Firearms care no longer chore

[Geezah]

A good firearm will last a lifetime and beyond if it is properly cared for.

With hunting seasons pretty well finished for the year, it's a good time to clean and maintain firearms. First, find a warm, quiet, and well-ventilated place to clean your guns. Solvents and cleaning products used for cleaning firearms have an odor, thus the kitchen table is not an option.

Professional gunsmiths recommend cleaning a shotgun or a rifle from the breech for a couple of reasons, most important of which is to avoid damaging the end of the barrel that can affect accuracy.

With a double-barrel shotgun, cleaning is easy, but pumps and autoloaders will require disassembly to get the barrel off so it can be cleaned from the breech.

Once the barrel can safely be cleaned, it is time to go to work. The first step is a good brushing with a brass brush sized to fit the barrel. This removes residue left behind from the plastic wads or any lead that has come into contact with the barrel, creating fouling.

One slick trick is to clean off the brush with gun cleaning solvent after brushing the barrel by holding it over a scrap piece of cloth and spraying it. The brushes will last longer and are more effective at removing the fouling.

Then it is time to clean the powder residue from the bore. Continued swabbings with cleaning patches are required until the patches come out clean. The bore should then be lightly oiled with a few swipings of a patch with some lubricant added.

I have become quite fond of the Bore Snake, which cleans my shotgun barrels in one step. Just add a little solvent and run the thing through the barrel a couple of times and the bore is perfectly clean in half the time.

Most of us are good with these steps, but we don't pay enough attention to the rest of the gun. The receiver should be cleaned, because it, too, ends up getting fouled with burnt powder, causing jamming in pumps and autoloaders. A couple of companies have simplified this process with sprays that can get crud off the receiver before you wipe it with a soft cloth.

A quality gun grease should be used on the parts of the gun that wear, for example the hinge section of a double barrel where the metal parts rub against each other.

The metal parts and outside of the barrel need to be carefully oiled, and the whole gun can be put back together.

Rifle shooters have a few more considerations. With a rifle, cleaning from the breech becomes much more important. If you damage the crown of the barrel with a cleaning rod, it can severely impact accuracy.

If the rifle can not be broken down to the point where it can be cleaned from the breech, there are companies that offer cleaning rods with special crown protectors built in.

Rifles also get much more fouling in the bore than shotguns, making the wire brushing even more important.

Link (http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=453785&category=SPORTS&newsdate=2/23/2006)

................

[sergey31]

There's this LAPD instructor who did not clean his Glocks for 10 years...........

No wait, that's a different forum.

[Limeyfellow]

I find cleaning rifles actually quite soothing and relaxing for some reasons but that might be because of the fumes from the past. I do alot of cleanup of old military surplus coated in cosomoline and grease that makes standard cleaning not seem so bad.

[sergey31]

I find cleaning rifles actually quite soothing and relaxing for some reasons but that might be because of the fumes from the past. I do alot of cleanup of old military surplus coated in cosomoline and grease that makes standard cleaning not seem so bad.


Hey, hmm.... Did it ever happen to you when you clean guns (lots of guns) and next thing you know is that you wake up naked in handcuffs in the back of the police car and wonder what happen?

[Durandal]

Hey, hmm.... Did it ever happen to you when you clean guns (lots of guns) and next thing you know is that you wake up naked in handcuffs in the back of the police car and wonder what happen?

Nekkid....yes. In jail...no.


rofl

[SMGLee]

on a more serious note...

Make sure you wear gloves and face mask at all possible..

the material within the solution is probably harmful to your health.. never know what it can do to you... i always wear gloves when I clean my weapons... which is very rarely... I hate cleaning guns..

[Durandal]

on a more serious note...

Make sure you wear gloves and face mask at all possible..

the material within the solution is probably harmful to your health.. never know what it can do to you... i always wear gloves when I clean my weapons... which is very rarely... I hate cleaning guns..

I think this is a bit overly cautious myself. Lead, especially if you have children at home or a pregnant wife, CAN be VERY hazardous, but a mask is not necessary at all.

I'd argue that you should use eye protection when running a brush or using a spray solvent, but outside of that cleaning guns is no more hazardous than working on a car.

Its all about the lead, especially if you run a business. Do not shoot and then eat without thoroughly cleaning your hands and make sure if you go to a range to clean the bottoms of your shoes before you enter a home with children. You can eat a bullet and it will leave less lead ini your system than the dust you encounter on a range be it breathed in and introduced to your blood system or residue left over on your clothing and shoes when you enter the home. Lead effects adults FAR less than a developing child.

[Geezah]

Anyone say......WETWIPES;)

[Durandal]

Anyone say......WETWIPES;)

Yep, wet wipes, or baby wipes, or good old soap and water and a clean towel.

I came back from the NRA Range Development conference simply sick thinking about certain ranges and health issues...

...and a couple of my own, like smoking after shooting and not cleaning your hands before hand.

*shudder*

[Geezah]

I always have wetwipes in my car, and always try amd make sure I wipe down my face, neck and arms before getting in my car after a long day of shooting.

[Durandal]

I always have wetwipes in my car, and always try amd make sure I wipe down my face, neck and arms before getting in my car after a long day of shooting.

I wear two layers of clothing. One is a pull off that I discard in the back with my gear and goes in the wash. The lead dust permeates the top layer of clothing and actually ends up in your car till you hit it with a vacuum.

