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

My advice is to decide for yourself what's "clean enough". This topic can very well become a, "what's the best rifle" kind of thing. In the end, you have to live with your own parameters.

Growing up, my Dad shot 3x to check the zero on his scope, then shot once during the season. He used some leftover military solvent that came with the place when we moved in. He reversed the patches to get 2 trips down the bore instead of just one, & he was more than happy with his routine. He'd then rub the solvent over the wood, just to make it shiny!

I shoot more often than he, and I found my cleaning could take hours and hours, and many dozens of patches. I decided that's more time than I want to spend, and that cleaning with less elbow greasewouldn't result in my gun disintegrating, even though some on sites like these have posited as much.

I now use Gun Slick foam for the bore, letting it sit for 2 hours to overnight. I feel comfortable plugging the ends of the barrel with cotton & letting it sit, knowing it won't eat the metal. I seldom use a bore brush, finding that the foam gets it done well enoughif I leave it alone to do its work. I've done the foaming cycle up to 5 times for 1 cleaning, but I don't have to sit there & babysit it.

Other than that, I use RemOil on a patch to wipe down the bolt & rails, & I'll pull out some Q-tips & tooth picks if I find some grime in hard to reach places.

And I don't rub solvent on the wood!

If you want to spend the time, go ahead on & do it. But there are plenty o' folks out here shooting 70+ year old guns, & getting their share of game, who swab 'em with Hoppes & call it done. You just need to decide where you fall between those extremes.

FC

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About your blue patches after cleaning with one particular solvent.....That was not bluing being removed from the bore, that was copper residue, one of the greatest contributors to rifles losing their accuracy. I would advise you get a bottle of Sweet's 7.62 copper remover, and follow the directions. Regular solvents will not get the job done in this regard. As was said before, you NEVER use a steel brush in a gun bore.
As to using Hoppe's #9, it does a fair job of powder residue removal, but I kind of like Butch's Bore Shine, myself.
In regard to being unable to get totally clean patches, I'm not sure that has ever happened for me. I just keep running a soaked patch or two followed by a dry one and repeat the drill until further scrubbings indicate that only a faint trace of discoloration is present and has been consistent.
A good automotive paste wax is best for a wood stock. Using oil or solvent on it may eventually soften the finish and cause the wood to darken.
Almost everyone has their own rituals about gun maintenancebut once you find what works best for you and what products you like best, most of the battle is over.

I've posted many times on cleaning methods, so I'm kinda tired of it now. These days I just tell folks to visit the followinglink to find out plenty about borecleaning:

www.6mmbr.com/borecleaning.html

what I mean about the barrel coming clean is that After letting it soak and i pass the jigs through it the patches progressively get clean, but then the last time I clean it i figured that I shot alot so that I might want to give her more attention. I then used more solvent and repeated the process and the patched came out filthy like I had not just clean it. I repeated this process for about an hour and a half (after the intial hour of letting it sit) until my brass jig snapped. I musta passed an entire pack ofpatches throughit.But each time the swabs would run through clean only to come out filthy when I added more solvent. I cant explain it considering that she has had less than 50 rounds through her since I got her and I always clean her after use so there cant be any real caked on residue or fouling. DO you think it could be that I should just let the solvent sit overnight or should I try something new?

New barrels are always harder to clean than older ones. If I were you I would do the following after you firing session maybe 10 rounds at the beginning and more rounds later:

- run a couple of patch of solvent and wait few minutes
- run the brass bore brush back and forth a dozen times
- run a couple of dry patch to dry it up. Your last patch should be relatively clean.
- run a wet patch of copper solvent and wait few minutes
- run a nylon brush back and forth few times. Do not use the brass brush with copper solvent.
- run a couple of wet patches of solvent to neutralize the copper solvent
- run a couple of dry pacthes to dry everything
- run 1 oil patch
- run 1 dry patch
- put your gun in the cabinet, watch TV and remember that there is no such thing as a perfectly clean barrel.