muzzleloader is rusty

[Dahitman44]

I tried to clean it last year and got most of it out but it is still a little rusty. Any ideas?

[AngelicFatum]

Barricade. And maybe some emery cloth.

[charliepete2]

Is it inside the barrel or on the outside of the gun? Inside the barrel is tough to really fix. I'd proably sell the gun, but I'm an accuracy nut. You could also try chucking a cleaning rod with a brass brush in a drill and really going to work on it, but once you've pitted a bore it will never be perfect again. If it's on the outside of the gun, a little gun oil and 000 steel wool can be used sparingly to remove rust without overly damaging the bluing.

[HunterLee]

Clean it the best you can and then shoot her a few times. That will get it back to a nice shine, then clean it again. They are tough to keep clean, but if you clean them real good nad store them upright in the corner of a closet they don't rust, mine didn't this year at all, but the two prior years it sat in the garage and rusted bad. I use a bore snake and if its bad a 20ga wire brush. I like to shot so it don't bother me to take it out in Oct and shot it 5-6 times to clean it out. Have to do that before hunting anyway. I did wack a 11point at 170yds so my method must not ruin the barrel. It still shoots a baseball at 100yds.

Another thing is not to put it together after cleaning it. That is the biggest thing that has helped me.

[Dahitman44]

Good info --

Thanks

Hit

[mskyfshntchr]

Another thing that will help is to grease the barrel inside and out when done using it for the year. I use T/C's bore butter- same stuff that you put on patches when shooting a round ball.

Store it in the gun cabinet with some of the moisture collecting stuff and you will be fine. Check it every so often and dump out the water if any has collected.

[huntnfish]

I got some rust in one of mine the first year I had it and just wire brushed it the best I could and got most of it out. It didn't seem to affect accuracy at all, especially with open sights and operator error when its in my hands. When I put them away for the year I take the breech plug out and make sure the barrel is oiled good and I haven't had any problem since then. I don't know if it helps having the plug out but I figured it would at least get more air flowing through and help with moisture build up.