Post by WVsnowflake on Jan 13, 2009 1:21:14 GMT -6
When cleaning the barrel, always clean from the breech end of the gun, preferably using a rod guide to keep solvents and grime out of the action. The last 6 inches of the rifling is the most important for accuracy, with the crown being the most critical. If you must clean from the muzzle end, such as with semi-automatics, use a muzzle-guide to keep the rod from contacting the rifling.
It’s also best to use a stainless-steel or coated one-piece cleaning rod such as those made by Dewey. Stainless is best, brass is mediocre, and aluminum is a poor choice. The softer the metal of the rod, the more chance there is of the metal holding bits of crud and acting like an abrasive and scratching the lands of the rifling, eventually destroying the accuracy of the barrel. One piece rods are best for strength, and also because multi-piece rods sometimes don’t line up properly making it that much more prone to contacting and damaging the barrel.
Start out by wetting a patch with solvent and swabbing the bore thoroughly to get it saturated, or use a foaming bore cleaner. Let it soak a few minutes and then take a bronze or stiff nylon bore brush and scrub the barrel about a dozen times in each direction. Your barrel will probably be very cruddy at this time. Instead of trying to patch out all the crud, take a paper-towel and ball it up so it fits into the bore very snuggly, and push it through with the cleaning rod, this should have pushed out most all of the big crud, leaving only hard-fouling to be removed. A BoreSnake can be used for this step instead, but don’t stop and call it quits after using the snake, be sure to continue with the rest of the cleaning steps to remove stubborn copper fouling.
At this point you’ll want to wet another patch with solvent and soak the barrel again for several minutes. Follow up with a dry patch. Repeat the solvent/dry-patch routine until the dry patches come out clean without any hint of dissolved fouling on them. You can tell if you are still getting copper fouling out of the barrel because you will see a blue or green tinge on the patch. I’ve found that one of the best all-around bore cleaners is Birchwood-Casey Bore Scrubber®. It does a fine job on powder, copper, and plastic shot-wad fouling. Lead fouling always takes some elbow-grease no matter what product you use, but Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner does a good job on everything, plus makes short work of carbon buildup. I generally try to save the Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner for the tough jobs, as it’s really some potent stuff and not really necessary for every day cleaning tasks, as it strips everything from the surface of the metal (and I have a hunch it softens a gun’s bluing too) and must be followed up with a thorough oiling afterwards to prevent rust; if you inadvertently miss a spot, leaving it dry and unprotected, you will know a short time later because you'll see a rust patch on that spot. That's the nice thing about most other bore solvents, is that they leave a slightly protective coating that will keep the metal from rusting for a short time, should you not thoroughly apply a rust-preventative.
western-wisdom.blogspot.com/2006/09/cleaning-and-storing-your-firearms.html
It’s also best to use a stainless-steel or coated one-piece cleaning rod such as those made by Dewey. Stainless is best, brass is mediocre, and aluminum is a poor choice. The softer the metal of the rod, the more chance there is of the metal holding bits of crud and acting like an abrasive and scratching the lands of the rifling, eventually destroying the accuracy of the barrel. One piece rods are best for strength, and also because multi-piece rods sometimes don’t line up properly making it that much more prone to contacting and damaging the barrel.
Start out by wetting a patch with solvent and swabbing the bore thoroughly to get it saturated, or use a foaming bore cleaner. Let it soak a few minutes and then take a bronze or stiff nylon bore brush and scrub the barrel about a dozen times in each direction. Your barrel will probably be very cruddy at this time. Instead of trying to patch out all the crud, take a paper-towel and ball it up so it fits into the bore very snuggly, and push it through with the cleaning rod, this should have pushed out most all of the big crud, leaving only hard-fouling to be removed. A BoreSnake can be used for this step instead, but don’t stop and call it quits after using the snake, be sure to continue with the rest of the cleaning steps to remove stubborn copper fouling.
At this point you’ll want to wet another patch with solvent and soak the barrel again for several minutes. Follow up with a dry patch. Repeat the solvent/dry-patch routine until the dry patches come out clean without any hint of dissolved fouling on them. You can tell if you are still getting copper fouling out of the barrel because you will see a blue or green tinge on the patch. I’ve found that one of the best all-around bore cleaners is Birchwood-Casey Bore Scrubber®. It does a fine job on powder, copper, and plastic shot-wad fouling. Lead fouling always takes some elbow-grease no matter what product you use, but Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner does a good job on everything, plus makes short work of carbon buildup. I generally try to save the Blue Wonder™ Gun Cleaner for the tough jobs, as it’s really some potent stuff and not really necessary for every day cleaning tasks, as it strips everything from the surface of the metal (and I have a hunch it softens a gun’s bluing too) and must be followed up with a thorough oiling afterwards to prevent rust; if you inadvertently miss a spot, leaving it dry and unprotected, you will know a short time later because you'll see a rust patch on that spot. That's the nice thing about most other bore solvents, is that they leave a slightly protective coating that will keep the metal from rusting for a short time, should you not thoroughly apply a rust-preventative.
western-wisdom.blogspot.com/2006/09/cleaning-and-storing-your-firearms.html
