For Irish Jack :D

[Hawg]

Nope, no High grade Sharp's here. This will have to do.

[Model12Win]

Okay...?

[Lucas McCain]

What's going on here. You shooting black powder in that Weatherby????

[Hawg]

On the pillow ticking thread Irish Jack couldn't believe anybody would use water to clean a modern black powder gun. He said he wouldn't use water to clean his Sako and seemed incredulous anybody would use water to clean a high grade Sharp's. I said I didn't have a high grade Sharp's but if I had one I would whereupon he got a little snide and said I didn't have a high grade Sharps. So I posted this.

[4V50 Gary]

You're going to give me a heart attack. I hope you take a hair dryer or heat gun to it when you're done.

[Hawg]

You're going to give me a heart attack. I hope you take a hair dryer or heat gun to it when you're done.

Why? I don't use them on my bp stuff. Just some WD-40 and Remoil like I do my bp stuff. I did skip the Bore Butter down the bore tho.

[FrontierGander]

what would you use to clean your bp rifle if you don't use water to kill the corrosive salts

[Model12Win]

what would you use to clean your bp rifle if you don't use water to kill the corrosive salts

Milk. As in moose's milk.

[FrankenMauser]

I clean BP firearms with soap and hot water, as well. It's more effort than some other methods, but I think it does the best job.




That Weatherby makes me want to break out my photos from last summer.

Not firearms, but...

I picked up a bunch of reloading tools, dies, two presses, two electric routers, and a progressive shotshell press at an auction.
They had been sitting, untouched, in the corner of an open-sided horse shed for about 25 years, and were absolutely CAKED in disgusting grime. The routers were so bad that the rotors and stators were stuck together.

Solvents wouldn't touch it.

So, I soaked everything (including the electric routers) in a 20 gallon basin full of hot soapy water for about 4 hours - adding 3 gallons of hot water and more soap until overflow, every 30-45 minutes - and then alternated soaking, scrubbing with nylon brushes, sloshing things around with a broom, and (cold) high pressure wash ... until I lost sunlight.

The routers were blown out and left to dry for about 2 months, occasionally spinning the shafts, before testing (they worked just fine). And everything else was stripped down, scrubbed, and dried by hand.

I had a little bit of surface rust on a few things that were raw steel. But everything else turned out just fine.
...And for all I know, the rust could have been under the greasy, grimy horse-crap residue, to begin with.

[AKexpat]

FrankenMauser,

Thanks for your interesting post. Most folks, including myself, would not have done that with electric motors, but your drying period and attention to detail seems to have worked very well for you.

Kudos to you, sir, for resurrecting old tools!

Jim

[FrankenMauser]

Thanks.

Win or lose, I was into the pair of routers for $5. Worst case, I could still recycle them and not lose money.

[Wyosmith]

Soap and water doesn't hurt any gun as long as it gets dried out throughly and oiled.
All of them are boiled in a water/salt bath when they are blued. It doesn't harm them then and regular water later doesn't hurt them later.

Just make sure they don't rust.

When I was a Marine I carried an M-60 machine gun and later an M40. I got them wet all the time. In fact we used to take the M-60s into the shower tents to clean them up because it was a lot easier then doing it outside on the cleaning tables.
The M-40 was basically just a 700 Remington in the wood stock. Later we got plastic stocks, but my 1st M40 was steel and wood.
It was wet a LOT. I took care of that rifle and the water never did it any harm

[Hawg]

Soap and water doesn't hurt any gun as long as it gets dried out throughly and oiled.
All of them are boiled in a water/salt bath when they are blued. It doesn't harm them then and regular water later doesn't hurt them later.

That was my point.

[ThomasT]

I have cleaned a lot of semi auto 22 rifles with hot water from the vegetable sprayer on the kitchen sink. Let it air dry and give it a light spray with silicone, rem-oil or long ago wd-40 and I was back in business. No harm done.

[Bone Charcoal]

All soap contains salt.

Hydrochloric acid is used to neutralize the lye

(Prior to the 1960"s phosphoric acid was used. It is a mild rust inhibitor)

My former employer sold some really fancy metal alloy to Proctor & Gamble for soap manufacture. P&G needed it.

[Bone Charcoal]

All soap contains salt.

Hydrochloric acid is used to neutralize the lye

(Prior to the 1960"s phosphoric acid was used. It is a mild rust inhibitor)

My former employer sold some really fancy metal alloy to Proctor & Gamble for soap manufacture. P&G needed it.

[FrontierGander]

moose milk recipe ( the original) is water based, with a shot of alcohol in the winter months.