Correct load for 44 cal. Revolver

Into the oven it goes... 5 minutes later it's warm, dry and oiled.
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How does it get oiled in the oven?
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Would you believe... [then] oiled ? :p

That said, I've never had rust occur from oven drying. Things dry too fast, with too little water involved.
I have had minor [flash] rusting occur after throwing a disassembled Ruger Old Army in the dishwasher.
Thereafter I made sure not to let it hit the "drying" cycle -- which effectively was a prolonged steambath.




BTW: I used to make SCA chainmail back in the early 70's (OUTLANDS SCA). There I could see rusting
as wet chainmail is effectively a metal "sponge" with thousands of cells where water lurks and from which
then percolates up over a prolonged period as steam.
 
Jbar, it was my very first cleaning and I didn't want to do a half-assed job. At least the hot soapy water job was faster. Now I have some Ballistol so I will do the next cleaning with that.
I used Loctite anti seize on the nipple threads.
The reason I'm so anal about cleaning (all my firearms not just BP) is because I may not shoot that gun again for 6 months or a year or two.

In regards to drying, I was wondering what if after a soapy water cleaning and drying with compressed air, that I spray the whole gun with Ballistol or other protectant and then use compressed air again to remove most of it and just leave a light coating all over and even in all the nooks and crannies. Any thoughts on that??

Both my 44 cal revolvers are brass just FYI, so I'm thinking on using 22~25 gr. Do I need to add "filler" if I do that? I've read about not having space between powder and ball. How do you know if the ball is seated on the powder?

Sorry for all the questions, but I hope someday I'll be as fluent in BP as all you guys. Thanks again.
 
I'd still recommend using/cleaning all over/inside and out with hot soapy water,
dry, then rub down (inside/out/on nipple/threads) with a patch of CLP BreakFree.

(Don't use LockTite on anything) :eek:

Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- cleans better than hot soapy water.
Not Ballistol, not Moosemilk, not commercial "BP solvent" ....nothing.

And nothing will protect better afterwards than CLP/BreakFree-type products which
are specifically designed to do that job.

[If paranoid (;)), wipe down again with BreakFree two days later and fugedaboutit.] :D
 
In regards to drying, I was wondering what if after a soapy water cleaning and drying with compressed air, that I spray the whole gun with Ballistol or other protectant and then use compressed air again to remove most of it and just leave a light coating all over and even in all the nooks and crannies. Any thoughts on that??
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Normally I just rub the gun down with a rag to soak up the extra Ballistol. I would not want to blast Ballistol droplets all over the place.

Steve
 
mehavey

What's wrong with anti-seize? Would seem that's what it's designed for. Aluminum particles I think, in a compound designed to resist heat. Very similar to sparkplug threads.
 
mehavey, it's not Locktite thread locker, it's Locktite BRAND anti seize.
I use it on all my spark plugs.
 
Antisieze is fine. (Pavlov's OldDog reaction to the word "Locktite ;))

That said, I also used used a (silver-colored) antisieze compound on rifle nipples for a while,
but then found that (a) it left a silvery grease trail when cleaning that solvents wouldn't "solv",
and (b) a dedicated drop of BreakFree on the thread did just as well. Antiseize became one-less-thing
in the gun box at that point.
 
From what I've often read concerning brass framed pistols is to keep the powder charge to 20 grns if you want a long life. I'm not sure how 2-5 grns extra would effect it, but if you do I'd suggest keeping an eye on the recoil shield.

You could also use 2F instead of 3F to reduce the pressure a bit. I'd think 25 grns might be fine then.
 
How does it get oiled in the oven?
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I use a water displacing lube like WD-40 applied while the part is still wet. This stuff has properties that make it creep under the water to wet the metal and lift the water off the metal. It's as if the metal wants to be wet by WD-40 more then it wants to be wet by water and so it crawls under the water to wet the metal creating an advancing WD-40 wedge that lifts the water off the metal.
Naturally, after the water is dried, you might want to apply some oil that's more permanent than WD-40, it's not for long term protection.

I think that's also why it's hard to beat WD-40 for getting plastic fouling out of modern shotgun barrels. It's affinity to wet metal makes it crawl in between the barrel and the plastic making the plastic release.
 
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