I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!

[Ronin]

I usually don't clean them after I shoot. I always clean them BEFORE a class or qualifier. Carry guns get an occasional wipe-down of the outside of the barrel and the rails, and then lube. Once every year or two I'll go crazy cleaning bores. Life's too short to be stressing about cleaning guns.

I'm the opposite - I never clean a gun before a class or match. If I clean a gun I take it to the range to make sure nothing got "too clean" and might need a little lube or oil.

[McSull]

I'm looking at an Ultrasonic cleaner for small parts and handguns. I've heard very good things.

[knight0334]

You guys clean your guns?


On the serious side, when a I get a gun I clean, oil, etc the piece. After that, it depends on usage and the gun itself as to how much it gets cleaned. Black powder guns get the most attention due to the nature of things.

Smokeless guns - well, things vary greatly. Blued guns will get a oiled rag wipe-down occasionally. Stainless and nickel, maybe the fingerprints wiped off with really really really light oiled rag. Bores - depends on the ammo I had fired. Corrosive primers, yeah, that will get cleaned up relatively soon. Non-corrosive ammo, not so much. Purpose of gun factors in too. A 22RF pest gun, not likely to be cleaned at all. My varmint rifles depend on quantity fired(some of my guns are more accurate in the 5-10 shot range than the 0-4 or >10 shot ranges) and the gun itself. Some of my other guns dont matter if the bore is "dirty" or not(.45-70 and .45-120 in particular).

Carry guns - I blow out the dust bunnies with canned air and make sure the oiled parts aren't polluted with lint/dust/dirt, then wipe off the prints.


My Iver Johnson 55A 22RF has yet to be cleaned since the initial once-over after I bought it about 10 years ago. The finish was gone to begin with, but it is functionally perfect. Yard pests, basement/range plinking, squirrel hunting, etc - lots of shorts and long rifle ammo through it. My Marlin 60, it too was missing its finish when I bought it. ...I had spray painted it black, and charred the wood stock black with a torch. I'm not even sure I ever oiled that thing since I got it off a friend back in the late 80's or early 90's.

[Hawk]

The only guns I clean on a regular bases are my .22 semi autos (dirty little caliber). The rest get a cleaning about once a year regardless of how much I shoot them and I shoot something at least once a week. Even my AR match rifles only get cleaned maybe twice a year. I do occasionally spray some oil on their BCG's when needed, but that's about it.

[Bang]

I'd noticed that manufacturers test-fire and may not subsequently clean after. When I bought a new Savage 10 in .308 I ran a Hoppe's-soaked patch thru the bore and it came out the thickest, ugliest black ever. Wow!

Patch 25 was barely any better. Totally puzzled, I phoned Savage CS and asked what could be wrong, explaining what I was experiencing. CS rep said hold on, I'll see if I can get a tech for you.

CS rep came back on the line and said, "They're all busy. They said just shoot it."

So, I did. By the time I zeroed the 6-18 Leupold to my satisfaction and enjoyed just shooting it, I realized I'd forgotten to "break it in."

Despite that fatal error, the rifle is amazing. And patches more quickly reach a "good enough" color of blackish.

I do clean after every shoot but rely more on a last patch of CLP as an ending to the cleaning session.

[HKusp 45]

I'm looking at an Ultrasonic cleaner for small parts and handguns. I've heard very good things.

the best all around one I have found is actually through grizzly fits rifles I am fighting with every fiber of my being not to get 2 ..... because christmas was already very expensive.

https://www.grizzly.com/products/Bal...9-Liter/BE1167

but for smaller stuff this should do the trick (Shit I just talked myself into the smaller 6L one for $99.00)

https://www.grizzly.com/products/Bal...6-Liter/BE1165

[littlefitz]

I really enjoy cleaning my guns. My wife thinks I shoot just so I can clean them afterwards.

[Noah_Zark]

Why no matter if a new gun never shot or one that I have 1 round through or one with 100 do my patches constantly come out black? I soak with cleaner like Hoppes or whatever. Then I use brass brush. Then I use jag with cleaning patch, then I run light oil soaked patch through or a Remoil wipe through. No matter what, before the oil phase the patches are black and I see a lot of lines from the rifling. Never grey or brown or whatever, always black. I could brush the rifling clear off of my rifle and it would still be black. This sucks.

