Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation

Part 13

Guarding the Muzzle

57. If the firearm has a fixed barrel and a bolt that cannot easily be removed the barrel has to be cleaned from the muzzle. Cleaning from the muzzle can be a problem if damage is done to the “crown” of the barrel as it will severely affect accuracy. So protecting the crown is a priority. A hard or dirty cleaning rod, rubbing on the inside of the barrel wears the critical edges where the bullet leaves the barrel. Any wear on these leading edges ruins any hope of accuracy. So to prevent this a Muzzle guard can be simply made, anything which can be a tight fit on the outside of the barrel, as an example like an empty 12 gauge cartridge case with the primer drilled out to accept the cleaning rod is a good example for …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part 12
USING THE CLEANING EQUIPMENT

Using the Cleaning Rod

52. Clean the barrel, from the breech where ever you can remove the bolt from the rifle or removing the barrel from gun as in a break barrel shotgun. If you have no padded vice or a cleaning stand, place a little piece of pine board, about six inches square on the floor, this is to rest the muzzle on as you push the cleaning rod through the barrel. Pine is quite soft and will not damage the “crown”( that is the inside of the dangerous end of your barrel the “muzzle” is the outside of the end of the barrel). The wooden block gives you something to push against.

53. Screw on the correct sized Bronze (Brass) brush to the rod, apply the correct solvent to the brush, Rimfire, shotguns and low velocity …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Eleven

External Storage of a Firearm.

48. Rusting cannot occur without oxygen, water has no shortage of it , dryness and coldness reduce the rusting process. Warmth melts your rust inhibitors and moisture speeds up the process. Try not to leave guns in any type of gun bag or case, whatever it is made of, all linings hold moisture which cannot escape. Most gun bags and cases are nearly air tight, when firearms are stored in them, it is almost always a death sentence, as the moisture which is always present in woodwork or the lining of the bag has no escape. When it evaporates with temperature changes it re-condenses itself on the cold steel surfaces, then it oxidises, it looks like rust it tastes like rust, believe it, it is rust.

49. For the best protective results use a lanolin based gun grease …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Ten

Protecting the Bore, Storing, Not Boring, I Hope?

43. The barrel has to be clean and dry when its expected to be used for the competition or hunt, always clean out storage grease or any oil before going out shooting. Discharging a firearm with a coating of oil on the inside of the barrel, acts as a barrel obstruction, which causes hydrostatic compression rings inside the barrel. They are impossible to remove and as the bore diameter is greater in these areas, gas may burn through between the bullet jacket and the bore causing accuracy loss and damaging the barrel even to a greater extent.

For Short Term Storage.

44. When the internals of the firearm have been throughly cleaned, coat a clean flannel patch with a light good quality gun oil as it gets into the pores of the barrel steel, and …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Nine

Rust Inhibiting Products

40.There are many products on sale in the gun trade for resisting rust, most suffer from ambitious advertising blurbs that are proved to wash away on the first downpour at the range. Others are for external use on the firearm only. I have been looking for the ideal rust inhibitor since 1959 and still have not found it. Rust is the greatest destroyer of firearms, it even beats governments, its a relentless 24 hours a day killer of guns and once it establishes itself by making a pit hole, the steel or stainless steel, that it has eaten into can never be replaced so it is very important to resist it.

41. Twenty five years ago I had a hunting partner and everything he touched turned rusty within hours due to the salt content in his perspiration, we used …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Eight

Oils Ain’t Just Oils

Lubricating Oil

37. Take some time to chose a good lubricating oil for the moving parts of a firearms mechanism. It can also be used for a short term rust preventative in the barrel, when the firearm is being used every few days. There are many unsatisfactory oils on the market. Gun oil for lubricating should not be two thin like many of the spray on lubricants as they seem to run off very quickly or evaporate not long after they are sprayed. Petroleum based oil rots wood work and dissolves some plastics, rots rubber grips on pistols and butt pads on rifles, so stay away from all of them. Some thicker oils gum up and stick some of the moving parts together, some evaporate in hot weather leaving a gummy residue, some solidify in cold weather. In …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Seven

