Cleaning a musket in the cold

[Tkessen]

Dear All,

I was just wondering if anybody had any tips on cleaning a musket in cold weather OUTSIDE. Is there any good way to keep the water you pour down the barrel from freezing? Do screws sieze up more easily? Do oil any grease become thicker and less usefull? Any tips are much appreciated. Thank You.

Tkessen

[flattop32355]

If you're talking weather cold enough to freeze water:

Heat the water in a cup/boiler/mucket/kettle, same as some folks do for all weather cleaning. Doesn't need to be boiling. Run the drying patches through as soon as you're getting clear water out the barrel, while the barrel's still warm. Dry the cone seat with a patch. Clean the cone with some warm water in a cup. Blow out the excess water through the cone, and dry the outside well. You can get by without using oil for the weekend, 'til you get home, or just be sure to get all the excess out of the barrel.

My sincere condolences on the deaths of all the NCO's in your unit. :(

[Blair]

Tkessen,

Hot water is best for removing BP fouling in any temp. The colder the weather, the hotter the water, the better.
Water helps soften the fouling.
Hot water softens even some of the hard crusting that occurs. Making it easier to remove.
Hot water also helps to heat the metal parts up, which in turn, helps to evaporate any water left behind.
If you are shooting live rounds, hot water with a small amount of a "mild" dish washing soap, helps to remove the lube left in the bore from the bullets.

All oils/greases get thinker, the colder it is. Unless they are specially formulated to deal with the temps one might expect to encounter. (Think in terms of molasses in warm weather compared to cold.)

[TheQM]

To elaborate on Mr. Biederman's post,

How cold are we talking about? Chilly, or "Winter of '64" cold? If it's so cold, you can't get the barrel to warm up, with hot water, you might not want to use water at all. In that extreme case, use a worn brush to knock the worst of the fouling out of the barrel. Remove the cone and clean it with a brass brush and a nipple pick. Use the pick to clean out the worst of the fouling from the fire channel. Wipe down the external parts with oil and quit.

For a good cleaning, wait until you can get your weapon some place where it's warmer, than follow Mr. Biederman's instructions.

In regard to the screws. They should actually be easier to remove. Metal shrinks when it gets cold and expands when hot.

[Blair]

The kind of "cold" required to keep us from heating water to clean our guns, as well a warm ourselves, and the musket at the same time, are not safe for humans to be "out of doors"!
In cases such as this, it is best either not to let or allow your Musket to get dirty, or, to move indoors when it comes time to clean it.
I care not if it is winter of 1864 or winter of 2011.
Dangerous cold is dangerous to all human life in the 19th Century as it is in the 21st Century.
These are just my thoughts on the subject,

[TheQM]

I care not if it is winter of 1864 or winter of 2011.


Blair,

"Winter '64" was an event, not a time of the year. It was held in Newfane, NY, north of Buffalo, NY, in February. It was COLD! We semi-humans spent a lot of time outdoors during the event, but I would not have wanted to clean my weapon with water, even hot water, in those conditions. Chilly is 30 degrees or warmer. Cold is thirty degrees and colder.

[Spinster]

Bill,

I'm not sure if any weapons were actually fired at that last Winter of 64. Though that poor ol widow woman and her addled son and his kitty cat might as well have been shot as left to starve after her hog was taken.....:mrgreen:

I like to have never managed to peel my dress out of the ice where I went to ground to plead......but the cold did make it easier to clean out the pianoforte after the soldiers left. And it was fun to pronounce the lord's judgement come on every thievin soldier who fell on that ice. Ice creepers are the bomb!

[Blair]

I'm a bit slow on these things... Sorry!
But when was this "winter of '64" thingie done?

[Spinster]

Winter of '64 was a bi-annual event, held in Newfane, New York, the cooperative effort of several organizations, including the Columbia Rifles. Running Wednesday-Sunday in February, the final in the series was held in 2008. There were either three or four of these events--I've lost count.

Winter huts were constructed to scale on site from a variety of Library of Congress images. While the site still exists, much of the equipment has been dispersed, and huts dismantled. The list-server and underlying research continues to be maintained on line.

For those who, like me, are geography challenged once north of the Mason-Dixon, the nearest airport is Buffalo, New York, and the nearest falls is Niagra. The Columbia Rifles were always kind enough to understand that my drivers license was not valid north of the snow line, and provided airport pickup for me.

For soldiers, this event was a true exercise in living in close period quarters. Bunks were correctly constructed to period dimensions and varied from 19 to 21 inches wide. One hut, with a name not suitable for repeating in a family venue, had one large bed for five men.

Officers quarters were somewhat more spacious in comparison, but only barely. Wood and water details, and the need to constantly rotate men doing Grand Guard in rough weather kept officers on the move.

The hut for the company laundressess had enough room to sleep, a table, a stove--and a high ceiling, which enabled us to hang the dripping laundry. Yes, functional laundresses, who boiled clothing in big washpots with temperatures in the teens. I mended knit goods and watched the world through a frost covered window.

The avatar by my username is from that event----and its still one of my favorite memories.

[Tkessen]

Thanks for all the replies. They have helped a lot.

Tkessen

[TheQM]

Bill,

I'm not sure if any weapons were actually fired at that last Winter of 64.

Mrs. Lawson,

You are correct. To the best of my knowledge, none of us ever fired our weapons. I was using the event as an example of outdoor weather conditions, where I would not want to use even hot water to clean my weapon.

If we had fired our weapons, we could cleaned them in our huts. It would have been interesting to have seven guys trying to run rammers down rifle barrels in the "Cooler Hut". Somebody would have lost an eye for sure!

[lincolnsguard]

Bill,

I'm not sure if any weapons were actually fired at that last Winter of 64. Though that poor ol widow woman and her addled son and his kitty cat might as well have been shot as left to starve after her hog was taken.....:mrgreen:

I like to have never managed to peel my dress out of the ice where I went to ground to plead......but the cold did make it easier to clean out the pianoforte after the soldiers left. And it was fun to pronounce the lord's judgement come on every thievin soldier who fell on that ice. Ice creepers are the bomb!


Hey could have ate the cat. I hear they're great in a pie. And, it wasn't my fault that half wit and his brother fell in the creek that was in front of my picket line. We did however, grant them the courtsey of our fire at the reserve. Lest one of my men shoot him for spite, intolerance or ignorance. We weren't hungry enough to eat the cat.