Rifle cleaning - a lost art?

I've seen several rifles lately that share one common issue. Their chambers were rusty and pitted. One poor guy bought the rifle like that, but the others had done the damage themselves. They were using bore snakes and Otis cleaning systems to pull patches through the bore, but completely neglected the chamber. Makes me wonder if they're issued a chamber brush with the M16 any more. All had failure to extract issues and tell tale scratches and pits in their fired brass after we got it out of the rusty chamber.

In the M16 this is less of an issue with a chrome lined chamber, but in non-chrome commercial barrels you can't neglect any part of the barrel.

I have a whole collection of rods, bore guides, patches and brushes made of different materials. My normal cleaning routine for rifles going into hibernation is a thorough scrubbing until patches come out clean, followed by a single patch wet with Ballistol. I clean the chamber with fiber brushes followed by patches wrapped large around a bore swab. The chamber gets a good shot of Ballistol as well. Rifles that I will shoot within a month usually get a Ballistol wetted bore snake treatment, and a wet patch in the chamber. The only exceptions are .22 rifles that usually just get one dry patch on a one piece rod, and that AK I never intend to clean.

You don't want to wear firearms out with needless disassembly and scrubbing, but you can't neglect them.

Anybody have a unique cleaning routine that works?

 

Many of the rifles I see in pawn shops now days............ I wonder if anyone even bothers to clean them at all

 

Years ago, in the 80s, I had a buddy that bought a Remington 1100 12 ga . Pretty expensive rifle in them days on our salary . Anyway , he ended up putting it in the pawn shop for some needed cash . He got to the point he would leave it in the pawn shop till hunting season , he would pay the minimum payment to keep his account open with them . He said he left it in there because they took better care of it than he did himself . Personally , I think he'd have come out better buying himself a decent cleaning kit .

 

I guess I have a different set of routines for rifles, pistols and revolvers as well as knives, but I'd have trouble putting it in cogent form.

However I have no tricks other than experience.

 

SAME Here .
Sloth

 

A lot of it is need to do vs doing it, as a kid, 1940's, you had to clean a firearm every time you shot it, primers, black powder rifles, etc, and you had no choice. Then in 1960's with new powders, primers, stainless firearms, it became less important and a lot of people were never taught the need to always clean them. As mentioned above, a lot of the new cleaning systems, bore snakes, universal cleaning kits, people knowing how to take gun apart for cleaning, etc, have lead to a lot of problem firearms out there. I see it most often in AR bolts, take them apart and they have never been cleaned and with that gas system they need to be cleaned. Run a long pipe cleaner up the gas tube and it comes out black, er I maybe should say full of powder residue so as to not irritate some snow flake. The number of firearms with external problems is also frightening, not wiped down, not stored correctly, etc, a truck gun is one thing, but people pull things out of the gun safe and show me that make me shudder.

 

I clean guns after every range episode, sometimes a swipe with a brush and patch and wipe off any crud that I see and that's it 'cuz I'm going to shoot it tomorrow, others get a thorough going over 'cuz they are going away for a while. What I find that is almost as important as the cleaning is the familiarization with the firearm, by taking them apart and giving them a thorough cleaning you stay familiar with how they operate and how they come apart. Some very similar guns come apart differently ala the Tactical Solutions 10-22 vs the Ruger 10-22, getting the bolt out of the receiver is different. A 9mm pistol on an AR frame is different than a regular AR, staying familiar with how things work to my way of thinking makes you a more responsible gun owner.

 

Some shooting magazines talk about cleaning rifles when they stop shooting well. I never did get how a soft cleaning rod damages a bore. I keep reading this. I do try and be careful with the cleaning rod. I use chemical cleaners and a bore snake.(not every time) Dragging a few patches through (hoppes) Then dry patches and A patch with a light amount of oil. I admit to not shooting much.

