Routine Gun Finish Maintenance

8/9/2019 Routine Gun Finish Maintenance

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If you got a pot big enough, try boiling the rusted parts in clean water before using the steel wool. Youcan do the barrel 1/2 at a time if you need to. Boil for about ten minutes. Let things cool and dry, then hitit with steel wool to get the loose stuff off. In essence, you're doing no more than some touch up rustblueing. If you don't have a large enough pot, a local smith may boil it for you at little or no cost.Remove the stock from the action first, but don't worry about further disassembly. Just oil everything wellwhen you're done.

The oil and 0000 steel wool trick works. You will have small white spots where the rust was. Once anyblued surface gets rust, the bluing is gone. It can only be replaced by rebluing. DO NOT try to cover up

any of the spots with cold blue, you'll end up with an even uglier mess.

Routine Gun Finish Maintenance

I recently received an inquiry from a user who asked about the best way to remove

some small rust spots from his guns, and how best to prevent them. It seemed likesomething everyone should know, so here's what works for me:

(For a quick and easy how-to on rust removal, go here)

The very best way to remove surface rust on a gun is to get some steel wool (00 will

work, but 000 is a little finer, which will be easier on the bluing) and some gun oil.Any light oil will work, like 3-in-1, or regular gun oil like Hoppes. Put some oil on and

around the spots, and gently rub in a circular motion with the steel wool. Make sureyou keep enough oil where you're working, or the steel wool will eat into the bluing.

Don't bear down hard; this will also damage the finish. Wipe the rusty oil off with arag after a bit, and if any live rust is left, repeat the process. When you're done

(when there's no live rust at all left), keep an eye on that spot. It will be the firstplace to rust in the future. Never use sandpaper, emery cloth, or any other abrasives

on your guns! Stay away from wirebrushes as well, unless the finish is beyond

salvation and you need to remove some heavy rust.

You can touch up any scratches, dings, or otherwise damaged areas on blued steeleasily using touch-up bluing, available in liquid or paste at any good sporting goods

store or gun shop. Birchwood-Casey is one brand of paste I've used; it comes in atube and is easy to use. Simply apply a thin coat of the paste (I use a cotton ball) on

& around the damaged area, allow it to dry to a haze, and wipe it off with a clean drycloth, making sure to remove all of the paste. Apply oil as described below, and

watch the area closely. Bluing is actually a type of controlled oxidation, and thetouched-up spot will be a little more prone to rust than the rest of the gun. This kind

of touch-up work can really help the appearance of scratched or worn guns.

The best way I know to keep rust off of a gun is simply to wipe it down with oil. I use

an old piece of T-shirt that has become saturated with oil over the years. Again, 3-in-1 will work, but I prefer regular gun oil by Hoppes or even Outers. A very fine rust

preventative and lube is Militec-1. I have tested and reviewed this product for thissite. I have also done a review of FP-10, which also works well. Each of these

reviews contain links to a site where you can purchase, or learn more about, theseproducts.

For rust prevention, just put some oil on the gun, in drops or whatever, and wipewith a rag until you have a uniform coat on all parts that may rust. Don't try to oil
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the whole gun at once; work on a small area at a time. You don't have to put it onheavily; just make sure all surfaces are covered lightly. This is a quick & easy way to

protect the finish of your guns. Store them, if possible, in a cool dry place. Do notstore them in gun cases, unless the cases happen to be impregnated with silicone or

another rust preventative. I wipe mine down and put them in my safe, which is in aspare room closet in my home. It helps if you can store them in your house, as the

air conditioner and heater will keep the air fairly dry, thus reducing the possibility ofrust. Check them every few months, and wipe them down again as needed. I alwayskeep an eye on my guns if I'm hunting for a few days in a row; many times they'll

require a wipe-down every day or two.

E TECHNOID'S CARE AND CLEANING... Every month or so

some gun magazine has an article purporting to tell you just how to carefor your guns and equipment. The copy is some general drivel about all

the products advertised in the magazine being equally neat. General

Drivel often also makes his billet in the Technoid's column, but a

Colonel of Truth does show up occasionally unless there has been aMajor Mistake. The difference is that here at RELOAD! we can afford

to be much more specific in our advice as we are beholden to no one(other than the Technoid's shameless adoration of the Hostess Baking

Company- Ed.).

Each of you has already established a cleaning procedure and it

probably suits you just fine. You may even vaguely resent someone

telling you how to clean your gun. It is like someone telling you how to

drive. Well, we certainly do not have experience with every product andmaintenance procedure, but what we do use works. Perhaps there will be

some small hint in what we do that you might fine useful. If you have abetter way, the Technoid is most anxious to hear about it and will do hispart to make you justly famous.

