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09-20-2008, 04:43 PM

#4

cayugad

Dominant Buck

Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: Wisconsin

Posts: 21,193

RE: Your Best Barrel Cleaning Method

Quote:

Wondering what your best method you have had good success with in cleaning inside your barrel.In the past I have always used hot soapy water or Birchwood Casey black powder cleaner inside barrel.This year I am going to try strictly TC T17 cleaner and see how it does and if not I will go back to the hot water method.Just wondering what the best method you have had with cleaning inside the barrel.Thanks alot for any information. Mike

That depends on the kind of rifle I am cleaning actually. Some rifles such as Traditional style rifles seem to clean better and faster if they are first given a hot water with some soap added, bath. I can use hot water and with a jag and tight patch pump lots of water through them to wash out 99% of the fowling. After that I like to run some isopropyl alcohol through the traditional rifles. This does a couple things.. helps take the water out of the barrel and it will also cut a lot of fowling that the soap might have missed. After that I swab the bore with Birchwood Casey #77 cleaner. If this cleaner shows no fowling or dirt, I am satisfied the bore of the rifle is clean. Then I dry patch it dry, and finally swab the bore with Birchwood Casey Barricade/Sheath.

On rifles that the scope gets in the way of the water bath, I will often times swab them as clean as possible with alcohol/car windshield washer mix until the patch appears clean. After that I like to dry patch them. Then I like to swab them again with Birchwood Casey#77. If that patch comes out clean, thenI dry swab them until nice and dry, INSPECT THEM AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE, and then protect them with Birchwood Casey Sheath/Barricade.

I then like to take a fuzzy pipe cleaner and dampen it with alcohol. I then push that past and overthe nipple threads into the bolster. From there I like to feed it through the bolster and into the actual rifle chamber if possible. This insures that the bolster if open and clean, and that the channel is also open and clean. The White fuzzy pipe cleaners are in the craft section at your local Wal Mart. They can also be used to pick a nipple if you have to. After I am sure all of that is clean, I like to blow forced air through the nipple port and through the nipple to insure that it is dry and clean, put a small dab of anti seize on the threads of the nipple and put that back in the rifle.

On inline rifles where the scope is not in the way, I first swab them with alcohol/windshield washer mix solution to remove fowling. I then take them to the sink and pour hot dish water through them. After that I like to slide the breech plug brush into the open breech or the start of the breech threads, squirt a little dish soap on the bristle and then work that back and fourth over the area into a good strong bubble/foam. After that I rinse the barrel again to wash the soap out. I then swab the bore with alcohol, then dry patch, then Birchwood Casey #77. Again, I inspect the bore and especially the breech threads. After cleaning all the parts, I swab the whole thing with Birchwood Casey Barricade/Sheath and put it all back together.

If I am not going to use the rifle for a long time, I will not assemble the rifle. Instead, all the parts are wrapped in paper towel and sprayed with gun oil. All those parts are placed in a plastic zip lock bag and that is tied to the trigger guard. This keeps tension off the springs, and also I can manually inspect the parts from time to time to make sure there is no rust or anything happen to them that I do not want. When I am ready to shoot, it is easy to wipe the parts off and put the rifle back together again.

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