Extremesolo

I know I should do a better job taking care of my guns and cleaning them after each use so I am looking for tips/techniques/products needed to properly clean my rifles after shooting them. I currently use only a bore snake but know I can clean better. I have seen guys at the range with tackle boxes full of solvents and brushes and bore guides and a routine for cleaning. Please share your suggestions so that I can make some educated decisions on which items to purchase. Thanks, Andrew

Solitary Man

I copied the following from one of my earlier posts on this subject. I hope it's of some help to you:

1. Using a brass jag, run two or three patches down the bore soaked in a mixture of Shooters Choice and Kroil (75% SC to 25% Kroil). Let this sit for 15 to 30 minutes.
2. Run another wet patch through the bore paying close attention to how much blue is on this patch. If there's an appreciable amount of blue on the patch that means there's excess copper in the barrel. We'll talk about his later.
3. Apply this same solvent mixture to a bronze brush and brush the bore back and forth about 15 or 20 times making sure you completely exit the muzzle before pulling it back through.
4. Run a couple more wet patches through the bore followed by 3 or 4 dry patches.
5. If in step 2 above there was copper detected, then I'll use a copper cleaner such as Barnes CR-10 or Wipeout. Use as directed then use 3 or 4 dry patches to remove this from the barrel.
6. Run a couple oiled patches down the bore and oil the chamber.
7. Before shooting the rifle again run a couple dry patches down the bore to remove excess oil and patch out the chamber also.

I settled on this routine after trying various solvents and methods. After doing this awhile you'll probably develop your own routine. Whatever you decide on, however, I think the following items are important to doing it right:

1. Clean from the chamber end using a bore guide.
2. Use a quality one piece cleaning rod (Bore Tech is my favorite).
3. Use 100% cotton flannel patches, not the synthetic type.
4. Use bronze brushes, NOT stainless steel.
5. Do not use copper solvent with a bronze brush. Use a nylon brush.

Hope this helps, good luck with it.

bigcountry

First get ya good cleaning rod. I like the dewey coated rod. Steer clear of the three piece kits by hoppes. Second, use you a nice bore guide. I like the ones by Stoney point. Third, I don't like bronze brushes, I go with nylon from brownells. Get ya a good jag to fit your rod. The plastic ones are junk and useless. Nice patches are a must for me. I like the cloth patches. But they are expensive. I use Sweets, Wipe Out, Shooters Choice, and JB's Bore bright.

With the strong ammonia type cleaners like Sweets, and CR-10, don't leavein the barrel for more than 5 min. Just follow the directions. Want to run 3 clean patches at least to get out all the ammonia. Some guys use brake cleaner to get this out. This removes copper. Oil immediatley if going this route. You still might have some hard carbon build up from not cleaning. The bore bright can help you here. I like Shooters Choice to remove the bore bright.

I use different methods depending on the situation or time I got. If no big hurry, use wipe out and leave overnight. Great stuff. bascially a foam youleave in the barrel. Eats out all the copper, and some carbon. I don't worry about carbon build up everytime. When I notice it, I clean it out every 5 shooting sessions.

noway

Extreme,
Wipe-Out was made for you.
You spray it down the barrel, it foams up to fill the barrel and you let is sit for an hour or so. It cleans out the powder and copper.
Then run a patch or two through to get the Wipe-Out out.
Then repeat the process until your patch comes out clean.
No scrubbing required. Usually takes 2 or 3 times.
Total cleaning time is usually (not counting the time the gun sits with the Wipe-Out in the barrel) about 10 minutes.

Solitary Man

My experience with Wipeout is that it doesn't remove as much carbon fouling as a good scrubbing with a bronze brush saturated with traditional solvents. I do like it a lot, however, as a copper solvent.

bigcountry

Thats what I saw too Solitary Man. I have been using JB bore bright every 4 or so sessions to get out that carbon.

Extremesolo

Has anyone used blue wonder gun cleaner? I saw it on the outdoor channel and it looked good as most infomercials do, however I wonder about its actual effectiveness.

Mark whiz

I tried the Blue Wonder and wasn't overly impressed with it. It's really stinky & slimey and gooey to work with............definitely for outside the house cleaning only.

I come to really like the MPro-7 cleaner. http://www.mp7.com/

It's odorless and does a good job on powder fouling - leaving the bore prime for lead or copper removal with a solvent specific for them.
And I prefer Sweets or CR-10 for the copper.

And for after-cleaning oil & preservation, I like either BreakFree CLP or Militec CLP ( http://www.militec-1.com/ ).

icthruu

I guess I should thank my father next time I see him. He taught me that taking some time to clean a gun is well worth it in the future. Anyway, a lot of good suggestions. I use regular Hoppes #9 solvent, a one piece cleaning rod, bronze brush, and cotton patches. A bore guide sure is nice, but make sure that you get one that fits your rifle properly.

Wet a patch and run it thru. Then I run the brush back and forth a few times. Then dry patches. I usually repeat the wet patch and let it sit for a few minutes, and then dry patches till it comes clean. after that I run an oiled patch down it. I always run a dry patch before I shoot again to make sure there isn't any extra oil in the barrel.

One warning is that the wife doesn't like the smell very much, but she likes to shoot with me, so she puts up with it.

It only takes a few minutes to clean a rifle well, and it's well worth the time spent in the long run. I've seen some guns that won't shoot worth a darn because they were never cleaned (at all, just shot and put away)

ktscontender

I'll second that. Been using MP-7 exclusivly for several years now. Once a bbl is conditioned cleaning is a snap. Still have some Hoppes #9 but I just use it to clean dies with.

Wes