doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Double gun cleaning

Yesterday I was partaking in my usual after shooting ritual of gun cleaning. First wiping the bores with a dry cotton swab removing any loose debris, then following that up with some nitro solvent on another swab till the patches come out clean, then a phosphor bronze brush with some oil and finally a wool mop to evenly distribute the oil. This got me thinking, there are probably as many ways to clean a gun as there are guns. What's your method?

Joe

Wipe barrels through with tissue paper to remove dirt and loose debris.

Couple of drops of Young's 303 in each barrel and pass through/spread with brass Payne Gallwey brush. (Addition if they have been wet, place barrels on warm radiator until totally dry.)

Leave at least 10 minutes - meanwhile, drop of Youngs 303 on finger and clean residue off action face and around firing pins.

Further scrub with brush, then tissue paper though until clean(ish) (about 3 or 4 times).

Check clean and free from leading streaks - and if not repeat. Bores should be near mirror bright.

Spread a couple of drops of oil in each barrel with fibre Payne Gallwey brush

Clean under ejectors with oily cloth - if necessary take out, clean and lightly grease (about twice a year)

Tissue off old grease from hinge, lumps, knuckle etc - and small smear of fresh grease (any general purpose grease)

Reassemble. Wipe external metalwork with cloth and a drop or two of Rangoon oil.

About once or twice a year a little stock oil (Phillips walnut oil).

Important points;
Use the opportunity to check over carefully for corrosion, damage etc.
Clean off old oil and grease taking dirt and grit with it.
Fresh oil/grease should be very sparingly applied so that it NEVER runs down.

Finally, two things that don't go near my guns (in normal cleaning anyway) - WD40 and wirewool.

I first put a dry bronze brush of the correct gauge size and run that through the barrels a few times to loosen whatever might be there, dirt, unfired powder, plastic, etc. I then put a 2"x 2" patch and put some Hope's #9 on it and run that through one bore a few times, and then using the same patch run that through the other bore. Put new patch on and do the same over again until the patch comes out clean.
Switch to a wool mop with some Rem oil and do both bores.

I do not use grease on hinge pins, to me grease attracts dirt and dirt grinds into metal. If anything I might use Molykote. the one I use is a graphite powder, and lasts a long time and gets into the pores.

When I'm doing an extreme clean I clamp my barrels in a leather padded vise. Then I push folded Bounty paper towels through wet with solvent expelling them out the front of the bore into a trash can.

I then remove my rod and wipe it down and repeat until I feel all the loose fowling has been pushed out. (I've saw guys work a dirty patch back and forth...to me it makes little sense to spread around what I'm trying to get out).

I then brush back and forth with a bronze/brass bristle brush keeping it well saturated with solvent going in and coming back...at the point that I feel is enough brushing I go back to pushing a few solvent soaked paper towels through followed by dry ones and followed up with an oiled one. Myself I like Ezzox as a rust preventive.

I'm sure Mr. Sniffle'bean will be along in a minute to explain his old under wear cleaning technique.

I only ever have to clean the right barrel

I'm left handed so I shoot the left one first on heavy recoiling SxS's....

Scrub with soap and water since I only use black powder shells. Finish/preserving I use Traditions Wonder Lube patches.

I spray each bore with Gunzilla (Michigan made solvent that works wonders on all my 3 gun competition guns), then pull a bore snake through each barrel twice. Then push a oiled paper towel piece through to finish it off

Do you find that the bore snake does a good job in getting the barrels truly clean?

They work good for a quick clean on a shotgun. They're all I use on .22's and AR's. The spray I use on them I believe is called One Shot...a cleaner and a protectant.