Home Forums Lever Action Central Cowboy Levers How do you clean the barrel....

on the your 1860 Henry/66 Yellow Boy/73 Winchester?

I'm thinking of two possible ways without detail stripping after each shooting session.

If one is using BP or a BP substitute using a bore snake wet with water after each session with cleaning rod along with detail stripping about twice a year.

If one has a cleaning rod like a Dewey which I have, of putting a patch loop on it and running the cleaning rod down the barrel from the muzzle and put a patch on the loop once the loop has cleared the bore and then pulling the rod out with patch. Take off the patch and do it all over again. I'm thinking this would save the muzzle from erosion and protect accuracy somewhat. One could do this after each shooting session and detail strip about twice a year with any powder.

However, this requires cleaning with the bolt retracted and I'm not sure any of the above allow cleaning that way.

I suppose I'll figure out a way once I buy a rifle but the accountant/manager in me is always planning ahead of time.

How do you guys do it?

This was discussed awhile ago in a rather contentious thread under BPCR. Contentious because of one particular poster.

Chip Mate is one of the top lever silhouette shooters in the game. For pistol caliber, he shoots a Henry replica in, I believe, .44-40. He shoots black powder loads, and after every relay pulls a damp patch through his bore. Note that this process is not really cleaning, but introducing moisture for fouling control during a shooting session. It works just as well with smokeless loads and conventional solvents.

The accountant will be pleased to know that you don't need to buy a bore snake. I adopted Chip's method of using a piece of weed whacker line with a blob melted on one end and the other sharpened to pull a patch through the bore. Works great, and the price is right!

For more thorough bore cleaning with a rod, I made a bore guide that fits in the muzzle. It keeps the rod and jag from contacting the crown.

Paul

Thanks. What did you make the bore guide out of? The bore guide sounds like the way to go.

The bore/muzzle guide is made for my .38/.357 rifle. I'm not sure one could be made to work with a bore as small as a .30, but I haven't tried. I use a short .22 rod with this setup. The main body of the guide is made of 3/4" Delrin with a hole just big enough to let the rod slide through. Then, I made a brass insert for one end, just under bore diameter. The insert has relatively thin walls, the idea being to combine the strength of the brass with the smoothness (and low cost) of the Delrin. A bit hard to describe, but picture a 3/4" diameter Delrin cylinder about 2" long with a .035" OD piece of brass protruding about 1/3" from the end.

Paul

OK, here ya go:

Thanks.

I found that Dewey actually make brass muzzle guides with a rubber O ring for us lever action shooters and they are dirt cheap.

Options abound.

I'll have to go check out BPCR on this.

Even with a muzzle guide, you have to be mighty careful inserting the jag. Once it's in, the guide will keep the rod centered.

That's why I prefer a pull-through for most of my routine cleaning. I use the rod only periodically. I am also extra careful not to use a patch and jag combo that is too tight. I make or modify most of my jags.

An approach to cleaning the action of a rifle that can't easily be broken down is to remove the stock and hose out the action with a spray solvent. This is the method recommended by Steve Young in his DVD about tuning the Rossi.

It isn't rocket science. Just have to improvise and adapt.

Paul

Thanks for the tips Paul.

If you are shooting a good Black Powder like KIK or SWISS then a good bullet that is designed for BP shooting, cleaning between shots or stages is not necessary.
A bullet with wide and deep lube grooves will keep your barrel accurate up to at least 75 or more shots. I'm speaking of SASS matches not BPCR.
Some shooters like to spray the barrel with Moosemilk in between stages when using the real BP but I don't find that it is needed.
I do use Moosemilk to clean all my guns after a SASS match.
If you find yourself having to clean the bore then you should be looking at your bullet design and it's fit to the bore and then the lube you are using.
If you are using a want to be powder then I'm not the person to answer that as I refuse to use them. Take Care Fairshake

If you are shooting a good Black Powder like KIK or SWISS then a good bullet that is designed for BP shooting, cleaning between shots or stages is not necessary.
A bullet with wide and deep lube grooves will keep your barrel accurate up to at least 75 or more shots. I'm speaking of SASS matches not BPCR.
Some shooters like to spray the barrel with Moosemilk in between stages when using the real BP but I don't find that it is needed.
I do use Moosemilk to clean all my guns after a SASS match.
If you find yourself having to clean the bore then you should be looking at your bullet design and it's fit to the bore and then the lube you are using.
If you are using a want to be powder then I'm not the person to answer that as I refuse to use them. Take Care Fairshake