Cleaning of your rifles

[Cash Creek]

How often do you do a complete cleaning of your rifles. I'm talking about tearing it all the way down...CC

[Tascosa Joe]

Once or twice a year if I am using BP.  If I am shooting smokeless, once a year or longer.

[Montana Slim]

My 44-40's..... with BP?........I'm probably averaging around 4-5-years....mostly based on how often I get caught in a rainstorm with the rifle 

Based on the cartridge you shoot, YM will V.

Slim

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Depending on my mood and how often I shoot ... every 3-4 years ... and it is usually a "feel good" effort that really doesn't need doing.  (But I'll continue to do it.  99.999% of the time I shoot BP.)

You actually CAN take 'em apart too much, if your methods of dis-assembly and cleaning are faulty.  Many Military guns are ruined prematurely due to faulty cleaning methods, like rubbing the muzzle with those steel cleaning rods.  I've seen muzzles that were actually oval shaped under magnification - where they would hit when shot is anyone's guess!  Civilian guns aren't nearly as "hardy" and can be damaged more easily.

Of course, I'm NOT advocating ignoring your guns, like some folks do!  Guns DO  need love and attention after firing.

[Montana Slim]

Two words on cleaning your lever rifle: Bore Guide

Yes, If you don't have one on your rod...get one ASAP.
If you look hard (in the "stickies near the top) in the 1860 Henry Forum, you'll find a thread on cleaning.

Proper routine cleaning (to me) means not dripping cleaning fluids into the toggle mechanism, magazine and stock.
This greatly reduces the frequency of required tear-down for ddetail cleaning.
(I rarely shoot anything but BP...so I clean with water-based solutions)

Slim

[Johnny McCrae]

Slim, if ya put an empty cartridge in yer rifle for the first couple of patches down thru the barrel you'll be surprised how much stuff ya don't get in the action. WM

That's a great tip. Thanks

[Montana Slim]

Slim, if ya put an empty cartridge in yer rifle for the first couple of patches down thru the barrel you'll be surprised how much stuff ya don't get in the action. WM

Great tip, I've been doing that for 14 years or so.......Posted my full routine on the old "Frontierspot" site before it crashed years ago. Since then I see it repeated frequently - must have been a well-kept secret until then  . - I repeated it in the "sticky" thread on "Black Powder Cleanup on the 1860 and 1866" over on the  the "1860 Henry" page of CAS City.

Here is the link: http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,32273.0.html

Slim

[wildman1]

I don't remember where I learned it, but either read it somewhere or someone told me about it.  It could have been there. If it was Thanks. WM

[wildman1]

I used ta use the peroxide MOS alcohol mix ta clean my BP guns till I put a cylinder in a container of it while I cleaned the rest of the revolver. When I removed the cylinder I had also removed most of the blueing from it. Now I just use a little MOS and water. WM