I like to clean guns...

[Adam Helmer]

I hang around my local gun club and gunshop and hear folks lament about the "terrible" chore about cleaning guns. I cannot fathom the lament. Smokeless powder handguns, rifles or shotguns will take 10 minutes to clean, if one is slow. Muzzleloaders take about 20 minutes to do a thorough job.

A neighbor came by last week with a Glock 9mm M19 and a 4-inch M19 .357S&W. He had fired them both and asked for a cleaning seminar. He recently bought both and, naturally, did not read the instructional booklets provided by both manufacturers.

It amazes me how new gun buyers will pay $400 or $600 for a firearm and neglect to pay $10 for a set of ear muffs or $15 for a cleaning kit to preserve their firearms. My neighbor had neither muffs or cleaning kit. We need to get the word out to these "Pilgrims."

I showed my neighbor how to properly clean his pistols and sent him off to the store for muffs and cleaning kit. Game Over! I have a sad story about a new owner of a S&W M29 .44 Magnum sans muffs, but that is for another day.

Adam

[Mr. 16 gauge]

I have a sad story about a new owner of a S&W M29 .44 Magnum sans muffs, but that is for another day.

What?.........what was that you said?

On a serious note: You are right, Adam.....most folks don't realize that they need to invest in a pair of muffs (and shooting glasses) and a good cleaning kit, and a good case (a box may be legal, but won't last much over time). Even sadder is that most folks don't read the instruction manual, which eventually leads to B.S. lawsuits.

[Adam Helmer]

Mr. 16 gauge,

Ok, here is the rest of the Story.

A few year ago I went to my local club in NH on a Saturday morning about 0800. It was Winter and I was usually all alone. I was on one of the 6 outdoor range benches when a middle aged club member showed up. He had the day before bought a 6-inch M-29 S&W and a box of factory .44 Magnum loads. He had no muffs, no targets and no shooting glasses. I invited him to shoot at my 25-yard target and offered him my ear muffs while I sat in my nearby truck. He said, "No, I don't need your muffs. I will only shoot 6 rounds at your target." He fired 6 rounds and quickly left the range.

A week later at our monthly club meeting I chatted with the guy. He said, "You were right, a .44 Magnum has a big blast. I had ringing in my ears for 3 days, a wicked headache and missed 3 days of work." WELL, DUH!!!!

Adam

[FIJI]

I HATE to clean guns. I LOVE the smell of Hoppes and I know how to do it quickly, properly and have all the right stuff.

I just despise doing it. Always have, :mad:

If there were a "dry cleaners" type place (in by 9, out by 4) I'd take mine there in a heartbeat :D

[Catfish]

Adam, we have 1 guy at our local club that definately cleans his guns. I think he only get about 100 round from a barrel befor he wear the lands out with cleaning patches.

[Adam Helmer]

Catfish,

I agree that gun cleaning can be overdone. I know a guy who wipes all his guns off with a wash cloth full of RIG gun grease. He will show you his guns, but insists, "Don't touch the metal." His entire collection is "processed for overseas shipment" on the deck of a submarine.

Adam

[skeet]

I despise cleaning guns and don't overdo it. But when I clean the Krieghoff I detail it..and every two years have it gone over by the Krieghoff dealer back in Pa. In approx 30 yrs that gun has had in the neighborhood of 500,000(more actually) shells through it and the only thing that has ever broken was a trigger axle. Continued to shoot just fine. I also shot an awful lot of shells through 1100s..another 200,000 or so. They need a good amount of cleaning. But to do it properly only takes about 10 minutes. That figures out to approx 20,000 minutes just for 1100's. Cleaning guns sucks

[Jack]

I'm in the 'I like a clean gun' group. Of course, I know how to clean a barrel- and have the right tools to do it- without wearing the barrel out out, too.
I've bought a few rifles that had 'shot out' barrels - until they got a good cleaning, and suddenly they weren't 'shot out' any more.

[skeet]

Jack is right about shot out bbls. I got a nice Colt 45 auto once that was terrible at grouping.It shot patterns. Cleaned the bbl with one of those electric cleaners with both copper cleaner and lead out.. Darn gun shot great. I also have a fair amount of mercury to clean lead out of bbls. Works really great. You DO have to be a bit careful though. It also does great taking gold dust out of a pan too...but we haven't found any great amount yet. Funny but I have never had a really bad shot out bbl..close though

[Catfish]

My wife has a cousin that bought a 722 Rem, in 222 in 1960. He put a K-8 Weaver on it and put it in his truck. It staied there untill the late 1990`s and he would kill over 200 groundhogs a year with it. In the late 90`s I ask him how many groundhogs he had and he told me his gun was shot out. I`ve never seen a 222 that was shot out and brought his rifle home with me. I ran 50 patchs of Sweets 7.62 through the bore and number 50 was just as blue as number 1. Since I was tired of cleaning I took it out and fire it. I put 5 rounds in at about .600 at 100 yrds. So I cleaned up the gun, put a coat of finish on the stock and took it back to him. I figured in another 30 years I would finish the cleaning and redo the stock again.

[buckhunter]

I try to clean mine everytime I shoot them which doesn't always work out. The only time I have a dirty bore is when I hunt however the outside is wipedown. Most of my long guns shoot better with a dirty bore. Usually after the season, I totally breakthem down and give them a good going over. Usually on a day like today -2 at 8 up to 10 at noon. I just look at it as part of the hobby.

[Evan03]

i dont mind cleaning guns but i dont do it very often either. maybe running a brush down my 2506 ever 1000rds or so
cleaning in my opions overated

i may find difrent with my venture into the 1911 world

[fabsroman]

Mr. 16 gauge,

Ok, here is the rest of the Story.

