Hi Tinker and Daryl,

One very accurate rifle of mine is a Parker Hale Volunteer, of which I am very fond. It was a prize gun won by a friend of mine at a championship tournament in Germany some years ago. He needed a 308 Win deer rifle and I needed a 45 caliber bullet gun, so we swapped. I gave him my Ruger M77 Mk II International with a 4x Leupold scope.

Although I agree that cold water is probably the best solvent for removing black powder fouling, I'm concerned about getting past the coating of bullet lube inside the barrel. The Lyman 450 gr bullets I cast for the Volunteer have six grooves, and carry a lot of lube. So, I use a bit of dishwashing detergent in the water to cut the grease.

Although I generally lubricate my patches with Ox Yoke or T/C patch lube, I think I'll switch to saliva in my round ball guns. This is just so I can use pure water for cleaning. I'll still use patch lube for hunting, because I don't want the patch to dry out.

Thanks for your thoughts.