BP in Marlin

[OR562]

My 1895/45-70 is my only cartridge centerfie rifle. (I'm 99.99% MLer.) I've been invited to use it a BPCR shoot. What kind of miserable mess can I look forward to trying to clean it ?? - Thanks, Bill/Oregon

[TSK]

Bill,
You'll be pleasantly surprised to find that little or no crud will find it's way into the action and if you use the proper lube, the bore will clean easily. It's just not the mess so many folks think it is. When I clean the bores on my lever guns after using black powder, I place them belly up in the rack on my shooting box and slowly push the patch through and it'll drop out the ejector slot. I have taken the actions apart after shooting black and there just isn't any gunk in there, so I just wipe down what I can reach with an old tooth brush and a patch, oil her up and it's ready for the next outing. Have fun at the match.
TSK

[OR562]

TSK - Thanks for the info. !! - I think I'll try it. - Bill

[spike]

Spike: SPG & Sagebrush Allox are two of the best lubes I have used...They work great in my 45-70 ctg. guns. I do however, use a blow tube between shots. The fowling stays very soft, and that is what you want. If you shove a dry patch through the bore and feel much resistance, the fowling is hard&dry and you may experience leading which will destroy accuracy. Most people I know That shoot black powder in lever guns dont use the blow tube, though. I think its all about the proper lube. Good luck! ;D

[TeleocerasNY]

OR562:

I agree that SPG lube with cast bullets is the best.

Even though my Trapdoor is a single shot, there is not much crud that ends up in the breech.

Is your Marlin the version with the ballard style rifling?

Slowmatch Forever (Trapdoors too)!
Teleoceras

[flinter]

First thing: ABSOLUTELY NO AIR SPACE IN THE CARTRIDGE! BULLET MUST BE SEATED ON THE POWDER COLUMN !!!

If you completely disassemble the actions, completely de-grease all the parts then apply two-three coats of Jet Lube Moly Mist to them, you create an excellent corrosion barrier. For additional wet lube, I found the Lubriplate Chain & Cable spray to work the best, good penetration and maintained coating properties, does not dry out and gum up and it maintains a relatively constant viscosity through temps from 150°F down to 0°F before it even starts getting thick. Using these two products in combination have proven highly effective on preventing any corrosion in my actions, matter of fact, I did manage to get a lot of fouling into one action thanks to a ruptured primer (friend was shooting it and didn't tell me about this incident for several weeks) fouling was there when I stripped the action down but not a hint of any corrosion.

I shoot BP in many of my guns with all kinds of actions, I did do all the actions as above prior to using BP but in reality, unless something goes wrong as with the primer, you don't get fouling in the actions.

Cast bullets are best, .001"-.003" over size depending on what your rifle likes and alloy will also be dictated by the rifle. Have a few that will shoot WW great and others that want 25:1, one that will shoot about anything you feed it. The bigger the grease grooves the better but since I started using my own lube blend, I have gotten many standard groove cast bullets to shoot equally well. Grease cookie under the bullet sandwiched between a couple veggie wads will cure a lot fouling issues as long as the lube is up to it.

Don't let anyone tell you cast bullets and especially cast bullets driven with BP won't work in a micro-groove barrel! All you need is the right combination just like with any other barrel and super hard cast alloys are not necessary either...put aside the common mythes brought about by those who either never tried it or didn't spend enough time developing the right combination.