Cleaning a Muzzleloader?

hi there,

I have a .54 T/C Renegade and am wondering how to actually clean the barrel, seeing as I cant remove a breech plug like my CVA. any tips?

Do you know what kind of powder was used ??

If weather permits I clean outside with Windex (my wife doesn't like the chemical smell). Take the barrel off the stock and remove the nipple, run a patch soaked in Windex up and down a few times. Repeat until the patch comes out clean.
Run a dry patch up and down the barrel. When the bore is dry - run a patch covered in something to keep the bore from rusting. I use "Bore Butter" or something similar. A friend uses olive oil. Others use WD-40, etc.
Wipe the area around the nipple with Windex to get the crud off, then wipe with "Bore Butter" or whatever.
Scrub the flash hole out with a pipe cleaner.

While you're doing the above - soak the nipple in a small container (I use a pill bottle) with Windex. Then scrub the inside of the nipple with a pipe cleaner.

If I can't clean outside I use a bucket of hot, soapy water instead of the Windex. The rest of the steps are the same.

jeez this is gonna be a lot of work by the sounds of it haha. MikePal I would say FF

Most new dirt will clean easy with just hot water. Remove the nipple and poor a kettle of hot water down thru it, scrub with a brush and poor in some more water till it comes clean and then swab it like Pete recommends.

If it been sitting for some time and has corroded the barrel etc you may have to try a solvent (Hoopes9) and lots of patches till they come out clean.

This article by Randy Wakemen has some pretty good advice;

http://www.chuckhawks.com/clean_muzzleloader.htm