best way to clean a muzzleloader

First, I would recommend finding different folks to hang with. I made a trough from a section of PVC rain gutter to clean my BP rifles in. Fill it with hot soapy water (I use Dawn dish soap) and immerse the barrel after removing all the wooden parts. After letting it soak for about 5 minutes I run a cotton bore swab down the bore leaving the nipple or touch hole submerged. I give it a brisk pumping action for about a minute, then wipe it down, blow through it with compressed air from both the muzzle end and the nipple, then spray with WD-40 and swab the bore and outside until everything is clean and dry. I then coat the bore with a Bore Butter saturated patch and wipe down the outside with a good CLP oil. Cheap Q-Tips work well for cleaning and drying the crevice areas of the lock and I use the CLP on the outside of the lock before reassembling the piece.

What Steel Horse Rider said, with emphasis on HOT water. Doesn't have to be boiling, but as hot as your tap or bathtub can get. This really softens the black powder fouling and allows you to remove it more completely. Also the hotter water evaporates faster, leaving the metal relatively dry and minimizes having to use the Q-Tips and WD-40. Bore Butter is really good stuff.

IME using non-petroleum type products to clean the muzzleloader is the best way to go, and you will also notice less powder fouling buildup in the bore every time you shoot it. I shoot with a few Civil War Reenactors from time to time, and they all avoid oil based products like the plague.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

I remove the barrel, and the nipple. Put the breech end in a bucket with HOT soapy water, and with a clean patch and jag scrub the bore till everything comes out clean, including the patch.

I then grab a pair of hot dog tongs to hold the barrel, and rinse with boiling, or near to boiling water by pouring it down the barrel making sure the barrel stays full till I run out of water. The hot water evaporates quickly, and then I use a clean patch to dry the bore, then oil the bore with my own crisco/ beeswax base grease.

I never use petroleum inside the barrel, or nipple. I do use regular oil on the outside, and furniture.

Folks think that using hot water helps to get moisture out, but in fact, it merely causes flash rust to form more quickly. Tests done years ago with the NMLRA showed that the barrels were no cleaner with cold, soapy water.

Soap and water will help to get out any residual grease compounds from bullet lube. The leftover ash in the barrel combines with moisture in the air to form acidic compounds, and the soap as it's a "base" also counteracts this.

Scrub with a muzzleloader bore brush, as a regular, copper, bore brush may jamb in the barrel while a muzzleloader brush is designed for the back and forth movement in cleaning a muzzleloader barrel.

Rinse with clean water, and then dry with cloth patches. Some folks swab with rubbing alcohol first, as this helps absorb the water. Some folks use a patch with a good amount of WD-40 applied. Many folks follow this with Birchwood Casey "Barricade".

Some folks like to also use a pipe cleaner on the flash channel from the nipple area into the breech. Apply rust preventative to the threads of the nipple and reinstall.

Rub the outside of the barrel with rust preventative and reinstall on the rifle. Store muzzle Down, for the next day or two, to keep any of your rust preventative from rolling down into the flash channel.

Check the next day with a clean patch for any rust, and you might reswab the barrel with Barricade.

LD

Dave: How would you explain the fact that a lot of folks who clean with hot water have NEVER experienced "flash rust"? Have you cleaned with hot water and had rust develop immediately when the piece was removed from the hot water? What is your environment like if that happened? Do you live in a warm and humid area? I live in the west at 5000' elevation so the humidity is usually below 30% and I have never experienced rusting of any steel or iron weapon cleaned by hot soapy water. I remove the barrel, wipe it down with a rag, blow it out with compressed air, spray and wipe with WD-40, swab the barrel with dry patches, then with a bore butter saturated patch, and finally wipe down the outside with CLP. No rust.

I have experienced flash rust while using near-boiling water - nothing serious but I generally dont use water that hot anymore. Hot as I can get from the tap, when I'm done rinsing I swab the bore and set it on the heater for 10-15 minutes to evaporate any remaining water. Then swab with bore butter while still hot. So far I've not had a rifle rust on me.

Chock this up to the unorthodox files but my encore muzzleloader barrel is still sitting in the parts washer out in the shop.

Dave: How would you explain the fact that a lot of folks who clean with hot water have NEVER experienced "flash rust"? Have you cleaned with hot water and had rust develop immediately when the piece was removed from the hot water? What is your environment like if that happened?

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Yes, I have lived at various locations from sea level to about 800 feet, not on the coast so there is no "salt" in the air, though I live on the East Coast, and I was taught 35 years ago that you use very hot water to rinse. I did so, and flash rust formed in the crevices around the nipple bolster on my Zouave, and in the tang screw hole, as well as the nipple arbors on my Pietta, CVA, and Armi San Marco revolver cylinders. I did not notice the same reaction on black powder barrels or cylinders blued in the United States, nor did I notice the same reaction on barrels browned with Birchwood Casey Plumb Brown solution.

Regardless of the reaction or lack there of... if there is no cleaning advantage based on the NMLRA testing, then there is no need to heat your water.

LD

Right on! Been doing just that for over 50 years. Cold water =no rust. Newer
generations always have to re-learn the basics.

I've been using the hot soapy water method for over 40 years. It works for me. I place the barrel with a slightly loose nipple in a bucket of hot soapy water and use a patch on a brass brush with copper wire (Pro Shot) and run it down the muzzle with a home made brass rod with muzzle protector. After the patches come out clean, I remove the nipple and clean the threads in the barrel and clean out the flash hole. I clean the nipple and use Never Seize on the threads. I then use an air hose to dry the parts and then coat them with Ballistol Oil (Not Moose Milk). I've seen some flash rust at times, but it gets wiped away with the Oil. I never use petroleum products on a black powder gun. Mobil 1 grease and oil are good too! Grease works good on revolver base pins. I shoot North-South Skirmish Association matches, a .58 caliber muzzleloader takes a 16 gauge bore brush nicely. Good luck! Bob