doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com muzzle loading shotguns

ML shotguns don't seem to get the "respect" that their breech-loading counterparts do. This is a shame. If there is any such thing as an "ultimately versatile" gun it is the ML percussion shotgun.

Perish the thought, but if I had to choose a "doomsday gun" I would seriously consider one of these guns. There are very few tasks that they can't perform at least adequately well and, if caps can be obtained, there is nothing that they can shoot that can't be either scrounged or made. Even caps can be made, after a fashion, if need be.

On a less grim note, I have never had more fun than when I shoot ML shotguns. They are forgiving friends and I continue to be surprised at just how well they can be made to perform.

And the least fun cleaning them...

If done correctly cleaning BP fouling is no more difficult than cleaning fouling made by smokeless powder. Certainly is no more challenging than cleaning corrosive powder residue. BP's "aroma" can be a little "different" but IMHO it is no worse than the fragrances of a lot of smokeless powder cleaners.

Cleaning black powder guns is certainly very different from smokeless (and somewhat counter-intuitive). However, once one gets the technique down, it's not that big a deal.

One of the continuing Urban Myths - cleaning a blackpowder gun is harder and more time consuming than cleaning a modern smokeless firearm. I will take the simple construction of a flintlock rifle firing a patched round ball over a modern bolt firing copper or lead bullets any day when it comes to really cleaning a rifle. And percussion shotguns firing paper and fiber wads will be done long before you get the plastic off your choke tubes.

It's just nastier and can not be put off....

I solve that problem by dismounting the barrels and step into the hot shower with them along with a cleaning rod. Clean the gun at the same time I clean myself. All the black powder crud and corruption goes right down the drain.

BP smells like the morning after I've eaten a dozen hardboiled eggs, and a pint of pickled garlic washed down with a six-pack of beer.

Never never never use a long handled brush in the sink in your wife's clean kitchen to clean a double after an afternoon of shooting black powder shells. Don't ask how I know this!...Geo

Part of the charm! Part of the charm!