Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Cleaning your smokepole

Breech plug guys, What solvent are you using? We got a big horn, been shooting 777. Son bought a cleaning kit from Knight but. Removing the breech plug and cleaning. Not impressed to say the least.

My "dunked" firehawk come's out twice as clean twice as fast. So aside from Knights cleanning solvent what brand are you all using?

Thanks

Ballistol is my do-all muzzleloader wonder juice, regardless of propellant.

Windex

Do the bore coat thing on your smoke pole and you will be amazed

777 is water soluble so almost anything will work including plain H20. Water based products like Windex or Simple Green are more aggressive but don't let it soak for any length of time. There's no rust preventative agents in generic cleaners and they will rust the bore if left overnight. Don't ask me how I know this. You also have remove all traces (thoroughly clean and dry) and apply rust preventative when your done cleaning.

I have a bottle of Cabela's black powder solvent that worked well cleaning 777 in the bore and with the breech plug. Water based ML solvents have a rust preventative so they won't induce rusting as quick as a generic water based cleaner.

IME, 777 residue is fairly inert and fouling won't cause rust in a short period of time (a few days or a week or so) as long as the bore stays dry. From my understanding (not lab tested by me) when moisture/water comes in contact with 777 fouling reside that's what makes it's corrosive.

Which bore cleaner is best? I dunno. There's probably as many good ones as there are ways to skin a cat.

With that said the way I scrub my 50 cal ML bore is to use a .45 cal bronze brush wrapped with a 2" X 2" cotton patch. This gives a far greater contact area and makes cleaning easy. This method works for centerfire rifles too.

This is also what I use to swab the bore between rounds with 777. One patch wet with water (moist not dripping wet) wrapped around the brush and one stroke down and back. Turn the patch over and one stroke down and back. Follow up with a dry patch once down and back. This provides a clean consistent but slightly fouled bore, eliminates the crude ring, and loading problems. I also believe it's the key to consistent accuracy when using 777.

There's one other issue that should be addressed if you're shooting sabots and that's plastic fouling. It probably takes many many shots to build up any appreciable residue but a scrub with a solvent that helps dissolve plastic once in awhile can't hurt. Birchwood Casey Bore Srcubber is a bore cleaner that claims to remove plastic wad residue. I like using it because it's not colored and it's easy to see when the patches come out clean.

Since I'm blathering and we're on the subject ...

I've switched to BH 209 and Dyna coated the bore on my TC Omega. I scrubbed it with JB compound and then metal polish to achieve a mirror finish before coating it. The last range session I shot seventeen rounds and each loaded as easy as the first without swabbing. When I got home I ran a couple of dry patches through the bore to knock the heavy stuff off and then let it soak for four hours with Wipe-Out. It took about eight patches to remove the goop/crud, get it sparkling clean, and back to mirror shiny.

Before the last range session I installed the breech plug using a very light coat of Super Lube synthetic grease on the plug, two wraps of teflon tape, and another light coat of grease. The breech plug broke loose with no more torque that I used to tighten it and it unscrewed as easy as went in. The flash channel was heavily fouled and needed a thorough cleaning with a drill bit.

Blah, blah, blah.

Would that be UBC?

Dyna Tek bore coat, Dyna bore coat, UBC (ultra bore coat) - same difference.

From the manufacturer ...

Dyna-Bore Coat Service, Dyna-Bore Coat used to be known as Ultra-Bore Coat. Same Manufacture, Same Formula, New Name, New Packaging

One tip when applying "UBC" is use a bore mop cut down to a ball. A full length mop soaks up and wastes more than what's needed to give a thorough coating.

Thanks for your thoughts. Appreciate the advice.

I shoot a traditional muzzleloader and just use warm water with a little Dawn dish soap in it. The breech plugs on mine don't ever come out but I have found that to be no problem. One of my guns has a hooked breech so I can take the barrel out by removing the ram rod and two wedges. The barrel can be set in a pot of hot water and soap and cleaned out in very little time. I follow up with a patch with Ballistol.

Yes, Kid's prolly gonna have to dunk it if he ever wants to truly get it clean fast. I gotta check out this Ballistol stuff. Do you choose to leave your breech plugs in? Or are they stuck? I always figured the day one was stuck it wouldn't matter as the old one's clean up just fine without a breech plug.

The breech plugs on traditional muzzleloaders usually aren't removable. I know a guy that ruined a vise trying to spin one out.

They are removable, but it's not easy or generally needed. You should remove the nipple (or flash hole liner on a flint) and clean and lube the threads. There will come a time when you need to to trickle in powder behind a bullet you seated without a charge or to kill a charge before you pull the bullet. Nipples will need replacing eventually, as will inline breech plugs. Shortcutting maintenance will get you in the end (or the eye!)

You can dunk if you want, but you certainly don't have too with 777 or BH, inline or sidelock. If you dismantle your rifle to clean it, do you really know it's still going to be sighted in when you put it back together?

As noted it is difficult to remove a plug on a traditional ML. I only shoot real BP in the long guns because that is the way I started and with a flintlock synthetic powder doesn't seem to work well. Washing them soap and water has been the best way I have found to clean them.

I shoot Pyrodex in a BP revolver and it cleans up pretty easily with Dawn soap and water too.

Ballistol is good stuff. So is Kroil.

Pretty big fan of 777 here. I shot one muzzleloader about a month ago and never cleaned it. Got it out yesterday and with hot water, it cleaned right up. That was a side hammer gun. Shot my other one today and again just cleaned up in a few minutes with hot water only. Sometimes I think the older style hooked breech rifles are easier.

Only downside is I got a little over zealous filing the front sight on my Hawken and need to order a taller one and a dose of patience.

Yes Sir -

Let me tell you I put UBC in my Lyman GPR - after which the bore didn't foul any where near what it used to. I can now shoot 12 rounds in that sucker without swabbing the bore. Before UBC I could only shoot twice before I had to swab.

HUGE difference!

butches black powder bore shine works great for 777

2-3 passes with wet
patched brush and no crud ring, then dry patch x2 at least......

petro based cleaners for bh 209 2-3 passes with wet patched brush and dry patch x 2 (or the actual solvent they make for it)


water based solvents for ole school bp

amsoil powerfoam. make to remove carbon form engines. best stuff i ever used.

hot soapy water and a tooth brush.

I still just use hot soapy water. Then I coat the bore with T/C Bore Butter. And I only use real black powder in mine