Cleaning shotguns

[Glenshooter]

Just spent the last hour cleaning my 2 shotguns, following a happy weekend's shooting with my young son.

 

What I usually do, at least for the last 30 yrs, is to push through an oily tissue to remove most of the ****. Then use a phosphor bronze brush dipped in Hoppes 009 to give the barrels a good scrub followed by a number of kitchen roll squares pushed through until they come out clean. That is then followed by a mop with Young's 303.

 

My question is how clean is clean? I could use (after brushing) what seems like a huge number of cloths/tissues before they would come out clean. Do you need to keep doing this until they no longer pick up any fouling/dark stains ie they no longer come out with any marks or am I being too anal about it all.

 

Never really seen anything on the "correct" way but I reckon that spending 30 - 45 mins per gun is probably long enough! One gun has chrome lined barrels while the other hasn't.

 

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[Big_Sam]

I use a bisley clean patch, two runs through and it comes out clean.

 

Seems to leave less rubbish in the barrels than paper.

 

A tight fit helps as well.

[pin]

I used to toss about with patches and stuff until I was put onto bore snakes on here.

 

Shove one of those through 2 pulls every time and you don't need to muck about.

 

Clean to me means point the barrels at a light bulb and see a mirror finish down the barrels.

 

Obviously you need to make sure the action face, ejectors are clean but that's nothing more than a wipe then a very light oil.

 

 

It's cut my cleaning down to minutes.

Edited March 3, 2008 by pin

[squodged]

I used to toss about with patches and stuff until I was put onto bore snakes on here.

 

Shove one of those through 2 pulls every time and you don't need to muck about.

 

Clean to me means point the barrels at a light bulb and see a mirror finish down the barrels.

 

Obviously you need to make sure the action face, ejectors are clean but that's nothing more than a wipe then a very light oil.

 

 

It's cut my cleaning down to minutes.

 

I'll agree with that!

 

Used to use cleaning rods with patches etc.

What a pain in the butt!!

Now 5 mins with an £18 bore snake and I'm done!!

[beatingisbest]

Brass brush on the end of the rod, push through both barrels, switch to mop, through both barrels and wipe over the metal parts of it with an oily rag, job done. Takes about 5 mins

[JohnGalway]

I use a boresnake, and which ever solvents I have to hand to strip down the rest of the semi then wipe down and very lightly oil.

[radio1ham]

i used to use a pull through made from an old boot lace and any old cloths my mum used to have lying around with gun oil or a spray of wd40 down the barrel mind you she wasnt happy when all dish cloths and tea towels were going missing , since then i bought cleaning brushes for the guns

mind you my mate bought cleaning patches etc for his gun and when cleaning the barrels after day shooting he put to much oil in the barrels and pushed mop through and he had lovely white walls in his kitchen but that day ended up with speckle effect specks of oil everywhere on kitchen wall

maybe a good thought for interia desighners

[Glenshooter]

Clean to me means point the barrels at a light bulb and see a mirror finish down the barrels.

Thanks folks - guess the quote above sums it up - no need to keep pushing patches/tissue down the barrel until they come out clean then, for it takes a lot of patches - 7 or 8 at the weekend per barrel! (Probably just lead residue which is not corrosive in any case.)

 

Thanks again.

[clayman]

Don't look down you barrels in strong light, all you see is that light reflected.

 

Take your barrels outside at dusk, in low light and take a look. When all the excess reflecting light is not interfering you can really see what is down there. Look sideways so you see no or little of the end of the barrel

 

If you look straight down a barrel at bright light, all you see is shiny circles and think its a job well done. Use sideways in low light, and suddenly all the plastic and lead fouling dips, dents and craters in your barrel are very evident.

 

Jerry Parks Young

CPSA Senior Coach

[Glenshooter]

Thanks Jerry

 

But even when the barrel looks clean, (although I have yet to try your suggestion) I still get "dirty" marks on a rag. But, following the previous comments, I won't let that worry me anymore.

 

How do you recommend cleaning shotgun barrels?

 

Thanks again.

 

GS

[clayman]

Dismantle the gun into three bits, Stock and action, fore-end, and barrel/s.

 

Run some bore scrubber, P/H 009 or similar into the barrels and leave them to soak.

 

Take the action and use some Young's 303 to clean it out. Tooth brush, cotton buds, soft bronze brush, are all useful.

Sparingly oil moving parts and wipe off excess. Put a tiny dab of grease on any hinged parts or wearing surfaces. Wipe off the whole action with a slightly oily lint free cloth, or use a water dispellant on the outer metal only ( be careful not to wash out oils or greases using WD-40 or similar, this is OK to preserve metalwork, but rather too light as a lubricant on moving parts).

 

Do the same to the working parts of the fore-end.

 

Now the barrels will have soaked, either pass a patch through on a jag or wire loop, or take 3 bits of loo paper (or two if you're posh and have quilted), and fill up the chamber with them and push them through with a rod - the paper comes out black on the other end!!.

 

Look through the barrels to see if you need to repeat this.

