Cleaning your firearm

[Maliboost]

what do you folks use to clean your firearms??? I just bought a new rifle for target practice & am looking into cleaning & preserving products.

I have always used a bore brush & cotton swab with some stuff that I got @ the local gun store. I recently found this thing called a Bore Snake. any of you guys use one of them??? how does it work??

Im looking @ other solvents & lubs. Ive found:

Butches Bore shine & Butches Gun oil for the barrel.

Mil-comm T25B for the Trigger/Hammer

Remmington, RemDry Lube for the reciever/bolt assy.

I know my Dad used to use WD40 for everything, but am not sure what he uses now.

how about you folks??? what do you use to clean & Lube your firearms???

thanks mucho
Bob

[Donut]

Hoppe's #9 solvent and Hoppe's Oil.

I have a can of BreakFree CLP I've been itching to try .

[Supe]

I don't like bore snakes. I don't trust them near the crown of the barrel.

For me it was always a Dewey rod with TSI solvent to clean everything. That stuff was recommended to me by both Lones Wigger (perhaps the most successful smallbore shooter in history), and fellow friend and former teammate Emily Caruso, of the US National and Olympic teams. Rarely did I ever use a bore brush. Unless you VERY frequently cycle in fresh ones, you can drag as much shit in as you take out. I would put TSI down the barrel once, then pull out coarse clean patches until dry after every relay in the match. Whether or not I put a brush down there really depended on what ammo I was using. Ammo that used heavier lubricants broke down easily. Very light, dry lubricants were more prone to building up in the rifling. Did it that way for years, and my Anschutz will still hold a test pattern that's tighter than the factory pattern today, despite having several hundred thousand rounds through it (groups tighter than factory, as the gun was bedded by the guys down in Fort Benning when brand new).

Just as a side note, this is for a .22 match rifle. You may want to be a bit more aggressive with larger caliber rifles, but this stuff worked flawlessly, left no nasty residue, did not thicken up in the heat, etc. When you have a 2 stage trigger with a 30 gram pull (roughly .06 lbs), crappy solvents would hang things up in a heartbeat.

[Supe]

Hoppe's #9 solvent and Hoppe's Oil.

I have a can of BreakFree CLP I've been itching to try .


BreakFree also works very well. I used it for ages before making the switch to TSI. It's a little stronger, and a little heavier, but worked great on heavier deposits such as around the breech. I still use it to clean my AR match rifle, too.

[Maliboost]

I don't like bore snakes. I don't trust them near the crown of the barrel.


thanks for the comments.

Where is the "crown"??

Bob

[Supe]

thanks for the comments.

Where is the "crown"??

Bob

The crown is the very tip of the barrel. Most rifles will have some sort of crown machined at the very end. Two basic types, the step crown, and the 11* crown. The step cround will face off the tip of the barrel, and put somewhat of a counterbore on the inside of it. The 11* crown is basically a countersink of the end of the barrel, typically 11* off the horizontal. It can affect accuracy, but primarily it protects the tip of the barrel, especially the rifling, from becoming damaged/burred.

[Maliboost]

thanks makes great sense.

Bob

[O.C White]

Man if I could get my hands on a barrel of CLP or at least a 2 gallon jug, I wouldn't use anything else.

[Maliboost]

http://www.break-free.com/?location=/global/dealer.asp

Looks like you can get this stuff just about anywhere. Oshmans, Sports Authority, WalMart, etc, etc, etc.

is this truely a one step process??? slide it through & done??? or do you lube it up with it, run some patches through until clean & then another patch soaked with it, to protect it until the next time out??

thanks
bob

[Supe]

I used to run one, maybe two wet patches through, then follow up with dry. I would put max 50-60 rounds down range per relay, so when you clean it after 50-60 rounds, I would only go through 1 wet patch, and 3 or 4 dry ones until they came out spotless.

[Maliboost]

Right on Supe, thanks for the input. I would expect that we are going to put several hundred rounds through it every time out. with the old bolt action that we have, we went through about 300 rounds between the 2 of us (my son & I). now with 2 toys, I would imagine that we will go through a few more than that.

I will post up some pictures of the new Hot Rod when it gets here (in a couple of weeks :( )

Bob

[O.C White]

http://www.break-free.com/?location=/global/dealer.asp

Looks like you can get this stuff just about anywhere. Oshmans, Sports Authority, WalMart, etc, etc, etc.

is this truely a one step process??? slide it through & done??? or do you lube it up with it, run some patches through until clean & then another patch soaked with it, to protect it until the next time out??

thanks
bob

The technique I used was slightly different from Supe. I would always run the bore brush through first to get all the carbon nice and loose, lube up 2 patches 3 max, run them all through, and maybe 1-2 dry after that. Bore would look clean enough to eat out of.

[Maliboost]

what material brush? Steel, brass, nylon???

how about in your 1911??? I dont want to tell you how I treat my Kimber, you would probably beat me senseless. LOL.

