How to Clean a Black Powder Firearm
Steve Sheldon, 2018
If you ask how to clean a black powder firearm you will get as many answers as when you ask about what kind of lube to use.
There is so much folklore, tradition, and superstition involved that you will get countless answers. Some people will tell you that you have to use a squirt of fairy piss mixed with just the right amount of soap hand-made from the ashes of a saint to get it really clean, followed up with sperm whale oil taken from Moby Dick himself!
The reality is, black powder firearms can be cleaned with plain old soapy water. Any dish detergent will do just fine. A cleaning rod, some patches, some pipe cleaners, and an old toothbrush are all you really need to clean a black powder firearm, and just about any kind of oil will do for protecting it from rust until the next time you shoot it.
Long Arms
When cleaning a black powder long arm, such as a musket or rifle, the only real question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you want to remove the barrel. It is much easier to clean the barrel if you remove it from the stock. This allows you to remove the nipple (cone) from the barrel and dunk the breech end of the barrel in a bucket of hot water, or your utility sink, and liberally scrub the area with an old toothbrush. It also makes it easier to run a patch up and down the barrel while the breech end is submerged in water so that you get a "power wash" through the fire channel as the patch works as a piston up and down the bore. A wire bore brush can help remove stubborn deposits faster than patches alone will.
A lot of competition shooters rarely, if ever, unship their barrels from their guns, however, as slight changes in alignment during reassembly can affect point of aim. You can still do a fine job cleaning your barrel with it staying in the stock, you just have to be a little more attentive in your cleaning. You'll go through a lot more cleaning patches cleaning a barrel in the stock than when you have the barrel out. You'll want to use a pipe cleaner to clean the fire channel.
You seldom need to disassemble and clean the lock on a percussion long arm. Once a year will suffice.
Revolvers
I don't like to do a full disassembly of my revolvers to clean them, though it is the best way to do it. If you have access to compressed air, you can get away with "dunk cleaning", and I generally do a full-disassembly cleaning every 6 months or so. In this regard, Remington-style revolvers are much easier to clean than Colt-style revolvers.
With the Remington, you only need remove a single screw and the grips come off. Now you can remove the cylinder from the frame and dunk all the parts in hot soapy water. Run a few patches down the barrel, and use an old toothbrush to scrub the nooks and crannies. You don't need to worry about scrubbing the internal mechanisms as they generally don't get very dirty. I do blast hot water through the available nooks and crannies to try and flush out the internal spaces as well as can be done. Cock the hammer to full-cock and shoot water down into the mechanism through the gap in front of the hammer.
With a Colt, if you want to dunk-clean you have to remove the backstrap from the frame to get the grips off. Then it's just the same as with the Remington.
After cleaning, used compressed air to blast and dry all the nooks and crannies of the firearm. Pay special attention to the spring latch mechanism at the end of the loading lever, and direct jets of air down into the revolver mechanism from every available opening in the frame. You don't want to leave any water on or in the firearm.
After you have cleaned and dried the firearm, apply a thin coat of oil to all exposed metal surfaces. Then use an aerosol oil, like Remoil, with its soda-straw applicator to liberally squirt oil into the mechanism through the various openings in the frame. Be sure to direct some oil up to the trigger spring area. You don't need to saturate the gun to the point that oil is leaking out of it but you want to make sure the internal components are all oiled, so they don't rust.
If you've got a really dirty revolver, then there is nothing for it but a full disassembly, cleaning, oiling, and re-assembly. I typically only do this with my revolvers every 6 months or so.
Other stuff
Some folks will tell you that you need to use hot, even boiling, water to clean your black powder guns. You don't. Any temperature of water will work just fine. Yes, getting the parts hot can help speed their drying time up, but it also promotes rust as the water dries off. Since I use compressed air to blast my revolver parts dry, I just use warm water. It's a lot easier to clean parts when the water and the parts aren't burning you, too.
Oil is another thing that folks tend to get religious about. If you shoot your guns regularly, then just about any light oil will do. I don't recommend WD40 as it is not a lubricant, it is a wire drying formula (WD stands for Water Displacing), but people use it. About anything will do - Remoil, 3-in-1, Ballistol, you name it. If you shoot yours in competition the oil isn't going to hang around long enough for you to have to worry about "storage life" or any of those other marketing things you hear about for gun oils.
Summary
All you really need to clean any black powder firearm is soapy water. Cleaning patches, a cleaning rod, and some pipe cleaners will do the trick with that. Follow up with any light oil to coat the metal parts and protect them from moisture and oxidation.
