To you guys, that shoot smoke in your Cartirdge Rifles!

[Ace Lungger]

Okay here is my question, I have been told how to clean my C&B pistol's after shooting short shoots and then after several.
Okay but cleaning say your 66 Win. Do you completly strip your rifle down and clean it after a match? I don't mind taking any pistol apart, but if they made a large cartidge rifle like the Marlin 39A, I could see it wouldn't be a problem a tall!! But I just don't know about a 66, 73, or Henry, or even my Great granddads 30-30 that he bought new in 1901, I have had it since 1970, and i have cleaned good, but never took it apart!!
So give me the scoop!! I will be very very great full!!!!
Thanks ACE

[Springfield Slim]

I bore snake the bore with warm soapy water, and then use a rod and patch w/ oil. And then wipe everything else down with a water dispersing oil. Maybe once every couple of years I will tear the whole thing down. Never find much, just grease it up and go a few more years. But then I shoot 44-40.

[Tequila Jim]

The bore snakes are a great investment. Just got a 12 ga, and a 45 rifle, wish I had of ordered a couple
for the pistols. Regards, TJ

[Ranch 13]

 Just open the action and turn the rifle so the opening is pointing down. Run your patches thru on a cleaning rod, muzzle guides are nice, and clean the thing. Any crud the patches knock loose and don't pickup will mostly fall to the floor. Then its a fairly simple matter to wipe the inside of the action out , and oil it, and your done.
Folks been cleanin leverguns that way since round about 1862

[Adirondack Jack]

One gimmick for a quick bore cleaning is to rinse as mentioned abve (opening down) then chamber a fired case, close the lever, and run a tight patch down the bore, pushing all the crud into the fired case and NOT into the innards of the rifle.

[Dick Dastardly]

I clean my Browning 92s easily and quickly by simply closing the action in a fired empty.  I spritz moosemilk (1 part Ballistol to 10 parts water) down the bore and shake it back and forth some and dump it out.  Then, with muzzle down, I eject the empty and drop the bore snake down the bore.  Pull it thru and I'm done.  It takes me about a minute a gun.

DD-DLoS

P.S.  They clean easy cuz I only shoot Big Lube™ bullets.  All that lube keeps the fouling soft and it keeps on blowing out with the next shot.  Two shots or a Thousand, cleaning is just as easy.

[Black Powder]

DD -

On a hot day, do they look like they're droolin'? 

BP

[Jefro]

Big Lube bullets do make it easy. I use the Otis breech to bore flex-cable cleaning system. I point the muzzle down and squirt with Murphy's Mix. Pull a patch or two, then Balistol and bore snake. I use Gun Butter on the moving parts. Only takes a couple of minutes. I've taken it apart once since starting BP in January and found it was not really necessary yet. I took my revolvers apart at the same time, yea....I just had look    
http://www.otisgun.com/


  Jefro

[hellgate]

I did the cartridge-in-the-chamber-to-catch-the-crud thing and got the cleaning jag caught in the case. Had to unscrew the tip and eject the cartridge so now I just keep the gun upside down, action open, and clean away. Mine's a '92 Puma 357.

[Ace Lungger]

 :)I wasn't thinking real well when I posted this question, with the cap and ball pistols, you have blow back ect., and it would get over everything, where a cartirdge rifle would put most of it down the barrel, cartirdge pistols most likely not as much clean up as the C&B pistols.

ACE

[Steel Horse Bailey]

It was a GOOD question Ace - and we're glad you asked.

Some (prob'ly MOST) of us have found that cleaning the rifle is actually a bit easier than just about any other gun - 'cept mebbe the shootgun.  I shoot 45 Colt, which has the WORST reputation for gunking up internals.  The first time I tore it down was after a few matches.  (Perhaps 200 - 250 rounds.)  It had hardly any "soot" or worrisome junk in it, so now I only do a tear-down maybe once a year - and I PROBABLY could safely go TWO years ... but the old Army sergeant in me shivers in horror at that!
 

By the way: like MANY successful BP and BP cartridge shooters, I shoot the PRS 250 gr. BigLube (TM) boolits cast from a mould sold by our own Dick Dastardly or as sold cast and lubed by Springfield Slim.  BigLube boolits WORK !!  They'll allow ya ta shoot WAAAAAAY more than those guns ever were "back in the day" (at one time without cleaning) due to the amount of lube they "carry" - which is the secret to shooting BP over long periods.

We now take you back to your regularly sponsored postings ...



No - I don't work for Dick or get any kick-backs.

Dang it.

[Athena Jake]

From recent experience with R-M Colt 44 and 44 Russians with Bp the cylinder faces gets grungy, but that collar/shield thing on the front of the cylinder kept the grunge from the pin it spins on.  I am sure all them parts got technical names.

The shotgun surprisingly did not have a snot problem, using brass shells and plastic cups with over powder and over shot cards.  Insides of the barrels were black as the ace of spades but cleaned right up.  1 oz shot dipper of powder and 1 1/8 oz #8 shot

My 44-40 Model 92 "Heritage" had barrel grunge but the mechanicals were as clean as shooting smokeless.  Slosh out the barrel and bore snake it, she was good to go.

