Muzzleloader stuff

[Gill-T]

I am new to muzzleloading so looking to learn. I am wondering what people use to clean their Muzzleloader barrels?  I have heard Dawn soap and hot water but Traditions states that soap and water is not enough. So which solvent (I use nitro firesticks) do I use?  Which cleaning brush?  What removes sabot plastic residue?  

[Legacy]

30 minutes ago, Gill-T said:

I am new to muzzleloading so looking to learn. I am wondering what people use to clean their Muzzleloader barrels?  I have heard Dawn soap and hot water but Traditions states that soap and water is not enough. So which solvent (I use nitro firesticks) do I use?  Which cleaning brush?  What removes sabot plastic residue?  

 

What powder are you using? 

[Gill-T]

Firesticks use Hogdon’s powder. Clean burning 

[GAMBLER]

If you are using clean burning powders, I just use the same solvents I use on my shotgun.  I use Blackhorn 209.  If you use any kind of solvents, make sure you store your gun muzzle down or with the breech plug out.  I have had solvent residue run into the breech plug and cause misfires.  

[Kevin J Legg]

I second using Blackhorn  209 powder. Works well, easy to clean and no big smoke screen so you can actually see the hit and deer response.

Regular rifle solvents or use their solvent.

[Gill-T]

No breech plug with nitro fire. Yes, I used Hoppes #9 so I guess all good. What mitigates the plastic build up?  I couldn’t find a .50 wire brush anywhere 

[Steely19]

I use a 20 gauge shotgun brush. Works fine.

[Gill-T]

Ok, I have one of those. 

[Bike and Boat]

I always fire one primer to clean out any residual oils before putting power or pellets in. I’d guess with the nitro fire this may be less of an issue. I agree w others, use same gun cleaning solvents as u would w a shotgun. If u can get barrel by itself, brake cleaner does a pretty good job, then I finish w G96. 

[Smat64]

This cva kit has done me well. W blackhorn. The cleaning and protecting patches do good. Seams like they have some sort of citrus on them?

plus all the other brushes and thread antifreeze. 

[Steely19]

The thing to remember about citrus cleaning products is they are inherently acidic so be sure to use a protectorant product after their usage. I have always used TC bore butter as a protectorant after cleaning. It makes loading easier and prevents rust from forming.

[GAMBLER]

17 hours ago, Gill-T said:

No breech plug with nitro fire. Yes, I used Hoppes #9 so I guess all good. What mitigates the plastic build up?  I couldn’t find a .50 wire brush anywhere 

I have used a 20 gauge brush before.  Let me look in my kit Chad.  I may have an extra 50 cal brush I can send you.  I found them a couple years ago and scooped up a couple of them.  

[Legacy]

17 hours ago, Gill-T said:

No breech plug with nitro fire. Yes, I used Hoppes #9 so I guess all good. What mitigates the plastic build up?  I couldn’t find a .50 wire brush anywhere 

 

amazon has them

[tlombardozzi]

I have been using a muzzleloader throughout shotgun for over 20 years now, I have a T/C Encore.  In my first few seasons I didn't realize the importance of having everything dry inside the barrel and breech plug meaning I was using oil and solvents to clean and maintain the gun which lead to issues (mainly in my first muzzleloader which was a Remington) on misfires.  Since then, I use Dawn soap and warm water and draw it into the barrel after I break the gun down and this cleans out everything in the barrel.  I do the same with the breech plug.  After I have done this, I run dry patches until I don't see any more residue from them.  I have not had any issues since making sure everything is left dry inside the barrel and breech since.  One final thing I will do is dry fire a primer outside (just the primer obviously) to burn or dry anything out.  T/C has a multitude of tools that help making cleaning the  breech plug much easier than when I started, I would assume your manufacturer has the same.  Good luck out there come late season.

[reeleyz]

I use dawn and hot water as well.

 

Shooting with a fouled barrel is the only way my CVA will shoot consistenly. If I shoot it on a clean barrel it will be off several inches. Shooting 1 cap seems to do the trick. Then I spit swab between shots and it shoots great.

I started using BH209 this year and I love it. It seems to shoot better than pellets and it is definitely cleaner.

[GAMBLER]

2 hours ago, reeleyz said:

I use dawn and hot water as well.

 

Shooting with a fouled barrel is the only way my CVA will shoot consistenly. If I shoot it on a clean barrel it will be off several inches. Shooting 1 cap seems to do the trick. Then I spit swab between shots and it shoots great.

I started using BH209 this year and I love it. It seems to shoot better than pellets and it is definitely cleaner.

the BH209 is a great powder.  Hard to find and a little pricey but worth every penny.  

[thumbburn]

So is h4198..😳😳😳😳