I know I didn't cover everything in the video. Hope this helps some of you who have asked how I clean my gun. Any questions, Ill try to answer in the comments. Look for link in description to ballistol under Flinltock Hunting Gear.

I do the same sort of thing on my TVM except: stick a toothpick in the touch hole, never had to use paper towels, fill the barrel with boiling water, wait 5 minutes, pull the toothpick out. Let the water drain out the touch hole, then clean the barrel with cleaning patches with a small amount of ballistol (pure ) . Takes about 15 minutes, the boiling water heats up the barrel so you have to wrap something around to hold it. This also prevents rust. Be doing for years on both of my flintlocks works fine. After cleaning run a ballistol patch down the barrel a few times and wipe the stock and the outside of the barrel to preserve it. FYI, ballistol was developed by the German Army in the early 1900s prior to WW1.

I love ballistol. I use it to clean my modern style guns. Good for leather and to protect any metal. Axe handles after you get the varnish off and the heads get a coat to protect it.

This is the easiest method I've ever seen for cleaning a muzzleloader! Thanks for sharing, Stuart

Good video John. Good enough cleaning after one shot. I do a lot more shooting than that at black powder shoots, usually 20 to 30 shots a day. I need to take my barrels out of the stock and use the hot water, dish soap method in a bucket to get the barrel clean. I then run patches down the barrel until they come out completely clean. Then I plug the touch hole with a dove feather quill and pour boiling water down the barrel and let it set for a couple minutes and dry out with several patches until the last one comes out completely clean. Then I oil the inside of the barrel with WD40. You would be surprised how much residue comes out of the barrel when I use the boiling water after the bucket method. I do oil immediately after the barrel is cleaned with the boiling water. Before using the gun for the next outing I clean the oil out of the barrel with acetone.

Nice easy way to clean - I've used Ballistol for years on all my guns. Great stuff! Enjoyed the Video!

Good solid advice there Jon👍

Nice demo. I’ll have to get some Ballistol. That was a pretty clean first patch. Guess after 40+ years of just hot water I’ll try something different.

Congratulations on your new little one to you and your wife, hope all are healthy and well, thanks for the video very informative

Great instructional video. All my guns are Hawkin style and have either one or two wedges holding the barrel. I therefore take the barrel. I use the bucket method as I have a good stainless bucket available. I use warm water not hot. I run a patch down the barrel and scrub it for about a minute. When I take it out it is dirty. I then change the water. I follow up with another patch and it comes out quite clean. In mild weather I take the barrel to my garage and blow the moisture out of the barrel. Back in the house and run two more clean patches to take up any moisture left in the barrel. I then follow up with a patch saturated with a product called Fluid Film. It is an oil base with a waxy texture. I then take that saturated patch and stuff it in the end of the barrel. Obviously I clean the lock with Ballistol and all metal parts on the gun. This is how I store my gun. I store it muzzle down so that any oils that are left in the barrel ultimately gravitate down to the muzzle and not in the breech end. I can leave it for months and not have any rust issues.

Got my first muzzleloader Saturday at a gun show. I don’t have all the stuff that I need to fire it yet but I want to do a good cleaning of the barrel before I do. I appreciate ya putting up this video of how you clean yours. I’ll look on Amazon for a bottle of ballistol. Thanks again.

Thanks for the video, going to have to give this method a try!

I've read the old timers used to fill their barrels with bear oil if they were going to leave them tucked away for an extended period, not sure if this fact or not but sounds like good practice. I use ballistol but have never mixed it with water and tried the toothpick method. Will be trying it on my trade gun next time I clean it. A breech scraper is a good tool also. Thanks for the advice and the video. Good job John. YHS, campdog

I've been using the hot water and a tiny bit dawn dish washing liquid for years now, but after seeing this, I am going to give it a try. I just recently built a Kibler Colonial American Longrifle 54-caliber, and your cleaning method just makes sense for this rifle. My other goto rifle is a custom-made hawken 54-caliber made back in the 70s, I believe it is a hawken shop (back when they were still in St Louis) parts kit rifle. 36" barrel and over 13.5 lbs. It's easy to remove the barrel to clean, two wedges, and a hook breach, so the water method is easy, but the Kibler flintlock uses pins so the only time that I want remove the barrel is for a thorough cleaning if I put it away for a couple of months. Thanks for your video, and you should read this. Thanks for your patience for a long-winded comment. Hahaha

Very good video thank you

thanks John always look forward to your videos. my method is borrow a gun from my son while in camp hunt and watch him clean both at night before leaving for home😁 he uses your method followed up by a bore butter patch.