A few year ago I went to my local club in NH on a Saturday morning about 0800. It was Winter and I was usually all alone. I was on one of the 6 outdoor range benches when a middle aged club member showed up. He had the day before bought a 6-inch M-29 S&W and a box of factory .44 Magnum loads. He had no muffs, no targets and no shooting glasses. I invited him to shoot at my 25-yard target and offered him my ear muffs while I sat in my nearby truck. He said, "No, I don't need your muffs. I will only shoot 6 rounds at your target." He fired 6 rounds and quickly left the range.

A week later at our monthly club meeting I chatted with the guy. He said, "You were right, a .44 Magnum has a big blast. I had ringing in my ears for 3 days, a wicked headache and missed 3 days of work." WELL, DUH!!!!

Adam

In an indoor range, the muzzle blast is really loud because of the confined space. I really need to invest in some molded ear plugs that allow me to hear when I am not shooting. I use the el cheapo orange ear plugs, but I hate the fact that I cannot hear very well when I am using them.

[fabsroman]

In my 20's I was the guy that tore down the guns and cleaned them after every use. I actually ran a brush through them, even the shotguns. Then, in my 30's I found a cotton cleaning rod and started using that instead of a brush every time and I would just oil down the exterior. I would use a brush on my guns once a year in the spring. Now, at age 40 with a wife, 2 kids, a dog, grass to mow, a house to fix, etc., cleaning guns is the furthest thing from my mind. Yeah, I oiled my SBE down on Saturday after hunting, but that is because we were hunting in the rain. Can't remember the last time I cleaned my rifles, much less the last time I fired any of them.

Good news is that we moved to a place that is less than 20 minutes from a gun club with trap, skeet, and rifle ranges out to 200 yards. I cannot wait until I can start using it and get all my reloading stuff set up here.

[Larryjk]

I wouldn't exactly say I love cleaning guns but I feel I need a clean barrel for especially my rifles to perform. I shoot groups from a clean barrel when working up loads and feel the same loads will shoot where I am aiming when fired from a clean barrel. I am also an advocate of "moly'" treated barrels and bullets. Everything below 25 caliber gets the"moly" treatment. I don't put brushes through the barrels but use tight patches with ammonia based cleaners. The last thing I put through the barrel is a patch or two with Kroil, and then a dry patch.
Living with a 17 Remington taught me these principles after a conversation with Walt Berger of Berger bullets.

[Evan03]

My go to rifle actually shoots best after 50tds or so. And most deginatly wont see a bore brush before hunting season. I do clean it with sweets every other year or so. This is just a standerd ruger.

A tight Mach bore may see accuracy degrade with fouling build up because it's tighter to start with.

[temmi]

Oddly enough I like to clean guns too.

In fact I am the family Gun Cleaner

[PJgunner]

My wife has a cousin that bought a 722 Rem, in 222 in 1960. He put a K-8 Weaver on it and put it in his truck. It staied there untill the late 1990`s and he would kill over 200 groundhogs a year with it. In the late 90`s I ask him how many groundhogs he had and he told me his gun was shot out. I`ve never seen a 222 that was shot out and brought his rifle home with me. I ran 50 patchs of Sweets 7.62 through the bore and number 50 was just as blue as number 1. Since I was tired of cleaning I took it out and fire it. I put 5 rounds in at about .600 at 100 yrds. So I cleaned up the gun, put a coat of finish on the stock and took it back to him. I figured in another 30 years I would finish the cleaning and redo the stock again.

Next time, do that cleaning with JB Bore paste. That's what the bench resters use.:eek: Really, it won't hurt the bore. I have a Winchester M70 in 7x57 Mauser that is a barrel fouler of he highest order. Finally I did a fire lapping job on the gun and it's a lot better but still fouls fairly quickly. I'll run a patch with the Sweet's 7.62 first to see how bad the fouling is, then wipe that out and use a 25 caliber brush wrapped with some paper towel patches smeared woth the JB. I do 50 full bcck and forth strokes. The gun is mounted in a vice with protected jaws and the muzzle is hard up against the wall so that the paper patch does not leave the muzzle. I do the same for the Sweet's. After the 50 strokes, I wipe down the bore and run another Sweet's patch to check on how blue the patch gets. Usually I have to do another 50 strokes with the JB and one more Sweet's and 99.9 percent of the copper fouling is gone. :cool: Then, I make sure everything is out of the barrel and chamber with some Shooter's Choice solvent. Then, one more dry patch, a patch with some WD40 to preserve the bore and I'm done.
Paul B.

[PJgunner]

Larry. You might want to be careful with that moly stuff. Gun writer Rick jamison did some experimentation with it and later when he removed the moly coating from his barrel, it was badly corroded under that moly. Apparently is somehow allowed moisture to creep under the coating and caused the corrosion.
I know Rick wasn't very popular after he sued Winchester because of his paptents on the short mag rounds but he really did know his stuff when it came to the technical side of guns and shooting.
Paul B.

[Montana Cowboy]

My gun's are cleaned after every use. I've worked hard for the money to buy them just like my car and truck I take good care of them. When I need to depend on them I don't want any malfunctions. Sure I'm like everybody else I'd rather do something else but I know what it is like to work for the money to buy anything and so I take care of what I own. My wife likes the smell of Hoppe's so she likes to come out and visit while I'm cleaning my gun. MC

[Larryjk]

PJgunner, I know there are a lot of pros and cons of moly. I have not found the problems many people speak of (Wyoming is very low humidity). I also do not use the wax on my bullets after I coat them with moly. I have learned to wash my hands after work sessions with powder and bullets, so the moly doesn't bother me. After about 10 years, my 17 barrel is still free of visible corrosion.