Ive talked to many people, and read books by gunsmiths and it seems as though everyone has a different cleaning method. About the only thing that everyone agreed on was to use Brass Jigs and not mops and to switch over to a one piece rod to reduce the likelyhood of carving the bore. Now Each recommends cleaning methods that range from 15 mins for a light clean to 5 days for a more thorough clean. I have tried all different ways a few times and figured that it is just something that youfind your own way to do it, so I figured that I would try to develop my own method after learning from the way many experienced shooters do it. I shoot regularly but and want to maintain a good degree of accuracy but I am not really fretting over maintaining a 1.5"MOA so is the routine recommended by Competition shooters nessicary?

A few Questions:
Is it really nessicary to use about 15 clothes per cleaning? If not about how many does it take you to obtain a good clean? (Rifle with about 5-20 shots since last cleaning)

What is yourprefered solvent? (tried Remmington Scrubber and bore brite 40x, Hoppes 9, Hoppes Copper solvent, and Hoppes semi auto) but they dont seem to work the more you clean the barrel the more lead comes out but it never gets completely clean using the Hoppes method.

How often do you use the copper brush?

How oftendoyou usethe steel brush?

When if ever do you use a swab? all cleaning kits come with them but I have never heard anyone use them? If you do use them do you throw them away afterwards?

Whats your opinion on the best tools to use to clean a 12g barrel?

Please give me what ever advice you may have? The reason I ask is because I am running throughthe cleaning equiptment/tools awefully quickly and I do not really know if that is normal or if i am using the wrong solvents and such... thats not really my main concern but of course I dont want toput any unnessicary wear on my barrels.I used one solvent and when I passed a cloth through it it came out blue, so I began to worry that maybe it was removing the protective Bluing inside the bore.


Iclean my, my girlfriends and her dads rifles, shotguns everytime we use emBout once a month 10 ladies in total. But The way they taught me to clean em doesnt seem effective compared to other methods I have read and been told about but the most intensive method requires me to use almost a complete box of clothes each time we clean em.

If some of you could share your routines that would be great and It would be most helpful and I would be most grateful.

I dont know how our boys over seas do it with the little dinky kits they are given