BP Pistol Cleaning Routine, in practice

[Tanner68]

I am going to shoot my 1858 Remington for the first time.

I am wondering what other CGers do, regarding cleaning, in actual practice. Do you really do the 100% tear down every time? Or do you just pop out the cylinder, clean it, the barrel, and the exterior and call it good. How about taking off the scales and trigger guard, and just wiping and scrubbing what you can reach without further disassembly?

I know the answer depends on how many rounds you shoot, and how often. The 100% tear down makes sense if the gun is going into long term storage, or after several shooting sessions. I would like to hear the maintenance routine from other shooters.

BTW, I have been shooting BP rifles for several years now, so I am familiar with black powder cleanup in general. And I always shoot real black powder in my guns, no substitutes for me.

[Simply115]

This might seem to be a PITA, but I tear it down 100% everytime. Everything goes into the hot water.

Edit: With soap, duh.

[Paul_R]

This might seem a PITA, but I tear it down 100% everytime. Everything goes into the hot water.

+1

BP residue is ridiculously corrosive. The fake stuff is even worse. It's actually easier and a lot faster to wash everything in hot water and a little soap than it is to try and get it as clean as it needs to be with patches and solvents which BTW don't neutralize the corrosive elements.

Just give it a bath, rinse, dry, and oil it. It's not as hard as it sounds. I have a stainless stock pot that I wash all my BP stuff in.

[HskrVern]

I don't use oil but bore butter. I've honestly neglected my '58 and haven't cleaned it for about 4 months after shooting it. I'll post up some pics of how well bore butter works when I get home.

[mls343]

Hot, soapy water is the trick. That said, I have used he dishwasher when the wife was away. Of course, no wood goes in there, but a quick rinse of warm water to knock off the big stuff, and in it went. It works like a champ.

Just don't tell you wife/GF/Significant other that I told you this trick.

[Springfield45]

Dish soap and hot water. I take the grips off and everything else goes in to be scrubbed. I do not take the internal parts out, just the cylinder and its pin. If you rinse with very hot steaming water it will dry faster. Then oil it completely and reassemble. Rem oil spray with the little tube works good to oil inside the frame.

[Tanner68]

For my rifles, I usually use some commercial version of moose milk. But I can see how with the pistols, and if you are going to bathe them, how hot soapy water is just practical.

[Mutant]

Use Borebutter while shooting. You won't have to clean the guns for a good long while when covered in Borebutter.

[Old Scribe]

Not the hot water method again. Simple, less painful and better method; see my post on 5/27 "rust in black powder barrel".