Bob

[MrMike990]

what do you folks use to clean your firearms??? I just bought a new rifle for target practice & am looking into cleaning & preserving products.

I have always used a bore brush & cotton swab with some stuff that I got @ the local gun store. I recently found this thing called a Bore Snake. any of you guys use one of them??? how does it work??

Im looking @ other solvents & lubs. Ive found:

Butches Bore shine & Butches Gun oil for the barrel.

Mil-comm T25B for the Trigger/Hammer

Remmington, RemDry Lube for the reciever/bolt assy.

I know my Dad used to use WD40 for everything, but am not sure what he uses now.

how about you folks??? what do you use to clean & Lube your firearms???

thanks mucho
Bob


First, I've borescoped and seen many rifles that had their accuracy ruined by improper use of a cleaning rod. I would recommend that you get a bore guide and a coated cleaning rod, a carbon fiber rod is even better. A bore guide inserts in the bolt raceway and helps to make sure that the cleaning rod is centered as it's inserted into the rifling which keeps the jag from nicking the chamber throat.

If you want, I'll send you a procedure for breaking in a factory rifle barrel.PM me with your email address.


Supe is correct- you should never drag a patch back through the bore.

Chemicals- for years I used a 3:1 mixture of Kroil penetrating oil and Shooters Choice. In the last few years I've used Butches Bore Shine followed a 2 wet patches of Kroil. I recently picked up some Montana Extreme bore cleaning solution but haven't tried it yet. Once in a blue moon on a factory rilfle barrel that's heavily copper fouled, I may use Sweets 7.62 of which I will only leave in the bore for 6-8 minutes. Then I'll flush the bore with a 99% alcohol solution to neutralize the ammonia. Supposely, those new bore cleaning foams work well. I rarely used bronze bore brushes, mainly nylon bore brushes.

Lube(wet)- I use just a light coat of Redline assembly lube on the bolt lugs, everywhere else gets a real light coating of a synthetic lube called Militec.

Lube(dry)- I'll burnish parts(hammers or sears) with either moly power or tungsten disulfide powder


Some of the formentioned chemicals contain Teflon, I don't put any Telfon chemicals through my match barrels.

Mike

[O.C White]

what material brush? Steel, brass, nylon???

how about in your 1911??? I dont want to tell you how I treat my Kimber, you would probably beat me senseless. LOL.

Bob


Most of the brushes in the kits are pretty good. I agree with Mr Mike and Supe, clean the rifle or pistol the same direction the bullet goes.

Oh yeah compressed air is your best friend also.

[Maliboost]

OMG, every time I turn around there are more options. :rolleyes:

thanks mucho guys for the input.

Bob

[O.C White]

Great thread folks.

[MCM]

Great info so far. I'd just like to add that many guns you can't clean from the breech end (chamber) of the barrel, you have to go from the muzzle. Be sure to get a tapered brass bore guide for your cleaning rod. You can easily damage the rifling on the crown without one, and if it does get screwed up, it can ruin the accuracy of the gun. I've fixed a few damaged barrels by cutting an 11* target crown in them. I also use brass jags (caliber specific) to hold the cleaning patches, not the loop tips.

[MrMike990]

what do you folks use to clean your firearms??? I just bought a new rifle for target practice & am looking into cleaning & preserving products.

I have always used a bore brush & cotton swab with some stuff that I got @ the local gun store. I recently found this thing called a Bore Snake. any of you guys use one of them??? how does it work??

Im looking @ other solvents & lubs. Ive found:

Butches Bore shine & Butches Gun oil for the barrel.

Mil-comm T25B for the Trigger/Hammer

Remmington, RemDry Lube for the reciever/bolt assy.

I know my Dad used to use WD40 for everything, but am not sure what he uses now.

how about you folks??? what do you use to clean & Lube your firearms???

thanks mucho
Bob

Here's a link to a vendor that has some of the items that I mentioned. I also recommend that on a factory or used rifle, that one get the JB bore cleaner as well. It's the first thing that I do use on any factory rifle, I give the bore a good scrubbing with JB. I don't recommended using it in a gas(AR15, M1A) gun as you might clog the gas port.

http://www.sinclairintl.com/cleaning.html

[MrMike990]

OMG, every time I turn around there are more options. :rolleyes:

thanks mucho guys for the input.

Bob


Bob, I'm going to post two links. This way everyone can see it. What I have as a word document, is very similar to what's found in these links.


http://www.benchrest.com/FAQ/6.1.shtml

http://www.benchrest.com/sgybreakin.htm


The Lucas rod is the best bore guide that I've ever used.

http://www.6mmbr.com/catalog/item/1433308/954882.htm

[Supe]

x3 on the bore guide and the brass jags. Great safety measure for the couple bucks they cost, and they help preserve your tips and your breech. The jags I've found keep a tighter fit in the barrel, more surface area of the patch exposed, and faster/easier cleaning.