Bore Cleanup

[walter t]

Hi All,
What is the best sauce for cleaning up black powder gunk from the bore of our cannons?
Walter t

[Cat Whisperer]

You use the term BEST.  That's my weasle word.

Low cost, effective, available:

Hot soapy water, followed with light oil to prevent rust.

[Double D]

Prestone antifreeze.

[Dictator]

Windshield washer fluid and a wire wheel attached to a cordless drill then oiled in the field. At home, boiling hot dish-soapy water poured into the muzzle with it elevated, brushed as above, let stand a minute to heat the tube, dumped & it will dry rapidly from the heat of the boiling water, oiled, cocktails.

[seacoastartillery]

Walter,

     We think Cat and Dictator have it pretty much covered here; the only thing we can add is we like to use those heavy-duty rags sold in the paint section of your local Lowes or Home Depot.  We wrap a few of them around a dowel plunger and secure with string.  This helps create a suction when the barrel of a relatively small cannon is placed in a bucket of HOT soapy waterand the dowel is run up and down.  Rinse with boiling water and let dry, then oil.  You might want to try windshield washer fluid as dictator suggests;  Mike and I found it to be the best surface plate cleaner ever.  It cleans very well and leaves no sticky film at all.
     Before you try any antifreeze you may want to check out what Prestone has to say about their own product under the "Safety Tips and Guidelines", link.

                                                                  http://www.prestone.com/products/antifreezeCoolant.php

Regards,

Mike and Tracy

[Double D]

I put a stack flannel patches in one of those zip loc bowls an add anti freeze. The patches soak all the anti freeze up.

Then to clean the small cannon I wrap a patch around a bore brush and run it up and down the bore a couple of times to gather heavy stuff in the patch.  Then run one clean anti freeze damp patch in and out and change patch, one clean patch for each shoot  fired plus patches until the patches come out clean. For the 1 inch gun, I wrap the patch around my mop and hold the patch on with rubber band  and clean the same way.    Be sure when you put the patch on,  that you let it over hang the end so you get the bottom of the bore.  You will be surprised how quick it is to clean this way.

When the patches come out clean, which doesn't take long, then I dry the bore.  The I run a patch soaked in NAPA ATF in the bore to oil.

Use a pipe cleaner for the vent.

I make my own patches from diaper flannel.  I have one of those gray cutting mats, a straight edge and roller cutter like the quilters use to cut my patches.

Read the label on the antifreeze and you will see that it has all sorts of rust and corrosion inhibitors designed for use on brass, alumimum, iron and steel.  Same with the NAPA ATF. 

I use this method on my Martini's also.  I push the wet patch through from the muzzle and let the patch  drop out the chamber.  Then I wipe the chamber out using a flexible rod for cleaning shotgun chambers with a patch wrapped around the 20 guage chamber brush.

Gather up the dirty patches patches and toss in the trash. 

Any Paul Matthew's fans here, that's where I got it.  No big mess and scald burns and done  1/4 the time.  My carriage doesn't get water soaked and no rust spots from the one you missed.

I also use these wet patches when I swab between shots in the small cannon at the club matches.  Wet patch, dry patch. plug the vent, add powder, wad, ball, prime and fire!!! When I get home I am going to start using it on the 1 inch between shots.

 

[Dictator]

As far as oiling the bore after cleaning, like DD, we have used ATF and it works well, although it is thinner and will run out of the large guns a little. We now use STP motor treatment wrapped on a rag and spun in the bore with the cordless drill. It really sticks without running. For small guns, rubbing alcohol cut 50/50 w/ water works great but isn't the cheapest. Antifreeze does work well. You can use the less-toxic propyleen glycol variant. That's what they use for coolant in the line in food cases.

Joe

[GGaskill]

It is possible to buy the anticorrosion chemicals found in antifreeze as a separate product without the glycol antifreeze part.

I have used it in my radiators (the glycol doesn't wear out) but I haven't tried it as a cleaner/preservative in black powder artillery pieces.

[Cat Whisperer]

Interesting the wide uses of PEG (polyethylene glycol).  Not only is it used for antifreeze, but it (in a thicker form) is used for making wood flexible enough to bend, AND it's a laxitive.

Of importance also is that it is poisonous to cats.

It is also found in dry-erase marker board cleaners.

[Rickk]

I havn't tried it yet, but I saw something on the Cowboy Action Shooting forumn about cleaning brass (pay attention Brooks Barrel customers) with a bathroom tile cleaner called " Kaboom " (cool name hugh?) I would use it after water to remove the tarnish if I wanted to keep my brass stuff as clean as Tropico with way less work.

I put "Kaboom" on my food provider's shopping list