Gun Cleaning Question

[jrock]

How are you getting cleaning solvent on your stocks? Limit the amount of solvents you use to avoid drips and spills. I just use my off hand as the bore guide. I always clean the chamber area when I'm done and even wipe out the area between the lugs and barrel breech to make sure there is no debris or solvent left to gum anything up. Make sure to grease your bolt lugs when finished. There are lots of posts on cleaning and lubing here.

I only use the 3 piece rods on shotguns and have given up using them on rifles. Too many broken threads or bent ones. One piece is the way to go. I doubt you have damaged anything internal. Crowns can be damaged with poor cleaning techniques.

 

[25WSM]

Don't use that 7.62 solvent in your house. You will be in the dog house. Don't take a big whiff of it either it might knock you down. It sure does do a good job on copper and I use it a lot. 7.62 mixed with jb and croil will really get the stuburn stuff out.
Shep

 

[dblizzard]

I also use a Lucas bore guides and Dewey rods on all my long guns.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Hoppes will only clean the powder residue out of your rifle barrel. The problem is not powder residue it's copper and carbon. Especially when breaking in a new barrel. There are 4 or 5 companies making great cleaners and one I recommend to clients is BoreTech. I recommend it because it works well and is totally safe in your house or on the kitchen table and your wife won't hate you because of the smell. I still open a jar of Hoppes and take a sniff to bring back childhood memories.
Ton of threads on how to properly clean your rifle on this site.
Shep

+10 on BTE. All I use now. Well, I do run a patch of No.9 afterwards and then a dry patch 'cause I still like the smell but Hoppes is basically worthless. BTE all the way with a carbon fiber cleaning rod and nylon brushes and jags.... and a good bore guide that fits the chamber tightly. BTE will play hell on any trigger group if you allow it to seep under the action.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I use 7.62 solvent and I'm extra careful where it goes! I use bore guides and drip my solvent on with a plastic pipette. IF I brush Nylon only. Way too much invested to mess up!

Had a bottle of that crap, gave it away. Stinks to high heaven. BTE works just as good with no smell.

 

[KyCarl]

There isn't that much smell. I don't spray it like air freshener! A few drops
and down the barrel back and forth a few times. Patches fall into a little plastic tub
dumped in lidded trash...wait.. Swab till no color except from jag Then a patch with
rubbing alcohol more dry ones then oil then another dry..Done ..IT WORKS!

 

[SidecarFlip]

Why would you use something that smells like high powered cleaning solvent when you can use odorless BTE? Does as good of job, no stink. I know it does, I borescope my tubes before and after. Nuth'in 'sweet' about Sweets 7.62 solvent.

 

[KyCarl]

Well I have it and it works fine..Why spend more money when what I have does the job? If odor is the only thing I'm good.

 

[freddiej]

I am only going to weigh in on this because the hate mail makes me laugh when I speak about cleaning rifles and pistols on professional terms.
first, take the guns out of the stocks and if you have a vice, clamp the recoil lugs in the vice with 1/8" to 1/4" pieces of nylon insulating the recoil lug, take the bolt out of the rifle, work from the breach to the muzzle with the rod. chemicals that I use in my shop are Wipe out-Patch out, the accompanying "Accelerator", nylon brushes, and cotton patches from Brownell's. I saturate the brush with accelerator, send it down the bore three or four times to not only work the accelerator in but get the fouling to loosen up, then I saturate the brush with patch out, run it once down the bore, put more on at the muzzle, then run through to agitate the foam and bore. I leave this for 15 to 30 minutes, then send a clean patch down the bore. it usually comes out black, grey, or dark cobalt blue. I do repeat this once to see if there is anything left in the bore. new bores take 3 to 5 times. burnished bores take 1 to 3 times. No, this is not the manufacturers method, this is my method I came up with because the MFR's method did not work for me.

 

[SilverbulletMAG]

freddiej, that is a very thorough process and it all makes sense. What is your reason for removing the stock though? Just to keep chemicals off or more to it than that?

 

[DT400]

There are so many schools of thought, and reasons for each method of cleaning. Some make sense some aren't so cut and dried.

Some say don't use 3 pc rods. I agrees the 3 pc rods don't have perfect alignment at the joints and can leave a sharp shoulder that will scrape the rifling during flexing. as well as possibly having more flex at the joint than a solid rod with no joint.

Some say don't use aluminum rods. Aluminum is soft and will accumulate harder abrasives into the surface and then damage the rifling when they flex in the barrel but to use stainless steel instead. Aluminum is softer than the rifle barrel steel and not do damage and the stainless is harder or equal to (depending on metallurgy) the barrel and could scuff the rifling during flexing.

Definitely don't clean from the muzzle as this could damage the crown and this is bad.

Some will say when cleaning form the breach when the rods exits the muzzle not to retract the fitting on the rod but to unscrew the tip, pull the rod back, then re-attach the tip and stroke a gain form the breach. This is to protect the crown.

Some say to use a breech bore guide to protect the lead from the flexing rod.

Some say to use a nylon coated rod. For there to be a layer of nylon over a steel, aluminum or stainless core and still fit in a barrel the core of the rod needs to be of a smaller diameter= more flax...then what to do you do when the nylon wears off? You are left with a bare metal rod again. Granted this will take a while...but still the result is the same.

Then their is a one pc carbon fiber rod. No joints and softer then the barrel material.

Depending on your rifle and how dirty it likes to be you may not need to do much more then run bore snake through it at the end of the day and do a thorough cleaning only when accuracy falls off maybe every 2-300 rds.

I was taught as a young boy you thoroughly clean your gun as soon as you get home from the range before you do anything else. This was my grandfathers rule, he lived in a very humid area of Texas so to protect the steel this was and is sensible. Plus he came form the era of corrosive primers/powders which aren't so much the case these days unless you shoot old ammo.

Do you research and make your own choices.

Darrell

 

[SidecarFlip]

Shoot it until the tube is so fouled it won't shoot for beans and screw on a new barrel. Problem solved. Scrap the old barrel, they are cheap enough.

I'm done with yet another idiotic thread. Lots of them on here lately. Have fun, I'm going hunting.

 

[rsbhunter]

From what I've learned from years of reading and talking to people who shoot high dollar rifles using top end barrels, NEVER PULL A BRONZE BRUSH BACK THRU THE MUZZLE ! Sorry for the caps, but that is the one cardinal rule of cleaning a barrel. I no longer use bronze brushes, nylon only. Bore tech Cu2 and carbon elimination works wonders...I also use Wipe out with accelerator to soak...On my one custom rifle, I use a Lucas bore guide, they are made custom to fit the chamber for the specific cartridge your shooting. The $100 + you spend on cleaning stuff will save the $1000s you have in rifles....rsbhunter

 

[foul bore]

I totally agree with a very good one piece rod w/ guide. I use wipe-out bore cleaner.