Cleaning Solutions, Copper or Metal Solvents

31. In today’s, 21st Century centre-fire rifle shooting, high velocity with copper jacketed projectiles is the ‘norm’ not the exception. The propellent powder we burn is non-corrosive and the primer residue is non-corrosive, the copper projectile is not like lead which needs a lubrication to stop it from smearing the barrel. So why, many ask, do we have to go to so much trouble in cleaning the barrels. Well at the beginning of the 20th century when we had corrosive powder and corrosive primers, cleaning had to carried out on a religious basis or within days they would be rusty pipes, but there was little problems with copper or metal fouling as the copper jacketed projectiles for the conservatively loaded cartridges of the day, 30/30, 303 British and 22 Hornet were only producing velocities of about …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Six

Cleaning Solutions, Powder Solvents

28. A cleaning solution or what is commonly called a ‘Power Solvent’ is fine for cleaning shotguns and most 22 Rimfire rifles, most of them are similar to Hoppe No 9 Powder solvent. Just soak the cleaning brush and apply to the barrel, it’s ideal for removing the burnt powder, fouling, and build up of wax lubricants, combined with the agitation of the brush it will also remove leading or the build up of plastic left by shotgun wads. Remember do not leave any solvents in barrels for long term, 20 minutes at most, as they are not rust preventatives at all. Solvents dissolve any oil protection that may still be in the barrel and even if they are not corrosive themselves leave the barrel steel completely un-protected. Remove them with dry patches on a Jag and Rod, then …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Five

Cleaning Patches.

24. For many reasons do not use just any old rags to cut up into cleaning patches, other materials do not have the strength or compression especially after they have been washed several times. Sometimes other materials knot up and jam in the barrel, destroying a cleaning rod to save the price of a patch is criminal, destroying the barrel to get the cleaning rod out is an abomination. Extraction of anything stuck in a barrel is always stressful. Old pyjamas and underwear contain salt from sweat. Cleaning patches should be always made from Cantonese (China) Flannel, or what we used to call Four be Two in the Army, as its 4 inches wide with a red line every 2 inches. The flannel should be cut in squares or punched out with a round hole punch.

25. The size of …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Four

Brass or Bronze Brushes.

21. The cleaning fluids should be applied to the brush, the brush attached to the cleaning rod and where possible entered from the breech end and pushed all the way through the barrel, push out of the muzzle, then pull them straight back and out of the chamber. They last about 30 cleans and to clean them just wash them out in boiling water. Bronze Brushes are available from most gun dealers in all calibres. Nylon or bristle are poor second choices. If brushes are too small they are useless, if they are too big they either don’t fit or the bronze wires just lay back and do not work. Ideally they should agitate the cleaning solvent and loosen powder carbon, lead and copper fouling which is like a very thin plating which has to be brushed off or …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Three

The Equipment

Cleaning Rods

11.The heart and sole of any firearm is the barrel, it is the most difficult part to replace or repair, so much depends upon its accuracy and performance, it dictates that it must deserve the most attention. That is why the most important item of cleaning equipment is a well fitting, one piece cleaning rod, with a thread on one end to interchange with a brush and jag and a revolving handle on the other end.

12. ‘Pull throughs’, are available and they can be used to spread some oil in a barrel and even dry it out before shooting it but they can never clean a barrel properly and predictably break when you need them most. ‘Pull throughs’, would have to be near the top of the list of obstructions that gunsmiths are continually asked to remove from …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part Two

When to Clean a Firearm

9. Preservation of firearms depends upon proper attention at the right time, more than frequency of attention. Well stored firearms, even in tropical conditions can survive for more than ten years without damage as long as that initial cleaning and preparation has been carried out with knowledge and attention.

10.If humanly possible, always clean a firearm, especially the barrel, before the evening of the day on which it was fired, because as the temperature cools humidity condenses into a fine layer of moisture which will remain on the dry surfaces inside and outside your barrel.
Cleaning involves a certain amount of time and energy. Mostly at the end of an exhausting days hunting or competition when everyone is tired. Take a little time to plan your preserving operation as it is important that it should be reduced …

Understanding Firearm Cleaning and Preservation.

Part One

Prelude

The following comments on cleaning and care may seem at first glance rather lengthy. I do hope that you appreciate its importance and read it, in its entirety, but for the person who is only looking for information concerning one aspect, of preserving firearms each aspect is on its own separate page. Having spent many thousands of hours explaining the subject to customers and having nothing in writing to refer them to, I felt the time has come not for a quick 1 to 5 summation, (if anyone wants that, they can read the directions on the label of the cleaning products), but to explain a very important subject which to date has had little serious attention and yet costs us all, so dearly if we ignore it.
In explaining why things have to be done correctly, I hope it inspires and …