Howdy
No, you do not have to take a gun completely apart to clean it after shooting it with Black Powder.
Disclaimer: There are those on this board who do not see why I clean my guns this way rather than just using hot water. Hopefully, the reasons will become plain after reading this.
When I bought my first Cap & Ball revolver in 1968 I too used to completely take it apart to clean it every time I shot it.
We all know that hot water is probably the best cleaning solution in existence for Black Powder fouling. The problem with water is, how do you get it all out when you are done? Any water left inside the gun will cause rust. Yes, the standard answer is to heat the water so the steel is hot enough to drive out the water. I used to do that. I also used to put the gun parts in a warm oven to dry out the water. Too often flash rust would result from either of these methods. Flash rust is a dry, powdery layer of rust that can happen when water evaporates off of hot metal.
There had to be a better way.
One thing I have discovered over the years is that Black Powder fouling is not as corrosive as many of us believe. Ordinarily, Black Powder fouling is hygroscopic. This means it is very dry and absorbs moisture from the atmosphere. The moisture absorbed then causes any steel in contact with the fouling to corrode (rust). Traditionally, corrosion was caused by the combination of BP fouling AND corrosive primers and percussion caps. We don't use corrosive primers any more, so that's half the battle right there.
But here is an important discovery I made: If Black Powder fouling is saturated with oil, it becomes inert. It will no longer cause corrosion. Think of it as a sponge that has been saturated with water. Once saturated with oil it cannot absorb any water in the form of vapor from the atmosphere. The key is to infuse the fouling with oil. Once it is infused with oil, the fouling becomes harmless and will not cause any rust.
A number of years ago a fellow Black Powder shooter introduced me to Murphy's Mix. Murphy's Mix is a Black Powder cleaning solution made up of equal parts Murphy's Oil Soap, Rubbing Acohol, and drugstore Hydrogen Per Oxide. I buy the ingredients in the super market. I buy a quart of each and mix them in an opaque, three quart juice jug.
When a Black Powder firearm is cleaned with Murphy's Mix, a couple of interesting things happen. The actual cleaning is accomplished by the water in the alcohol and the Hydrogen Per Oxide. Most drugstore alcohol is about 20% water and drugstore Hydrogen Per Oxide is only about 3% H2O2, the rest is water. So the water in the solution does the actual cleaning. The alcohol works as a drying agent, causing the water to evaporate more quickly, and the H2O2 provides a little bit of fizzing action to help lift any stubborn fouling. But when all the water has evaporated from the Murphy's Mix, the Murphy's Oil Soap is left behind as an oily deposit. This oily deposit then saturates any remaining Black Powder fouling rendering it unable to absorb any water from the atmosphere. The result is that the fouling is rendered harmless and will not cause any corrosion to any metal that it is in contact with.
My normal technique is to clean the firearm with Murphy's Mix. The key here is to use lots of it, don't be stingy. First clean the bore and chambers as usual, using patches and bore mops or whatever you usually use. dip your patches straight into some Murphy's Mix. Use it like you would use water. But here is the part you won't have thought of. Make sure to slop lots of it down inside the mechanism. With a revolver you can use Q-Tips to work some M Mix into the rectangular hole in the frame where the hand pokes through. You can also work some in to the slot in the frame where the hammer sits. Work in plenty, don't be stingy. How do you get it all out again? You don't. You just leave the M Mix down inside the mechanism. Those who like to inspect their firearms with white gloves will not be happy with this technique, because there will be lots of black, oily gunk down inside the gun. I don't take my guns completely apart to clean them more than once a year or so. There is always plenty of black, oily gunk down inside. There is never any rust. Because the water has evaporated from the M Mix, and the oil soap has remained, infusing the fouling with oil. As such, the oily fouling does not generate any rust, because there is no water present.
When I am done I run some full strength Ballistol down into the action, and I lightly coat the bore and chambers with Ballistol to lubricate the parts. Ballistol is relatively expensive, so I only use it sparingly at this point.
So.....why go through all this bother you may ask? Why make up this crazy chemical concoction? Why not simply use hot water?
1. You don't have to heat it. It works fine cold. That means you can clean the guns anywhere, you don't have to wait until you get indoors where you can heat stuff up. I can clean right at the range if I want to. Or at a Cowboy Action match I can clean my guns right at the car before going home. At a big away match, if camping or staying in a hotel, a couple of us will sit down and clean our guns at somebody's tent before driving to the hotel. Even better for those who are camping.
2. You don't have to completely take the gun apart. That saves a lot of time.
3. By not taking the gun apart, you are not putting extra wear and tear on screws and threaded holes. And you will not cross thread any holes.
I shoot nothing but Black Powder in CAS. Two pistols, a rifle and shotgun at every match. I usually go through around 20 pounds of Black Powder every year. It takes me about 1/2 hour to clean two revolvers, a rifle and a shotgun this way. This is the way I have been cleaning my guns for about ten years now. No rust.
It is even better with cartridge guns because unlike a percussion revolver, you can just leave some oil in the chambers. You don't have to swab out the oil, you don't have to fire any caps to burn out the oil. You just leave it in the chamber.