Your massive RELOAD! home office complex towers like abenevolent colossus over the small Connecticut seaport town of

Westport. Seaports mean moisture and that means rust. Consider the

average New England basement to have a seaside climate. It probably

has ebb and neap tides too.

Make sure that you have a "Golden Rod" or other such heating

device in your gun safe. A small light bulb gets the job done, but it hasto be left on constantly and will burn out frequently. Better the Golden

Rod. It very slightly raises the temperature, and thus the dew point, to

help prevent condensation. It is best to store the guns in the safe withthe muzzles down (keeps errant lubricants out of the stock wood) and

with the chokes removed so that they will not become fixed chokes.

NEVER store your gun in a gun slip or case for any length of time.

You'll be sorry.


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Naturally, wipe the outside of your gun down with something

before you put it away. WD-40 is not a suitable rust preventative, nor isany solvent like Hoppe's #9 or Shooters Choice. Birchwood Casey's

Sheath is an excellent product for your wipe down cloth, but the old

silicone cloth or Break Free CLP, G-96 Gun Treatment or othercleaner/lubricant/protectants will also work. How often you use it is

more important than what you use. Minimum wipe down is once per

month if you are just storing the gun and daily when you are using it. Arusted gun is just plain heartbreaking and so unnecessary.

Inside the gun is just as important. When the Technoid buys a

new gun, the first thing that he does is to remove the stock and forendand carefully brush three coats of TruOil or tung oil onto the insides of

the wooden pieces. Factories often do not properly finish the interior of

the wood parts. This essentially oil proofs the wood from the inside for

the remainder of the gun's life. Then he blows the action clean of debrisand sprays all internal parts with the aforementioned Sheath. Once a

year the guns are disassembled, blown out with solvent, and resprayedwith Sheath. These procedures make the inside of the gun virtually rust

free and oil seepage proof.

Hinge pins, breech face, ejectors and such are routinely cleanedwith a solvent, toothbrush and Q-tips. The Technoid likes Hoppe's #9

for this because is smells right, but Shooters' Choice is stronger and

other solvents may work just as well. Before reassembling the gun, thehinge pins or trunions and other bearing areas are very lightly coated the

tiniest bit of just about any grease handy. Pennzoil bearing grease and

the old Lubriplate ("mayonnaise" to you WWII swabees) do a find job.The important thing is not what kind of grease is used, but that the old

grease, probably carrying abrasive burnt powder grit, is completely

removed. Bearing parts must be surgically clean before the new greaseis applied. It is the presence of grit that causes problems, not the lack of

lubrication.

A little Shooters Choice on a brass brush followed by a Kleenexand a poke with the fuzzy stick does for the barrels. Plastic build up in

the chamber and forcing cones is easily handled with a cal. 50 brush

from your wife's M-60. You Beretta and some FN Browning ownershave chromed barrels and will have a much easier job. Make sure to

clean the screw chokes to get rid of plastic buildup. Many screw chokes

are crudely made and build up plastic quickly. An overnight soaking in ajar of Shooters Choice will make the job easier. The graphite based

choke tube lubes are supposed to prevent "freezing", but they are filthy

looking, gruesome to clean off and will collect grit which may do more

damage than good. Storing the gun without the chokes in place,


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combined with routine cleaning, is better.

Many shooters use brake or carburetor cleaner spray cans in placeof the more expensive Shooter's Choice Quick Scrub or Remington's

RemAction Cleaner. Be aware that many brake and carburetor cleaners

contain chlorinated solvents which can attack, not only you (read thelabel on the can), but also certain parts of your gun. Note also that these

cleaners strip all the oil from the metal, so be sure to re-lubricate

afterwards.

For you socially irresponsible proponents of the gas gun, the

Technoid has one basic recommendation: Shoot them wet and clean.

Both Beretta USA and Remington will tell you to shoot them dry. Theyare wrong. Who you gonna trust- your gifted gun guru or the people

who merely made the guns? Slather up the pistons with BreakFree CLP

(the brand is important) and leave them good and wet while you shoot.

Not only do the gas guns function better when wet, but when cleaningtime comes around each and every evening you will find that the

BreakFree has kept the burnt powder residue in solution and most of theparts can be wiped clean with a Kleenex. Shoot them dry and that

carbon is going to be burned on. It is interesting to note that Beretta of

Britain used to recommend shooting their gas guns dry, but now has

recanted and recommends that you shoot them wet. Toldyouso. Asusual, Beretta USA does not have a clue.

