how often do you clean your rifles???

[gingerbreadman]

I was wondering what you all do after a day at the range with your rifles? how do you clean them? do you clean the barrel everytime you shoot them? do you apply a little oil to the barrel or chamber?

Heres my method, tell me if i am right, i wipe my barrel,action,stock down with a oily rag everytime i handle them but i only clean the barrel every now and then, i use hopes #9 and wipe it out dry but i add no oil afterwords. should i and what should i use????

do you prefer pull throughs or barrel rods???

thanks guys

-gbm-

[gm iprod]

Ok this may take a while.

You will need to take your cleaning gear to the range.

Use a single piece stainless steel cleaning rod of the correct length and calibre. I use spear tip jags, bore guide, decent cloth patches and only use a brush as a last resort.

For those who favour plastic coated rods use them, but I have found that the PRoShot Stainless rods are brilliant. BUT most modern solvents will eat the plastic right off the rod.

Stainless steel rods are very soft and will not damage your barrel if used PROPERLY.

If shooting copper jacketed projectiles use a proper copper solvent. Sweets, Proshot, Shooters Choice, Hoppes Bench Rest 9, Butches etc etc etc. Standard Hoppes 9 is not strong enough. The faster the projectile is going, or the softer the jacket material the more important this is.

If the rifle is new, you should run the barrel in as follows.

1. Shoot one round,

2. Then clean with solvent on a patch and push 4-6 wet patches once through the bore, discarding at the muzzle. Leave for no more than FIVE minutes.

3. Then push one or two patches that have been wetted with something like Methylated Spirits or WD40, this will remove the copper solvent.

4. Then 4-6 dry patches through the bore once each and discard at muzzle.

Repeat 2, 3, and 4 above until no more blue / green residue is on the Meths patches when you push them through.

Oil properly and leave for a minute or two. Then remove the oil before you shoot again.

Then go back to Number 1.

You do this for the first 5 rounds.

Then every five rounds until you have shot about 30-40 rounds. Then clean your firearm properly everytime you shoot it. Oil it with good quality lubricant that contains a preservative, or has good rust preventative capabilities and de-oil before shooting.

If you have to pack the rifle away before you get a chance to clean properly, squirt a small amount of some aerosol CLP through the barrel. This will prevent corrosion before you get the chance to clean thoroughly. The primer and powder are non corrosive but moisture will start the process real fast. With two types of metal in close proximity and moisture around to help it won't take long for oxidation will get started.

Stainless Steel (416R and similar) barrels will take longer to run in.

22lr rifles do not need the above. They run way to slow and the ammo is well lubricated . This lubricant ( on good quality ammo ) will protect the rifle very well. Centrefires run way too fast and hot and they burn all the oil off.

Take care of your rifle and they will last a long time. I own and still shoot rifles that were made before WW1 and they were around when corrosive ammo was the norm, someone before me looked after them and now I get to enjoy shooting the old bangers and then spend ages cleaning them, so I can go shoot them another day. Never scrimp on cleaning. It is worth it.

Pull throughs as many remeber them are old hat. If you need something when out in the wilds hunting use a plactic coated cable type assembly. Otis and ProShot make the best. These type of arrangements will be able to be used to remove muck that can accumulate in the barrel, and will be able to be used to put oil trough the barrel at night and remove in the morning. This will prevent overnight rust in any barrel. Before anyone say SS barrel don't rust, they are Stain LESS not Stain FREE. They still rust, but do it slower. All modern Stainless rifles are magnetic!!!!!!. Therefore they contain ferous material, therefore they oxidize.

Four years ago we had a small volcanic eruption here in NZ and many people who hunted the surrounding area over the next year had terrible troubles with corosion on their Stainless rifles. They all though "we will be fine, I have a Stainless Gun", wrong. Many had ruined guns after only 3 or 4 days in the bush. Nearly all of these guys did not take any kind of oil with them when they hunted because they had a 'rust free' gun.

(Edited by gm iprod at 2:26 am on Jan. 27, 2003)

[TRG65]

I have a Hart barrel on a 308 Rem 700 Action.  I have somewhere around 700 rounds through the gun over the last year and a half.  For the first 100 round I followed a break-in procedure similar to gm iprod's.  I was using Sweets as the copper solvent and following it with a Hoppe's and Oil.  

Due to some pressure problems I was having with the first and second round after cleaning I called Hart's.  They chided me for using any copper solvent.  From the information I was given, they clean their barrels more frequently with Hoppes or Shooters Choice and don't seem to get copper build-up.  Apparently, any cleaning product with much ammonia will "dry" the barrel and cause micro-cracks.  To a certain extent eliminating the lapping done either at the factory or by the bullets you are shooting.  The lady at Hart's said this would actually contribute to increased copper fouling.

Since that conversation, I use a bore-snake and clean every 5 rounds; currently I'm using Shooter's Choice as the solvent.  My pressure problems have become a function of how much powder rather than cleaning procedure.  Yes, some shooters look at me like an oddball when they see me cleaning after every group; but most of their rifles don't shoot 1" at 200 yards.

[lmccrock]

gm iprod, if your environment corrodes stainless, what is that doing to your lungs? Good luck.

gbm, my gun cleaning regimen depends on the gun and what was done with  it. Last year, I went to a desert shoot with an AR; afterwards, it got cleaned more thoroughly than it ever has been; there was fine dust everywhere. The same rifle barely gets the barrel cleaned on a normal basis. If I ever do a thorough cleaning with a copper solvent, it shows almost no copper. Contrast that with one of my older US rifles (M1 or 03A3) which have a copper mine in the grooves after just a few shots. One time I used Hoppe's to clean an M1 barrel and it left behind the prettiest, shiniest copper. I am not sure what you have, but most of my experience is with gas guns. The downside to the M1 (and AR) is that the gas system must be thoroughly cleared when a Cu solvent is used.