Great video! Not exactly the same set up but I’ve got a modern inline and I still do the hot water. Easy enough since I can remove the breech plug. Once cleaned I relube with a patch with a thin coat of bore butter. That’s how I store from season to season. But I will definitely check into your method. Thanks for sharing ( Southeast Mo )

Thanks for the info ! I only shoot 777 and use the windex method, which works well. Ill have to try this one day 👍

Kind Thanks for your video! I also use Ballistal for cleaning. It’s hard to best for cleaning and lubing. Keep on shootin on! DaveyJO in Pennsylvania

Great video John! That is the way I clean my TVM pore boy but I run a brush down before doing the 2nd round of Ballistal. I shoot mine pretty much all year round and I remove the lock a couple times a year to clean and lube everything.

i just scribed thanks for the vid

I use hot water and a nylon brush to clean and scrub the bore. After that, I dry them out quickly using the air pressure from my shopvac, then dry patches. Before storing, run a patch with balistol down the bore. Before shooting, I clean the bore with alcohol soaked patches.

*Easy to setup and maintain.*

Thanks for the awesome videos you produce! I always look forward to your early and late flintlock videos! Since I know you are in PA like me, any chance you are attending the 18th century Artisan show next weekend, Feb 3-4, this year in Carlisle? In regards to cleaning, I do basically the same. Ballistol is amazing. Once a year I use a bore brush slightly. I am one of those guys that uses a complete Ballistol patch at the end. I also started using a a Bill Slusser breech brush scrubber. Thanks again!!!

Nice presentation I use ballistol and I also use boreshine I get that on Amazon I shoot competition with a kimbler 36 Cal so I clean little red a lot

I still do the hot soapy water and use boar butter after I'm completely finished with the cleaning of my hawken

I’m hybrid old school and new school. Ivory soapy hot water, boiling hot water rinse and full strength ballistol (cat puke) for final storage. My 70’s era Hawken expects it.

I always used the steaming hot soapy water in a bucket approach, but I will try this method next time. The only thing I would do differently is to run a bore butter patch through it one time at the very end for storage.

Nice technique. Allowing the bore to soak like that will save on patches.

Good video. Would work with a cap lock too.

Thank You John... Next year before you load for hunting... What do you do to the barrel to insure it is dry and gonna go off please!?? Bless you and family!! 🙏

Gonna try it. Im still using the boiling water a scrub method. That looks a lot easier. Have tried moose milk. Ive used the 7 powder in inlines and found that it cleans up with gun cleaner. Then follow it with gun oil.

I pretty much do what you do with a couple of add ons. The ballistol water mix is the key. The water dissolves the powder residue and the ballistol oil protects the metal. Ballistol is interesting stuff, invented by the Germans In WW1 as a multi purpose lubricant and cleaner for their army. Evidently food safe too? What I do differently is dry scrape the breech face and dump that hard dry stuff out and brush the bore with the soak still in it. You will get a bit slop out the muzzle but if you Don,t rush the brush you can catch it with a rag. This seems to really cut down on the patching. As you mention at the end I subscribe to the doctrine of putting pure ballistol in the barrel to preserve it unless it is going to be shot again soon. Another good use for the round toothpick is to plug the flash hole in the field. I wax these toothpicks which have the the little plastic tails on them. You have to prime the rifle when you see game but that is better than getting a misfire and trying reprime. If the weather is good then no need but it is raining or snowing hard we need all the help possible with the flinter.

Just use water and plenty of it. Base ingredient in black powder is salt, which is what makes it corrosive. Soapy water dissolves salt the best. Maybe adding some things would speed it up a bit, but really its not needed.

Great informative video. Where about is your camp at looks nice.

I don’t shoot a muzzleloader, but the principles shown here look similar to my method for a bolt action, solvent soaking and then running patches through until the patches are dry and clean. I have a rifle with 1000+ rounds through it, cleaned this way after every session, (1-12or 15 shots) and the bore is as good as the day it came out the factory! Great instructional video!

