No, I am NOT a salesman. For years, I took my guns apart and gave them a bath. Then came competition, a whole new world of Civil War era guns. I soon found out that you want to take those guns apart as infrequently as possible. Think about it, if Civil War era soldiers took their guns apart the way we do and use the volumes of water we do, they couldnt have functioned. In fact, T/C once advertised that the corrossive effects of black powder were unknown prior to use of oil based lubricants. So how did they do it? They treated their guns with about the same concern we have for modern firearms. I still havent figured that one out. I got chewed out regularly for taking my guns apart, which I did because water based solvents were causing rust under the stock. Then someone taught me what I am trying to teach here. If you are not going to take your gun apart, you have to use something that will not cause rust or damage the wood if it gets under the stock. There is only one product that I know of that will do that. This stuff completely changed my method of gun cleaning.
I spent a small forture trying every black powder cleaning product I could find. I tried the murpheys oil soap, alcohol & peroxide solution, which causes rust. The closest I came was T/C #13 bore cleaner. I promise you that T/C does not spend a whole lot of time cleaning muzzle loaders that they test fire, so you know that there has to be something that they are using that they arent telling you about. Ballistol works for me on black powder. I have no idea how it reacts with pyrodex or other black powder substitutes. But I do know that it works on black powder and makes what was once a tough job, much much easier.
So, the origninal premis is that many hunters dont clean their guns in the field due to the volume of water and mess involved and would therefore avoid firing a shot not intended for an animal, resulting in misfires. If you try what the method I have described, you will probably find it far more convenient to care for your gun in the field.
Now, as far as that Omega is concerned, I have no idea how the moisture gets into the gun on dry days. I put the gun into the truck while I sleep in the tent. What I do know is that I have frequently found pyrodex pellets to be damp when I open the breech plug of that gun. I take the breech plug out every day or so and about half the time the pellets are damp. I clean the gun and oil it and wipe the barrel with patchs. I usually use Break Free on that gun, which might be part of the problem.
FYI, two years ago I lost one of my best T/C barrels when a cleaning rod and brush and wet patch broke off inside the barrel. I could not recover the broken rod or brush, nor could a gunsmith. I sent it off to T/C and they found that the barrel was ruined by rust. They were kind enough to let me purchase a new barrel at cost. Lesson learned: NEVER EVER use a multi piece cleaning rod on a caplock muzzle loader, particularly if it is made of brass. My new rods are 1 piece.
The gunshop I deal with gets about 5 or 6 barrels per year with misfired rounds. Every year when I go hunting, there is someone complaining that a ball or bullet got stuck in his barrel. This isnt a problem for an inline, but it sure is for a caplock. Most of the time, these guys say that they didnt snap caps prior to loading. Anything is better than a lost hunt.