 

When the general gunge is out, point the barrels at a low light surface. Late afternoon light is much better for seeing lead and plastic fouling than bright light that makes it hard to see. Look sideways into the barrels and identify any grey patches, streaks and lines of fouling. Add some more bore scrubber if needs be, and work these areas with a bronze or wire brush. When you think its done, clean the barrels again with a jag or bod paper, and look again. Keep doing this till there is no evidence of grey fouling.

 

Now put a small amount of oil in the chamber, and pass a wool mop hough to lightly coat the barrels inside with oil. Use proper gun oil, it has high temperature qualities, and is "sticky" to stay in place. Light oils may burn out in use and leave the gun dry.

 

Use a chamber brush to clean the chamber in the same way.

 

Lightly oil the ejectors ( worth removing them and cleaning behind every now and again).

 

Loosen or remove the chokes and grease them or use vaseline.

 

Re-assemble the gun and handle it with the oiled rag or cotton gloves so you don't leave sweat on it ( or you can get the gun out a few weeks later with rusty finger marks on the metal).

 

Store it barrels down so the oil drains away from the wood and into the barrels. Leave the chokes out or loose, if you leave chokes in tight, they can stick and be ******* to get out later.

 

This is all explained in the Clay Target Shooter's Handbook in detail. You can get it on EBay.

 

Jerry Parks Young

Edited March 6, 2008 by clayman

[Chard]

Brass brush on the end of the rod, push through both barrels, switch to mop, through both barrels and wipe over the metal parts of it with an oily rag, job done. Takes about 5 mins

 

 

This is what I do, though I am thinking about getting a Boresnake too.

 

I don't worry too much about getting every last bit of gunge off, in fact I tend to rub my black oily hands all over the gun, including the stock

 

Plastic wads are worse for making a hard to shift mess, they coat the bores in a fine layer of molten plastic which builds up and is a pig to remove. As I have to use fibre wads where I shoot, this has ceased to be a problem for me and cleaning is much easier.

[Cushat]

Boresnakes not for me and no substitute for proper cleaning in my humble opinion!

 

See the photos at:

 

http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/ind...c=52075&hl=

[Mungler]

Boresnake - does the job.

 

Life is just too short.

[the last engineer]

whats this new concept of cleaning the gun, wont the next shell knock out all the **** from the last one??

 

dont use rottweil shells either stinky things.

 

im with mungler, bore snake if required. :blink:

[Glenshooter]

So I guess there are 2 schools of thought. The boresnake and the more thorough.

Why spend time removing every last bit of fouling if the boresnake is just as good??? :blink:

[ferretman]

MY MOP WITCH I USE I PUT THO 2 TIMES THEN THAY ARE REALLY CLEAN MATE :blink:

[Glenshooter]

Well. thanks for all the replies. I have ended up giving my chrome barrelled gun a "less thorough" cleaning and my older gun the full works when I use it, which is less frequent. Thanks to all again.

 

May all your shots be on target, whatever that it.

[Big_Sam]

Well I'm old school when it comes to looking after my tools. I like to see the bores perfectly clean and mirror finish the whole way.

[bgrangeb]

I use a bisley clean patch, two runs through and it comes out clean.

 

Seems to leave less rubbish in the barrels than paper.

 

A tight fit helps as well.

 

im going on record in saying i hate bisley patches

they leave fibres everywhere and the string which is poorly woven just starts to peel off leaving 'renegade' string all in my barrel or at least puts fibres in... go kitchen roll and wool!

[Salop Matt]

Does anyone use Legia spray (red and black can with browning on) ? Just about to buy a big can of this at £7. I use 3 in 1 to lube and protect the rest !

[WGD]

Combination of Legia to clean and then Bisley Gun Oil around ejectors etc before putting clean gun away.

 

WGD

[Glenshooter]

Does anyone use Legia spray (red and black can with browning on

 

No, but when I was buying Parker Hale stuff on Sat, David (in Oxford Gun Company), recommended it.

[Peter De La Mare]

Does anyone use Legia spray (red and black can with browning on) ? Just about to buy a big can of this at £7. I use 3 in 1 to lube and protect the rest !

 

I use the 750ml can of Legia, give the bores a thorough drenching and leave to soak for 5 mins, turning halfway through, then a few runs through with the bronze brush followed by a single run through with a kitchen towel folded up a few times (Bounty is best for this) and the job is done. Bright shiney barrels. Make sure the kitchen towel is folded up enough so you have to force it into the chamber and it squeaks like hell on the way through. Another blast with Legia over the metal bits and rub down with a soft cloth, wiggle the ejectors and dry, then a very light coat of gun oil or vaseline on the hinge pin and other mating areas. Legia/cloth on the outside of the barrels, fore-end back on and into the cabinet.

 

Every 2nd use I whip out the chokes and spin the bronze brush around the threads of the choke and in the barrels, again with a liberal blasting of Legia.

Edited April 1, 2008 by Peter De La Mare

[Peter De La Mare]

Also use the Napier version of Legia sometimes, although it's not as good imho. Again 750ml cans rule !