 

I completely agree...for guys who will take the time to learn how, and are good with quality tools. However, there are certainly people who should be banned from using screwdrivers and punches on firearms. I've had plenty of firearms brought to me in pieces with the owner asking if I could please reassemble them. I hate to see beautiful old S&W and Colt revolvers with the screws all boogered up and scratches on the frame where some knucklehead was trying to pry them apart. (I've seen many old handguns that were well over 100 years old that had never been apart and functioned perfectly.) These people should watch Youtube, play with airsoft guns and/or hire somebody to maintain their firearms.

 

@hot diggity "...and that AK I never intend to clean."

I must ask, why won't you clean the AK?

 

I'm old school I guess. I clean after every firing. Firearms that haven't been shot in awhile I still take out of the safe and wipe down. I charge $20.00 per firearm to clean and inspect unless it's really bad, then it's $30.00.

 

Darn,now I’m going to have to check my guns again. It’s been a little over a month but here in the south you have to be careful.

 

I clean my guns after every range trip. However my SKS's seem to thrive on neglect!

 

Glad I sold mine,Sounds like a vicious cycle owning one of those contraptions ?

 

It's a test project. It's had almost 5K rounds through it without a cleaning. I do regular demonstrations of firing 5.56mm in the 7.62x39 chamber (and usually hit a man size target at 25 yards) and test all my reloads in it. It will regularly out-shoot guys with AR's, but I suspect that has more to do with the shooter than the rifle. Only trouble its developed is a gas piston retaining pin that is coming out. Since the piston is screwed in I don't see this as anything that would stop it from firing, especially since the threads are locked solid. It does have a hard chrome bore and chamber.

 

One of the most important things I learned very early on is keeping the chamber clean, like after every shoot! I keep chamber brushes for most common flavors, and have even made a few for the magnums that don't have a brush specifically for them! On a new rifle, they get the chamber checked and lightly sanded if a semi auto, and polished if a manual feed! I find this helps keep things working as they should for a lot longer! On rifles i shoot a lot, and carry pistols, they do not get the bores cleaned until they start turning green, the carry pistols, get the bores blown out with compressed air every few days, and that's it! On the rifles I shoot often, I will field strip and clean the action and chamber and bolt assembly, but don't touch the bore! My FN/FAL is the one I really shoot the snot out of, has prolly 7500 rounds through it, and is spotless other then the bore which is getting a little crusty green so it's going to need cleaned soon! LOL! After the cleaning and oiling, it will then get a few mags ran through it to foul it in and it should be back to perfect in no time! This rifle is a 1/4 inch rifle scoped, and a fuzz over 3/4 inch on the irons! Yea, I take care of it!
On .22's, I clean them most often, mostly to clear out the lead fouling in the bore, except for the Marlin, which seems to run better when fouled, go figure!

 

You guys clean them, I thought that the bullet cleaned it out all that gunk?

 

Dad was WWII combat Infantry and made sure I knew the process, so I was responsible for cleaning all the home weapons for many years and they had to pass his inspection. I see lots of once nice old Mausers, Enfields, and Mosins, that have been ruined since they arrived in America because the owners shot surplus corrosive ammo without proper cleaning and that has destroyed the barrels.
Corrosive ammo is fine but it needs to be cleaned with water, preferably hot, then followed by normal bore cleaner and oil - FOR 3 DAYS IN A ROW - after firing corrosive ammo. Pressure will put some of the salts up into micro cracks in the barrel and it will continue to seep out for 72 hours after firing. This was the old US Infantry standard for cleaning after firing ammo with corrosive primers. Urine can be substituted for the hot water if that is all you have.
I would say that 9 out of 10 bores that I examine for possible purchase are ruined from either laziness or ignorance of American shooters. The other sad part of this story is the gun dealers that are selling these guns can't tell the bores are ruined by rust.
Buyer beware as there are plenty of idiots on both sides of the fence!

 

I was made the "family armorer" at a young age. I learned to strip, clean and reassemble all the family shotguns and rifles. Wasn't allowed to touch Dad's .22 revolver til later on. Had all the ammo in a box in my closet.
I kept the guns cleaned and lubed. "Protecting my inheritance", so to speak. I now have all those guns.

 

@Seawolf1090 that's a nice thing to hear, it gladdens my heart.