OK, I'll toss my thoughts on BP cleaning into the fray. I tried to quote a post I posted on May 22 (Darksider Den) on a thread started by Dave T posted on May 21 titled "Old BP shooter becoming a New BP shooter". Being able to find my way around better in a 500 acre corn field at night vs a computer I was unsuccessful, so you'll have to look it up if curious.
I wrote how if unable to clean BP firearms ASP, I do one of two things. Either do a spray down of the gun using WD40 or break the gun if a C&B into its major parts, do a quick clean with Ballistol milk or WD40, then spray the parts with WD, lay on old news papers for cleaning later. I've done this since '72 when I started BP shooting, cleaning usually within several days, but have gone a week before with no effects to finish, bores, interior cylinder areas, etc.
Some of ya have posted about the tales that abound about the corrosive effects of black powder and how hard/messy it is to clean firearms using it. Back when I first got into BP shooting with a 44 cal 51' Colt and TC muzzle loader, I believed all those tales. Most of these are read or heard by shooters who either misread writings or misinterpret what they hear or are lead to believe by those who don't know all the facts themselves. 'Nothing Wrong' with cleaning ASP, but sometimes "it ain't possible". When I do a final cleaning, it is through, not just swabbing down the bore, cylinder, wiping exterior areas quickly, etc. The thing I hate the most and seems to be the most time consuming is the nipple area of the cylinder. If I plan on shooting the gun soon I clean the nipples and their cavities as good as possible, if not I pull and clean the nipples and the recessed areas of the cylinder nipple area as it is here that hard residue builds and I believe is a prime area for rust to form under the residue. Hate the time and process of doing this, but all my cap guns look as new in this area.
Is BP cleaner shooting than smokeless? No! Most SmokeLess powders are formulated to burn clean, some more so than others. I've shot thousands of rounds of ammo using SL powders-rifle, shotgun and handgun. Have been reloading since the early/mid 70's with SL powders and have always had cleaner firearms after shooting them than with any BP guns I've loaded and fired. Stories and testaments of firearms harder to clean are usually the result of improper bullet/powder combination's. Yes, you'll probably never see a BP muzzleloader rifle, cap n' ball, or cartridge BP firing handgun lead a barrel because their isn't enough heat and velocity of bullet/ball to lead the barrel. If you could safely put enough BP in a chamber/case to get the fps you can attain with a handgun/rifle using SL you'd see lead in the barrel, especially using soft lead bullets/balls. Years of shooting PPC/Combat shooting courses as LEO using WC and SWC's that were not hard enough leaded the barrel terribly. Switching over to lead higher on the Brinell scale stopped a lot of the problem. Using SL powder with a faster burning rate than needed with the wrong bullet hardness is a barrel leading disaster. Using gas checks does wonder with cast bullets. Same with using cast bullets and SL in rifles. You can't drive them down the bores at the same fps as using copper clad bullets, even they have their limitations, coating the rifle bores with copper. I can clean my 357/44 caliber revolvers that have shot 10 times more in a shooting session faster than any of my CB's using BP.
Will BP rust a gun, you bet. As posted, a lot of the problems is with using older corrosive caps and the chemical reaction of them, along with the black powder reside and moisture. This doesn't mean you can do a quick swabbing and put it away for a lengthy period of time using modern percussion caps. If planning to shoot within a day, you can get by, if not, rust may catch up to ya. Same goes to using any SL ammo for modern firearms that have corrosive primers. Does this mean if you shoot SL with modern non-corrosive primers you don't have to clean? No, just means you don't have to clean as often. Cleaning is still needed at times for SL firing firearms if you value your firearm's. A lot of European military style ammo has corrosive primers which presents the need to clean the firearm right away.
Is black powder fun to shoot. You bet, otherwise I wouldn't have been doing it for 40 some years. Is BP better than SL? Depends what your shooting it in, what type of shooting your doing, and a host of other reasons and applications. I've always maintained that if BP was a better propellant than SL, why don't militaries around the world use it for their small arms? Why back in the late 1890's and early 1900's did they switch over to SL. Ya I'm aware it still has applications for some heavy weapons, but not for any small arms use. Is BP 'Holy"? I don't think so, a over rated and misused description. I get a little perturbed when some of ya who will shoot nothing but black, look down on those that shoot nothing but SL or to those who shoot both are considered some kind of half breed. I'm glad it's available and its a 'hoot' to shoot and I'll keep on doing so. Love shootin' my C&B's, esp my 2nd Model Dragoon and conversions. Now some of you will probably be offended that I called BP not 'holy' and may have stepped on yer toes. Not meaning to offend, we all have our opinions and have the freedom do say them. Please 'Cutts', not meaning to bring SL into the fray, if you read the posts posted before mine, others brought up the subject and their comments were not tossed in 'file 9', so my thoughts are just a response to theirs. Any firearm can be a chore to clean, some more than others, but my point of the whole thing is that black powder isnot cleaner burning and easier to clean than any SL shootin firearm, if that SL shootin firearms ammo is held to reasonable limitations. Same common sense needed for SL firearms as used for BP firearms. For the record, I've never used any substitute BP's, ie Pyrodex, 777, etc, so I can't report of any experience with them, have to believe what's been said about them. Use the 'real' stuff, mostly Goex FF/FFF.
Have a good day all, enjoy all your posts, not looking for a 'kicking' match. Man this got long--figured that Rifle doesn't post any more, so someone had to post a lengthy one. Hope Rifle is ok too, haven't seen any of his postings for a while. Take care all!!!! Yers, Crow Choker
(any misspellings or grammical errors need to be ignored as I'm terrible at it, I proof read it and guess its ok. I need to get out and mow my lawn before it needs baling.)
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Topic: Black powder cleaning myth (Read 15007 times)