You don't have to pull the barrel to clean. There is an old formula for barrel cleaner/round ball patch lube. It is in 1;1;1 volume proportions, not critical. Ingredients are: Murphy's oil soap:rubbing alcohol:Hydrogen Peroxide. Mix together (I like more soap, and less hydrogen peroxide in mine), and put a wet patch (cotton flannel) with the solution on a good cleaning jag and work up and down the barrel a few times. You can flip the patch inside out and do it again, or use a new patch. Patch should be wet, not dripping wet. (too wet and you flood your breech end for future shooting, which can cause a miss fire). I shoot Goex 3f black in my .50 cal flinters. Usually, the barrel is clean in 4-5 patches. When clean, run a couple of dry patches down the barrel, the run an oil patch (I like Marvel Mystery oil, or RIG grease for long term storage) down the bore. Tooth brush wetted with the 1;1;1 stuff is great for cleaning your lock (take the lock out of the wood to clean inside and out. You can rinse with rubbing alcohol to clean as it dries fast. Then you can oil it.)

If you are shooting from a bench or in competition, I'd keep a damp patch of the 1;1;1; stuff around. I shoot, then run a damp patch down the bore, then a dry one, then I reload. It does two things: First, safety. If you have a glowing ember left in your barrel, you put it out before adding more powder for the next shot. NEVER LOAD FROM THE CAN!! USE A POWDER MEASURE!! One spark to a pound of powder makes a bomb, and a loss of a limb or eyesight!! Second, you shoot with constant conditions from shot to shot for improved accuracy/scoring.

Paul, I hyave several sidelock rifles that you can't pull the barrel if you wanted to! (Three caplocks, one flinter.)

I clean them by pouring two quarts of BOILING WATER through the barrel and let it come out the drum screw hole or the touch-hole. I take out the touch hole liner so the water can squirt out pretty fast. Then I dry the hot barrel out with three or so dry cleaning patches. After it cools down, I swab it out with a patch saturated with Birchwood Casey SHEATH. This stuff goes on wet, but quickly dries, and allows you to load and shoot the next time WITHOUT having to swab out the bore to dry it. Just load up and shoot! It really prevents rust!!

Those TC's have a touch-hole liner that you can unscrew, don't they? Just wrap a towel around the barrel a little below the muzzle and twist the end of it up into a handle so you can hold the thing when it's hot while you're pouring the water into the muzzle via a good-sized funnel. The towel also keeps hot water off the outside of the gun. Boiling water really dissolves all BP fouling!!

Boiling water is the way the Mountain Men cleaned their rifles. The had no soap or solvents!!