Cleanin'

[Arcey]

Cleanin'.  Whut's taday?  Friday?  Lose track sumtimes......

Boys, last Saturday was hot.  When we finished shootin' I didn't feel much like cleanin' guns.  Sprayed 'em down good with Ballistol/Water, shoved a patch thru 'em, sprayed 'em again, left 'em wet 'n stuffed 'em in the truck 'fore I left the range.  When I got here I pulled the revolvers' cylinders 'n dumped 'em in a can ah Ed's Red.

Just got done cleanin' the revolvers.  Took maybe ten minutes a piece 'n both of 'em are spotless.  A couple patches 'n wipe 'em off wuz all.

This stuff 'bout the One True Powder bein' a mess whut'll ruin yer guns 'less ya go to extremes with soap 'n water 'n right now then sop 'em up with exotic oils just ain't so.

[Ozark Tracker]

Arcey, last week when I was shooting with my cousin,  he was awful surprised at how easy the clean up was,  he always goes deer hunting with his Black Powder rifle and said it takes him an hour to clean it up.
I just took the cylinder out and shot both it and the barrel with moose milk, the grunge washed out, ran a few patches through and an oily patch through it in a few minutes, wiped it down and I was done.

he wrote the Ballistol down and took it with him,  couldn't be much easier.

[Dick Dastardly]

I'll be shootn' blue and brass ROAs tomorrow, along with my Browning 92 and 16ga 311.  All with the One True Powder.  I've got Kirst Konverter cylinders and 45 Colt ammo along just in case I get in trouble with C&B with the ROAs.

I'll bet I kin clean the whole works up after the match in under 15 minutes and have time to spare for a tall cold one.  I've won many a Twelve pack that way.

DD-DLoS

[Arcey]

Bristow, mi amigo.  My guess is sumbody bought that Walker ah yers fer a toy, shot it 'n tossed it aside.  I'm doubtin' ya have but don't take me wrong.  I seldom clean mine right away but I do make sure they're soakin' with Ballistol before I leave the range.  I'll get ta patchin' 'em out 'n wipin' 'em down over the next few days.  Don't think they can be left alone indefinitely.

Most of mine are blue steel.  With smokeless I was sprayin' 'em down externally before I left the range anyway.  Drownin' the bores ain't that much more trouble.  When I use the Navy, I usually knock the wedge out, pull the barrel 'n cylinder then drench it good.  Wrap the parts up in an old tee shirt for the ride home.

[44caliberkid]

I just today realized I hadn't cleaned my hammered double since the NCOWS National the middle of June.   Poured soapy water down the barrels, two wet, wadded papertowels, pushed through each barrel and one dry one.  Bright shiney bore, no rust, no pits, no problem.   And I don't use lubed wads either.

[Driftwood Johnson]

I've been shouting it for years now. You don't have to clean BP guns the minute you finish shooting them for fear they will dissolve into a pile of rust. I never clean my guns the same day. I try to get around to it within the same week. If I'm going to shoot them again the next weekend, I don't bother. If it's a two day shoot, I don't bother. I've gone as long as three weeks before cleaning my Colts with no rust or damage. I won't tell you how long my poor little SXS has gone between cleanings. Now that we don't use corrosive primers anymore, most of the problem has gone away. If you use a good lube, clean with a good water based solvent, AND get all the water out when you're done, it does not have to be done right away.

[Bristow Kid]

How do you clean your nipples???

[Arcey]

Unscrew 'em in toss 'em in a can ah Ed's Red.  When ya want 'em again, fish 'em out with a magnet.  Dry 'em off.  Blow compressed air thru 'em 'n screw 'em back in.................

[Dai.S.Loe]

I've been shouting it for years now. You don't have to clean BP guns the minute you finish shooting them for fear they will dissolve into a pile of rust. I never clean my guns the same day. I try to get around to it within the same week. If I'm going to shoot them again the next weekend, I don't bother. If it's a two day shoot, I don't bother. I've gone as long as three weeks before cleaning my Colts with no rust or damage. I won't tell you how long my poor little SXS has gone between cleanings. Now that we don't use corrosive primers anymore, most of the problem has gone away. If you use a good lube, clean with a good water based solvent, AND get all the water out when you're done, it does not have to be done right away.

Last week I realised that I hadnt cleaned my side by side since my last competition. I had sprayed it with balistol and just put it away.

Puled it out. Sprayed more balistol all over. Pushed clean mutton cloth rag down barrels, sprayed again, another clean rag down the barrels. Shining and sparkling. Wiped down the outside, sprayed a little balistol into the works. Put her away.

BTW   My last competition was in Febuary this year. 5 months ago.

Dai

[Bristow Kid]

Where can I purchase Ed's Red??

