Help with Springfield Musket Cleaning

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Jun 17, 2013
Location
Maine
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I have a reproduction 1861 musket that I purchased second hand. It did not come with any cleaning jags. I am in need to purchase these but do not know what thread size to buy. I checked the barrel and it only says "Made in Japan." I took the ramrod to the hardware stores and the thread size they matched it to is 12 X 24 which does not match anything I see in all the sutler descriptions online or even eBay.

Please Help!

Brownie
 
BTW, I've found that cleaning rods are ergonomically easier, faster, and do a more thorough job than using a worm on a ramrod for cleaning out the barrel. :thumbsup:
 
One more suggestion if I may, make sure you obtain a nipple wrench. Each time, after I take my musket out to shoot, I always remove the nipple and take a q-tip to clean out the threads, then putting a tiny bit of oil to lubricate the threads. One time I forgot and when I finally went to unscrew the nipple............ rusted solid! :stomp:
 
You probably have one of the excellent but long out of production Miroku US 1861s, probably the best reproduction made in terms of quality, feature accuracy, correctness of weight, etc. I would echo the recommendations to use a cleaning rod or something other than the ramrod that comes with the rifle-musket for cleaning purposes.
 
How to properly clean your blackpowder musket from the Winchester Sutler ( BTW, they have one piece cleaning rods which I prefer over the multiple piece ones )
CLEANING YOUR MUSKET
  1. Use a good black powder solvent designed to neutralize & remove the highly hygroscopic residues which result from firing your musket. We suggest MooseMilk Black Powder Solvent & Patch Lubricant
    • Leave a spent cap on the nipple.
    • Pour about a half ounce of solvent in the barrel
    • Put thumb over the barrel, and shake it all around
    • Use a Musket Cleaning Rod with a Brass Cleaning Brush of the appropriate size to scrub the barrel
    • Pour out the solvent
    • Pull hammer back
    • Remove spent cap
    • Run 100% cotton cleaning patches of the appropriate size, one at a time, on a cleaning jag, down your barrel, until they come up dry
    • Alternate solvent saturated patches with dry patches until you come up clean
    • Scrub the outside of bolster with an old toothbrush and solvent
    • Unscrew nipple using a Musket Nipple Wrench
    • Clean inside of nipple with Musket Nipple Pick, brush, and solvent
    • Wipe dry. Grease the threads of the nipple and screw back into bolster tight
    • Oil all metal parts of your gun including bore.
 
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