Cleaning my black powder my revolvers

[sm03]

I am fairly new to black powder shooting and always clean my pistols as soon as I can after shooting using hot soapy water and then applying a light coat of oil to all metel surfaces afterwords. But my cleaning has basically been to the barrel parts (group), cylinder, nipples and sylinder pin. Recently I've read that some shooters completly strip their pistols "down to the last screw" my question is, is this nessary. I don't see powder fouling getting inside the frame where cleaning would be called for any more than in a regular none black powder revolver.
Opinions please.

[SMOKEY]

Been shooting black powder since a kid and now I am 63 and I have never stripped any one down that far. Clean as you are doing with hot soapy water, rinse with hot soapy water and oil. Check in about a week to check for any rust that may form where oil may have not hit.The hotter the water the better. Good shooting.

[dave]

I have always stripped mine down but its a pain and the reason I don't shoot them often. Think I'll quite doing it, they are only repros. Of course repros are no longer cheap, as years ago! I do, however coat the inner works with Rig, just in case!

[sm03]

Thanks for your comments, I'll keep my cleaning procedure the same and will shoot more often.
Steve














shoot more often.
SM03

[Johnny P]

On the Ruger Old Army I shot for a number of years, I would do a detail strip about every six months, and it was always dirty. I always removed the nipples for cleaning the cylinder, but the Ruger nipples took a standard hex socket which made removing and installing them a snap.

[dave]

I use stainless nipples and also remove them for cleaning. Before putting them back I coat the threads with an anti-seize grease, they come out easy with standard nipple wrench!

[mousegun]

I have a two-stage cleaning protocol. In the field I carry a small spritzer of moosemilk (1:9 mix of Ballistol and water) along with some rags or paper towels and a cleaning stick (homemade rod). I spray the gun with moosemilk - bore, cylinder and frame - and wipe it down. This will last definitely until I get to a kitchen table - then I strip it completely down. Takes about five minutes to tear it down and mebbe 10 to reassemble. Do it in a plastic tub so as not to lose any parts. Whole cleaning from teardown to reassembly takes mebbe 30 minutes. I always use gunsmith screwdrivers so as not bugger the screws. Italians use very soft metal in their revolvers.

I found several years ago that the innards can get pretty rusty if left alone too long.

[cwartyman]

In addition to what you do take off the grips and trigger guard clean what you can and oil it up.
Mack

[Johnny P]

Used "Moose Milk" to wet the patches for my round ball rifle. You could shoot indefinitely using the moose milk to wet the patches with no loss of accuracy, and cleanup up at the end of the day was easier. The moose milk we used was 2 oz. water soluble oil, 2 oz. 409 Cleaner, and 2 oz. hydrogen peroxide and add enough water to make a quart. There are several recipes, but the water soluble oil seems to be common to all of them.

[Stephan]

I've been using the foaming TC aerosol bore cleaner...squirt a bit into all the cylinder holes and down the bore..and all the crud floats out..then clean the barrels and cylinders with Hoppes.

I take them all the way apart every once and a while..and wipe it all out and lube.