[Arcey]

http://www.building-tux.com/dsmjd/tech/eds_red.htm

Hardware stores..

[Dick Dastardly]

Ho Arcey,

How's Ed's Red work with a bore snake?  I use Moosemilk (1 part Ballistol : 7 parts water) in a spritz bottle.  I spritz my bore and pull a boresnake thru and I'm done.  Moosemilk is very user and environmently friendly.

Anyway, have ya tried Ed's Red with a boresnake?

Thanks,

DD-DLoS

[Arcey]

Mornin' Dick.

Think I'd refrain from usin' ER with a snake.  The oily stuff would be a mess to get off when it comes time to clean that what cleans.  In confession, I ain't got a Bore Snake ennyways so I can't say I've tried it.  At the tail gate affer a shoot I use Moosemilk as well but with a jag, patch and rod.  I believe the advantage in Moosemilk is the water in it.  That water'll bust up the crud, evaporate, then leave the Ballistol behind to protect until I get around to patchin' the things squeaky clean.  Water alone, or soap 'n water I, personally, won't use.

What I find so attractive about ER and BP and/or Pyrodex (which I ain't used in about a year now) is only what I can say is its penetratin' qualities.  Given time that stuff will get under anything.  It's cheap without the lanolin.  One can easily afford to fill a can and use it to drown things.  Such as the arbor/barrel of Bristow's Walker to loosen up the corrosion.  Or, my cylinders and nipples.  Innards when I pull 'em down.  When dunked 'n left alone in a reasonable length of time after firin', all's left to do when ya fish 'em out is dry 'em off.  Water isn't necessary.

But to answer the question, I'd shy away from getting a Bore Snake in the stuff 'n stick with Moosemilk.

[Delmonico]

With my Sharps I use window washer solvent to clean the barrel between strings.  I keep both wet and dry patches in yeast jars and run two wet and two dry down the bore.  It comes out squeeky clean, the alcohol that keeps it from freezing makes it dry quickly and the cooling effect of it helps cool a hot barrel.  It also leaves no oils in the bore so it is ready for another string.

Of course the fouling is so soft a couple flannel patches dry will take it almost all out.   I use 50/50 beeswax and deer tallow.  The higher melting point of the deer tallow keeps the lube in the grooves in 100 plus weather as a friend found out when he left a 100 bullets in his pick-up 3 days in July, it was all still in the grooves.   

I use a felt wad soaked in the lube between two milk carton wads.  Don't mind cleaning it at all.  My 243 Savage 99 and the soft copper Barnes X bullets is a chore.  Since it is semi-retired and just does duty as my "fill the freezer" deer gun it ain't no big deal either, except it take two days to get the copper out after a range session.

[Dick Dastardly]

This is a great thread.  Pards can find several great ways to get their cleanin' chores done and protect their guns.  I have to say that there is no "better" way and there are no "bad" ways posted here.  I'm goin' to mix myself up a batch of ER and use it where I encounter pards guns that they haven't taken proper care of.  There IS stuff in some guns that Moosemilk won't work quick enuf on.  I'm thinkn' the ER formula posted by Arcey without the lanolin will become a welcome addition to my arsinal of cleaning adjuncts.  I do have some heathen guns that I have to confess to "leaving go" for a "rainy day" or till I get a "round tuit".  They may well answer to ER.

Thanks Arcey.

DD-DLoS

[Delmonico]

Most folks don't know it, but acetone is a good solvent to remove Nitro Powder fouling, since is is one of the solvents often used to dissolve the raw powder and make if formable. 

When cleaning a really dirty copper fouled bore on one it is easier to remose the powder fouling first and then attack the copper.  Acetone or laquer thinner that is part acetone but evaperates slower and is not as flamable works well.  It will remove the finish on wood though are dissolve some plastic parts.

[Arcey]

My pleasure, Dick.

Plastic parts should be dissolved, Del..  Heh, heh..

The stuff works well for smokeless and on trace metals left behind by jacketed stuff.  It's all as it's described ro be by Harris or so I've found.

When I bought this plastic framed 9mm thing I thought about the acetone.  But I don't leave it there.  It's dried away with the crud.  I don't use it to lube either.  Just a cleaner.

I doubt there's a trace of it in the can shown on the other thread.  It's been in the open way too long.  Thinkin' I won't put it in the next batch.  Just the kero, ATF 'n Varsol......

[Delmonico]

I don't think acetone will touch the plastic/polymer parts on the so called plastic guns, we need a good chemist here, but I think the molecular bonds on those are too tight for acetone to hurt.

Put a rubber band in it and see how big it grows.

[litl rooster]

Arcey, have you used this elixier to clean yer dies with?

[Arcey]

Arcey, have you used this elixier to clean yer dies with?

Yup.  Werks just fine.