John just another way to clean a flintlock. I have seen this method before and it works very well. The method I have been using the last few years is soaking a couple patches with windex window cleaner and it works very well and I have never had a issue. I just make sure my final patch is bone dry then I run a patch of bore butter down to keep the barrel oiled and protected for the next time I take it out and it works well both with my inline and my flintlock.

I use pretty much the same method with my TC, different cleaning solution, but let sit overnight and have the same results. The only thing different is use a copper wire cleaning head to get in the rifle grooves. I also use the toothpick method in the touch hole overnight to keep moisture out for the next hunt. We've let then sit for almost a week with the toothpick and they fire like a fresh load..so stop firing off at the end of every hunt and just use the toothpick!

I boil water and pull the barrel of the stock and pour the water down the barrel the touchhole is in a small bucket and once the water is a inch or two higher than the touchhole I use my ram with a patch to plunge the water up and down the barrel do that a till the water runs clean then I dry and use balistol and grease the underbarrel before reassembly.

I always wondered how our forefathers cleaned their muzzle loaders when that's all they had. I doubted that they would use hot boiling water or break their guns down.

I always take my lock and barrel out.. Wet a patch with spray nine and run it down first and let soak a few minutes.. Then continue with water.. I use a few patches and flush the barrel with the touch hole open and in my bucket of water. Dry completely. This may take 10 or more patches then finish with ballistol.. I also clean the lock with a wet patch And finish with ballistol..

I purchased a “Flusher Kit” from Track of the Wolf for my flintlocks. Remove the lock, clamp the “flusher” over the touch hole, drop the tubing into hot water with Dawn dish soap and pump water in & out with a ramrod, jag & patch. I only use Balistol as my final coating patch when after the barrel is clean & dry. Balistol is expensive and this method saves 1/4 cup at each cleaning over your method! Check it out!!👍

Just received my Ballistol in the mail today and plan on trying this method this weekend. My only question. have you ever used bore butter down the barrel afterwards ? I use it in my inline but never tried it in my flintlock.

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I hope before you put the rifle away you run a couple patches down the barrel with Wonder Lube on them. That’s the key to preventing rust.

Hi Where do i get a Horn Mount like yours ? Thanks

When I fire mine hunting, unless I need to shoot again quickly, I run a dry patch and then an alcohol wetted patch. Then a dry one and wipe pan and frizzen with alcohol as well and dry. Humidity is my nemesis in NW pa most times

The main take away from your video is the ease of cleaning using Ballistol and water. I am assuming that ballistol is in fact water soluble I myself have never had the pleasure of using Ballistol and that is only because I have not bought any. I am not sure if you are into comparisons, but it would be nice to see a head to head cleaning using Ballistol against soapy warm water. I use soapy warm water pretty much the same as you use Ballistol, and I have had satisfying results. In any case your video was very informative. Thanks you.

I like ballistol too, however i wouldn't recommend leaving it like that with out a few dry patches and then either pure ballistol or regular gun oil. Mixed ballistol left in a barrel tends to rust, even though its suppose to evaporate and leave the oil behind. This hasnt been my experience. I use gun oil after then run alchol patches thru before i shoot it again. No rust problems then. However i have never use pure ballistol for oil, so i cant commemt on how it works.

i have a video of how i clean my kentucky rifle on my channel although my method has changed now and need to revise my my method but it includes a copper .50 caliber bore brush water and a .410 barrel swab and a bore cleaner/protectant/lubricant and my gun is absolutely clean with no powder residue left in the gun period

I like your advice. I also have a TVM muzzleloader its a iron Pennsylvania 50 caliber . My question is how to clean my rifle in the field after one shot? The reason I ask. Is because I'm having a hard time pushing my ramrod with a patch down the barrel .

What about Pyrodex ? Same ?

The only difference is I ran a patch of pure Ballistol down the barrel and put it up. I have gone back to that particular gun 3 years later and ran 1 patch and then shot it.

👍👍

Just AWESOME Lil Man! 🎉🎉Stay close to your Dad and he'll teach you how to get all them deers 🦌 like him!