Rifle Cleaning between stages after shootin BP

[amin ledbetter]

I'm new to this pards and need some advice.  I have noticed most shooters ( locally ) swab the bore of their guns after shooting a stage. ( I am referring to smokeless shooters doing this. So I started doing it too. ) Most use a cleaning rods with brush first and then a swab with light oil on it, or they use a bore snake with a light solvent before the brush insert and oil at the end of the snake. How do BP shooters do theirs after a stage? What cleaners/oils do you use? ( I use Bore snakes myself when shooting smokeless. ) Can I use the same when I shoot the holy black? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Fingers McGee]

IMNSHO swabbing the bore between stages is wholly unnecessary.   If you bore is fouling out to the point you need to clean it after 10 rounds, you need to rethink your loads.  

Depending on the weather, I don't swab my rifle bore, or my C&Bs, after the first day of a two day match (using real BP, and/or Pinnacle/T7 subs).  Only time I do is if has been raining, or is extremely hot and dry.  As long as I have a soft lube ring on my rifle's muzzle, it should be good to go.

Some folks may think it's necessary.  I  don't.

Your mileage may vary.

FM

[Ransom Gaer]

For me it kind of depends on caliber and whether I'm using big lube bullets or not.  I have found .45 Colt can be problematic.  Even with grease cookies I found I had to swab the bore and carrier to keep the rifle functioning properly on my '66 and Henry.  With big lube bullets that problem largely went away.

With my '73 in .44-40 and big lube bullets I find I have no need of swabbing the bore or carrier for that matter. I definitely like .44-40.

Like Fingers I shoot C&B revolvers.  I've gone a complete match without cleaning either my 1860 Armies or 1861 Navy and Leech and Rigdon.  in fact one time I went out to the range with one of my 1860 Armies to see how many rounds I could put through it before I saw a large loss of accuracy and the action start binding up.  I gave up at 75.  It was getting dark and the range was closing.  Of copurse with them I use lubed wads which helps a bunch.

Ransom Gaer

[Paladin UK]

Fer amin ledbetter.........




84 rds at the range.....This is how the rifle looked as I opened it on arriving home, the ONLY thing I did at the range was a WD40 swabed patch up the barrel, and a dowse of WD inta the action. At the time I took these piccies I HAD NOT started to clean it



DD`s ROA boolit `n` FFG!!! What more could ya want!!

Paladin (What lurvs 45LC  ) UK

[Roosterman]

I shoot 26gr of elephant, a .030 wad and a 1/4" geese cookie under a 200gr smokeless bullet in a '73 with a 30" barrel in .45 LC. I can shoot  20 stages with out a bore swab. I do lube the carrier about every 3 stages .

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I can't imagine why anyone shooting Smokeless powder would need to clean their barrel during a shoot. That's ridiculous. It's SMOKELESS fer crying out loud, there should hardly be any gunk in there at all. Certainly not enough to affect accuracy at a cowboy match.

Back when I was pan lubing my bullets for Black Powder I used to swab down the barrel every two or three stages. It wasn't a big deal, the fouling was only building up at the last six inches or so, near the muzzle. All I would do was place a patch in the slotted end of my cleaning rod and soak it with my favorite water based BP solvent. Then I would run the patch down the barrel and pull it out. Maybe repeat a couple of times with fresh patches, until the patch came out reasonably clean. That's it, there was no need to run a bore snake through the barrel, a couple of wet patches would clean out any fouling near the muzzle and accuracy would return right away. And no need to follow up with any oil either, in the middle of the match, just swab it a couple of times and then start shooting again. There is no point to putting oil in the bore during a match, oil is for preventing rust while the gun is in storage. You ain't gonna get any rust building up during a match, so forget the oil, just swab the bore as necessary. Total time spent about 5 minutes every few stages.

These days, with Big Lube bullets, swabbing between stages is a thing of the past. I shoot my rifle and my pistols all day long with no need for cleaning during the match.

[Doc O]

I've never swabed my barrel between stages.
If I'm stooting the '66 .45 colt it my need the carrier lubed from time to time.
When I clean after a match usually it take only about 4 or 5 patchs and its done.

Doc

[Jefro]

Howdy

I can't imagine why anyone shooting Smokeless powder would need to clean their barrel during a shoot. That's ridiculous. It's SMOKELESS fer crying out loud,

I can't even imagine cleaning the barrel with BP during a shoot. NC BP match was 8 stages, never touched the gun except to shoot, wih real BP and Big Lubes of course.

Jefro

[J.D. Yellowhammer]

I shoot 26gr of elephant, a .030 wad and a 1/4" geese cookie under a 200gr smokeless bullet in a '73 with a 30" barrel in .45 LC...

Figures that a Rooster would shoot a geese cookie! 

(sorry, it was right there beggin' to be said!)

[Roosterman]

Ha! I Typed "GEESE". Even spell check couldn't save me on that one....

[Wills Point Pete]

 I carry a spray bottle of Moose Milk in my guncart, I hardly ever need to use it. I haven't needed to swab my bore since I switched to Big Lube bullets, back when I was using those newer Remington swaged lead dimple based bullets it's was a different story the ilder hollow based bullets shot just fine by filling that hollow with lube, after they changed to where there isn't much of a hollow bases at all those loads rand out of lube in my 24 inch barrel.

The only time I ever needed to worry about my rifle causing trouble with black powder is if the humidity is really, really low. Say a July shoot in Tombstone.

[Noz]

I've seen one 1866 in 45 Colt that had to be swabbed and action cleaned after each stage or it wound not function.
Anymore my guns are lucky if they get cleaned between matches. Last summer I ran my 1860 Armys 15 stages without cleaning in any fashion.