Then there is green powder.

Not too much of an in issue if you at an outdoor range but something to keep in mind in your cleaning area poor indoor range. Un-burnt powder collects and can become hazardous. We were shown photos of a range where it had collected in the space between concrete sections of the floor and ignited, destroying the floor panels in the area and lightly damaging two of the lane positions. Fortunately nobody was hurt. This is less of a problem in someone's basement, since a majority of green powder is expelled from the gun when shooting either down the barrel or with the casing. But if you have been shooting long enough and often enough and clean your guns and never clean-up after putting them away, especially in a home heated by a gas furnace, it COULD be a problem...unlikely, but still possible.

[Abolith]

thanks for reminding me guys, I need to re-oil my rifles tonight.

[Scrim]

I find cleaning rifles actually quite soothing and relaxing for some reasons but that might be because of the fumes from the past. I do alot of cleanup of old military surplus coated in cosomoline and grease that makes standard cleaning not seem so bad.
Same here, polishing boots is also one of my favorite past times.WTF is wrong with me?
Cosomoline "shudders".

[California Joe]

If you shoot real black powder it's a whole new ball of fun......:)

[Field_Gunner]

black powder is easy...use piss....no im not joking

[Durandal]

black powder is easy...use piss....no im not joking

Hey field_gunner, are you one of those "weird people"? You know, one of those people that actually bottle their piss an use it to clean things?

[Sabre]

I think this is a bit overly cautious myself. Lead, especially if you have children at home or a pregnant wife, CAN be VERY hazardous, but a mask is not necessary at all.

I'd argue that you should use eye protection when running a brush or using a spray solvent, but outside of that cleaning guns is no more hazardous than working on a car.

Its all about the lead, especially if you run a business. Do not shoot and then eat without thoroughly cleaning your hands and make sure if you go to a range to clean the bottoms of your shoes before you enter a home with children. You can eat a bullet and it will leave less lead ini your system than the dust you encounter on a range be it breathed in and introduced to your blood system or residue left over on your clothing and shoes when you enter the home. Lead effects adults FAR less than a developing child.

A pair of latex gloves is a good idea to have in your cleaning kit, it just makes it easier to keep clean (especially if you're late for scoff after a range practice!). Also, that carbon/oil residue seems to stay on your fingers for days, even with swarfega. I'd second the eye protection, although it is a bit more difficult to carry safety glasses around with you (unless you wear them for shooting). I can't remember how many times last year I flicked carbon chips in my eyes from cleaning gas plugs!

[DeltaWhisky58]

Yes ,but only as a short term expedient to rmeoving barrel fouling - no substitute for proper cleaning.

[MEGR]

I shower with mine.

[sir-chimp]

I shower with mine.


with your piss?

Im so confused ;)

I take it its the acid in the pee that makes it work?

[MEGR]

No dude, that was Field Gunner. I'm not some weirdo ya know.

[Geezah]

Is it the ammonia in the pee that helps clean it out, I heard that you can use Windex(glass cleaner) again because of the ammonia???

[vlun]

what type of guns, or bullets still use lead? Aren't most rounds now made of copper?

I heard 1 gram of lead can pollute 1 million litres of groundwater. Now if you guys are shooting thousands of rounds a day, you could seriously hurt the environment. (I like guns, but this is a concern I have).

Vman

[Hydro]

Bullets are lead surrounded by a copper jacket.


I agree on the latex gloves thing, just came off a weekend firing and forgot mine, my hands were totally caked in oil and carbon crap. Then you run into the annoying situation of touching clean parts with dirty hands and smearing crap all over your working parts.

[Durandal]

what type of guns, or bullets still use lead? Aren't most rounds now made of copper?

I heard 1 gram of lead can pollute 1 million litres of groundwater. Now if you guys are shooting thousands of rounds a day, you could seriously hurt the environment. (I like guns, but this is a concern I have).

Not nearly the concern you might think it is. In fact, shooting rifle and pistol is far less polluting than say, shotgun...and all three are far less polluting since there are so few ranges when compared to industrial pollution and automobiles (those weights on the tires...lead)...

Trust me, unless some dumbass developer decides to build a housing development on an gun range the problem is not nearly as bad as you might think.

Just as an example, in my area, there are abundant amounts of clay, a material usually used in making backstops with a dirt covering. Lead actually bonds with clay, and so long as you control the flow of run off to a holding pound of some sort, there are no problems. Most ranges these days also work out deals with lead abatement companies who, depending on the company, actually pay to strip off the surface of top soil and reclaim the lead.

Now, in the case of private ranges (like mine) this might be different. I'll host an event twice a year where there might be 40 shooters and collectively, we put, probably 10 THOUSAND rounds, maybe a bit more in each day of the event. Then, we are back down to our usual shooting schedule of once or twice a week where the number of rounds ranges from a 2 dozen to 1000. Hell, one evening we spent screwing around with this guys Maxim MG trying to get it to work...maybe 10 rounds shot total.

Anyways, you are looking at maybe 150 THOUSAND rounds each year, probably less. Most are rifle and pistol rounds, not shot, so we are talking about solid slugs that take as much as 10000 YEARS to permeate 30 feet of clay and gravel...

The local power plant is making something like 150 MILLION tons of Fly Ash each year which contains lead, nickel,and cadmium. All of 'em toxic and all of them being buried. I think that is far more of a concern.