If you ask how to clean a black powder firearm you will get as many answers as when you ask about what kind of lube to use.
There is so much folklore, tradition, and superstition involved that you will get countless answers. Some people will tell you that you have to use a squirt of fairy piss mixed with just the right amount of soap hand-made from the ashes of a saint to get it really clean, followed up with sperm whale oil taken from Moby Dick himself!
The reality is, black powder firearms can be cleaned with plain old soapy water. Any dish detergent will do just fine. A cleaning rod, some patches, some pipe cleaners, and an old toothbrush are all you really need to clean a black powder firearm, and just about any kind of oil will do for protecting it from rust until the next time you shoot it.
Long Arms
When cleaning a black powder long arm, such as a musket or rifle, the only real question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you want to remove the barrel. It is much easier to clean the barrel if you remove it from the stock. This allows you to remove the nipple (cone) from the barrel and dunk the breech end of the barrel in a bucket of hot water, or your utility sink, and liberally scrub the area with an old toothbrush. It also makes it easier to run a patch up and down the barrel while the breech end is submerged in water so that you get a "power wash" through the fire channel as the patch works as a piston up and down the bore. A wire bore brush can help remove stubborn deposits faster than patches alone will.
A lot of competition shooters rarely, if ever, unship their barrels from their guns, however, as slight changes in alignment during reassembly can affect point of aim. You can still do a fine job cleaning your barrel with it staying in the stock, you just have to be a little more attentive in your cleaning. You'll go through a lot more cleaning patches cleaning a barrel in the stock than when you have the barrel out. You'll want to use a pipe cleaner to clean the fire channel.
You seldom need to disassemble and clean the lock on a percussion long arm. Once a year will suffice.
Revolvers
I don't like to do a full disassembly of my revolvers to clean them, though it is the best way to do it. If you have access to compressed air, you can get away with "dunk cleaning", and I generally do a full-disassembly cleaning every 6 months or so. In this regard, Remington-style revolvers are much easier to clean than Colt-style revolvers.
With the Remington, you only need remove a single screw and the grips come off. Now you can remove the cylinder from the frame and dunk all the parts in hot soapy water. Run a few patches down the barrel, and use an old toothbrush to scrub the nooks and crannies. You don't need to worry about scrubbing the internal mechanisms as they generally don't get very dirty. I do blast hot water through the available nooks and crannies to try and flush out the internal spaces as well as can be done. Cock the hammer to full-cock and shoot water down into the mechanism through the gap in front of the hammer.
With a Colt, if you want to dunk-clean you have to remove the backstrap from the frame to get the grips off. Then it's just the same as with the Remington.
After cleaning, used compressed air to blast and dry all the nooks and crannies of the firearm. Pay special attention to the spring latch mechanism at the end of the loading lever, and direct jets of air down into the revolver mechanism from every available opening in the frame. You don't want to leave any water on or in the firearm.
After you have cleaned and dried the firearm, apply a thin coat of oil to all exposed metal surfaces. Then use an aerosol oil, like Remoil, with its soda-straw applicator to liberally squirt oil into the mechanism through the various openings in the frame. Be sure to direct some oil up to the trigger spring area. You don't need to saturate the gun to the point that oil is leaking out of it but you want to make sure the internal components are all oiled, so they don't rust.
If you've got a really dirty revolver, then there is nothing for it but a full disassembly, cleaning, oiling, and re-assembly. I typically only do this with my revolvers every 6 months or so.
Other stuff
Some folks will tell you that you need to use hot, even boiling, water to clean your black powder guns. You don't. Any temperature of water will work just fine. Yes, getting the parts hot can help speed their drying time up, but it also promotes rust as the water dries off. Since I use compressed air to blast my revolver parts dry, I just use warm water. It's a lot easier to clean parts when the water and the parts aren't burning you, too.
Oil is another thing that folks tend to get religious about. If you shoot your guns regularly, then just about any light oil will do. I don't recommend WD40 as it is not a lubricant, it is a wire drying formula (WD stands for Water Displacing), but people use it. About anything will do - Remoil, 3-in-1, Ballistol, you name it. If you shoot yours in competition the oil isn't going to hang around long enough for you to have to worry about "storage life" or any of those other marketing things you hear about for gun oils.
Summary
All you really need to clean any black powder firearm is soapy water. Cleaning patches, a cleaning rod, and some pipe cleaners will do the trick with that. Follow up with any light oil to coat the metal parts and protect them from moisture and oxidation.