Cleaning Tips and Tricks

[Disciple]

Pull, don't push.

With a rod, or using a filament?

[ndmiller]

I was always taught and then subscribed to the philosophy that gun cleaning is more about inspection than cleaning to bare metal. CLP patch barrel, let sit while CLPing and wiping down everything else while inspecting parts, patch barrel, lube. Function test to ensure I put it all together correctly, look for additional parts laying around and then call it done.

[HKGuns]

With a rod, or using a filament?

I'm guessing snake or Otis.

[JiminAZ]

I have become a big fan of the bore snakes over the past few years. Quick couple of passes with the bore snake/few drops of CLP after a range visit and wipe down/put the gun away. Same with my shotguns.

Pretty rare that I run a rod down the bore of any of my rifles, with the exception of bolt action guns firing solid copper hunting bullets which foul pretty fast. I think we hunted 3 seasons with a Tikka T3 in 6.5 Creedmore without cleaning it. Accuracy was fantastic.

M-Pro-7, the water based cleaner, is amazingly good at cutting carbon deposits that solvents won't move (or that move marginally with solvent). Stuff amazes me. Way less scrubbing required. Squirt a little on there and let it sit a bit and it will loosen the carbon right up for easy removal. Use this stuff a lot on my semi-autos (rifle/pistol/gas operated shotguns).

Also the bore foam "Wipe out" works as advertised and greatly reduces or dang near eliminates scrubbing with brushes, patches, etc. Great for copper deposits.

[TMS951]

Kind of expensive/wasteful but when cleaning a dirty upper out, especially in a surpassed gun. I like to take a can of something good, like brake clean or a gods gun cleaner. I put the little hose attachment on and go outside and spray that upper and barrel extension. I use a combo of the cleaning power and the pressure of it coming out to clean it out. Only down side is typically use at least half a can of whatever.

I also spray the life out of the bolt and carrier too

[Pappabear]

This may have already been posted but I buy the wooden cotton tips that have one round end and one pointed end for getting in tight places. Kinda nice.

[JiminAZ]

Also this is probably second nature to most of you, but I'll say it for the noob who reads this some day.

Wipe up as much oily/carbon crap as you can before using solvent (I'm not talking about the bore here - just the action and fire control system of the gun). Use a rag or paper towel. I like the blue shop paper towels.

If you introduce solvent from the beginning, you just make a big mess with solvent loosened carbon schmoo redepositing itself in new places.

[T2C]

The cleaning rod guide I have fits on the chamber end of the barrel. Is there another?

For a semi-automatic, such as a M1 Garand or M1A, the cleaning rod guide fits on the muzzle end. The M1A guide fits snug inside the flash hider and the M1 Garand guide fits over the muzzle.

As Lysander pointed out...pull, don't push the cleaning rod. The rod goes into the muzzle on a M1 Garand or M1A, you screw on the brush, then you pull the brush from chamber to muzzle. It takes a bit longer than leaving the brush on the rod and pushing/pulling through the barrel, but you will reduce the chances of inducing wear that causes accuracy issues.

I also highly recommend wiping off the cleaning rod with a clean cloth frequently.

[MegademiC]

Some folks are leery about using ammonia-based cleaners on chrome-lined bores. Haven't heard or read about any really detrimental results.

There is no issue. The fear of it is born from a false correlation of decoritive chrome, and the copper strike to hard chrine directly on steel.

[DG23]

Kind of expensive/wasteful but when cleaning a dirty upper out, especially in a surpassed gun. I like to take a can of something good, like brake clean or a gods gun cleaner. I put the little hose attachment on and go outside and spray that upper and barrel extension. I use a combo of the cleaning power and the pressure of it coming out to clean it out. Only down side is typically use at least half a can of whatever.

I also spray the life out of the bolt and carrier too

Which is why I use kerosene. A single gallon will easily clean a hundred AR rifles (or more).

Soak parts in the can of kerosene, After soaking for a bit brush clean while submerged, Slowly lift parts out allowing the crud to fall back into the can.

When finished if you set that can of kerosene off to the side and let it sit for a day or so pretty much all of the crud / carbon will fall to the bottom and leave you with clean kerosene on top which can be poured off into a different container long enough for you to then wipe the sediment / gunk out of the can you did your cleaning in with nothing more than a few paper towels. Pour kerosene back into the 'cleaning can' and you are ready to go for the next time with very, very little wasted / lost.

There are no parts on a mil-spec AR type rifle that can be damaged from soaking in kerosene. The longer one soaks the parts the easier it is to remove the carbon / fouling.

Kerosene is a very LOW flash point solvent. (meaning - NOT very easy to ignite)