# How to clean a firearm



## Mr.CheddarNut (Jan 16, 2013)

So after reading a few things it has come to my attention that the way I have always cleaned a firearm may actually be doing harm. So I hit the internet and of course received a full 360 degrees of contradiction. So I am putting it to the good folks of the UWN to weigh in on.

How do you clean your firearms, the do's and do not's, and most importantly the why's. Products to live by and the ones to stay away from. Lets even split it into two categories of rifles and pistols.

Cheddar


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## RandomElk16 (Sep 17, 2013)

I think everyone will have a different opinion. I use nylon brushes, hoppes solvent and elite oil.

Figure there isn't much I can screw up using those items.


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## Nambaster (Nov 15, 2007)

Bore snakes are for amateurs and I am an amateur. I have the brushes and solvents too but my guns don't really get out of the cabinet as much as I would like.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Cloth patches, brushes, Hoppes solvent, Rem oil and a cleaning rod through the breach end of the barrel has always worked for rifles and shotguns. Break Free powder blaster works great on metal parts, but it's a ****** on synthetic stocks.;-)


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

The bore is the heart of the weapon, clean it when accuracy diminishes. 2 items are found in a dirty barrel, carbon (burnt powder) and copper (or lead if u shoot cast boolits). I have found Barnes CR-10 is one heck of a copper remover and it will also remove the carbon which is easier to remove. Follow the directions on the bottle. CLP will remove copper but it needs time to break it down and some elbow grease along with it. That is the do everything cleaner the Army uses and it works but is not the best for bore cleaning.

For all external surfaces use CLP or remoil, wipe them down to keep rust away and to clean the metal.

Internal actions (especially semi autos) need to be flushed with a solvent like gun scrubber. Sometimes I wish I had a solvent bath like our armorer had. After the solvent dries and flushes out all easily removable gunk then its time to remove any carbon buildup. Some firearms are worse than others but you need to research the particular gun to find the problem areas. Lots of time, a brass brush and a dental pic can do a lot for a firearm. After carbon is removed a light coat of oil is generally a good idea unless the user manual say different. 

Every gun is different and some require more attention than others. I have spent hours upon hours of weapon maintenance and I really don't enjoy it so I try to minimize it. There are only a few reasons to clean a firearm for general civilian use:
1. To improve accuracy
2. To ensure reliability of use for your designated purpose
3. To ensure longevity of the firearm (rust prevention)

Beyond this you are dealing with OCD issues and too much cleaning or improper cleaning can be just as harmful as neglect.


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## toasty (May 15, 2008)

I went through this exercise a couple years ago. I spent hours and hours cleaning guns and shooting them, trying every product on the market, posted up on forums, talked to hunters, competition shooter etc... What I found out is everyone cleans a little differently. Some of the competition shooters clean every 10 rounds, some hunters clean once a year. I found a method that I like that works really well for me and my guns. I am a varmint shooter. I typically will put 50-100 rounds through a gun in one day of varmint hunting and will not clean during that day. Once I have around 50 or 60 rounds in a gun and a break in shooting, I will clean. I have been meaning to write up my procedure and paste it in my reloading book, so if it seems excessively detailed, it is for my reference for a bolt action rifle.

Setup
1.	Always clean from the chamber, never from the crown.
2.	Push a brush or patch through the bore and remove the brush and patch at the end, never pull a brush back through the crown. However, I don’t have a problem pulling a jag back through.
3.	Use a bore guide, keeps the solvents away from magazine, trigger, et... I like MTM bore guides because they are cheap and I can custom cut them to fit exactly the way I like.
4.	Use a rod that gives you enough length to push through a bore guide and get your brush and jag all the way through the barrel and that has a small handle that will allow the rod to be parallel going through the bore and not hanging up on the comb of the rifle.
5.	Use pointed cleaning jags for patches, they are a lot faster than other methods.
6.	Use the appropriate size of patches. You want smaller patches to run the solvent through, but you want tight patches to clean out the solvent. Sometime I custom cut my patches to give the right amount of solvent.

Cleaning Procedure
1.	Saturate a patch with Bore Tech Carbon C4 remover – push through bore
2.	Saturate another patch with Bore Tech Carbon C4 remover – push through bore
3.	Wait 3 min
4.	Saturate a nylon brush with Bore Tech C4 carbon remover and push through bore (I am not opposed to using a brass brush here, especially for stubborn carbon)
5.	Repeat 10x
6.	Wait 5 min
7.	Saturate the patch with Bore Tech Carbon C4 remover – push through bore – this is going to be very dirty.
8.	Saturate another patch with Bore Tech Carbon C4 remover – push through bore, this patch I would like to see mostly clean, if it is still pulling a lot of black, start at step 3 and repeat. If it is mostly clean, I run 2 dry patches .
9.	Saturate a patch with Montana Extreme Copper Killer – Push through the bore
10.	Saturate another patch with Montana Extreme Copper Killer – push through bore
11.	Wait 10 min
12.	Saturate a patch with Montana Extreme Copper Killer – Push through the bore
13.	Saturate another patch with Montana Extreme Copper Killer – push through bore, this is one you want to see no blue on the patch, if there is blue, start at step 9 and repeat, if there is no blue, run 2 dry patches through the bore
14.	Saturate a patch with Montana Extreme Bore Conditioner – Push through the bore
15.	Saturate another patch with Montana Extreme Bore Conditioner – push through bore
16.	Run 2 dry patches through the bore and you’re good to go.

