black powder cleanup for the 1860 and the 1866

Started by kcub, April 18, 2010, 06:35:11 AM

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Cliff Fendley

Been using the off brand window cleaner from Kroger for a couple years now.

Couple squirts down the barrel, brush and a couple clean patches followed by a couple patches with ballistol...Done.
http://www.fendleyknives.com/

NCOWS 3345  RATS 576 NRA Life member

Johnson County Rangers

John William McCandles

I always use hot soapy water and paper towel patches, run wet patches down barrel until they come out clean, then a dry one. Clean action then run a mop with ballistol down the barrel.
Always use a gun vise/ rest and turn the rifle over so the residue runs out and not into the action.
Take it all the way down once a year for a good cleaning of the action.


JW
NCOWS #1792
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griswold

When I shoot my replica Griswold with BP and after returning home, I put a large pan on the stove with water and dish liquid. (doesn't matter I guess but I use Dawn).......get it up to boil, pull the nipples, the lever and dump the cylinder, nipples, barrel and lever into the pan. After 10-15 minutes all the gunk is floating on the sudsy surface and I (using big kitchen tweezers) remove the big parts and lay them on a towel. The lever screws and nipples are fished out with a spoon.The metal is hot and boils the moisture away leaving a clean surface. A little oiling and I'm done with that.
I oil while the metal is still warm and it tends to get soaked up into the steel a tad.

Wipe excess oil off, wipe the frame down with an oily rag and reassemble.

Been doing this since I bought the thing in 1970. Boiling turns the blue to grey and gives it a certain old look. Not recommended for those who wish to keep the shiny blue new look.
Griswold,
The Griswold was favored by my Great Grand Pa James Henry Story who rode with the 7th Georgia Cavalry.

tommy4toes

Dawn & hot hot hot water.....I use a rubber #2 test tube stopper in the chamber and fill the barrel. Let it sit awhile, then empty it out. One pass with a Bore Snake(more hot soapy), then patch dry and swab with a mop & CLP BreakFree. Cases get de-capped in a milk jug with hot soapy at the range.

The old timey buff shooters swore by urine......

t4t

tommy4toes

and the action gets the same with a toothbrush eventually - I usually do a full teardown & relube after shooting BP.


t4t

reno

I have used Windex or soap and water for years, on my 60, 66, Sharps, all my rifles and has worked fine. Also I will turn my rifles upside down when cleaning the bore, and have a paper towel under the chamber to catch the gunk when I run the rod down the barrel, that way nothing falls down in the action.

Reno

Bunk Stagnerg

Somewhere i posted the method of fire forming .44-40 cases to shoot in the ,45 Colt rifle.
That thin case mouth with a full charge of Gun Powder (Holy Black) will keep the lifter and internal parts clean as a whistle.
It is a of of work to do, but well worth the effort rather than taking the gun apart with those butter soft screws.
respectfully submitted
Bunk

greyhawk

Quote from: Driftwood Johnson on May 01, 2010, 02:15:23 PM
If you use the empty case in the chamber you don't need the cradle. One less thing to drag along to a match, and we all have empty cases at the end of a match. Just stand it up in your cart. Or lean it against your car. What ever works.

I go along with Buck, clean em upside down ina cradle - but first I pour water down the barrel from the chamber end - then one patch then more water - nuther patch - do that cycle three times then a patch soaked in wd40   - YES! wd40 - works at my place - wipe the outside down with the oily patch n put her away- Takes about a whole four minutes.   

fixed spellin mistakes

Coffinmaker


NECROMANCERS!!!  Run for the hills .... the NECROMANCERS are loose!!!   ;D

It is some fun to revisit some of these older threads.  Cleaning a Henry is something near and dear to my heart.  I only shoot four of the things.  Plus a couple of 1866s.  And they are ALL ... .45s ... whoops, except one .44 Special.

Inna Wabac (think Perfesser and Sherman) I was one of the proponents of running 44-40 cases thru my 45 Colt dies and fire forming 45s out of em.  I still am.  Blow-By in .45 rifles, or actually any of the straight walled cases is a real PITA.  Switching to 44-40-45s resulted in really clean Carrier Blocks and Actions.  I had a real problem with my 44 Special '66 Trapper.  Chamber so bad it refused to run with BP or Subs.  Would foul out the chamber in 3 - 5 rounds.  Tried every cure I could think of.  Actually wrote the rifle off and stuffed it inna safe and was gonna sell it off as a "Smokeless Only" (Gag, Puke).

Then I ran into OD#3 right here in River City.  I had always considered annealing something lunatic fringe bench resters did for sport.  No applicability to what we do ...... right??  Wrong.  OD#3 shamed me into annealing straight walled cases.  The experiment was first applied to the "write off" 44 Special.  I annealed about 100 44 Russian cases (close proximity to 44 Henry Flat) and headed for a CAS match (Never, ever, test at an empty range first).  WOWZERS.  The rite off 44 Trapper ran like gangbusters.  Occasional sticky extraction from an over-annealed case, but whom care'd.  It RAN!!!  So I became an annealing fool and now anneal ALL my 45 Rifle ammo (not pistol) which includes 44 Russian, 45 Schofield and C45S.

SO::  What does all this have to do with cleaning a Henry, you might ask.  Well .... go ahead ..... ask.  When the Carrier Block of a Toggle Link rifle fouls, the only way to get it really clean is to pull it out of the gun.  When running annealed cases thru my Toggle rifles, I find the need to pull the carrier block is greatly reduced.  Reduced to "once in a while" and I just hit the carrier with a drop or two of oil.  My cleaning routine for my Toggle rifles is to chamber a fired case, squirt the bore with PAM, run a wet patch or two thru, run dry patch, run oil patch and wipe down w/oil rag .... DONE.

For those whom have been fighting Blow-By in straight walled cases, anneal them suckers and be done with Blow-By.  45 rifles that will run as clean or cleaner than a 44-40.

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