Any of my guns (even the chrome-lined AR) gets the barrel coated with oil if it is not to be shot for a while. Then the barrel gets swabbed before shooting it. For me, oil in the barrel and chamber are for storeage, not shooting.

I use a coated Dewey rod, and neither an ammonia based Copper solvent nor powder solvent (Hoppe's #9) has worn off the coating. I keep some plastic jags and pulls around, to use with the Cu solvents, because I am uncomfortable using Cu-based jags with a Cu solvent.

Lee

[Shipster]

Here is what Dan Lilja of Lilja Precision Barrels has to say.

Normal cleaning

For a normal cleaning (after a string of 10-25 shots) after break-in, the above procedure should be used, but stop short of soaking the barrel with the strong copper remover. A good rule of thumb is to stroke the barrel with a brush, one cycle for every shot fired.

Periodic cleaning

It is probably a good idea to use a strong copper removing solvent every 200 rounds, or so, to check the barrel for copper fouling. We do not recommend the routine use of abrasive cleaners for normal cleaning. However they can be used every 500-1000 rounds to remove the carbon build-up (caused by powder fouling) in the throat area of the barrel. To use, wrap a cotton patch around a worn out brush or a cleaning jag and liberally apply the abrasive cleaner to the patch. Short stroke the abrasive for 6" or so in the throat area and one or two full length passes through the barrel. Do not clean the barrel like this for more than 1-2 minutes.

Suggested equipment and solvents

It is important to use an action rod guide when cleaning. The guide aligns the rod with the bore and helps prevent uneven wear in the throat area. Be careful not to raise the handle end of the rod while stroking. This will put a "belly" in the rod that will wear the barrel. We suggest that plastic coated rods, like the Dewey and Parker-Hale, be used.

We've used a number of solvents over the years and have found that Shooter's Choice is excellent at removing powder fouling and Sweets is good for copper removal. Another solvent we've had excellent results with is one made in Billings, Montana by BBS Industries (406-652-2495). This solvent is good at attacking both powder and copper fouling.

For occasional use only, abrasives like J-B paste, Flitz, or RemClean can be used.

Do not use a stainless steel brush in your barrel under any circumstances.

Do not apply a strong copper remover, like Sweets, on a bronze brush. It will ruin the brush and give the false indication that the barrel has copper in it.

For shooters wishing to use moly-coated bullets we do not recommend shooting more than 25 rounds or so without using the normal cleaning procedure outlined above.

[tightloop]

gm iprod gave you the straight dope.

[benny hill]

GM IPROD IS RIGHT. IF YOU HAVE A PREM. BARREL THAT WAS LEAD LAPED TO A MIRROR BORE, YOU CAN JUST USE HOPPE'S FOR A GOOD SCRUBBING AFTER BREAK IN , BUT IF YOU HAVE A FACTORY BARREL, SOMETIMES IT TAKES SWEET'S TO GET IT CLEAN [ FOULING]

[fishnfst]

I do the same break in process with the one shot and clean.  I do not stop at five rounds some times thats all it takes but I let the barrel tell me when its broken in.  Copper fouling is non existent in most of my barrels.  I have fired as little as 3 shots of break in on a .17 hornet Shilen Select match barrel and as many as 17 on a factory winchester .220 swift barrel.  I clean my barrels after every shooting session.  If shooting groups after every string.  I would not recommend storing your rifles dry after the hoppes #9.  You want to put some kind of light oil  in the barrel.  I prefer oil that is teflon free.  I use shooters choice or butches bore shine for solvents and for oils I use rem oil for short storage and rig for long storage.  There are a lot of good articles on cleaning on some of the barrel manufacturer websites.

[Mykal]

I clean my guns everytime I shoot them-brass brush, cleaning rod, and Hoppes #9. Then leave a light film of gun oil on the inside by swabing through once with a CPL Breakfree.  I have never broken in a gun barrel at all. I called Clark Custom about this, after reading some of the nearly impossible, elaborate break in procedures some folks do. I have a 10/22 920 barrel. They told me that no barrel should require a break in period. --Mykal

[gingerbreadman]

thanks guys,

jeez i need a slap in the head for my cleaning practices..... I knew nothing about breaking in a barrel and i never did that with my 300, i hope i didnt hurt anything, i

m gonna order a one piece cleaning rod and some new brushes for all my calibers and start acting a little more responsible with my gun cleaning.....  

-gbm-

[G Shaw]

I clean soon after a shooting session and then protect the bore with either Breakfree or gun grease depending how soon I intend to use it again.

[gingerbreadman]

Ok my order came in, i got a kleen bore one piece cleaning rod with the barrel aligning thing and a selection of patches, brass jags and new brushes...

here is what Im gonna do, tell me if it will work out......

after every session im gonna run a patch through the barrel coated with kleen bore formula 3 gun conditioner.... and one more clean patch to remove excess oil..... and wipe fingerprints off with a oily rag as usuall.......and once in a while ill clean the chamber and pull the stock off.......

sound good? the formula 3 says its good for cleaning and lubiricating... its simple and thats what im going for......

-gbm-

[gm iprod]

The Kleenbore Formula 3 is a CLP

Cleaner ( Powder only), Lubricant & Preservative.

For copper removing it is as useless as a chocolate coffe pot. It is an excellent oil.

Use a proper copper solvent to remove the copper. The Formula 3 will protect the rifle against corrosion until you can get home and remove the copper fouling PROPERLY. You have got good gear otherwise.

Remember to clean from the chamber end.