Seasoned barrel...

[jahwarrior1423]

Im new to shooting black powder and was told by a guy that once your barrel is seasoned it makes it easier to clean.

Is this correct? If so, do you season the barrel when you first buy the revolver? And, how do you season the barrel?


I was thinking that if the barrel is seasoned, wouldnt cleaning the barrel make the barrel UNseasoned?

[Pettifogger]

Seasoning is for food.  If you clean all the oil and grease out of a new barrel and then shoot BP all you need to clean the barrel is some warm water.  There's all kinds of secret cleaning formulas and myths about seasoning, but the bottom line is that if you start with a basically clean barrel and use bullets with enough BP lube all you need for cleaning is water.  If you are shooting a sub, you don't even need BP lubed bullets.  You can use regular, easily available crayon lubed bullets.

[Wagon Box Willy]

This may help though it is the recommended procedure for breaking in a black powder rifle barrel.  It makes sense that lapping the barrel will make cleaning easier though as Pettifogger said, it really is easy anyway.

http://bpcr1885.net/break-in/

Willy

[Springfield Slim]

I wonder how shooting a gun with copper jacketed bullets "closes the pores"? I could see how it might take out some rough machine marks, not sure about that pore thing. Unless it fills the pores with copper, that doesn't sound good for BP. I just clean my guns and shoot, always works fine.

[44caliberkid]

Since you specifically mentioned "revolver", no, a revolver barrel does not need seasoning.  However, new Italian repro revolvers come with a protective oil on them and in the bore.  You should clean this out before you shoot it or it will burn into the barrel and be a sticky mess that is hard to ever get out.   Take off the barrel and cylinder of the new weapon.  Scrub it out first with a bore brush and Dawn dishwashing liquid and hot water.  Then hold the barrel with some tongs and pour boiling water down the bore to rinse.   Remove the nipples from the cylinder and give it the same treatment, then reinstall the nips with the threads lubed with BP lube or something similar.   The heat from the boiling water should make them dry (after you wipe of the excess water) but you can also put the parts in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes to dry.   Lube your bore with a BP lube also.

[August]

Yes, the guns get easier to clean after successive sessions with black powder.

This is likely due to getting all the petroleum distillates out of the gun, rather than because of "seasoning."

[Jefro]

Yes, the guns get easier to clean after successive sessions with black powder.

This is likely due to getting all the petroleum distillates out of the gun, rather than because of "seasoning."

Yep, once it's clean....it's clean. Seasoning is for pork


Jefro Relax-Enjoy

[jahwarrior1423]

Thanks, guys.