Black powder, swabbing the barrel between shots?

[10-Ring]

Please forgive me if this has been covered, I did a quick search but didn't find an answer.  I'm hopefully going to sigh my black powder rifle in tomorrow.  I've heard of swabbing the barrel every few shots with hot water.  Is this necessary?  If so how do I go about drying it out so I can reload it?  How do I get hot water to the range? 

[leroy]

Yep... I would recommend it... We always used the north-south skirmish association recipe... It seems we used non-ammonia windex, a bit of methanol, hydrogen peroxide, and murphy's oil soap... It works like a charm... Check this out... It was lifted from the N-S Skirmish forum....

 

 

I have been using the "triple threat" solvent of equal parts alcohol, oil soap, and hydrogen peroxide. It seems to do a good job, but when I swab my bore before loading a few weeks after cleaning, I find a small amount of rust. I oil the bore after cleaning each time. I know the alcohol is a good solvent....

Here's the link to the whole thread...  http://www.n-ssa.org/vbforum/archive/index.php/t-8563.html

 

Wipe the barrel down with this mix, then wipe it dry, then run a lubed patch thru...

 

leroy

Edited March 19, 2015 by leroy

[GKar]

Two other possibilities. The first is a variant on Leroy's post:

 

One part Murphy's Oil Soap
One part hydrogen peroxide
One part 90% isopropyl rubbing alcohol

 

The other is one part Ballistol to 10 parts water.

 

With either, mix well before use.  Swab the barrel generously with the mix, run a dry patch, then lube as you would normally.

[Handsome Rob]

If it's just between shots, just to clear fouling (I shoot 5, then swab) I use 1 patch, dampened with straight 91% alcohol, followed by 1 dry patch, wait a minute, load & continue.
My accuracy will remain consistent up to 14 shots, but loading gets progressively tougher with every shot beyond 5 or 6. Edited March 25, 2015 by robtattoo

[Handsome Rob]

You're not trying to go for a real, thorough cleaning, just getting rid of the excess fouling.
Leave the hot water for a deep clean when you get home.

[10-Ring]

I'm not sure but I think this barrel may be bad. It's pretty tough to get my bullet started but once I get down the first six inches or so it goes down almost effortlessly until about the last six inches then it gets tight again. Also I'm not familiar with lubing the barrel before loading so that may be an issue. Can someone school me on that right quick? Edited March 25, 2015 by 10-Ring

[Handsome Rob]

That's not at all unusual. All barrels have tight spots. Tight at the muzzle is good!
You don't need to lube your barrel at all. Only grease it for storage. Other than that, your patch lube is all you need.

Just out of interest, what's the gun?

[10-Ring]

Patch lube? I'm shooting sabots, do I need to do anything? Gun is a junky CVA Apollo, which is possibly one of the crappiest firearms made in recent history, this thing is the Phoenix Arms of black powder. Thanks for bearing with me, I'm trying to learn. I really think I'll be in the market for a quality muzzleloader before black powder season starts.

[GKar]

When you upgrade, I'd check out Blackhorn 209 powder if you get one using 209 primers for ignition.  Clean-up is MARKEDLY easier, and you will be able to get 5 shots or more without even a dry patch in between.

[10-Ring]

I will likely get two new black powder guns. I would like a traditional muzzleloader to do some hunting with in a traditional sense and I also want to get a good modern black powder gun to put meat away with. I seem to have better chances of killing a lot of deer during black powder than any other time and want to put yup as much meat then as possible.

[Handsome Rob]

Aaaahhh....
Sorry, I forget that people shoot non-traditional muzzleloaders!