Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Cleaning

Been away from shooting a muzzleloader for quite awhile, what are you using for clean up ? Are any of the solvents working or are you still pumping hot soap and water? Does Ballistol work?

Ballistol and water works great. Smells funny, but it seems to me that it does a quicker job of cleaning.

HD, How much ballistol to how much water? May give it a try next go around. Soap and water seem to be working fine but don't mind trying something new for me.

I use one part ballistol to five parts water. I use it for patch lube and cleaning.

Thank you sir. Will give it a go.

I use simple green and water. Soaps like dawn have salts, and simple green does not.
I have balistrol and Baracade, and I think rem oil works better. My personal observation. I only use real black powder and usually in a flintlock,
I think damp swab between shots helps cleaning, and a good flush before heading home for a final clean and lube. That may be as important as the solvents. Actually heading to the range now.

Thanks for the input, I'll try those suggestions

Full strength Ballistol inside my ball/prelubed patch sidelock and .270 / .300WSM-type cleaners (Birchwood Casey) inside my inlines.

I will begin my sidelock cleaning ritual with a soapy water flush for the nipple/drum area. But that's only the first half of my sidelock cleaning ritual. I remove my nipple before power-flushing. I soak that nipple much-like I soak my inline breechplug..... inside a pre-filled vitamin or pill bottle with vinegar.

I then use the long-straw on the Birchwood Casey bore cleaner thru the little holes on the breechplug and nipple for final cleaning. I hold that nipple far away with needle-nose pliers, for fear of being splashed by the hard thrust of the spray.

I overkill / over-do my cleaning procession. Takes longer but it works like a charm.

Windex for BP, 777, and Pyrodex. Hoppes or any other good nitro cleaning solvent for BH209

There are a lot of combinations that work well. I have been using Windex and water for awhile now and it works. So does Ballistol, so do several commercial products. I am talking about traditional ML and real black powder as that is what I have.

Same as I've used for over 40 years, hot water.

Old skool………

Windex patches between shots and a bucket of hot water & Murphy's Oil Soap for the final cleanup...………….

Mr. Clean is pretty good too. For preservation I use Crisco inside and out.