BP cleaning tip

Sounds like a great tip to me and it’s gotta be easier on the wallet using the NAPA product vs the Balistal. I’ve never done a bunch of ML but I have gone a few days each year when the season opens. To me for some reason I seem to enjoy hunting with my Bear recurve much much more. Interestingly I’ve had the Hawken 50 cal ML and my Bear “Grizzly” recurve since I was 14 or 15 years old. I bought them both with grass cutting and leaf raking money I earned back then and ordered them both from a Gander mountain catalog, the ML came as a kit you had to pretty much build yourself! As far as a lube and a cleaner an older guy I hunted with when I first went into the army used about the same type of mix but he used Army CLP and water. I’m sure CLP might be a littler harder to find but the commercial break free is pretty close although I bet the NAPA. Product is still a better deal!!

I’m not positive if it will actually separate or not my friend, I usually keep in in the black plastic bottle that you can’t see thru but I always shake it up before I use it and it comes out white. I do know the huge containers we had in the Army does seem to separate to form a more solid portion of “white” material on the bottom and the “oil” looking portion on the top. It is pretty expensive compared to the NAPA product you described so it sounds this will be a better and cheaper bet!👍😁

I’m really not sure about the actual break free branded stuff as I’m almost positive it’s still being used as the primary lube/cleaner still today. The largest containers I ever saw used were like a one gallon vinegar jug. There are a couple of Army surplus stores around here and one that’s only a mile or so down the road and I’ll make a point to stop by there when I’m out to see if it can be had on the surplus market. I’m betting probably not but he may be able to get an older variation of it like the CLP we used a long time ago when I first went in. It was all in OD green plastic bottles and was Vietnam era stuff I’m pretty sure, if I remember correctly the CLP stood for cleaner, lubricant, and protectant. I always thought it was the best stuff out there for blued guns anyway, a little thicker than say Rem oil or such but not quite as thick as motor oil. A funny story, I was out with my son and some of his friends shooting clay pigeons and one of his friends shotguns literally was almost orange it had so much rust on it. I cleaned it the best I could in the field and told him he needed to put a little oil on the bolt carrier (it was a REM 870) and a little on the threads of the forend cap. He said “I don’t have any oil” I popped the hood on my truck, pulled out the dip stick and put oil on his gun, those boys looked at me like I was Eisenstein or something!🤣 the KISS method prevailed again that day!

Hello Gary, I was just curious as to how you were able to obtain both an original Remington 1858 revolver and a Colt 58 cal? I just didn’t know if they were perhaps handed down in your family or you had great luck back in the 60s finding great old guns like I wish you could find today without having to almost mortgage your home for the prices some people ask for them today! I know hindsight is 20/20 but I’m just amazed at what some guns I only paid a couple of hundred dollars for some 20 or 30 years are selling for today! The last brand new S&W revolver I bought was actually in AK, it’s a S&W model 66 4” and paid $200 for it brand new in the box and now on GB I see them sell in the same condition for $1,000 or more sometimes! Just seems unreal to me I suppose. I also was wondering if you use the bore butter on the outside blueing to prevent rust from fingerprints and such. Thank you!

i'm going to give napa "cutting oil" a try when i'm done with ballistol. in my area, the napa store is a block over from the supermarket. i use 16oz non aerosol can of ballistol. its around 11-12 bucks for it, i think. its been two or so years ago when i bought it. 

there used to guy who made faulkenberry juice for muzzleloaders. i don't what it is, but its pink juice like substance. we could use it as pink moose milk, cleaner, patch lube and whatever else you need. 


for end of the day ml cleaning, i use blue concentrate. 4-7 patches(1 swipe), then it comes out clean. then i put on a patch moose milk or bore butter or whatever seasons your bore.

 rmcoxyoke.com/product/16oz-wonder-1000-plus-blue-concentrate-bore-cleaner/




gary,
i use ballistol for everything and that includes my flintlock. i've used 3in1 oil and rem-oil in my flintlock barrel. just use it lightly.

ok. i still got two 16oz of ballistol. i bought 200 rb pillow ticking patches with lube. i wanted without lube, but.....oh well. i was going to mix up some more moose milk for patches.

i have a bottle(somewhere) of tc number 13, i think its white in color, is no.13 something like moose milk?

