Frugal, File #3 bpcare.txt Black powder care and cleaning BP Care & Cleaning I have seen a lot of discussion on cleaning blackpowder arms here recently so I thought I would re-post something I wrote some time ago for this group. I have added some stuff and done some editing since the first post. I would like to stress the fact that cleaning and careing for a black powder arm is not complicated, doesn't take a lot of doing, and requires no magic recipies. If this reads like an ad for the "Wonder-1000" stuff it's because what they are saying is true and all they've done is re-discover what the old guys knew and package the stuff up so it's available to everyone. I'm not plugging for Thompson or Ox-Yoke just passing along what my grandad taught me. I currently am shooting a .50 cal. flintlock using a .490 ball and patches from the leg of old jeans. 75 gr. FF does the pushing. Patches are lubed with that "Wonder 1000" stuff or tallow-beeswax. More on that stuff later. Right after each shot I pick the vent with a wire that just fits the hole. The charge is loaded, pan charged and the piece fired. After 50 or 60 shots I will knock the clinker from the breech face with a worm or a fouling scraper (a flat blade thingie that goes on the ramrod to scrape the face of the breech plug). If there is going to be a break in the shooting for more than 15 min. or so, I put the button jag on the rod and run a couple of spit-wet flannel patches down. Cleans the crap right out! For cleaning at the end of the day I remove the lock, stop the vent with a wood plug, and souse the bore with HOT water poured in thru a funnel. Pour in about 4 inches of water, stick in the ramrod and slosh the water about, then pour out the water. Repeat 2-3 times. Run some wet patches up and down then dry ones making sure to dry out the "corners" of the breech face. NOTE: DO NOT USE SOAP!!!! Swab the bore with a patch globbed with patch lube. Dismantle the lock. Clean the lock with hot water and wipe with the patch lube. Reassemble. Done. Go back a couple of days later, wipe the bore with a dry patch and re-grease the bore. Or anything else you feel needs to be wiped and lubed. My grandfather used to shoot an old thing and used tallow for patch lube and only water to clean off the fouling. Worked for him. When I started this years ago I tried the petroleum stuff packaged for the purpose and had a heck of a time with the fouling!! Went to using what Granddad said to use and the problems disappeared. When the "Wonder 1000" stuff came out I got some and it's very like the old tallow/beeswax stuff. Works so well I don't make my own anymore, I just buy the stuff. Patch lube can be made by melting tallow and beeswax together in a small pan on the stove. How much of each?? You want enough beeswax in the tallow in the summer so the lube doesn't melt in your pocket or bag and make a mess. In the winter you don't want so much that the lube is too hard to use. Not a lot of lube is needed. If you make a tuna can full it will last a couple of years!! I think the trick here is to break in the metal like a frying pan and then not remove the seasoning by using solvent cleaning stuff. If you ever use the solvent again, it'll take you a weeks shooting with the tallow to season the thing again. I use the "Wonder 1000" stuff or the tallow/beeswax to preserve and protect the whole gun, inside and out. Worked for Grandad, works for me. When you start with a gun that hasn't been treated as described, you need to clean all traces of petroleum oil, grease, etc, out of it and off of it. Perfectly clean!! This is where you can use solvents and soap. But never again use them. After you have cleaned the metal then coat it with patch lube everywhere and DON'T WIPE THE BORE DRY BEFORE THE FIRST LOAD. By having a coating of tallow on the metal the powder fouling will rinse right off with hot water without the use of soap. By never using soap you will always have a coating of tallow on the metal and it will never rust. Your gun doen't have to drip grease!! Just have a light film of tallow on it. A gun that is cared for (note the word care) using this method will last longer than you will. If you throw the gun in the corner after shooting, or do an incomplete job of cleaning and lubing, you will get rust and damage. It only takes 20 minutes to totally clean and protect your gun with the above method. If you do this every time then, when you are sent out of country and can't get back for a month, you won't come home to a rusty gun. I have made some believers out of folks who just had to play with magic concoctions for patch lubes and cleaning by simply having them observe what happens with my own guns and then having them try it on their own guns. This is not something that you can change to over night. It will take time to break in your metal and get it seasoned but then you won't believe how easy life is. By the way, Crisco works well also but not quite as well as the tallow/beeswax. Tallow works very well without the beeswax but the wax really helps preserve things and keeps the tallow from running all over your gear.