All posts tagged Cleaning Patches

Cleaning and fixing guns at the same time

I’ve had a few mistakes in firearm ownership that have nothing to do with gun safety or hunting, it actually had to do with gun maintenance.   There were a few times that I took guns on a hunting trip, didn’t fire them, brought them home and put them in a safe, only to find out a few days later that they were all covered in rust.   Even the morning dew can rust and possible ruin a firearm if you don’t pay attention to what your guns are made out of and how to care for them.   Another time was carrying a Taurus T-85 handgun in a leather holster and not cleaning it once a week, the holster held body sweat and the salts from the sweat pitted the barrel of the handgun.   It wasn’t worth the time and trouble to remove the pits without risking more damage to the firearm.

Along with taking care of your guns and preventing rust from building up, sometimes dents and dings can occur.   It always bothered me that some guys spend thousands on combat firearms and are afraid to shoot them in the rain or snow and then get upset if they get dirt on them.   The reason  most firearms are coated in what they are is for combat or adverse weather conditions.  Next time you are looking for gun cleaning supplies, you should look into picking up a gun blue touch up pen for fixing minor scratches and dings on your firearms.   There are gun blue kits you can buy to re-blue a firearm, but the touch up pen is good for the majority of the minor tweaks and only takes a few seconds.

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Watch it with those gun patches

I will admit that I have stuck gun cleaning patches in some of my firearms.   I tried to do a fast clean with a Hoppes gun cleaning kit patch on a 22LR and punched a whole through the patch and had trouble getting the cleaning rod out of the firearm.   Another time I used a wrong size cleaning patch on a Otis gun cleaning kit and almost broke the wire trying to get the patch out.    I read something funny on the internet about this happening to a few other people and they had to put the gun in a vice or wrap the cord around a tree and  yank.   That’s never a good thing.

There is still nothing wrong with using a cleaning rod, but I think boresnakes really did do damage to the old cleaning rod relic sales.   When you can simplify your gun cleaning supplies, and you can cut down on the amount of exposure to the toxic chemicals, you really are sold on upgrading your gear.   I still haven’t gotten around to putting an Otis gun cleaning kit into my butt stock or grip, but I may do so in the near future.   Cleaning brushes are something else I hate dealing with because if you don’t keep them organized, it’s hard to tell which caliber is for which, and you’ll know soon enough when the gun isn’t getting cleaned.

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Keeping it simple, but still wash your hands

I’ve often found it difficult to clean my firearms while wearing gloves, this gets right back to the problem that I have often come across when handing the AR15 rifle with them on.  There are smaller parts to take apart on the M4 Carbine and even though I have to get my hands dirty, I can’t get to all of the parts with gloves on.   There have been times I only fired less than 20rds through a rifle and I wasn’t in the mood for a full firearm disassemble.   If I have a firearm that has gone on a camping trip like my Marlin 336 lever action or a Winchester Model 70 bolt action, I still clean them after every trip even if they have not been fired.   Moisture can get to these types of firearms and I have had many wars with rust in the past.

There are traditional cleaning kits that may work for you, but since I have bent rods cleaning firearms, I strongly recommend against anything but a once piece rifle cleaning rod to prevent damage or issues.   Boresnakes will speed up the process of cleaning your bore and avoid the problems of putting cleaning patches, but you still need to use lube and wash them on occasion.   Otis gun cleaning kits can fit in a rifle stock, your pistol grip or your butt stock depending on how many tools you think you want to store there.

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Extensive gun cleaning and gun supplies

I recently did a walk through at a Dick’s Sporting goods store and I was recently at a Cabela’s here in Pennsylvania.   The gun cleaning kits that I had when I first got my own rifle are still being made, but I just don’t have the urge to give something like that as a Holiday present to family members.  I’m not sure exactly what is going on, but I have so many family members getting their first firearms and it’s been a lot of fun getting them setup with targets, joining gun clubs and helping them take apart and clean the guns.  It’s also been a learning experience because I  didn’t know how to do everything until I did a little research.

I still highly recommend that people have atleast one strong one piece cleaning rod for a rifle or handgun around, but that is only for clearing any bore obstructions.  Boresnakes are the easiest thing for a new shooter to use because not everyone has young eyesight and can see clearly inside the gun to know that everything has been cleaned.  For anyone getting an AR15 or knowing someone getting an AR, the Otis gun cleaning kits are probable the best gift you can give them.    Make sure you get the M16 kit because it has special brushes and tools to get into areas that a cleaning rod just won’t touch.

