switching from smokeless to bp and bp subs

B

BPcolt45

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I have rolled my own pyrodex bullets used round ball sized 454 in my 45 colt couldnt get more than 12 rounds through it b4 i was all bound up. now after reading many forums and info on this forum as well. i see my problem has been i've been using petrol clp. now i want to make sure my gun is running right with bp. in my opinion nothing is more fun than running bp. so i was thinking maybe switching to ballistol (or any other options) for a natural lube. for bullets im switching to black dawges. I dont have the option to cast my own at this point in time. so now to get to my question. What do I have to do to prep my pistol to go from running smokeless powder using petrol clp to bp using natural lube. i was thinking maybe cleaning up with viniger and throwing some ballistol in imediatly not sure if thats a valid option at this point. so any input would be greatly appreciated.

just a fyi. this is through a cimarron 1873 saa clone. thank you.

an after thought. after i shot the bp bullets i cleaned it up with soap and hot water and threw some more clp and have been shooting smokeless through it lately. havent gone back to bp in this gun til i get the prep right. once set up for bp (and/or subs) will stay with bp for ever wont be going back to smokeless. sorry for my long post and i hope u all can help me thank you.
 
Ah, another convert coaxed away from the evil stuff that doesn't smoke. Welcome, cowboy.

Just clean it up as you would any revolver that uses smokeless powder - Hoppe's No. 9, CLP, whatever. Then thoroughly clean the inside of the bore and chambers with alcohol to remove any traces of the smokeless powder solvent; follow with dry patches until you're sure it's dry. Then coat the bore and chambers with a good mineral oil based rust preventative such as Ballistol or Barricade. That's it.

And stay away from that nasty smokeless stuff. It's not good for you.;)
 
That didn't work for me.
After thoroughly cleaning it with the regular stuff, (or so I thought), the next time I went to use it, the danged thing was a rusted up mess.
So, now I do it the old fashioned way.
Take it all apart and clean it with soap and real hot water, with a thin coating of oil, right away.
 
I think that most of us use g.willikers' method. It's simple and it works.

I used to use really, really hot water, but I found that the only advantage that gives is that it may promote evaporation of whatever bit of water is left because the metal gets hot. I just make sure that I dry everything off well and lightly oil the metal.
 
In my experience, Balistol for lube, Balsitol as a cleaner, and Balistol as a rust preventer. I also use Birchwood -Casey BP solvent or just plain water to clean depending on what the temp and humitity was when shooting. High Temp/Low Humidity usually takes the BP solvent to clean the crud on my C&Bs in short order. Low Temp/High Humidity, plain water and Balistol are all that's required.

Of course, I'm using the real thing, not that P stuff
 
Hardcase and g.willikers - I think you misunderstood.

First job is to get the smokeless powder fouling out. Nothing better than Hoppe's No. 9 for that.

Next you have to remove the residue from the Hoppe's - many ways to do that but alcohol is fast and effective.

Then dry it and apply rust preventative.

Once it's cleaned of smokeless residue and you're shooting bp only, good old water is the cleaner I use also.
 
I have cleaned with Windex +Vinegar and now M-Pro 7 diluted with water.
I apply Ballistol for mechanical lubrication and rust protection.
When casting my own, I used SPG bullet lube, now whatever Montana Bullet Works delivers, I think DGL.

I belive the bullet lube is more important than the lube oil.
I have seen shooters cleaning and lubing their guns with a wide range of products but they are all careful to use a black powder compatible bullet lube.
The hard wax on a hardcast smokeless bullet is worse than useless.

Caveat: I shoot BPCR with a single shot, I don't use black in repeaters and I don't use fakes.
 
Jim Watson said:
Caveat: I shoot BPCR with a single shot, I don't use black in repeaters and I don't use fakes.
Click to expand...
Interesting use of the word fake.
I don't know of any fake Pyrodex, 777 or American Pioneer Powder.
The word fake may often be applied in a derogatory way but actually there aren't any fake powders, only the real McCoy's.
Being substitute powders doesn't mean that they're fakes.
At least not as long they're sold in a container that's properly labeled.
They are what they are. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_real_McCoy
 
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I call them fakes because they are loophole niche products that can be shipped like smokeless and used in muzzleloaders. They certainly have a place in the market... but not in my house. I shoot NRA BPCR where such imitations are not allowed, except for Pyrodex, which was grandfathered in before black powder got reasonably available again. I don't know anybody shooting Pyrodex in any of the matches I attend. It just won't do the work of the real thing. There was one guy who wrote of good results with it, but that was years ago before black powder loading techniques were rediscovered.
 
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