Clean up after shooting black powder shells

[Mike of the Mountain]

Whether I shoot my 12g black powder shells in my Parkers or Foxes, the clean up is brutal. 50+ bp shells makes a mess of my barrels. I shoot a few smokeless rounds through them and it clears SOME residue out. I use hot water and soap, but I hate having to put a fine set of vintage barrels into water. Always afraid there will be some leakage into the ribs or the extractors won't get cleaned/lubed properly and will rust. Anyone have a better way to clean the barrels? I heard some guys use a swab with windex. Does that work? After shooting the BP Event at the Spring Southern, I cleaned my barrels in the hotel bathtub!!! Ya should have seen that crime scene!!!! I had to get housekeeping to scrub the tub. Wound up looking brand new, but it looked like I dumped drain oil into the tub!!!! I thought it was funny. Wound up giving the housekeeper a nice tip.

[ROMAC]

I use a bucket of hot water and a little ammonia and only put the ends of the barrels in the water enough to create a vacuum to pull hot water up into the barrels.

Then I take a damp cloth and wipe off the outside very methodically and change rags a few times. The water being so hot that it dries very quickly. Then I apply a thin coating of a high quality gun oil. Then I go back and wipe it off everyday for 2 or 3 days with a cloth in my kit that is so impregnated with all kinds of gun oils and cleaners that it probably qualifies as hazardous waste.

Once I am totally satisfied that all is in order, only then do I even think about putting it back in the safe. It is worse if you used black powder loads with plastic wads, then you have to deal with all those ribbons of melted plastice that come out.

[Researcher]

Factory loaded smokeless powder shells were on the market in North America at least fourteen years before the first A.H. Fox Gun Co. shotgun saw the light of day. Why would one want to mess one up with black powder? When Ansley H. Fox was shooting his Parker at the 1900 Grand American Handicap he was shooting 3 1/2 drams of E.C. smokeless. At the 1901 GAH Ansley was shucking a Winchester Model 1897 and shooting 3 1/2 drams of DuPont smokeless. A gent wouldn't be shooting that old black powder. By the time the Ansley H. Fox double came along, black powder was for a share-cropper in his Zulu --

[Stan Hillis]

Mike,

The absolute best black powder bore cleaner I ever found is a 1:1:1 mixture of alcohol, peroxide and Murphy's Oil Soap. You can simply swab the bores clean with snug fitting patches soaked in it, then dry with dry patches, then flush with a moisture displacer, like WD40. WD40 has gotten a bad rep with gun owners, but used simply as a moisture displacer it is perfect. Then swab dry again and oil as usual. You won't have any rust. Second best thing, and really cheap, is blue windshield washer fluid, that comes in the gallon jugs. Follow it with the WD40, then dry and oil.

Oh yeah, if you make up the three ingredient mix, be sure to store it in the brown bottles the peroxide comes in.

SRH

[Mike of the Mountain]

Thanks guys!! I do not use plastic wads, only fiber wads and cardboard "cards". Dave, You should be happy that the "Pin Fox" won the Black Powder event!! I could have used a Parker!!

[Mike of the Mountain]

BTW, Craig, I have been called "Shaka" a time or two!!

[ROMAC]

When Cabelas was selling Goex black powder shells they used plastic wads. I only use felt in my handloads.

[Mike of the Mountain]

"Then I go back and wipe it off everyday for 2 or 3 days with a cloth in my kit that is so impregnated with all kinds of gun oils and cleaners that it probably qualifies as hazardous waste."


Now that's funny!!!!

[Mike of the Mountain]

BTW, Dave, real men don't need to shoot 3 1/2 dram loads at any clay target or pigeon!! 2 3/4 max for clays and 3 for live birds. Pattern kills, not pressure and speed!! No wonder Ansley was bad at business, he was goofy from the recoil!!