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Road trips and cleaning firearms

I was never one to jump on the bandwagon that it should  be necessary for someone in the military to break their M16 down every day and clean it.   I always thought that if the gun needed that much attention, they really should think about a new design.   The real reason the military does this for many soldiers is basically to keep everyone occupied and give them something to do.   I don’t think even an M16 needs to be cleaned more than 2 or 3 times a week, even in dirty conditions.   I’m sure that it some situations you are better off keeping  your chamber hatch closed and not opening to clean it when the air is full of sand and will just attach itself to the gun lube on your  bolt.   We sell a lot of Otis gun cleaning kits to the military for a reason though.   Everything you could want to clean a pistol or rifle is in a small compact case.

I personally find using rifle cleaning rods to be easier and for some reason I feel like I am getting a thorough cleaning.   Bore snakes work very well, but I have found them to become real messy to use if they are being used often.   You have to put them back in the clear case they came with and sometimes I feel it’s easier and cleaner to toss out dirty cleaning patches instead of putting the filthy boresnake back in it’s patch.   Bore snakes are easy to clean if you want to toss them in a wash machine, but this isn’t practical if you are on a road trip.   Otis gun cleaning kits, depending on which you purchase, should have just about every tool and brush you need to clean your firearm.   I did jam a patch in a rifle once and i did have to resort to using a cleaning rod to unjam it, but after I got the right method for “taking a pinch on the patch” and not using too much of it for a smaller caliber, I got the job done.   Otis has plenty of videos you can watch before you buy a cleaning kit if you think the kits are a little overwhelming.

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Beware of over cleaning

I admit that I have been called a perfectionist.  I have several years experience in working in the music industry and in that line of work, only the best work gets noticed.   When it comes to maintaining a car, you can waste a lot of time working on things that aren’t going to increase your mileage or prevent it from getting hit by another car.   Although many of us like to take our favorite firearms out of the safe from time to time, and wipe them down and look everything over, there can be a point where shoving a cleaning rod down a barrel too often will cause excessive wear and tear.

In a Carbine course, we got a good lecture on some of the BS that people are claiming about the amount of maintenance the AR15 direct impingement guns need.   The reality is that they sure as heck do need to be cleaned more than any other semi-auto military rifle, but not as much as  some people claim.  The reasons the military makes soldiers do this so often is to basically just keep them occupied.   Keeping the gun lubricated and putting a few drops where it’s needed is all we  had to do while running a Carbine course and not a single one of us had an issue.  Be careful about how much you use your gun cleaning supplies on your firearms, but also, make sure you have the right tools for the firearm.   There are some neat cleaning brushes and tools that you can get from Otis gun cleaning kits and they will help you get into the areas that are hard to reach.

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How much time are you going to waste on cleaning?

Hoppes boresnakesI’ve had this argument with friends when they were arguing that direct impingement guns weren’t really hard to maintain and that spending another $500 on a piston driven AR15 wasn’t worth the money because you could basically buy another gun for that money.    I’d like to see people use the same argument if someone came out with a car that only needed an oil change every 15,000 miles instead of every 3000 miles.   How many times are you going to have to pull over and drop the car off and wait for a mechanic or waste an hour on a Saturday doing an oil change?  Keep that in mind the next time you go shooting and bring 3 or more rifles with you and then spend all Sunday night cleaning them.   If you could cut your cleaning time by 2/3s and reduce the need for brushes and cleaning patches for $20 would it be worth it?

Even though Hoppes boresnakes have been around for awhile, I still know an awful lot of  people that never used them.   I can guarantee you that these are not a gimmick and Hoppes boresnakes  do an excellent job of cleaning your barrels.   Another thing I often see is people jamming cleaning rods down rifles and unknowingly scratching up the inside of the barrel.   A boresnake takes of less room than traditional guide rods and they are easy to clean.    They are caliber specific so you have to consider picking them up for each caliber.    I really appreciated having mine after cleaning 3 rifles that were all 5.56 chambered and just went from one barrel to then next in seconds.   As long as you take good care of your guns, the brushes on the boresnake will clean your rifle as good as any rod driven brush.

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Speed up the process

Hoppes BoresnakeBoresnakes have been around for a long time, but it still amazes me at the number of people that aren’t aware of them.   The notion of needing a long rod to clean your rifle bore is so out dated.   I guess it’s mostly the guys that operate the AR15 type of firearms that really pay attention to how much time it takes to clean a rifle that they are the ones that don’t want to go through the hassle.   The only way around not needing to clean an AR15 so much is to swap your upper out for a pistol version.

Hoppes boresnakes are easy to store and use.  All you do is drop the metal end down the chamber and putt it out of the barrel at the other end.   If you clean a lot, you will want to wash your boresnake, but you don’t have the mess of cleaning patches that cleaning rods create.   The Hoppes Boresnake will brush and swab your barrel in seconds.   You may want to soak the chamber or barrel with cleaning solvent before you drop the boresnake in, especially if you are cleaning for accuracy.

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