Question about cleaning a weapon

[Calum]

I agree that the windex w ammonia is an absolutely fantastic field expedient.

But what I've found to be more cost effective is a gallon of the "generic" windshield cleaner, top off my truck's washer tank and fill the resulting void (usually about 1/8 of a gallon) with white ammonia. That gallon then lives with the reenacting gear until low/empty, when I repeat the process.

Calum

[wheres_my_horse]

In order to clean the breech face and the breech thoroughly in general, I got one of those little metal wire bushes that you find at the obiquitous junk tool dealers at flea markets. There is a little metal tip on the bottom of these things which is where you'd put it in a drill chuck, rotary tool, etc. I took a tap and die set to it and threaded it to my cleaning rod, and viola, works like money. For lack of a handy picture, the profile of the kind of brush I'm talking about is something like this:
\iiiiiiii/
\iiiii/
II
II
II with the slashes and lowercase "i"s representing the bristles (I'm not very good with emoticons, etc). Won't fit too much smaller than a .58 without the bristles bending back when introduced into the muzzle, at least with the size I've found and used.

Addendum: well crap, that didn't work out at all. Anyway, it's a small wire brush with forward facing bristles, about 0.56 inches across the greatest dimension!

Like this?

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!



Curt

[Poor Private]

I have a 2 liter size of Hopes #9+. When I was at Shiloh this past spring doping the quick field cleaning to get me through the weekend worked fine. But I found out I had serious caking in the cone and in the breech of my Enfield. I filled the barrel with the #9+ and let it set for a bit then 1/2 emptied it and then went thru the whole gammet of brushes, wipers and it came out sparkling clean. I got out some small sized wads of caked powder from the barrel, and I don't think the firing channel thru the cone had been that clean in years. I will swear by the Hopes #9. I am tired of miing up the latest concocutions that people seem to come up with. The time to buy all the ingrediants, then the trouble of mixing and then bottleing, labeling and storing you can keep it.

[Boyd Miles]

Make your own, kind of nifty, for use with a cleaning rod.

[Boyd Miles]

I have a brush like the one on this page, they also have adaptors and other handy bits. I have never ordered from them so can't vouch for quality or service but it looks like they have about everything you would need for cleaning a musket. http://www.rmcsports.com/rmcsports_c...?msection=1035

[Cadet]

I found that Hoppe's has a solvent specific to blackpowder, and it works great. I just put a few drops down the cleaning hole and let it sit for a minute or two, then flush the barrel with hot water. When I run a cleaning patch down, the bottom of the first patch comes out clean--the only residue on it is from the sides of the barrel. If you can find that solvent--it's got to be the best for clearing out blackpowder residue. It's not the #9 solution you normally find--this stuff specifically says for blackpowder. I've had a hard time finding it, but I've never seen anything else come close to how well this stuff works.

[Curt-Heinrich Schmidt]

Hallo!

Correct.
Hoppes No. 9 Solvent is for modern smokeess powder (nitro-celluouse) residue.
Hoppes Nine Plus is for blackpowder.

Switching them can be messy.

In the N-SSA I extended the "volume" of Nine Plus by cutting it with 50% rubbing alcohol. (With so many cleanings between target events, the alcohol dried out the bore faster.)

Curt

[Tom Scoufalos]

Like this?

'xactly...only an off brand el cheapo version.

For solvents, I just found that for BP the Hoppe's solvent in the little brown push button spray bottle...can't remember the exact name of that particular product; it's colorless and odorless...is a miracle worker. Measurably cuts down my cleaning time. And the very small volume spray you get makes cleaning around the pan of a rock lock a joy.

Here, it's this stuff; hoppe's elite.

http://www.hoppes.com/products/elite_gun_cleaner.html

I've only seen it in the small bottles, but I've seen it everywhere including discount stores. It costs a little more per oz but you only need a tiny bit. Don't know if it's intended for BP, but to paraphrase Ed harris' Gene (Krantz?) from Apollo XIII: "I don't care what it's meant to do; I care what it CAN do!"