Black powder hard fouling removal

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  • Last Post 12 October 2013
badammo posted this 11 October 2013

I have very hard fouling in my old T/C hawken. I have tried soaking it in the tub with hot water and soap, filled barrel with Traditions bore solvent and letting it soak for 2 days. Nothing will touch it. Is there some other product or process to get the barrel clean?

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Michael K posted this 11 October 2013

Is the fouling fresh so to speak. How long has it been since the rifle was fired to time when the cleaning process started?

BP fouling is very hydroscopic and it does not take much time for surface rust to start, as time goes on, the process becomes more invasive.

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nimrod posted this 11 October 2013

Two days! YIKES! Black powder is very easy to clean with the main ingredient being water a little bit of soap might help but isn't really needed. What kind of powder are you using and lube?

RB

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Skirmisher posted this 11 October 2013

Use a good penetrating oil such as Kroil, Ed's Red, etc. Fill the barrel and let it soak for several days. The fouling sounds like it is cake built up around the breech plug face. Once started it acts like an ugly wart and just keeps growing.

In the meantime get a bore/breech plug scraper attachment for your cleaning rod. It's brass with a scraper blade milled on it to scrape out the hardened mess. If you don't have a stout cleaning rod get one of those too as it can take a lot of pressure to scrape a badly fouled bore.

Use it regularly and you won't have any more issues.

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Ed Harris posted this 11 October 2013

Prompt and thorough cleaning with hot soapy water, not later than evening of the shooting day is the best way to prevent hard cake and rusting. In my experience most of the modern lubes are less effective than Crisco in keeping fouling soft. If you are unable to water clean the same day, use a waterless hand cleaner such as Go-Jo to cut the cake and keep the fouling soft until you can go and do it right. This will keep the fouling soft and maintain the bore in good condition for up to 24 hours, but does not prevent rusting if cleaning is neglected much longer.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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4060may posted this 11 October 2013

perchance you are using Alox for lube? Could be creosote, use brake cleaner to remove

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onondaga posted this 11 October 2013

http://castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=7411>badammo

If boiling soapy water will not dissolve the fouling you have, time and neglect has mineralized iron oxide into your fouling. This is what breech scrapers are for. Make one or get one designed for your caliber. This is not a new problem that has only effected you. It is an old problem.

Be gentile and judicious with a breech scraper and do not remove  barrel metal.

It is something like this: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/771603/thompson-center-breech-plug-scraper-36-58-caliber-and-12-gauge-brass

Gary

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badammo posted this 12 October 2013

Thanks guys. The fouling is very hard and is full length of the barrel. There was some of this when I bought the rifle. I am using traditions .015 prelubed patches. The barrel went in the hot soapy water as soon as I got home. Powder is Goex 2F.

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onondaga posted this 12 October 2013

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=7411>badammo

If your rifle is a percussion Hawken and you can remove barrel and remove the nipple, Boil a spaghetti potful of water with a couple tablespoons of dish-washing detergent. Keep the water boiling low on the stove and place the nipple end to the bottom of the pot. wet a patch and use your patched  rod to pump slowly down and up about 20 times. Dump the soapy water and put the pot in the sink with hot tap water running into it. Again put the nipple end of the barrel into the pot and patch  pump 20 times to rinse. I use a towel wrapped around the to hold the barrel through this whole hot wash and rinse. The towel is to protect your hand from the hot water and the hot barrel.

What does not dissolve and wash out doing this is nothing that should have ever been in a muzzle loader. Your last recourse is a good fitting phosphor bronze bore brush, some breech scraping , another hot wash and rinse. it sounds like you will end up with  a pitted bore that is clean. If you get that far some bore polishing will help take the roughness away from the pitting. I suggest repeated patches on your jag with Turtle Wax chrome polish. A patch soaked with polish and 5 strokes repeated about 100 times and the pitted bore will be smoother and polished to take a patched ball better. Finish up with clean patches and Johnson's paste Wax till they are clean. You may need patch material .001-.002” thicker after doing the full bore polishing of the pitted bore.

If this really doesn't work and you can't get your rifle shooting and easily cleanable,  you have a wall hanger and your barrel is not salvageable. OR... you need a new barrel.

I use GOEX 3F and I also use Allant Black MZ substitute that I prefer. The Alliant fouls 20 times less than the Goex, the Alliant is totally non corrosive, and I get higher velocity with much lower extreme spread of velocity and better accuracy. The BMZ is $23/lb locally and readily available. BMZ leaves a non corrosive rust preventative residue in the barrel and I swab one stroke with a clean dry patch between shots.. The stuff contributed significantly to me placing second in our 50 yard  postal MLBR match this summer.

Gary

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badammo posted this 12 October 2013

Thanks Gary will give it a try tonight.

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Ed Harris posted this 12 October 2013

What also works well on lightly rusted or pitted barrels which tend to lead, is cake Bon Ami, working up a good lather on a snug fitting patch patch, scrubbing vigourously and repeating until no more gray-black or brown rust color comes out on the patch. Then rinse with clean boiling water, letting the hot water evaporate of its own heat and immediately swabbing the barrel sloppy wet with Kroil or Ed's Red to prevent “flash rusting” which commonly happens when boiling water cleaning soft carbon steels.

73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia

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