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Solutions for cleaning Pyrodex,,,
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Booshway
posted
Watched a Vidio yesterday and they use a mixture of 50% Windex and Vinegar,,for cleaning a rifle after using Pyrodex,anyone ever hear/use this mixture???
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Walkingeagle
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Not exactly, but as you likely know Windex works great!
Walk
 
Posts: 342 | Location: Alberta, Canada | Registered: 15 January 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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The vidio stated the vinegar helped to cut the residue from the Pyrodex. Could be,it is a mild acid,,,,
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of volatpluvia
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Chuck Dixon said use plenty of water. You must flush out the acid that forms the oxydizer for the wood in the powder. If you don't it will destroy your barrel and won't take long to do it.
León


pistuo deo lalo
 
Posts: 3714 | Location: Acatlan de Juarez, Jalisco, Mexico | Registered: 22 October 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of andy*
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I won't use vinegar...if you leave it metal it will rust it pretty quick...would hate to wreck a rifle bore.
Windex...followed by water...then Hoppes #9 seems to work for me when I am forced to use pyrodex...
Andy


Follow me I am the Infantry
 
Posts: 668 | Location: Everson, Washington | Registered: 27 June 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of roundball
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quote:
Originally posted by volatpluvia:
Chuck Dixon said use plenty of water. You must flush out the acid that forms the oxydizer for the wood in the powder. If you don't it will destroy your barrel and won't take long to do it.
León
Agree...I used hot soapy water / hot water rinse during several thousand shots of Pyrodex Select, Pyrodex-RS, and Pyrodex-P back during most of the 90's...bores looked factory new all the time


Flintlock Rifles & Smoothbores
Hunt Like The Settlers
 
Posts: 1867 | Location: North Carolina | Registered: 28 January 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I agree with the statements..I figure there was very litle cleaning solutions in "the day" so why not use what is proven to work.Windex or Soap would be a s far as I go..Soap could have been used,,it was a product of the time,nut other than that hot water grease of one kind or another and good to go .I believe, because the early explorers knew their life was in the balance of the rifle working or on,,didnt go for days on end without cleaning their weapons,,We hunt/shoot with our rifles/weapons they survived/lived or not with theirs.
When I first read it ,I though of the number of times I read where Mustard was use to etch/color metal and that has vinegar and mustard seed in it,didnt read like a good idea.
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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The best cleaning solution ,IMHO, is still water and dishwashing detergent used before the fouling has a chance to set up. But, IMHO, the best way to clean up Pyrodex is to start using the REAL BLACK.
 
Posts: 68 | Location: Central Ohio | Registered: 31 August 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Papa,the only problem with that approach is that I'm having extreme difficulty finding anyone that will sell me Goex,or any of the varieties of Holy Black in less than case lots,plus giving them all my personal info.Now I'm not a criminal,but I just don't believe everyone and their sister has a right to know more about me than I do.So,I use pyrodex(if it will even work in my spark factory),or punt...


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Real Black Powder you have a better chance at finding a Politician that tells the truth..
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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My point exactly.


Beer is proof that God loves us,and wants us to be happy-B. Franklin
 
Posts: 2014 | Location: Oreegun Territory | Registered: 24 March 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Let me tell a little story. For many years I've been using vinegar to clean black powder cartridges (brass) and it does a very good job. Then one time I was having a terrible time getting some black powder fouling out of one of my muzzleloaders. I worked and worked, used soap and hot water and then used Hoppes #9 black powder solvent. The bore still wasn't coming clean so I decided to use vinegar. It works for brass cartridges so it ought to work, maybe?

What a mistake that was. My two hours just got extended because the cleaning rag now didn't come out with portions of it black, it came out totally rust brown. I ended up putting in several more hours on that bore ending with JB Bore cleaning compound. That was several hours of work I really didn't want to do but once that vinegar hit that bore, I was doomed.

Don't use vinegar in your muzzleloader's bore.

Load fast and aim slow.
 
Posts: 1726 | Location: Pacific Northwest | Registered: 08 March 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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If someone use Vinegar,, could it be nutralized with Bakeing Soda,,High SAchool chemistry question??
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
Picture of Leonard
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Sure - but by the time you did that either the acid damage would be already have happened or else not enough time for the acid to supposedly help in the cleaning.

Plus sodium acetate (the salt formed), like all salts, increases rust formation. So does the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda).

Best to forget the acetic acid (vinegar) altogether, IMHO.
 
Posts: 46 | Location: Iowa | Registered: 28 November 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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OK well the person mixing Windex with Vinegar needs some High School chemistry... for Windex contains Ammonium Hydroxide, a base, and adding vinegar (acetic acid) then neutralizes the hydroxide and the vinegar, and as Walking Crow pointed out, it then forms a salt.

NOW Windex sells "Windex: Multisurface Vinegar" cleaner, which is NOT Windex plus vinegar, it's a form of ammonia free cleaner that uses vinegar, sold for the folks that don't like ammonia, so perhaps that's what was being used?

Windex has long been known to be a quick solvent for black powder, especially for those shooting lots of blanks at a battle reenactment, and as it has water and ammonia in it, counteracts some of the acidic properties of the BP or Pyrodex residue, BUT... a good water rinse plus a rust reventative is needed after using it.

I always just used water and some soap.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Windshield washer fluid.
 
Posts: 332 | Location: South Coast (MS) | Registered: 16 September 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Pilgrim
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Murphy's Oil Soap and HOT water.


"Any day you wake up on the right side of the dirt is a good day"
 
Posts: 428 | Location: Northwestern California | Registered: 05 May 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
Picture of Hanshi
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Since I fired my first shot with black powder some 50 years ago I have yet to find anything that cleans bp guns better than plain water or water with a bit of soap. I have little experience with Pyrodex but it cleaned up easily with water on the few occasions I used it.


*Young guys should hang out with old guys; old guys know stuff.*
 
Posts: 3559 | Location: Maine (by way of Georgia then Va.) | Registered: 26 January 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I was talking with an old gunsmith,he lays claim to being 80 years old,,, several years ago, ha ha ha His take is like most posting here,hot water and soap,,figures that the pilgrims didnt have Windex,Murphys soap,peroxide,but they has water and in some cases soap,they made..so Soap amd hot water wins hands down,,,
 
Posts: 1839 | Registered: 11 February 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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Boartooth get some shooting buddies together to go in on a case of black from Main Powder House. They will mix a case of 2F and 3F if you want and some 4F thrown in.
 
Posts: 552 | Location: SC | Registered: 03 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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