Musket stuff

[Timo]

Dane, cleaning is very simple.

one part 91% alcohol
one part perioxide
one part murphys oil soap

Mix it all together.

I just plug my touch hole and pour some down the barrel,let it set for about 15 mins, slosh it back and forth a few times,pour it out. Run a few patches to finish up. make sure it's dry then a light oil patch. nuthin toit!

Always store my rifles barrel down, keeps any  access oils from running into the breech area.

[huntertrapper]

Awesome stuff guys. Flintlock hunting is my favorite way to go along with longbow, i dont hunt any other way. My dad took a button buck this year with the flintlock i hunt with and i missed two doe but took a fat squirrel, i alos killed a groundhog a few summers ago with it too.

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[Dane]

Nice recipe. I'll have to try it.

I never said difficult, only not fun. It is anyway when you are exhasted from a long day shooting. But that is the price of shooting these weapons.

Dane

Dane, cleaning is very simple.

one part 91% alcohol
one part perioxide
one part murphys oil soap

Mix it all together.

I just plug my touch hole and pour some down the barrel,let it set for about 15 mins, slosh it back and forth a few times,pour it out. Run a few patches to finish up. make sure it's dry then a light oil patch. nuthin toit!

Always store my rifles barrel down, keeps any  access oils from running into the breech area.

[Swamp Bow]

Timo,
How long can you let that cleanig solution soak?

Swamp

[JW_Halverson]

Fine work, you know your stuff. Lewis and Clark carried a 1803 Harpers Ferry 50 cal half stock flintlock. Your build looks like the transition rifle, half stock for horseback,  a forerunner of the Hawken.

I am looking for the documentation, but recently I read that the 1803 Harper's Ferry Rifles were delivered about 4 months after the Corps of Discovery shipped out. 

The gun they carried that really gets my interest piqued is the air rifle.  They were able to get multiple shots off before pumping up the reservoir.  Coooool.

[Timo]

bout 15mins swamp bow

[Swamp Bow]

Thanks.  I'm guessing the peroxide will start etching after a while?

Swamp

[Timo]

Not real sure. I just followed the directions from a 35 plus year muzz vet. I figure ifin he says it's fine, then I rekon I ain't gonna argue with him.

I figure the peroxide boils all the foulings loose, the soap cleans and the alcohol dries?

[Swamp Bow]

Makes sense to me.  I was just curious, because I could see getting home well after dark because the critter you shot didn't know it was just supposed to fall over nice and convenient like.  Then after spending 2-3 more hours processing not being real keen on cleaning out a gun right then and there. Perhaps wanting to let it soak over night would cross ones mind.  But, truth be known, I suspect that when a firearm that took that much time to make is involved, the is no "too tired to clean".  I'll be the first to tell you I don't know squat about BP, but I want to change that.  Thanks.

BTW "It's been working good enough for 35 yrs." is a darned good reason in my book! 

Swamp

[Eric Krewson]

Peroxide will cause rapid rusting of your barrel if left too long. It will boil the crud out of your barrel but can pit it as well if used alone.

If you come in tired and don't want to do the whole cleaning job, a patch with black powder solvent, a couple of dry patches and an oily patch will keep your barrel in good shape until you have time to do some serious cleaning.

[Swamp Bow]

Thanks

[huntertrapper]

we use just plain soap water and keep the touch hole end with the breech plug out and run a few patches through. then we take the barrel out and run dry patches through it then dry the whole barrel in and out with an air compressor. then hit the inside and out with gun oil.

[stickbender]

     J.W. , those air guns got quite a bit of meat for them.  It was also the gun that Napoleon feared the most.  Some of them had a ball type air reservoir, and some had the reservoir in the stock.  One design had it so you just unscrew the stock, and then stick the pointed rod, into a tree, and start pumping.  Even though they were air guns, they still had a lock on the side, to make them look like normal guns.  They were so superbly made, that some have held air for more than five years, with no appreciable air loss!   That is precision craftmanship!  Wish it was like that today. I have seen some of them at gun shows, and they are marvels of engineering, and craftsmanship.


                                                                                    Wayne

[riarcher]

Fine work, you know your stuff. Lewis and Clark carried a 1803 Harpers Ferry 50 cal half stock flintlock. Your build looks like the transition rifle, half stock for horseback,  a forerunner of the Hawken.

I am looking for the documentation, but recently I read that the 1803 Harper's Ferry Rifles were delivered about 4 months after the Corps of Discovery shipped out. 

The gun they carried that really gets my interest piqued is the air rifle.  They were able to get multiple shots off before pumping up the reservoir.  Coooool.

For anything muzzleloading I'd like to recommend here:
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/index.php?
There is tons of info on the smoke poles and it's the equiv. of PA to ML.
No matter what you're looking for, someone will gladly point the way.
A friend of mine that I've lost contact with was really into the L&C thing. Made a few rifles to copy also.
Just be thick skinned when posting there. Not everyone agrees and gets along, but, they don't bite new comers,,,,, too often. 

Gary

[riarcher]

Oh, and for years and years, I used a 50:50 mix of Windex and 409/Fantastic for cleaning and "spit patch".
Some agree, some don't,,, but I never use a petroleum product in the bore.
I use my homemade patch lube. It's a mix of bees wax and olive oil. Mixed so the consistancy is like warm margrine. (better than Borebutter, which is good too. Just not as good.  )
I seems to help a lot with the "first round flyer". - For hunting, that's important to me.