Big Lube Bullets, Bore Snake and Ballistol, all wonderful things!
It was really neat to have the "stars" at the muzzle from the excess lube still being spread around.
Mmmmmm Greasy Muzzles!

I think the scariest thing about shooting BP, is that it really is a whole lot easier than one is lead to believe.
Easy to load, easy to clean (ok I LIKE disassembling things...  not sure if I shoot so I can reload or reload so I can shoot.  Hooray dirty gun, get to scatter parts about and put them together again!

[Driftwood Johnson]

I did the cartridge-in-the-chamber-to-catch-the-crud thing and got the cleaning jag caught in the case. Had to unscrew the tip and eject the cartridge so now I just keep the gun upside down, action open, and clean away. Mine's a '92 Puma 357.

Howdy

Don't use a jag with this trick, that is almost guaranteed to get stuck in a case in the chamber. Instead, use the slotted end of your cleaning rod.

This is how I clean my Henry and my '73. I chamber an empty case and close the action. Then with the rifle standing upright in my cart I thread a clean patch through the slotted end of my cleaning rod. This is much narrower and is less likely to get jammed in a case. I soak the patch with my favorite water based cleaning solution and twirl it down the bore. You don't have to jam it into the case in the chamber. Then I pull up the patch and replace it with a fresh one. Each patch will come out progressively cleaner. When there is no more solid crusty stuff coming up on the patches, and they are coming out a dirty gray color, the bore is essentially clean. All the fouling has been washed down into the empty case in the chamber. I turn the rifle upside down and eject the empty onto the ground. A spray of dirty solvent will follow the case out onto the ground, don't spray it on you. The bore is now basically clean. I follow up with a couple of patches in the area of the bolt and carrier, then run a patch soaked with Ballistol down the bore. One more dry patch to mop up the extra Ballistol and leave a thin coating behind, and a little bit of wiping of the bolt and carrier with Ballistol. I shoot 44-40 in my rifles, so almost no fouling gets into the action. Total time spent cleaning a rifle is around 5 minutes. Once a year I tear them completely down to clean out any gunk on the inside.

[Wills Point Pete]

 I am part of the gang that puts the rile upside down in the cleaning cradle with the action open. I put one of the T shirts or pair of undershorts that my wife has declared no longer fit to wear for fear I get in an accident and embarrass her by going to the hospital, under the action to catch the drips. I then squirt a bunch of moose milk in the tube and patch it out.
It is much faster to clean than when I shoot that same rifle with the "Ruger only" loads with jacketed hollowpoints.

[Fingers McGee]

I am part of the gang that puts the rile upside down in the cleaning cradle with the action open. I put one of the T shirts or pair of undershorts that my wife has declared no longer fit to wear for fear I get in an accident and embarrass her by going to the hospital, under the action to catch the drips. I then squirt a bunch of moose milk in the tube and patch it out.
It is much faster to clean than when I shoot that same rifle with the "Ruger only" loads with jacketed hollowpoints.

I pretty much do the same thing with my Henry, '66 carbine, and '73s, although I use Birchwood Casey BP Solvent soaked patches and push the fouling out.  Two or maybe three soaked patches, then a dry one, then one soaked in balistol & I'm done.  Might take the sideplates off once a year; but there's usually nothing behind them that needs cleaning out.

FM

[Ace Lungger]

Sure want to thank all you guys for the answers, I don't know that I will ever shoot smoke in my rifles, for me evryday a new day, and I am about to pre pare to shoot my pistol, maybe sometime next week

Thanks
ACE

[Doctor Bill]

'92 rifle in 0.45 which is supposed to be one of the worst to clean.  The "Big Lube" bullets are the bee's knees.  I pull the stock off and stick it upside down in a bucket of scalding hot water with a good dollop of oil soap in the water.  Run a wet patch on a jag through the barrel a couple of times.  Run another patch through the barrel.  Pull it out of the bucket and scrub everything you can reach with an old toothbrush.  Run a patch saturated with Ballistol down the barrel.  Spray Ballistol on everything else.  Wipe off the excess and put the stock back on.  I need to get a bore snake.

Dr. Bill

[Adirondack Jack]

One way I tried that did a nice job on a really funky rifle (shot bunches of BP and smokeless mixed without cleaning between) was using a pressure washer.  I disassembled the Marlin and blasted all the major sub-assemblies with the 1800 psi water gun, and in the process, blew a roll pin out and had to hunt for the pin, trigger and sear on a crushed stone driveway (OOPS!!!).  It sure did "sterilize" that marlin though

[Russ T Chambers]

One way I tried that did a nice job on a really funky rifle (shot bunches of BP and smokeless mixed without cleaning between) was using a pressure washer.  I disassembled the Marlin and blasted all the major sub-assemblies with the 1800 psi water gun, and in the process, blew a roll pin out and had to hunt for the pin, trigger and sear on a crushed stone driveway (OOPS!!!).  It sure did "sterilize" that marlin though

By any chance are you related to Tim the Tool Man?    More Power!!!

[Two-Bits]

I did the cartridge-in-the-chamber-to-catch-the-crud thing and got the cleaning jag caught in the case. Had to unscrew the tip and eject the cartridge so now I just keep the gun upside down, action open, and clean away. Mine's a '92 Puma 357.

Don't use the jag.  Use the slotted tip.  That's what I use!