Home

Bullberry Barrel Works
2430 West 350 North
Hurricane, Utah 84737
(435) 635-9866
8am - 12pm
1pm - 5pm Mtn. time
Fax: (435) 635-0348

Recommended cleaning instructions for Black Powder barrels

Black Powder is so caustic and damaging to your barrel and frame that you need to take special care in the overall cleaning process. It may seem like a no-brainer, but don’t wait to get home after your hunt or shooting session to at least lightly clean your barrel. For starters, we always push patches wetted with Eezox between each BP firings. A simple step would be to carry a small plastic zip-bag of cotton patches that have been pre-wetted (but not dripping) with Eezox or any similar cleaning product that does NOT contain ammonia. This step will save you time and energy down the road, not to mention keep your barrel in its best condition over the long haul.

Once back at home or camp a deeper clean is recommended. Still rather simple, this hot water technique will work best for removing any remaining powder residue and insure that your barrel doesn’t fall victim to non-repairable fouling.

Recommended steps for deep cleaning:

Boil a pot (an old coffee can works well too) of water with soap (dish detergent does the trick) to have mildly soapy hot water
     
Wrap your barrel in a towel or old t-shirt, or wear gloves as the barrel will get hot!
     
With the breech plug removed, dip the chamber of the barrel in the hot soapy water. Using a ramrod with a jag and clean dry patch will act as a plunger and can be run up and down in a piston fashion to “scrub” free any of the residual powder/build-up. Having the chamber dipped in the water will make certain that the threads and area with the most residue get cleaned thoroughly.
     
New patches may be needed once or twice, but if you’ve taken precautions early on, this “heavy” cleaning will require much less work.

When the water is very hot the barrel will dry itself pretty quickly, but we always recommend you shake it hard a few times and finish this process with a heavily Eezox’ed patch and some Eezox on and around the locking bolts and extractor (if you did not remove them earlier).

       ** NOTE: While we recommend cleaning these barrels from muzzle to chamber we realize some shooters use a scope that cannot be easily removed. If you find yourself in this situation it is certainly possible to clean your barrel with the muzzle dipped into the water, though you need to make an extra effort to clean the threaded section.

Extra tips for deeper cleaning:

Your removed breech plug can be roughly wiped down and set in the bottom of the pot of water to boil throughout the barrel cleaning process. This can make a huge difference in future performance and ease of assembly. You should always reapply anti-seize grease on the threads when installing. This assists in reducing powder blow-back, but is also extremely helpful in easy removal after your next shooting session.

With a patch or two that are still hot and soapy from the barrel cleaning, you can also wipe down the interior of your frame to remove a lot of loose black powder build-up. The 209 primers will powder-cut your frame’s firing pin bushing over extended use if not properly cleaned. This is easily avoided if you use the wet & soapy patches followed by another patch wetted with Eezox.

General Note on Bullberry Black Powder barrels:

Our Black Powder barrels, no matter .45 or .50 caliber, are made to use Black Powder or approved Black Powder substitutes ONLY. Standard BP and substitutes like Hornady's Pyrodex products are the only propellant powders found safe in our barrels. The use of any smokeless powder could result in a detonation or explosion that could cause injury and/or death to the shooter or bystanders and damage to property. The use of smokeless powder will damage your barrel's bore and void our accuracy guarantee.

Please let us know if you have any questions, and enjoy your black powder firearm!

To download these instructions as a .pdf file click the link below.

Black Powder Cleaning

Need the most recent version of Adobe Reader?
Download the latest Reader here; the easiest way to view and print online media.