Hello grasshopper. First, I was working at a local truckstop on Rt. 224 between Akron & Youngstown, Ohio back in 1963, when a brother of a co worker, asked me if I had any idea what a Civil War Remington C&B pistol might be worth. Being that I had paid $100 for a turned brown Colt 1860 Army .44, I asked about condition, & he told me it still had some bluing, strong rifling, but also pitting inside the barrel. I told him that $100, +/- seemed about right. I asked who & where it was. His reply to me was that he wouldn't tell me as I would probably go buy it. A few days later, he showed up at work with it. He wouldn't tell me what he paid for it, but did tell me who he bought it from, an old railroad policeman from our local farming community, who hunted pheasants & rabbits with a .22 rifle. I told Earl that whenever he decided to sell the Remington, I wanted first dibs on buying it. He said he would never sell it. Now, he worked in a machine shop, was married with 3 small children, & trying to start a machine shop in his garage, & collected Lugers & Rugers.  About 2 weeks later, while I was mowing our yard, Earl drove in the driveway. I went over, & after small talk, he asked me if I still wanted to buy the Remington. I asked how much, & he told me that I had told him it was probably worth $100, so that was the price. I bought it. I was in a local Civil War Reenactment cavalry group, so carried it to Morgan's Surrender, near Lisbon , Kennesaw, GA, Opequon Creek, (Winchester) VA, & 1 or 2 others. I ran 3 would be robbers out of the fuel station at a Pure Oil truckstop that I was cashier at. I notices suspicious activity, so, got the pistol , which had 4 loaded chambers, put caps on, stuck it in my waist, zipped up my jacket, & when the leader approached me, I pulled it out quickly. They very nearly ran thru the glass doors getting out of there. In Aug. 2020, I donated the pistol to the State of West Virginia's History & Culture Dep't museum in Charleston, WV, along with my Great Grandfather's Remington .36 Navy, that had been sent back to Remington in about 1867, to be converted to .38 rimfire, 1 of approximately 20,000 sent back. Before the contract was completed, Colt came out with the .38 Colt Center Fire cartridge. Government amended the contract to have 1,000 of these .36 Navies to the new Colt CF cartridge for testing. My Great Great Grandfather's pistol was number 377 of that thousand. My dad found it at his cousin's in Ripley, WV in 1968, & I paid $200 for it. I have refused $3,500 for it because it is a family heirloom that will never be on a dealer's table. It is now in the museum for all to see. In 1966, I drove to Gettysburg, PA with an old BP Colt S.A.A. .38 W.C.F. (.38-40) 5 1/2" barrel, with stag grips, & traded it for the Colt 1864 "Special" .58 Musket. The seller was asking $130 for it, so I traded the S.A.A. & $20 for it. I don't remember what I had paid for the old pistol, but many times, I have regretted trading it off, but then, I was taking home less than $100 per week, & buying a new Ford Galaxy car. In 2016, I donated the musket to The American Legion War Vet Museum at Canfield, Ohio, where is on permanent display along with a triangle bayonet.  At one time, I owned over 50 firearms, mostly old BP era guns. 6 Civil War Carbines, 3 muskets, 2 .45-70 Trapdoors, a .43 Spanish Rem. Rolling Block, An 1871 New York Militia .50-70 Rolling Block, which I still own,  Manhattan, Colt & Remington pistols, Winchester .44-40, Model 1873 Military Musket with bayonet, 2 Remington Model 1903-A3 .30-06's new Cosmoline preserved ($35 each) 2 W.W. 2 M-1 Garands, $135, & $170 each, 1 U.S. Postal Meter with Marlin barrel, .30 carbine, which I still have with MANY loaded clips. I paid $68.00 for it in 1969, later bought another carbine to get the older leather grip bayonet, & sold the gun for what i pad for it. I now have 4 T/C Hawken .50 muzzleloaders, an extra .45 barrel that I can switch out to & my old Numerich Arms Hopkins & Allen Minuteman caplock .45 round ball long rifle. As you can tell, I don't have much likes for the newer guns. Back in June, after shooting at Forsyth, I drove about 400 miles across Montana to meet & visit with a very knowledgeable fellow that casts lead bullets. You might know him. I was told to bring  something that we could go gopher hunting with, so if I remember correctly, I had around a dozen rifles & pistols with me that day. As it turned out, it rained, so I got a guided tour of the bullet making process. I had a very enjoyable conversation with our friend that day. Believe me, I have the utmost respect & admiration for he & his family for how they live.

I feel like the cowardly lion on the wizard of Oz when he said "" gosh I'm speechless "" I do recall reading this somewhere, "" no greater love has any man for another than to lay down his life for a friend "" Kind of like a get out of jail free card you present at the pearly gates.