A gas gun suggestion: Andy Duffy, after just recently winningthe Pan-American FITASC and the NSCA All Around Shotgun

championship in the rain with his new Browning Gold semi-auto,

reported that the downpours had the Beretta 390 owners scrambling.The popular Beretta gas pipes are not built for scuba work. A water

proof gunsleeve (with the Beretta logo, of course) might be a good

investment for 303 and 390 shooters who like to shoot during 100 yearfloods.

One last point, for a general light oil to be sparingly applied here

and there, the Technoid has been very impressed with the new ShootersChoice FP-10. This is a superior product. Smells a little like cinnamon

too. Be aware that it is highly migratory, so apply it very lightly. It is

ideal for trigger groups.

SOME TIPS ON CLEANING AND LUBRICATING FIREARMS

Copyright (c) 1998-2000 David S. Markowitz

Like any other tool, a firearm must be properly cared for if it is to maintain its

usefulness over time. Just like a car engine, it should be periodically cleaned andlubricated in order to minimize wear and tear, and to maximize performance. The


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purpose of this article is to provide some general pointers on these critical processes so

that you can keep your gun ticking.

Please note that this article is focused towards the care of modern guns usingammunition loaded with smokeless powder. For information on cleaning black powder

guns, see my other piece on selecting and caring for black powder percussion revolvers.

Materials Required

For cleaning firearms, you will need a solvent to dissolve powder fouling and metal

fouling in the bore and action, and the meansand action, and the means to apply it. Thereare a number of commercially available solvents, the best known off which is Hoppe's

No.9 Nitro Solvent, which has been around since about Day One. It works very well in

removing powder fouling, and also does a decent job on copper fouling in gun barrels.Also, most shooters find the smell very pleasant. (For some reason, most shooters' wives

do not share this sentiment!)

Another good commercial solvent is Shooter's Choice. This is stronger than Hoppe's

No.9, and is good if your gun is really dirty. Unfortunately, it stinks to high heaven somake sure you are using it in a very well ventilated area.

If you are shooting high power rifle, and your bore is very dirty, and especially if it's

got a significant amount of copper fouling, you might want to try Sweet's 7.62 solvent.

This is posibly the strongest solvent I've used, and does an excellent job of removingcopper fouling from bores, due to its high ammonia content.

For really stubborn copper or lead fouling, Shooter's Choice makes special copper

and lead remover solvents. These are meant to be used after you've cleaned the powderfouling from the bore. JB Bore Paste, which contains a very mild abrasive, is also madefor this task.

r this task.

However, my personal favorite solvent for gun cleaning is a home brew called "Ed's

Red," which was developed from an old Frankford Arsenal formula by noted gun writerC.E. Harris. (To see the recipe for Ed's Red, click on this link.) I've found that it works as

good or better than most commercial solvents on removing powder fouling. However,

metal fouling is best removed with one of the commercial products.

Besides commercial and home brew powder solvents, you can use several productseasily available at auto parts and hardware stores for gun cleaning. Kerosene does a good

job of removing powder fouling, and in fact is an ingredient in both Hoppe's No.9 and

Ed's Red. Carburetor cleaner is one of the best choices to remove stubborn buildups ofplastic wad residue in shotguns. I've also been told that Simple Green works well as a

powder solvent.
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Note that if you shoot ammunition with corrosive primers (as found in much

military surplus ammo), you'll want to ad US GI Rifle Bore Cleaner or boiling hot water

to your shopping list.

When choosing lubricants, again there is aagain there is a wide variety of

commercial products on the market. Hoppe's, Remington, and many others all make goodquality gun oil. However, my personal choice is Dexron III Automatic Transmission

Fluid (ATF). Synthetic ATF was originally developed to replace sperm whale oil whichwas used in early automatic transmissions. Sperm whale oil is one of the finest lubricants

extant. The modern ATF is an excellent substitute, offering good lubricating qualities,

rust-prevention, and it also contains surfactants which act as a detergent to float dirt awayfrom metal to which it's applied. Finally, it is significantly cheaper than oils sold

specifically for use on firearms.

Some guns require the use of grease on certain parts, instead of oil. An example is

the M1 Garand rifle, on which you should use Lubriplate grease on the op rod, and some

other parts.

Incidentally, there is one oil/solvent which I recommend you avoid for use on guns:

WD-40. It is okay as a cleaner, but make sure that you remove all of it and replace it with

a good rust-preventing oil before storing any gun. WD-40 doesn't work very well as agun lubricant or to prevent rust - it's too light. However, it is useful when cleaning to

blow fouling out of cracks and crevices.

d crevices.

In addition to the solvents and lubes required, you'll also need the hardware

necessary to clean your gun. You can buy complete cleaning kits, including a cleaningrod, oil and lube, and cleaning patches, or you can buy them separately.

