Gun cleaning

emr

Cheesehead Treehouser
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Nov 5, 2006
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Neenah, Wisconsin
There seems to be lots of gun folks here so I thought I would tap that resource tonight. I am just picking up shooting as a hobby..... Again. I used to shoot quite a bit as a junior and I was pretty good at it. I have always deer hunted but I got away from all other shooting. Last year I bought my oldest son a BB gun for his birthday and then got a membership at the gun club so we could shot it together. Since then, I have been shooting my muzzle loader, 30/30, 12ga, and 357. I always go home and immediately clean the guns the best I can. Today I came home from deer hunting and started cleaning my 30/30 and my muzzle loader. I didn't even shoot my 30/30 but I noticed specks of dirt in the barrel that I can't get out. I have sent numerous patches down with Hoppes No. 9, a Hoppes Copper solvent, and many times down with a wire brush and I still can't get it clean. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get those specks out? And do I even need to worry about it or am I just being to anal?
 
Eric,

Are you sure the barrel isn't pitted? Corrosion can cause pitting, which may look like small specks of dirt when looking at it from either end of the barrel.

In either case, there isn't too much to worry about. Keep your firearms clean to prevent any further damage to the barrel.

Joel
 
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I'm not sure..... I look down the muzzle with a bore light in the breech. It appears to me that the specks look like they are not always in the same position of the barrel but it's hard to tell.

It's hard to believe but I've had this rifle for over 20 years and it's been through a lot of bad weather and loys of rounds have been fired through it. So pitting is definitely possible. I just would have thought I would've noticed it before now.
 
If the "dirt" is moving around but not coming clear of the barrel, then you might need to swab a new cloth one way, but not pull it...remove that cloth from the rod, replace with a fresh new piece, and pull it clear. Maybe try that two or three times. I have been guilty of not being willing to change swab cloths often enough, and maybe that's your issue too.

On the other hand, if permanent pitting has occurred, then you just have to try to limit further corrosion by religious cleaning and oiling after use (and if you fire the gun less than monthly, go back and clean/oil anyway every 4 to 6 months or so).

Storage in a heated and de-humidified cabinet can REALLY help these issues.
 
Since you were a federal employee, and if I were one, I figured one would at least exercise their right to carry at least just to do so in a career :/:
 
Actually, the feds in the form of the USFS make that next to impossible unless you are an LEO.

The "unless" is if you have special job requirements...one might be working in bear country, which I did not. In my case it was using specialized sniper type rifles to harvest old growth grafting scion and to sample cones for ripeness, so climbing to harvest them could be timed correctly. And to keep that authorization, at least starting about 1994, I had to piss in a bottle at the random whim of the agency. I had no more than 2 hours to present my bladder to a testing agency that was a minimum of 1 hour's drive from my duty station...and my field work usually had me well over an hour from there. You do the math...always a hassle :).

Of course, I would have been hard pressed to do anything like the damage a drugged up driver of a federally owned pickup might do, with my bolt action single shot 22.250...but fed employee drivers were not required to take random drug tests.

I should note, Congress made these rules, not the US Forest Service :|:.

Other fed agencies, of them I know nothing.
 
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The Game and Fish job...well, you may well recall the story of the water moccasin, the regional office program inspector, and the hole in the johnboat, no???

:lol:

That was a state position, anyway :D.
 
I just used the OTIS system for the first time. What a huge improvement over cleaning rods and it's super simple and compact, no wonder the military uses it. Pretty similar to Willie's bore snake.
 
This is for problem guns or when match grade accuracy is needed, not every day hunting cleaning.
Hoppes #9, JB bore paste, followed by #9, then dry patched. Repeat until no green shows on a dry patch the next day.

Will take 2-5 shots to restabilize the bore for accuracy after this but you know it is a clean place to start before a match.
Modern powders seal the bore, so as long as they are stored in a dry area no real need for cleaning until accuracy is in question.

Muzzle loaders are a whole nother level of pita. Blacksolve has been the best option I have used for them.
 
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That bore snake looks like something you could buy at Treestuff.

Some of the solvents say that they remove gunk overnight.... How do you keep it in over night. They bottles are very small so I assume that you don't soak the barrel in it. Do you just send a damp patch down and not follow up with a dry one? And then clean the gun the next day as usual?
 
Be careful mixing solvents in the bore. Some mixtures will corrode the bore that way.

Run a wet patch and let sit over night. Dry patch in the morning, if green wet patch again. Repeat until no green for deep cleaning.
 
What about using an abrasive compound in a bore to bring back a clean surface? There certainly are a variety of different grits that work on metal, up to a high polish.
 
You don't need to do that to clean. That's primarily for polishing out tooling marks in the bore.
 
Squeeze off a few rounds and that should take care of the dirt and tell you if it is pitting or not and then you can re-clean knowing what it is.
 
Theres a chance it could be leading in the barrel...do you shoot all lead bullets that are not copper incased?
 
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