It's a matter of using appropriate materials and technique.

For example, on any dirty gun, I first run DRY patches through the chamber(s) and bore to pick up and remove as much DRY schmutz before applying wet patches and smearing all that dry stuff around, making a bigger mess that takes longer. It's similar to why you vacuum or broom clean a dirty floor before mopping - when you mop a floor without first sweeping you distribute a bunch of previously-dry dirt around, requiring more "rinse" mopping. Get rid of the dry stuff first, push two, three, or more dry patches through, one-way, and discard them. They should get progressively less verschmutzt with every dry patch.

Once the dry patches start looking cleaner, THEN use a powder solvent or Cleaner, Lubricant, Protectant (CLP) on a patch to wet the bore. You can skip a wet patch and run a wet brush through, first wetting the brush with a eyedropper, or using the CLP's bottle dropper tip. Then scrub with the brush several passes, THEN clean the brush by means of spraying or dipping in a solvent. In nice weather outside, I'll use spray carb cleaner to clean all the schmutz out of a bore brush, or if indoors, remove the brush from the rod and swish it in a small jar of miserable spirits. Then put the brush away. It's done its job.

Immediately after the wet brush treatment, send through more one-pass DRY patches to get rid of the wet schmutz in the bore. Repeat until the patches get noticeably cleaner.

Following that, make one pass with a patch wetted in your favorite solvent. Think of this as a rinse. Then more DRY patches. NOTE WELL: These dry patches will not be spotlessly clean, but each one should be successively cleaner. Expect to see some bluish tinge from copper. Expect to see spiral tracks from rifling. But the patches should be successively cleaner and cleaner. Just recognize that you'll reach a limit; they will be only so clean.

THEN as a final measure, make one final pass with a patch lightly dampened (NOT sopping) with an effective protectant oil. Rem Oil is NOT one of them. Use either CLP, or better, FP10 or my favorite, Corrosion-X. That's it. Hang it in the rack, put it in the safe. But before shooting it, run a dry patch through it to wipe out the protectant oil residue, and DO NOT be shocked or upset about how dirty that dry patch will be -- it's had days, weeks, or months to work on the microscopic schmutz that's deep in the chatter marks of the rifling, or at the base of the lands, etc. All that dirt means is that the protectant oil DID ITS JOB while the rifle slept in your safe, and you got on with your life.

Oil on metal parts/receiver/barrel, etc. Use a remoil wipe and always looks like I am cleaning off rust, it is brown. New gun or old one, always brown, makes me nervous!! I store at 30% in a safe, like I said even new ones look that way on a remoil wipe.

This is easily answered, but some folks find the answer hard to understand. Most (not all ) blueing is a form of iron oxide, or rust. In fact, there's a process called "rust blueing" where a very light uniform coating of rust is intentionally formed on metal parts of a firearm in a humidity box, and then "carded" off with steel or bronze wool, leaving a duller, darker steel surface. This is repeated a number of times, and each time the steel gets darker and bluer. At some point, the now-blued surface is polished with oil and a coarse linen cloth to brighten the sheen of the blueing.

But that blueing is still nothing more than iron oxide, Fe3O4, or "Iron 4 Oxide." Orange rust, commonly what everyone thinks of when they hear "rust" is "Iron 3 Oxide" or Fe2O3. Both are "rust", iron oxide. So when you wipe down a blued barrel, receiver, or frame with an oily rag, IT IS NOT UNCOMMON to remove a tiny, invisible to the naked eye layer of iron oxide. Even every time. Because that barrel IS rusting in your safe, your basement, the corner of your closet, every minute of the day. The rusting is controlled by the Iron 4 Oxide, or blueing, because "rust does not rust;" it's already rust, whatever form it's in. But this continuous entropic corrosion of the rifle's metal constantly takes place, even if waaaayyyy slowed down by blueing. So every time you wipe the metal, EXPECT TO SEE BROWN. Want to see less? Use a oxygen-blocking preservative like Corrosion-X, and apply with a microfiber cloth or a satiny polyester like a pair of discarded panties.

