50calty

Well I waited too long and other person picked up the gun. But while I was shopping last night I found a .54 Renegade Percus for a good deal. Good enough for the fact that even if a get a Flint barrel and lock it will still be 100 cheaper than buying a lyman GP Rifle! The stock as some minor dings and dents, but this winter I can sand those down and refinsih it. Hardly a mark around the double set triggers and guard. The outer barrel has a few scratches but none of the blueing is off. Inside the barrel is alittle bit different though. It has some pitting and rusting. I tried getting it out last night, but I didn't have and .54 cleaning accessories. So today I'm going to work on that. SO if anyone has some tricks to get it all out I would love to hear them. Also the little screw right below the nipple is stripped, but my gunsmith will drill and tap it with a new screw for 25 bucks. Overall I'm not too worried since in the long run I will be switching it out. But I've never owned a sidelock, so I'll probably play around with this percussion for awhile. So if anybody has any load data that I could start off from I would greatly apperciated it. I'll take pictures and post them once I get it cleaned up, right now its torn all down to the bare stock. Also what would be the best powder besides reg. black powder. No one carries GOEX, so I'm up the creek on that one. I'm leaning towards Pyro, had an awful crud ring with 777 in my inline. But I thought that maybe it would be different with sidelock. Also if it is Pryo, which is better the reg RS or the Select. Thanks. I have a feeling that I'm going to be asking alot of questions here in the near future.

bigboomer

If you have a Bass Pro Shop close to you they might sell Goex, I live in Tampa and drive to the BPS in Orlando to pick mine up, saves on the HazMat fees plus I get to hang out there for a couple of hours

cayugad

The bolster clean out screw is not worth $25 buck to have replaced. Many of the new T/C rifles do not even have one. If you do a good water bath, that will clean the bolster just fine.

Get some JB Bore Paste and give the barrel a good scrub. It will not remove the pits but it will take the rust and any grime out of the bore.

Pyrodex will work just fine in that rifle. About 80 grains and a roundball will shoot just fine. Just make sure you give it a good water bath after ward.

50calty

What type of soap do you guys use to mix with the hot water? Also I bought pillow tick, how do you cut it to make the right size. Can you count the lines in it to figure it out? Also looking at pictures online I see that some of the Renegades have the RENEGADE stamped on the barrel by the .54 cal. I don't have that stamp, but everything else is the same. The serial number doesnt have a K so I don't think its a kit gun. Was this one of the earlier models?

MountainDevil54

i actually like to mix a little pine sol into the bucket of warm soapy water. Once the barrel is clean i do 6 squirts of windex down the bore and let it drain out the bolster to help dry out any water that gets trapped.

50calty

So just water and pine sol? or also another soap?

MountainDevil54

just the pine sol.

sometimes if i dont have the pine sol i will use dawn dish soap.

cayugad

I have a plastic coffee can. I shoot a squirt of Dawn Dish Soap in there. And then put in as hot of water as my tap can produce and I can handle. That's pretty hot.

Dip your patch in the water first then start working that in short strokes down the barrel to the breech and then back up. Normally after about four or five patches it is clean.

I then pour very HOT water down through the barrel. This is to rinse out any soap in there. Then pour it all out. After that I soak a patch with isopropyl alcohol and swab the bore again. With the barrel still hot, I dry patch it. After it is dry, then I run a oil patch down the bore and make sure it has a good coat of oil in it. As the barrel cools, it draws in that oil into the metal.