Hunting Forum

I've got muzzleloader bore cleaner and a gel-like grease for the breech plug, and on a CVA video, they say to use their CVA Barrel-Blaster Rust Prevent spray and patches for the barrel.  I cleaned mine Friday, using the ML bore cleaner that I bought, and for the barrel, used patches wet with gun oil.  Is that enough with a muzzleloader?  Or is there some extra purpose for the CVA Rust Prevent stuff?

Thanks,

   --jim

PS:  does anyone have any magic formula for adjusting fiber optic sights?  At about 24 yards (best I could do from where I was at at the time) three shots were consistently 5" high and 5" to the left.  Is there a special way to know how much to move the sights up and to the left to correct them?  Or is it just trial and error (and clean after every two shots...yeah, bad things happened when I tried to load another PowerBelt after the third shot...I finally got the bullet (and one of two pellets that was stuck, too) out when I got home, but was not happy about it on the WAY home......

Posted By browning300 on 13 Dec 2012 09:39 PM
Try posting in the muzzleloader section. You'll get a lot of good answers there. 

Thanks.  But back to the question.....  I have gun oil now.  Is it ok to use as a rust preventative?

Certainly it will work to preserve the metal of the bore. Like I said, some very good shooters I know use it on their muzzle loaders. However it MUST be cleaned out before shooting due to its ability to contaminate the powder and cause a miss fire. With vegetable based oils it is like your grandma's old cast iron pans, it will "season" the bore (leave a coating of carbon) on the metal and prevent rust, along with making it easier to clean as it seasons the bore. 
   I read your other thread in the black powder section. There are a few things you can do to prevent the "crud ring" causing hard loading and stuck ram rods when cleaning. First: Use powder instead of pellets. 
   Second: Fire lap the bore with hollow base full bore projectiles embedded with a fine lapping compound. There are numerous articles on the web and each has there own opinion on how it should be done. Basically it requires about 20 full bore lead hollow base bullets, like the Hornady plains bullets, or Buffalo Bullets ball-et. Two flat pieces of steel or ceramic and some lapping compound. Lapping compound can be made out of crisco and scouring powder. Coat the bullets with the lapping compound and then Roll the bullets between the two pieces of steel to embed the compound into the soft lead bullets. Load the bullets with 50 gr of powder behind them (or one 50 gr pellet) and fire it into a safe backstop. Clean the bore and repeat this for the 20 embedded bullets. You will notice everytime you run the cleaning rod in the barrel with a patch after shooting the lapped bullet it will get easier and easier until it is very smooth. You will not "shoot out" the bore or rifling. It does enhance accuracy and once seasoned again, will be much easier to clean. I use comercial lapping compond in the 330 grit and 600 grit range. I have done all six of my current rifles and all shoot better with much easier cleaning chores. It will make your bore smoother and "Mirror like" in finish.
   Third: Using a vegatable base oil or Bore Butter will season the bore with every shot and make the powder residue softer and easier to remove. I clean the rifle after a shooting session with HOT soapy water (Murphys oil soap at 1oz of soap to 32oz of HOT water) I remove the barrel from the riflre and stick it into a plastic bowl with the hot soapy water. I use a cleaning rod and patch holder that fits VERY tight with a cotton patch. I swab in short strokes until I have swabbed the entire bore clean. The tight patch will draw the water up into the barrel as you go back up. The barrel will heat up with the mixture and will turn black from the powder residue. You will know when to stop because the cleaning rod will move easily up and down the bore with little effort. I rarly use a brush to clean the bore after lapping it.
   Now dry the barrel and coat it with some vegatable oil while still warm. Run a few dry patches down it before shooting again and you will be amazed how many shots you can fire before the loading gets hard to accomplish. 
   Be Carefull if using plastic sabots during extended shooting sessions. In a Hot bore they will leave residue that is very hard to get out and causes hard loading.
   Good luck and shoot straight!
   Motoboy

Posted By rkramer on 28 Feb 2013 03:31 AM
Motoboy, You answered one of my question's . I got an old custom built muzzleloader from an old freind of mine and he said he always used Murphy's Oil soap to clean his barrel's. I had never heard of it and neither had any of my freind's but now I know it work's . Thank's again

Thanks for reminding me....I need to buy some of that rust prevent stuff and clean my CVA Wolf (don't laugh---perfect fit for me) with its end-of-season cleanup, even though all I fired it for since its last cleanup was to fire a primer to knock out the oil from the last cleanup.......  After which I found that even after just that, a wire brush down the barrel makes it 10X easier to load the bullet....  :-)