Why no matter if I put 1 gallon of oil on a rag and wipe my barrel/receiver/other metal parts they still look dull and like patchy? I am talking shotgun or rifle black barrels, not blued. It is like why do I bother or what am I doing wrong?

Actual blueing is still somewhat porous, that's another reason why it keeps rusting as explained above. If you're talking about the "black" blueing, that can either be actual blueing that's applied thicker, or it can be another coating altogether. If it's a technical coating, it is likely not porous, and will tend to "repel" oil to a degree, leaving a discontinuous, "patchy" appearance.

There is one technique that is amazingly effective at applying a uniform coating of oil or oil-based protectant -- a shaving brush or artist's "camel hair" brush. Shaving brushes are expensive, and if you don't shave with shaving soap, just go to the craft section of WalMart, or a Michaels or Hobby Lobby and get some wide "fan" type artist brushes with fine hair. Mine are about 1" wide at the tip, fan-shaped. You can keep the handle length as-made, or trim them to 3'-4" for convenience. If you use more than one oil product, label the brush handles, and ONLY USE ONE PRODUCT per brush.

To use a brush to apply oil or protectant (Corrosion-X, for example), apply three or four DROPS to the bristles, and using the tips of the bristles only, "sweep" the oil onto the metal surface as if you're painting. DO NOT lay the brush down on its side; sweep with the tips. The metal won't look like it's oiled, but when you get the technique right, run a clean finger on the surface and you will see the fingerprints "track" or smear the oil lengthwise. The key is to have patience, and let the oil build up in the brush and on the metal. Even on a new brush, NEVER exceed four drops. As it transfers to the metal, you may need to add another couple drops. If you can see the oil as a thick layer, you're putting too much on. When right, the sheen reflection in the light will tell you it's there. Also, when you're oiling by brush correctly, it may take you 10 mins or more to do a long gun, especially at first. Be patient.

I'm afraid touch the metal because I fear oils from my hands and rust. I wont touch wood stocks because I fear oils even though I apply lemon oil after cleaning. I am being a little facetious here bit it honestly feels that way.

No offense, you're going a bit far off the rails here. Do you have objective evidence that your personal skin oil HAS corroded a firearm? If not, relax a bit and reign in the OCD. Again, no offense. However, if your skin oil HAS caused rusty fingerprints on a firearm (some people do), then just get some inexpensive nitrile gloves to handle the guns when cleaning, and shooting gloves when shooting.

Why can't I get oil where it needs to be on a barrel? Ventilated barrel? No way you are getting below the vents on top. Bottom of barrel where it goes into the forend/guard? Never gonna get oil in there. My guns are sub-par from my treatment!!

Yes you can get oil in all of those places! Use the artist's brush oiling technique on ventilated ribs and recesses and other details, as described above. Again, use a sweeping or stippling action with just the tips of the bristles.

HTH; try these techniques and report back.

Noah

[unclejumbo]

It's a matter of using appropriate materials and technique.

Holy schnikies, you must have worked on that for hours. You should print it in pamphlet form to hand out to the wayward.

[Gunowner99]

Wow! That is a lot to take in! The brush is a great idea, thanks! The corrosion X, is there a specific one for guns or any is fine? Well, I see the gun one but it seems way more expensive per ounce. Am I missing something?

So many people say just an oil soaked rag on the barrel and metal, 5w30 is fine, is that not true? As far as the blueing, all my guns are just that, guns. Nothing fancy, all of them re black on the metal for the most part. Look at an AR barrel, see how it is rough? That's what most of my rifle barrels look like. None are smooth. So, what is that coating and should I still be concerned? I mean, fresh out the box Remington 870 shows the same color on the cloth as a 10 year old pistol I have.

I do see the rifling marks on the patches and that is what is black. Always dark rifling marks no matter what. I should have been more clear. Generally the patches seem to get cleaner but they are never grey like so many people say they should be. Always show some dirt on them so my concern. I have been using remoil as a lubricant and protector and Hoppes as the cleaner. Maybe I need to step up my game?

Also, what product do you use to lubricate parts? Then you spray protectant over that? Just wondering what you all do as it would seem crazy to use oil on a bolt then cover in a protectant. Do you spray protectnt on the bolt as well or just a lubricant? Ugh, I am full of questions today!