Cleaning products?

[lksopener]

Hi guys,

 

Just wondered what you used to clean your shotguns?

 

I religiously clean my guns after every outing unless I'm shooting the day after.

 

I normally break the gun down and give the barrels a patch through first then a clean with a bronze brush and then a soft wool brush.

 

The barrels and metal work get a wipe down with a hoppes no.9 cloth and sometimes a small amount of gun oil.

 

Reason for the thread, I'm in the US at the minute and looking at the range of products it's amazing how many different types of products exist and it got me curious as towards what's others use.

 

Does any one use gun grease where the action meets the barrels?

 

Thanks Liam

[JohnfromUK]

For cleaning:

 

Barrels - Loo paper to remove residue, Young's 303 solvent cleaner on Payne Gallwey brush + a few minutes wait to 'work', then more loo paper to remove dissolved residue. Check clean (i.e. no plastic/lead remaining in barrels) and if not - repeat. Its under the layer of lead or plastic that trapped combustion products can attract airborne moisture and start corrosion/pitting. Ensure fully dry (barrels without wood can safely be dried on a radiator). Wipe outside down with oiled cloth paying attention to sides of ribs etc. Very light smear of oil or Young's 303 inside with a fibre bristle brush or wool mop (never enough to 'run').

 

Standing breach/action flats - a little Young's 303 on a finger tip - to remove any powder residue. Wipe off (more loo paper).

 

For protection and lubrication:

 

Wipe off hinge pin, hook, extractors/ejectors including any old dirty oil/grease (take out extractors perhaps one use in 20). Re-lubricate very sparingly with basic multipurpose oil/grease (e.g. Castrol, Halfords etc). External metalwork, bluing etc. - very thin rub over with Rangoon oil - especially if not being used for a while. About 2 drops should treat all external metal surfaces.

 

Wood - occasional rub over with a very small amount of Phillips Walnut oil, or Red KIte London wax.

 

Key points - clean off old oil/grease taking dirt/grit with it to leave a clean surface. Ensure all is fully dry. Re-apply VERY sparingly so oil can't migrate into wood etc., and doesn't collect excess dirt/grit. There should never be enough oil to 'run'.

 

Sounds a lot, but doesn't take long at all and gives a decent opportunity for inspection for dents, cracks in wood, corrosion etc - and just to admire the gunsmiths work!.

Edited January 8, 2016 by JohnfromUK

[B25Modelman]

1. Napier Oil for the internal barrel cleaning (bronze brush and patches) followed by wool mop with 3 in 1.

2. Browning Legia on ejector rods and external parts. Very light smear.

3. Alvania grease on hinge pin, forend mechanism and ejector rod ends.

4. Soft cloth on wood.

 

My guns are stored muzzle down to prevent oil running into the wood.

[bruno22rf]

Dead the same as B25Modelman but I use heavy oil (ep90) on a feather to lube the hinge pins.

[Westward]

I've been using Clenzoil for a year or so to clean the bores and around the action and breech. It works well as a solvent and it smells quite nice too but, despite what Clenzoil suggests in their blurb, I wouldn't dream of using it on the woodwork.

 

I use liqui-moly grease on the knuckle joint between the action and barrels and also the hinges, but any old grease will do the job. Oil for everything else.

[Savhmr]

For initial cleaning, a boresnake down both barrels, then cleaning with a PB brush with some Bisley boreclaener added...giving the barrels a good scrubbing, leave for a few minutes then I use kitchen roll to clean out the bores pushing through with a cleaning rod. External surfaces cleaned and lightly rubbed with sheath-oil exterior protector. Gun stripped down, ejectors removed, cleaned and lightly re-oiled. Lugs and locking mech subject to shear get a clean down and a light regreasing with food grade grease (used in the processing industry and highly resistant to corrosion). Wood gets a rub down and light oiling using root oil, tung oil or finishing oil (whatever I happen to have around from stocks used in my business) rubbed in with the heal of my hand. Chokes are checked for tightness but otherwise not removed for thread cleaning except for once a month or so with regular use. Action, I periodically remove from the stock (once annually), clean down and lightly re-oil. Biggest mistake some make is over oiling through firing pin holes and fore-end clasp mechs. This can saturate the mechanisms, and also soak into the timber. Mineral oils do timber no good at all, so this is best avoided!

Edited January 9, 2016 by Savhmr

[STOTTO]

Sorry saw your post after I had posted this on another thread, I have been using this method on my guns for many, many years without issue.

 

Never seem to get any issues with fouling or leading of the bores, I use undiluted ‘Young’s 303’, just a few drops on an old bronze brush, scrub it through the bores a couple of times, then a modest spray of a WD 40 type product into the start of the chambers, to act as a solvent on the 303 and scrub again just a couple of times with the same brush.

I then run a couple of cotton patches through the tubes until they come out clean.

 

I then unscrew the multi chokes, clean and oil them along with the choke recesses and their threads, replace and then run a clean patch through the bores and then finally I run a very lightly oiled rag, (20/50 motor oil) down the tubes and ‘Walla’, mirror finish and job done.

 

I wipe the outside metal parts and lubricate the external moving parts with the lightest touch of 20/50 and if I strip the gun to get at the internals I use a smidgen of ‘3-In-One’ oil.

(Old guy old system) but in my case, time proven!

 

I normally use English Sporter plastic wad cartridges, gun Browning 425 invector-plus 12g!