Fall Cleaning

 Autumn is gun cleaning season for me. Throughout the spring, summer, and early fall, I've been shooting, and now I have to pay the gun cleaning piper.

Why clean guns?  With modern powders, we don't have to worry about corrosion, right?

It turns out it's not powder, but primer, that’s the problem.  Corrosive ammunition uses a potassium chlorate-based primer. The chlorate forms a hygroscopic residue in the bore.  This material attracts water and causes rust.  You should remove these salts with hot, soapy water and then oil the bore.  That’s not much of a problem anymore with non-corrosive ammunition.  But even modern ammo leaves some residue in the bore, and sometimes that can attract moisture.  Both lead and copper bullets leave films of metal that slowly alter the lands and grooves.

Cleaning your gun is a great way to check for the wear that comes from using firearms. I once found a crack at the junction of the chamber and barrel in my Beretta.  I was glad to catch it before things went to hell in a handbag.

Otis is one of many fine companies making cleaning systems, but you can make your own.

How you clean your firearms is another great conversational starter at any range or gathering of shooters.  Not cleaning them is the only wrong way.

Do I need to remind you to make sure the gun is unloaded?  I hope not.

Me?  I like an oily dip tank.  I remove the grips, field-strip the gun, and let it soak in my favorite mixture: 1/3 mineral spirits, 1/3 WD-40, and 1/3 Clenzoil.  I find this solution gets in everywhere, and loosens crud, old sludgy oil, and unburnt powder.  I blow it out with compressed solvents or brake cleaner.  Everything I can reach is scrubbed with a toothbrush and wiped down with a rag.  This leaves a fine molecular film on metal surfaces.

Bores get a wet patching with Hoppe's 9 Copper Remover.  I wet patch the bore, chambers, and any areas where lead has built up.  Chemical reactions take time, so I let it sit for a while and I work on the rest of the gun.

I give the Hoppe's areas a scrub with a brass brush, followed by a second wet patch, then more brass brushing, and finally wet and dry patching.  That usually removes any lead or copper build-up, but I hold the barrel up to a bright, white surface and inspect the bore, just to be sure.

Everything gets toweled as dry as I can get it, then re-oiled.  Yeah, I know it doesn't seem to make sense.  But I think the dip solvents leave a thin film on the metal components I can't reach.  I like Tri-Flow with Teflon to protect the moving metal-to-metal surfaces.  A gunsmith I respect told me he stopped using Tri-Flow during break-in periods because it's too good a lubricant.  That's good enough for me.  I even damp patch my cleaned bores with Tri-Flow.

My 'system' is cobble together from odds and end to met my methods

Finally, the gun is reassembled and put back into storage.  Carry guns get a paper toweling before being pressed into service.  I want to make sure oil isn't collecting on the primers.  In the years I've been doing this, I've never had a problem.

How often should you clean guns?  I'd clean any gun I shot in the rain as soon as possible.  I've heard stories of precision shooters who have disassembled and reassembled their guns so much during cleaning as to lose some the inherent accuracy of a tightly fitted gun.  I've never met anyone who claims this happened to them.

I think if you're going to go out every week and shoot 50 rounds, a good cleaning every couple of months is fine.  Take a class and shoot 600 rounds, and I'd clean it after the class was over.

Find out what works for you, both in procedure and frequency.

Let me step off stage with a parting observation.  At flea markets, I often see vendors selling what should be high-end metal vices, but have allowed them to rust.  I see what should have been expensive, collectable knives, with rusted blades and springs.  In these cases, a few drops of 3-in-1 oil would have maintained the value.  The same applies to your guns.