In place of Bore Tech Carbon C4 remover, I have used bore tech eliminator, Slip 2000, M Pro 7 gun cleaner and they all worked, but not as well as the Carbon C4 remover. I have tried other with less success several other brands that didn’t work as well as the ones mentioned about. For copper, I have found nothing that works anywhere nearly as well as Montana Extreme Copper Killer, but it stinks and has very high ammonia content. There is nothing sacred about Montana Extreme Bore conditioner as the last pass, it is just really thin (low viscosity), removes nicely and is oil based, so I don’t worry about letting a gun sit for a long time with bore conditioner on it.

After about 200-300 rounds and/or when accuracy starts to fall off even with a clean gun, it is usually due to hard carbon buildup in the throat. I have only found 1 thing that works for this. I will use a J-B Non-Embedding Bore Cleaning Compound. I take an undersized nylon brush and wrap a couple large patches over the brush. I then rub paste on the patches and drop a couple drops of FP-10 oil on it and short stroke a brush through the entire barrel for 5 minutes (don’t ever go out of the crown!) and then the 1st half of barrel for 5 min and then the throat for another 5 minutes until you can feel no resistance from the carbon. This method has brought many guns back to life.


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## fishreaper (Jan 2, 2014)

Not much of a follow up behind Toasty, but...

For my 2 bolt actions I use a copper brush to get rid of as much of the loose grime as I can, followed by an oil patch, a dry patch, and then use gun slick and hang the gun muzzle down or lean it muzzle down on top of a few layers of cloth. I'll typically try an give it plenty of time to corrode the copper. I run a few oiled patches through and brush again and repeat until there is only a minute amount of blue showing up on my patches. After that I just work the brush and oil until those patches come out light grey instead of black. I can take my mosin's bolt almost completely apart without any tools. It's a cool enough feature that I wish I could do it with any bolt. 

In my semi-auto .22 which I can only muzzle-end brush, I just oil patch and brush until I'm content. I don't shoot many copper bullets, and I don't know that they go fast enough to leave any noteworthy residue. I'll use a small jag or something to push oiled patches around in the action to clean it out best I can, but it isn't a simple gun to take apart. 

My 12 gauge pump I pretty much just stick to a bore snake with some oil. I take special care of the choke area and from time to time I take the entire action apart and clean every facet which can be done by simply removing a pin. I've never had my 1300 hundred fail me no matter the conditions or the shells. Typically I just miss my target.


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## Nambaster (Nov 15, 2007)

So now are you saying you have to clean shotguns? What is the world coming to?


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## KineKilla (Jan 28, 2011)

Depends on the gun!

ALWAYS MAKE SURE THEY ARE FULLY UNLOADED, REGARDLESS OF WEAPON TYPE !!

My shotguns get a full days of use before they are cleaned. However, if I am running them hard shooting clays, etc. I will run one of these (http://www.midwayusa.com/product/83...-1-piece-bore-cleaning-mop-12-gauge-34-cotton) down the barrel every once in a while, then give them a full cleaning once I get home. All my shotguns are double barreled break action type so it's really just the barrels and then an exterior wipe down that ever need cleaned.

Hunting and bolt action rifles:

Hoppes No.9 soaked cloth pad from breach to muzzle, then a nylon brush, then dry pads until they come out clean (or pretty darn close). I use q-tips in the hard to reach spots, wipe the whole gun down and LIGHTLY oil inside and out if it is going into storage for an extended amount of time.

AR type rifles:

Fully disassemble bolt carrier group, hit the bolt and small parts with brake cleaner (eats carbon like candy but also dulls exterior finishes), thoroughly dry all parts (which is easy because brake cleaner evaporates quickly), clean the barrel with Hoppes No.9 and a nylon brush followed by pads until clean.

lightly coat all moving parts with Mobil 1 full synthetic motor oil. I prefer the SAE50 myself because it is nice and thick. I also oil them prior to use a little heavier as it seems to help keep the carbon from baking to the metal.

My hand guns (semi-auto) all get the full breakdown and Hoppes treatment.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

I learned this from the late Eunis Berger at a shoot in Arizona. She used a nylon brush with a 50/50 mixture of Shooter's Choice blackpowder cleaning jel and Shooter's Choice copper solvent. She follows up with a couple patches of just copper solvent and a dry patch. I've used it ever since and have been very pleased with how quickly it cleans my barrels.


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

http://www.chuckhawks.com/clean_muzzleloader.htm

This is how I clean inline muzzle-loaders.


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## Bob L. (Jan 11, 2015)

Nice Cleaning rod non metal I like Dewey
Bore guide
Patches-I like Pro shot
Nylon Brushes
Bore tech Eliminator.
I usually run 3 soaked patches and then brush the barrel with bore tech on a nylon brush back and forth 20-40 times then run dry patches.
I will recheck with a couple soaked patches and give it time then run a patch through to see if anything is on it. You will see the black carbon before you see blue/purple copper.
after cleaning 
1 patch covered in Kroil oil
then 1 dry patch behind it. It is ready to foul and/or has a little oil in it for storing
I then clean the action with an action cleaner rod with patches covering the rod soaked in rubbing alcohol also have a lug race way cleaner. Sometimes even with a bore guide the solvents will find its way into the action/chamber.


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## Loke (Sep 7, 2007)

Carb cleaner and really hot water. Passed every inspection first time. Just don't tell the drill sergeant.


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