How did the pioneers handle cleaning issues? I'm pretty sure I have never seen a reference to Danial Boone packing a bathtub to clean his rifle.
Thanks. Right I never dunked them. Always wanted to get more serious with them, but really only bought them for extra days to deer hunt and at the time they were the most accurate thing to hunt with in Indiana. I removed the barrel and poured hot water down it and ran soapy patch with the jag. The tub was used so I didn't make a mess. Started with patched round ball. Never used Black Powder because they were caplocks, until I started shooting the revolvers. Your right though, something about the smoke. Pretty fun. The morning of a hunt I would always blow excess oil out of the barrel, then run a dry patch, then shoot 3 or 4 caps so as to avoid a miss fire or hang fire. Wow... its been 23 years since that first deer dropped to the 50 cal round ball.I think he was talking about using the cleaning supplies in the bathtub. Not dunking and/or soaking the gun in the tub. You can clean it out on the deck or in the garage, wherever. Some HOT soapy water down the barrel with a flintlock cleaning kit and scrub it with a barrel brush and then run a few cleaning patches until the bore is clean and dry. Never use chemical solvents in/on your traditional black powder weapon. Remington and Birchwood Casey make good natural liquid cleaners. I prefer the Birchwood Casey.
Your cleaning kit will have a tube that you will affix to the barrel over the touch hole and the other end into a bowl or tub of hot water. Run a tight fitting bore swab down the barrel and when you pull it up the barrel the suction will pull the cleaning solution up the barrel. This will clean the barrel and the touch hole. When you push the swab back down the hole it will push the cleaning solution out and back into the tub. Run a bore brush down the barrel a few times to scrub then rinse the barrel using the same method. Run a few cleaning patches up and down until they come back clean and the bore is dry. Then use a cleaning patch to coat the inside of the barrel with Bore Butter or another anti rust coating. Prefer something that is made for muzzleloaders.
Some advocate using window cleaner with ammonia, but I don't because ammonia is an oxidizing agent and not something that I want to risk exposing high carbon steel to.
Traditional muzzleloaders are a bit more involved than modern weapons and modern muzzleloaders, but I think they are more fun. And they are more cool looking on the 4th of July when you touch off a flintlock. Careful though, they tend to attract attention.
I think a flintlock is very much in my future. What rifles/calibers/game do you shoot?
I think he bugged out. I have TC New Englander in 50 cal. Took a lot of deer in IN and an elk in CO. Several years ago I was deer hunting and I ran into these guys rabbit hunting. They were both in there 70s at least. They had 2 beagles. We talked then split up. The beagles got on a rabbit and chased it past me then headed back to the 2 guys. I heard the shots and kept listening for the beagles(I have 2 of my own). I knew they had missed by listening to the little hounds still going past where the shots came from. Pretty soon they were headed back towards me. When the rabbit ran by this time, I shot him with a 50 cal round ball at about 10 yards. Completely gutted him. No deer that day, but at least I got a rabbit. The little hounds came right to me, so I gave them a little treat. They had done their job. I also have a TC inline thats scoped. It has taken several deer as well. I really like the power belt bullets, but they are just stupid expensive. I took my Traditions Hawkin 54 cal out once. Missed a deer at close range and it has been on the wall since. I've been thinking about giving it a second chance. We will see. I guess 10 or 12 years is long enough to hold a grudge. Lol. Oh, almost forgot 1860 Colt Army in 44 cal and 1858 Remington New Army in 44 cal. Both replicas.Sounds neat, Thanks for the replies. It looks like I derailed the thread, Sorry OP
4F in the pan. There is/was some 7f floating around but getting hard to find. GOEX made it up for the International team. I don't think they make it anymore and I'm down to my last 5lbs. 4f will do fine. As Dirty Steve said , factory flintlocks are not very good. There might be a couple out there that are "OK", but none will come close to equaling a custom flintlock.
I almost get a flintlock every time I go to 1812.
Can I borrow your time machine? I want to tell our forefathers WTF our politicians have been up to as of late regarding...Well....Everything!!!