Cleaned up a FILTHY gun tonight...

[Rem308]

I've been talking hunting with a good friend of mine lately and he decided to bring his new Muzzle loader by to show me. So this evening he gets there and shows me how his is the break open style w/ the speed breech. As he's showing me, I noticed that the threading for the breech was pretty dirty, but didn't think too much of it. When he removed it and then looked down the barrel he got a sick look on his face. He had hunted in the late ML season and must have never cleaned it...and it was FILTHY.

I could tell he was getting pretty sick over his 1.5 year old ML in this shape, so I quickly went to work on it. After about 30 minutes it had gotten a LOT better, but still had what looked like rust and pitting in the rifling.

I moved from the bore cleaner to some good chemicals to clean it, and he agreed to do whatever was necessary, he was willing to chance the bluing and even the camo stalk.

After taking about a 30 minute break to let it set on the metal, and to my surprise, it cleaned up really well and didn't have any negative effects on the bluing or camo. After getting it cleaning and looking new again, we 'bore-buttered' it up, added anti-seize and oiled up the exterior.

Close call, one that would have me sick. Just wanted to remind everyone to double-check their guns!

[bluelund79]

Great reminder to always clean your gun after season whether you fired it or not! Good friend to help him out...I clean mine at least every other month whether they get shot or not, just want them to be primed for when my sons get them from me.

[hunterbobb]

Good advice, You can not ignore those muzzel loaders. They get real nasty real fast.