Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders How Do I Clean This Jack Garner Custom Kentucky Rifle?

I know how to completely disassemble my percussion revolvers and clean them after shooting. I know how to disassemble and clean my Lyman Great Plains Hawken Rifle (Barrel pops right out after you punch out two keys from the stock). But I'll be damned if I have any clue how to clean this custom Kentucky cap lock rifle. Apparently what I did last time I shot it was no good, because I just took it out of storage to find the nipple/hammer area covered in rust. I just poured hot water down the barrel, then some patches, then moose milk, then more patches till dry, then left it wet with Ballistol. I guess I didn't properly get the lockwork.

I don't see any way to remove the barrel from the stock. How is it done, or don't you need to do that with these?

You can knock the pins out and carefully remove the barrel, if that's what you want to do.

I use a flush nipple and plastic tubing to clean. I don't use Balistoil for rust prevention, I use a CLP gun oil.
Don't forget to clean the inside of the lock. Oil on the rotating parts and grease on the sliding parts.

I've tried to remove the side plate, but can't manage to do it. Maybe I need to call Jack himself.

I know how I would clean it.

Plain water, tow, tow worm, and bear oil.

I think Jack may have passed.
Anyway just clean it in the stock, pins don't like to be removed.

Thanks. That's what I figured. Unlike a Hawken rifle, these don't seem to be designed to be regularly taken out of their stock.

best if you invert it while using water. that way you get less in the stock channel.
OR, send it to me and i wii clean it

LOL

leave barrel in the stock, take lock off. after a number of years doing this, im not afraid to use modern synthetic and petroleum lubricants and rust preventatives on my ML’s. get a brush and some solvent and go after that surface rust. ive gotten to where i dont use water at all on mine anymore. water just makes rust.

What about "moose milk?"

ive never used it. i dampen patches with the old lehigh valley formula OR the hoppes blackpowder solvent ... both work great.

im not AGAINST any of the old methods for cleaning blackpowder. ive used the peroxide/alcohol/murphys mix for cleaning in n-ssa. ive used it without peroxide too bc some ppl think peroxide accelerates oxidation. i just think theres less science in how we clean blackpowder than there is with smokeless. and perhaps at the end of the day, thats part of the romance

Cleaning a traditional muzzleloader is definitely NOT rocket science.
It is generally NOT recommended to remove the barrel on a longrifle. Repeatedly doing that will result in the pin holes getting worn and thereby the pins eventually working loose. Also when replacing the pins it is possible to get a little off center when driving the pin home and that can cause some wood removal. However, I do remove the barrel from my longrifles about once a year in late winter or early spring after hunting season is finished and give the rifle a through scrubbing and cleaning at that time. Otherwise, I will sometimes remove the barrel if I have been out in the rain and the rifle was soaked. In that case I need to dry under the barrel.

To remove the barrel, first take off the lock. There is usually two lock screws that pass completely through the stock, sometimes only one. Next, knock out the barrel pins. Use a proper size punch and always knock them out from the same side. A nail can work as a punch. Just, first, take a file and flatten the point Put the pins back in reverse order. Then remove the tang screw. Actually it doesn't matter whether you do the pins or the tang screw first. Often the tang screw goes through the stock and into the trigger plate. In which case, the trigger mechanism will drop out if the trigger guard is removed. After the pins and screws are removed, carefully just lift out the barrel. Sometimes it may stick, but slapping it with your hand should be all that is necessary to loosen it.

Everyone has their own preferred method of cleaning a muzzleloader. Myself, I have a small bottle of a mixture of water and dish soap. I just dampen a patch and run it down the bore, over and over and over again until the patches come out almost clean. If it is a percussion, I take out both the nipple and the clean-out screw at the end of the drum. I use a pipe cleaner to clean inside both nipple and drum. Then, I dampen a patch with rubbing alcohol and run that down the bore. I believe the alcohol helps replace the water. Next, dry patches, as many as needed. Finally, oil the bore. There are many products available for doing that. Just put some on a patch and run it down the bore. I use Bore Butter, but I know some others who don't like it. I use the same oily patch to then rub all around the hammer and lock, and the whole length of the barrel. Oh yeah, while the lock is off, give it a good scrubbing using an old toothbrush. Oil it lightly before re-installing it.
I use furniture polish, neat's-foot oil, or Marvel Mystery Oil on the wooden stocks, depending on the original finish. The Marvel oil has a red tint to it so I mostly use it on the cherry wood stock of my flintlock fowler.
i don't buy cleaning patches, either. My old t-shirts work just fine for cleaning guns of all types.
I've done it this way for over 40 years. It works for me.

Opps. I ment to say linseed oil, not neat's foot oil. I use neat's foot on leather.