Grasshopper, & anyone else that might be reading this, I , luckily-maybe- stayed single until I was almost 31, Had my own semi truck, hauling steel here in the Ill, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, & all over the East coast. I always bought good used trucks, Macks preferably, & worked on them myself, so I usually had a little extra money for an old gun. We got married in Oct. 1973, & I got 2 beautiful daughters in the deal, whose dad quit his good job, so he didn't have money for child support. A year later, our son was born. Then in April, 1975, the company that I was leased on with cancelled all of the broker's leases, & I couldn't find a good company to sign on with, so I went to work in a stone quarry, driving a quarry truck 12 hours a night. I sold my flatbed trailer, to pay off the bank for the loan on my truck.  Then, when the quarry job ended, it took 6 weeks for the first unemployment check to come, so I started selling my guns. We never missed a meal, but some good firearms found new owners. I have no regrets, because family comes first. When I see the prices that the older ones bring, it makes me remember what I had. We have a friend that now owns one of my favorites from when I bought it in 1968, but hadn't shot it in probably 10 or more years. When I visited with him in 2018 I showed it to him, so last year, he got it.  When I was earning $1.00 per hour fueling trucks, 12 hours a night, 6 days a week, if a driver was short on money, & had a pistol to sell for $20 or $30, & I had extra in my pocket, I would buy them.  An Erfurt German Luger-$35., 1917 Colt, U. S..45 revolver that would shoot .45 ACP by using half moon clips, $20.  Later after I started driving, I bought an Artillery Model 9 mm German Luger that had the longer barrel, but no shoulder stock, for $135. Kept it a while, then traded it for something else that struck my fancy.  9 mm P-38's were $30 or $40 back then & I had 3 or 4 of them. Another one I should have kept was a Stevens 1 1/2 .22 target rifle with 2 stocks, 1 of which was a beautiful Burl Walnut that I bought for my youngest sister for rifle club in high school in about 1969 or '70 for $125.  After I got married, I sold it at a gun show for what I paid for it. Out of all of them, close to 250 altogether, my favorite to shoot, is the U.S. Postal Meter .30 Carbine, that I bought for less than $70.00 at the local gun shop, with 1 30 rd. clip, 3 15 rd. clips, some loose ammo & a few empty shells. I still have it today, now with 2 30 rd. clips & almost 2 15 rd. loaded clips.  In 1970, I shot a groundhog dead center between the eyes from a rest, using my reloads, using 110 gr. Speer JSN bullets at about 50 fps faster than standard military loading. I paced off the distance at 197 paces. The standard 3 step rear peep sight was on the middle position, with the groundhog on the top of the front sight. It never knew what hit him, as his eyes were still wide open & he never moved. My dad witnessed the shot, & said he was glad the army wouldn't take me (I had a kidney removed in 1962), as they would have put me in the front lines.   Enough rambling for now, but I have had a lot of fun playing with my toys over the years. I deer hunt here in Ohio with my 1884 U.S. Springfield Trapdoor .45-70, & my Thompson Center .50 Hawken muzzleloaders.

Rob, My latest "finds" were in March & May this year. In March, while surfing gun sales sites on the internet, I located a Uberti 1851 Colt Navy .36, London Model like new in the original box with papers from 2010, that looks new, unfired, & has an extra cylinder, for $400, free shipping. One cylinder has new SS replacement Tesco nipples that sell for around $30. I have only ever had .44's, & always wanted a '51 in .36 cal. I haven't shot it yet, but will be doing so before long. If you remember your gunfighter history, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok shot & killed Davis Tutt from across the courthouse square in Springfield, Missouri with 1 shot to the heart, at a little under 100 yds. with one of his .36 Navies. Tutt shot first & missed. Hickok took his time, standing sideways, resting his gun hand on the other forearm, & made a perfect shot. As he was falling, Tutt exclaimed "I'm killed" or very close to that.  Those 1851 Colts were very popular for years.  My second score, was a rifle that I bought from my brother in law. It is a Thompson Center Hawken "Cougar", .50 cal. muzzleloader, that I think has only been shot 6 times, with patched round ball. The "Cougar" models all have very fancy wood for stocks, & the hardware is Pewter color, except the barrel. These were only offered for maybe 2 or 3 years back in the 1980's, & are now collectible. I will not shoot it, as I have 3 other .50 cal. T/C Hawkens. He was going to give it to me, but I refused to do that, so he said $300, & if I sell it for a profit, I get my $300 back, then we are to split the rest. But as he & his wife are in a senior care facility, I will only take my $300, & give them the rest of it. I have seen them sold for as much as $1,500, but haven't listed this one yet. Also, it is a low serial number. A few years ago, I traded an old Riverside Arms (Montgomery Ward) 16 ga. double barreled hammer shotgun, that I paid $30 for back in the mid '60's, & a Marlin Glenfield .22 bolt action, clip fed rifle that I bought for $50 back in 1984, for a Uberti replica of the 1847 Colt Walker .44 that he wanted $300 or best offer for. I also got a holster, a box od 100 Hornady round balls, a box of percussion caps & a brass powder flask in the deal, even up. I have shot this 4 lb,, 9 oz. (empty) revolver, using 60 gr. of 2F BP. It is one wicked flamethrower, but doesn't have much recoil, because it's so heavy. If you ever get the chance to shoot one, you'll enjoy the experience.