To clean the inside of the gun's barrel, you need a cleaning rod of the proper length,

and the proper tips for it. For rifles, I recommend a one-piece stainless steel cleaning rodlong enough to clean the entire bore from the breech end (if you rifle's design permits

this). The handle should swivel freely, so that the rod can follow the rifling as the rod is

pushed through the bore. Sectional roads are okay for bringing to the range or field use,but one-piece rods are better because they are more rigid, and their sections don't get

unscrewed constantly. Stainless steel is best, because it's hard and won't pick up grit like

aluminum rods. If you cannot clean your rifle from the breech end of the barrel, you

should get a bore guide or muzzle protector, which centers the rod in the muzzle andprevents it from rubbing as you move the rod through the bore. If you look at a lot if old

military rifles, you'll see that the muzzle is worn because a muzzle guide wasn't used.

This will eventually ruin the gun'sy ruin the gun's accuracy.

You'll need a couple items to attach to the end of the cleaning rod. First off, you'll

need a brass or nylon bore brush. You'll use this to apply bore solvent to the inside of the


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bore and scrape out the fouling. Next, you'll need a jag or slotted tip to hold cleaning

patches.

Cleaning patches should be of the proper size for your gun's caliber (see the patches'packaging to make sure) and made of cotton flannel cloth.

I also find these items to come in handy when cleaning my guns:

o An eyedropper or pipette to apply solvent to patches, brushes, and spots on

the gun.

o Old toothbrushes are good for scrubbing gun parts.

o Fine steel wool for severe carbon fouling in autoloaders. You can also use

Scotchbrite.

o A solvent-resistant container in which to let parts soak.

Cleaning & Lubrication

Any time you get a new gun you should properly clean and lubricate it before

shooting it for the first time. First read the manual which came with the gun so that you

know how to take it down properly. If youdown properly. If you didn't get a manual,most US manufacturers will provide one free of charge for the asking. If you get a

military surplus gun, you may need to do some research, either on the Web, or in

reference works like Small Arms of the World to find out how to field strip the piece.

Let's not forget that the very first step you must take is to make sure the gun isunloaded! If your gun is an autoloader, first remove the magazine, then work the action

several times to make sure the chamber is unloaded. Then, visually check the chamber to

ensure you've completely cleared the piece.

Another reason to get the gun's manual is that it may have special instructions for itsproper lubrication. For example, Glock pistols should not be over-lubricated - they

actually are less reliable if you add too much lubricant.

Most guns come from the factory or importer with a protective coating such asgrease or Cosmoline on the metal parts. This should be cleaned off with either one of the

solvents mentioned above or something like mineral spirits or kerosene. Be careful not to

get these solvents on your gun's stock, since they'll damage the finish!

the finish!

After you remove the protective grease, lubricate the gun as indicated in the gun'smanual. If you're not going to take it to the range immediately, give the metal parts a light

coat of oil, or wipe them down with a silicone gun and reel cloth to prevent rust.

If you've just shot your gun, you should clean it before placing it back in storage.

You'll need to clean the bore and the action. It is not a bad idea to run a brush or patch


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wet with solvent through the bore before you leave the range. This way, the solvent can

work on the fouling in the bore on your drive home, and you'll have less work to do later.

To clean the gun's bore, I like to run a wet brush through several times and then let itsoak while I clean the rest of the gun. I then follow this up with several patches wet with

solvent, keeping this up until the patches come out clean. I'll then run one or two drypatches through to remove the solvent, and then put a coat of protective oil in the bore for

storage.

If you shoot corrosively-primed ammunition, you'll need to be very thorough when

you clean the bore and any other parts which gas froms which gas from the burning

powder come into contact with. This is especially true if the bore on your gun isn't

chrome-plated. Basically, you'll need to clean the bore with boiling water or GI BoreCleaner. These will get out the corrosive salts deposited by the primers. I then like to

follow up with a few patches using Ed's Red, dry patches, and then coat the bore with

protective oil. (I use ATF.) When the US Army used corrosively-primed ammo, standard

operating procedure was to follow the initial cleaning with additional cleaning for thenext three days, to ensure that no corrosive residue was left. In dry climates this probably

isn't necessary, but you should at least check the bore the next day by running a patchthrough it, and then oiling the bore. Better safe than sorry.

When I'm cleaning the rest of the gun's mechanism, I like to flush parts with solvent

and scrub with an old toothbrush until the parts are clean. The solvent is then wiped off

with a patch or paper towel, and the parts are lightly lubricated with an appropriate oil orgrease. After assembly, the entire gun is wiped down with a silicone rag to keep the

exterior from rusting. That's really all there is to it.

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Routine Gun Finish Maintenance