Tips to cleaning muzzleloaders(L1)

Muzzle loading season is a favorite for many late season deer hunter. However having a muzzle loader is a lot of work and maintenance. The most important thing to do is to clean your muzzle loader after every shooting session. The method of soaking your muzzle loader in hot soapy water is not effective at all. The original frontiersmen did not have hot soapy water and their rifles still shot reliably and accurately. Therefor I do not believe in that technique. The technique that I do believe in is the regular maintenance and seasoning of the muzzle loader. For this all you have to do is clean the barrel and breach after you shoot the muzzle loader a couple of times. Then when you are going to put the gun away for the summer you can clean the muzzle loader and then put the TC bore butter in the barrel to keep it oiled up. This will prevent moisture getting into the barrel and creating rust. I usually clean my gun after every 5 to 10 shots but most people will wait and clean them after 25 shots. I usually clean my muzzle loader this soon because the 209 primers that I use will tend to put a thick layer of gunk on the breach. Also make sure that when you clean the breach that you take the breach out and clean both ends of the breach. Before you put the breach back in the barrel make sure you can blow air through the breach fairly easily. Another tip you can do is for a 50 caliber bore, instead of using a jag you should use a 45 caliber bronze cleaning brush and wrap a TC seasoning patch around it and clean the muzzle loader that way. If you season the barrel properly then you should have less misfires when you go and shoot the muzzle loader.