzle out and run swab in and out repeatedly pumping water thru the bore like I do ML Barrels.  With my Sharps and Remmie clean muzzle down in bucket using same pumping method.

[Freedom]

I live in a dry climate here in the mountains of MT so things may be different for me just because I don't have the humidity that some of you all have..

I NEVER bathe my guns ...can't even imagine that anyone in history did that until Lyman put it into there manuals in the 50's. I used to, but mom put a stop to that so I had 2 choices ..stop shooting BP's or figure out a better way to do it. (No chance of stopping..lol)

I remove my barrel,, wet brush the cylinder and bore (usually with ballistol and water) then couple tight patches, boresnakes work well too. I very seldom take them apart further than this..(unless I have reason to believe that there are cap pieces down in the action (and with a Remington, the caps usually don't end up in the action like thay do on the Colt).

I wipe the goo off the frame with a rag (usually my lube is everywhere so the fouling on the frame just wips off) I prefur bore butter, but I usually use "Skidmore's" leather cream, just cause I have so much of it. I wipe eveything down with some lube on a rag or sometimes some straight Balistol.
Then I just assemble  it , reload it,  holster it, and DONE.

[Wolfgang]

I really like using "Weasil Piss" for cleaning.

You may like to try that . . . . . . but be careful . . . them Wheesils is slippery fast little devils and catching one was quite a chore.   I thought the worst was over when I had a firm grip on him, . . . . . but, . . holding him down while I pried his mouth open and got the funnel in wasn't any easier.   After the first two bottles of beer inserted into the upper end of his elementary canal he began to produce the desired product.  And by the third bottle things got much easier as he'd discovered that he like the stuff I was pouring into his gullet.  Now he can't get enough of it.  He turns up his nose at domestic beer and will only drink good imported stuff, . . . British and French are Ok with him but is preference is for German brews.  The end product is being pumped out at a great rate.  I have considered getting a bottling set up and marketing it . . . . but unfortunately the marketing of "cottage ( ie. garage ) produced products" on the SASS wire has been banned.  You'll just have to catch yur own Wheesil . . . .

If'n ya want to do it "easy way" with the artificial "Wheesil Whiz" ya just mix equal parts Murphy's Oil soap, Hydrogen Perozide, and rubbing alcohol, . . . works good, . . . just not quite as exotic as using genuine "Wheezil Whiz" . . .

I clean my cylinders by putting them in a little tin can and pouring in boiling water to cover them.   It is good to remember to put a peice of wire thur the center of the cylinder so as to have a way to pull it out of the hot water.   After a couple of minutes of soak I pull the cylinder up with the wire, . . . let the hot water drain thru the flash holes, . . . then pull it out, lay it on a rag, . . . let it dry . . . roll it between my hands to see daylight thru the flash holes.  If I can't see daylight use a pin to clean out the flash holes.  Repeat if necessary.  I swab the barrel good with a BIG bronze brush ( 12 ga. ) . . . then use the "weasil piss" . . . may use the brush again, . . finally clean swabs thru it.  If really dirty may plug the rear and of the barrel and let the "weasil piss" soak in it for a bit. 

Hope this helps. 

Be careful with the weasils,....   

[Takoda Ray]

I didn't think that there was any short cuts to cleaning a black powder revolver other then what the op says that he does.That's about the shortest method that I know but then,how can you ever be sure that the bullet launcher is truely cleanened properly without a total break down and each part brushed and cleaned with water or Ballistol or moose milk or even Weasil pee.Bad things can happen if the insides aren't completely dry and oiled and black powder fouling is allowed to remain.

[Freedom]

It is funny when I read all the horror stories about getting a BP totaly spotless and then it still rusts..I think guys are stripping the oils out of the pores of the metal with all soap, the boiling water, and oven baking...then the metal is much more likely to rust... I used to boill my stuff and even oven dry it so I was sure it was dry. Then oil with petro gun oil..then I had to baby sit it for the next couple weeks to make sure rust wan't forming (it usually was).

But now by using natural oils and greese and tallows, I have NO problems (just like they would have on the range 500-100 years ago)

Case in point...I bought a brand new cabela's 5 1/2" Remington. I took it out of the box and wrapped it in vinegar soaked rags and let it set..I kept wiping it and adding more vinegar to the rags. After a couple days of work, she was totally stripped of all blueing. I sanded off all the warnings and writings on the metal...I then took it out and shot 3 cylinders through it (lubed over the balls)... I just pulled a bore snake through the bore and set it on the shelf to"age" By not messing with the powder burn patterns and residue I was hoping for a well used patena look.....Well that was 2 years ago and it still looks pretty new and no rust It does have a nice grey color to it and it does have some browning that has formed...but pitting and disasterous damage just didn't happen.

Here is a picture of it today... There is a little browning around the loading lever, but it is not heavy rust/pitting. I take it out and shoot is some and I did clean the bore well and wipe it down real well with a greesy rag the last time out...but it still lokks fine, even with it being stripped

[Wolfgang]

Like Freedom sez, . . . natural lube works good.   I use a 50/50 mix of toilet bowl wax and olive oil.  I wipe the excess and any obvious black fouling off, but do not over clean, . . . just clean the cylinder and the bore really good, the exterior of the cylinder has a film of my "lube mix" on it after I've finished with cleaning and if the gun is gonna sit afor a while I run a patch with the lube smeared on it thru to coat the bore also. 

[Dalion]

Since I posted the topic I have read a bit on the subject and have tried a new routine that has made the cleaning of my NMA quite a bit quicker and more efficient. 

1. I take the cylinder out, drop in a small bucket of moose milk made with Ballistol.
2. I then dip the revolver in the same bucket just shy of the cylinder bolt and with a tooth brush I scrub the fowling of all surfaces.  I dunk the revolver repeatedly while continuing to brush.

3. I shake off the excess fluid from the brush and scrub the back part of the frame.

4. Dry everything off, including a few shots from a can of compressed air.
I run a couple of dry patches down to the bore.  Lube everything with Ballistol.

5. Scrub the cones on the cylinder with the tooth brush in the bucket of Moose Milk.  I turn over the cylinder and take my Speed Mop, which has six wool mops, and pump fluid through all six cylinders at the same time in the Moose Milk. I run some dry patches through the cylinders dry with paper towels and sprays from the can of compressed air.  Lube with Ballistol and I am done. 

Total cleaning time per revolver; 12 minutes!  Life is GOOD .  BTW I have reused the Moose Milk in the bucket twice now and I intend to keep using it for the foreseeable future. 

I want to thank Dick Dastardly for the Moose Milk bucket idea.

[OldCrow]

I hope there are no PETA lurkers around or they will be "occuping" Wolfgangs over his treatment of weasles, lawyers too for the weasles filing a discrimination suit  over beer selections.. Oh and Freedom< what shelf ya storin that thing on and when ya gonna be gone long enough for me to come over and find it,,,lol  Nice lookin piece..   Me I just basically  fill a small dish tub with  dawn and hot water to do the barrels and cylinders, run a patch through em, clean up the rest using an old denture brush. Blow dry em (they love that makes em feel special) then I have a dedicated "mop"for bore butter down the barrels and cylinders and wipe down the outsides with a Ballistol rag..I usually leave my nipples in place, just use my homemade socket wrench and "crack em" loose then re-tighten. After a couple of outings  I will take off the grips and wipe out the works but shoot I only have 2 (ATM) but that will change SOON...lol