If you shoot a shotgun or rifle, you will have to clean it.
Cleaning a firearm is a given for hunters. It is a dirty, sometimes smelly job, but it need not be unpleasant. Cleaning is the best way to familiarize yourself with your guns, to understand how they work and to be an expert with your own stuff.
Tuesday's teal hunt is a sterling example about the need to quickly and thoroughly clean a firearm. The morning was very rainy, and water invaded every crease in the interior of my Remington V3 semi-automatic shotgun. The gun lay in a case all afternoon. When I finally got around to cleaning it about 8 p.m., rust already mottled the barrel. This required a complete disassembly.
To do this, pull back the charging handle on the action until it locks in place. Remove the magazine cap and pull the barrel from the receiver. Two passes through the barrel with a 12-gauge Bore Snake removes all powder residue and almost all plastic residue deposited by shot wads.
When handling solvents and oils, wear surgical gloves. Spray or drip a small amount of gun oil, like Rem Oil or Ballistol, onto a cloth patch and rub down the barrel. Scrub the oil with a toothbrush to remove surface rust. Scrub oil on the inside and outside of the barrel ring, and also inside of the barrel's breech end.
Some shotguns are more complicated than others. If your shotgun has a traditional gas system dangling from the barrel, drip gun solvent on a cloth patch and scrub away powder residue and oil. Use a toothbrush to remove stubborn, burnt-on splotches. Run a pipe cleaner through the gas ports at the top of the barrel ring.
If your gun has an O-ring, like a Remington 1100, remove residue and coat it with a light oil.
Now comes the most labor-intensive part. Release the action and let it slide slowly forward to its limit by holding the charging handle. Remove the charging handle from the action and slide the action out of the receiver. Clean it thoroughly with solvent and remove fouling with a cloth or a large dry patch.
Next, remove the trigger group. One or two drift pins hold it to the receiver. With a small punch or narrow screwdriver, tap out the pins and pull the trigger group free from the receiver. Remove fouling and residue from the mechanism with a solvent-soaked patch and then clean with a cloth or a large dry patch.
Use a fresh solvent patch to clean fouling out of the receiver housing, including the rear where the recoil buffer rests. Dry thoroughly.
The Remington V3 and Versamax contain two recoil springs that are connected to dual gas pistons. Remove the recoil springs and piston rods. Remove all moisture and run a cloth through the channels. Lightly oil the races.
The process for cleaning pump-action shotguns is the same except that you don't have to clean a gas compensating system or a recoil system.
Putting it all back together is easy. There is a bit of a process to reinstalling the action in a V3 and Versamax. All other gas-operated semi-autos have a push rod connected to the back of the action. A small peen on the back of the push rod must rest in the recess of the recoil buffer.
Muzzleloaders
Cleaning a muzzleloader is easy and simple. If you don't do it immediately, corrosive propellant fouling will destroy your bore very quickly.
If you have an old style inline muzzleloader with a plunger mechanism or a turnbolt, you must remove that item to expose the breech plug. If you have a break-action design, breaking over the action will expose the breech plug automatically. If you have a drop-action, like a Thompson/Center Omega, drop the action to expose the breech plug.
Use a breech plug wrench to unscrew the breech plug. Use a solvent-soaked toothbrush to clean fouling from the breech plug threads. A 50-cal. Bore Snake usually cleans a muzzleloader bore very thoroughly. If you need a more aggressive clean, a single T17 patch will get everything that defies a Bore Snake.
Apply a dab of breech plug grease to the first two or three threads on the plug and screw it in tightly. Apply a small amount of Bore Butter to a bore mop and coat the bore. This prevents rust and will not interfere with powder ignition.
Centerfire rifles
At face value, cleaning a centerfire rifle should be easy, and at face value it is. It is also a royal pain because of the amount of powder and copper residue a couple of discharges leave behind. Removing it takes a lot of work.
Most hunters use bolt-action rifles. Remove the bolt by whatever mechanism your brand employs. Almost always a small latch or tab on the side of the action releases the bolt. The tab on Remington rifles is inside the trigger guard.
Use an appropriate diameter jag and cleaning rod to push a solvent-soaked patch down the bore. Start at the breech, not the muzzle. I recommend using a bore guide to prevent inflicting any damage to the breech area. I always unscrew the jag when it emerges from the muzzle before retracting the rod.
Give the solvent a few minutes to soak the bore and penetrate the fouling. Tilt the rifle so that the muzzle faces downhill. This will prevent gunk-tainted solvent from flowing backwards into the trigger group.
Attach a copper brush to your rod and make five passes back and forth for a total of 10 contacts.
Remove the brush and reattach the jag to push a dry patch through the bore. Repeat this process until no more powder fouling appears on a patch. Rifles bores are blued, so blueing will continue to appear on patches. It is gray, as opposed to black powder fouling.
Soak another patch with copper solvent and make one pass through the bore. Let it soak and then remove with a dry patch. Copper fouling in the bore will look green or blue on the patch. Copper solvent also reacts to a brass jag. If green or blue streaks continue to appear on patches in a lightly used rifle, it probably comes from the jag.
Some people lightly coat their bores with oil. I do not. Finally, apply a light coat of oil or Ballistol to your barrel and receiver.
Properly cleaning your guns prevents deterioration of the bore and mechanical components, ensuring proper operation for the life of the firearm.
Eighth installment in the Beginner’s Hunting Series