Every muzzleloader season one thing is necessary, the job of cleaning your muzzleloader.  First and foremost, make sure your muzzleloader is not loaded before starting this process.  For as long as muzzleloaders have been used, there have been just as many ways to clean a muzzleloader.  Today, most hunters are using an inline muzzleloader, and this is what I am covering throughout this blog.  After firing my muzzleloader, I remove my breech plug and place it in hot, soapy water.  After letting the breech plug soak for a few minutes, I take a toothbrush and clean the breech plug thoroughly.  Once I have cleaned the breech plug, I blow the breech plug out, as one would with a whistle, then set it out to dry.

            Here’s where things get interesting.  Everyone has their own special technique for how they clean their muzzleloader.  Some people use hot, soapy water.  Some people use cleaning patches, etc.  The only object is to get your muzzleloader clean so that it will shoot tight groups.  Here is how I feel like I can get my muzzleloader clean.  I will break down my muzzleloader, and run a .12 gauge brush through it multiple times.  If you will watch the muzzle of the gun, you can see fouling exit the barrel.  After getting most of the fouling out of my barrel with my brush, I will take a cotton patch, and use a bore cleaning product to dampen the cotton patch.  Then I will run this cotton patch/bore cleaner through my barrel until my patch is covered with fouling.  I will repeat this process until I can run a patch through my barrel, and it comes out clean.  I will try to get the cotton patches as tight as possible when running the ramrod through the barrel.  After this, I run a .20 gauge brush through my barrel multiple times to remove excess fouling; then, I will run bore cleaner through my barrel with a cotton patch.  I will do this with cotton patch/bore cleaner time after time until my patch comes out clean.  I will then repeat this entire process over and over using the .20 gauge brush and bore cleaner until I can do this and the first cotton batch/bore cleaner will come out clean after running the ramrod through the barrel multiple times.  During this process, I will continually look through my barrel to check for fouling.

            After getting my barrel clean, I will run dry cotton patches without bore cleaner through my barrel until the barrel is dry.  Then I will run a cotton patch with a small amount of bore butter to coat the inside of my barrel.  Now, I will consider my barrel clean.  Next, I will clean my breech plug out with a pipe cleaner.  Once my breech plug is clean, I will add a small amount of anti-seize lubricant to the end of the threads on my breech plug, and screw the breech plug back into my barrel.  After that I will fire a .209 primer, without the gun being loaded, to clear out any moisture in the breech plug.  Lastly, I will oil the outside of my gun barrel to eliminate rust.  Now I am ready to load my muzzleloader to be ready to shoot.

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