Black powder pistols, how do you clean yours?

[airgunnut]

I was always told that maintanance sprays (like WD 40) are for water displacement (the WD in WD 40 stands for water displacement) and have no real lubricating property's.
As said that is what was drilled into me when I was on the spanners. (grease monkey for 10 years servicing buses, the amount of times the management and stores thought the maintainance sprays were the same as spray grease was unreal)
A few weeks ago a chap at my gun club came in with a BP pistol, to his horror the pistol had rusted solid, other BP shooters spent 20 mins knocking out the cylinder ram/spindle, I commented that the pistol had never seen any oil, the owner said "I cleaned it like normal in hot soapy water, rinse in boiling water, leave it on some cloth to dry out as it cools, wipe it down to make sure its dry, then give it a good spray with WD"
It was the discussion about real oil v sprays that convinced him that a cheap gun oil is better than any spray, when I told him about the Napier oil (with vapour release that attaches to any metal surface and prevents rusting) as soon as he finished with his other BP pistol he went to the local gun shop to buy some.

[tim56]

By Maintenance spray i refer not to WD40 but to those containing silicon or such as 4 in 1 spray. Works for me.

[airgunnut]

By Maintenance spray i refer not to WD40 but to those containing silicon or such as 4 in 1 spray. Works for me.

Silicon is not ment for metal to metal lubrication, in fact silicon on metal to metal aids in friction welding, there have been lots of air guns (brake barrels) that have had silicon used as a lubricant and the jaws/barrel have seized solid

[tim56]

Been in machine and building maintenance for 45 years and used it since it came out. Never had a problem. Maybe I'm just lucky but it works for me.
Iv had my Rogers n spencer 15 years its still in perfect working order, used it this morning and it shoots as good as the day i got it. Both my Ruger old
armies also.
Now silicon on a break barrel as a lube, no it would probably gum things up but as a post wash spray i have no concerns about using it.

[lilguy43uk]

Seaclean does an excellent job for stainless parts that will fit in an ultrasonic cleaner, but DO NOT use it on blued parts. It will strip the blue off.

[CLINT3]

I put my cylinder(s) in the dishwasher. Just make sure I soak them in wd/Gt 85 as soon as the cycle is finished to get rid of the salt or they don't 'arf rust quick.

[DesG]

I tend to agree with airgunnut, those surfers do smell a bit don't they!