To get an idea of just how good this Black Powder Cleaner #1 works, see the pictures below! -- Have you ever experienced a problem with your breech plug sticking and being hard to take out?  Well, so have I and here is what I do about it.  First, block the breech plug opening by inserting a spent primer in it.  Then stand you rifle on some paper against something at a slight angle.  Pour a table spoon or two of Black Powder Cleaner #1 down the barrel and let it set about 20 minutes or so.  The Black Powder Cleaner #1 will eat away that crud ring that causes the plug to stick and make it easier to unscrew. A nice thing about Black Powder Cleaner #1 is you can salvage what you poured in the barrel for use later; it doesn't quit working even when dirty.

Oh yeah, its one heck of  black powder cleaning solution too.  Just dampen a clean cotton patch with cleaner and swab the barrel with it.  For stubborn fouling, several patches may be required.  Follow up with clean dry patches until clean.  After cleaning treat your gun with the rust prevention of your choice.

Yesterday after some shooting at the range I popped my .25 ACP Encore breech plug out and as usual it had a lot of crud on it.  I normally dislike cleaning the breech plug because it usually gets black all over everything it comes into contact with.  Well, this time I thought I would try something different.  I put my breech plug into a pill container bottle, which was approximately the same diameter as the plug and poured just enough Black Powder Cleaner #1 to cover it, and went about doing other things like cleaning the rest of the rifle, using the Black Powder Cleaner #1. I think I left the breech plug soaking about an hour.  I took my .25 ACP Encore breech plug out of the solution, careful to save the solution, and wiped it down with a cloth dampened with Black Powder Cleaner #1, and to my surprise the cloth did not have much fouling on it at all.  The breech plug was shining clean after wiping it off a little.

This morning I noticed the vile of cleaning fluid was not dirty, but clear, because the fouling residue had settled to the bottom.  My first thought was wow, I need a picture of this to show people.  All that crud at the bottom of the vile came off the breech plug without any scrubbing.  I reckon it would be pretty easy to pour the clear part of the liquid into another container for future use, without loosing much.  How nice.

Here is a before and after picture of a breech plug soaked in Black Powder Cleaner #1.  The only thing I did after soaking it was rinse in off in hot water and dry it.  There was no scrubbing involved.

   

All of that nasty crud was settled at the bottom of the container I soaked it in.  I poured the clear cleaner back into the Black Powder Cleaner #1 container for reuse and dumped the settled stuff down the drain.  I got no mess on me or the drying rag.  Now this is how cleaning a breech plug should go.

This may be beating a horse to death but... The other day I performed a ramrod test using the 209 primer and the new VariFlame Primer Adapter with the CCI 400 Small Rifle Primer.  That story can be read by clicking the link above called ramrod test.  A few days after the test I pulled the breech plug and noticed it was very black all over the bullet end.  I figured I would take care of that by soaking it in Black Powder Cleaner #1.  Wrong answer, it came out just a black and no amount of rubbing made a difference.  I then tried T/C's Number 13 Bore Cleaner, Hoppes #9, and Rust Out.  None of these even touched that black mess.  I finally resorted to a copper tarnish remover called TarneX and that did the trick.  So if you are still using those nasty 209 primers, expect a harder cleanup than those who are using the new VariFlame Primer Adapter.