So, I have a question. When do you use a scour and why? I have been shooting some of my rifles for 30+ years and have never used one. Is it like chicken soup and can't hurt? Or is there a specific scenario when it is necessary? And are all breech faces flat? I have never installed nor pulled a breech plug out of any of my rifles. I shoot mostly flint but just picked up a used Great Plains Rifle.

I haven't...never heard of it...what's a "scour" ?

It's a tool that attatches to the end of a ramrod. Has like a large flat screwdriver type blade which after sendind down the barrel,you spin the ramrod supposedely scouring any build up of black powder residue. I think thats how its supposed to work.

Yeah, that's what Track sells under the name 'fouling scraper.' I use one from time to time. If after letting the barrel soak, the cleaning patches start coming out clean except for a black ring around the jag where jag contacts the breech face, I'll send a scraper/scour down and spin it and often bring out a small gooey glob of fouling. If you use a flush tube, the water action from pumping will likely soften and remove breech face fouling where scraping wouldn't be necessary. And sometimes plugging the touchhole, filling barrel with water, soaking a few minutes, dumping etc seems to get rid of that fouling without scraping. Anyway, scraping a steel breechface with a brass scraper shouldn't hurt, & when I use one it's on an as-needed basis to try to get rid of wet fouling.

I think I'll pick one up and give it a shot. I have had the black ring show up on occassion. Thanks SC.

I've never used one. I do sometimes use 2-O steel wool. IF your rifling goes to the breech face, you can't scour inside the grooves no? If my worm tips are very close to the diameter of the smooth barrel, and I use steel wool from time to time, that seems to work.

LD

I had not heard these called a "scour" before, but I guess it's as good a name as any, as long as we know what it means. I have heard them called "fouling scrapers" and "breech face scrapers."

The cleaning instructions on the TVM website say to use one in cleaning their guns. A couple of turns with the fouling scraper is the first step in their recommended cleaning process. I don't clean my guns exactly as they recommend, but I do use the fouling scraper first. I stick the rod in the barrel, then hoist the gun onto my left shoulder so the muzzle is pointing down, then give the scraper a couple of turns by rotating the rod with my right hand. Any dry fouling that loosens up falls out the muzzle.

I think Thompson Center makes a fouling scraper that is specially shaped to fit the powder chamber in their rifles. Most of them that you see are for a flat breech face, though.

Notchy Bob

I've used the breech scrapers a lot in my flintlocks. Another tool I find usefull is the breech brush. This is a brush that attaches to the ramrod and scrubs the breech face.

Don't confuse it with a bore brush. I don't use bore brushes because I don't need to brush the sides of the bore. The bore brush is made with bristles sticking our the side so it brushes the bore walls. The breech brush's bristles stick straight out the end so they can brush the breech face.

Load fast and aim slow.

I normally use a fouling scraper prior to cleaning while the fouling is crumbly and easily falls out of the bore. Other than that just occasional use of a ScotchBrite cleaning size patch.