General Maintenance

[b066y]

Hi all,

When you're putting a gun away for awhile, do you oil it up? What sort of maintenance do you do before it gets put away? I don't plan on shooting during summer so they won't be in use for a few months.

Thanks.
Bob

[Oldbloke]

Depends on your climate a bit.

Run over bolt, barrel and action with an oily rag. I mostly use lanox or equivalent.

If you like remove stock do same underneath with grease, heavier oil or some use various waxes. Or lanox if you like.

Run a lightly oiled jag through the barrel. But ensure you dry out before next use.

[Lazarus]

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[JohnV]

Oil of any kind tends to dry up and run off over time . What I do is clean the bore and chamber really well , get out all the copper you can within reason . Use high temp bearing grease inside the bore and chamber applied using a loose patch so it leaves a coating .
Get a brush with short fairly stiff bristles and paint grease onto the metalwork in a very thin layer , getting into all the screw heads nooks and crannies etc. Stay away from the scopes lenses and moving parts , just do the rings . The grease will stay on the gun for a very long time and even when it does dry out it is still a rust preventing coating . Oil is the enemy of accuracy because it eventually seeps down into the bedding and softens wood stocks and rots non metal bedding materials . It can also pool under recoil lugs and action base flats and cause loss of accuracy . For long term storage in any conditions think grease not oil . Attach a tag to the gun that reminds you to patch out the chamber and bore before you fire it again .

[Oldbloke]

Oil of any kind tends to dry up and run off over time . What I do is clean the bore and chamber really well , get out all the copper you can within reason . Use high temp bearing grease inside the bore and chamber applied using a loose patch so it leaves a coating .
Get a brush with short fairly stiff bristles and paint grease onto the metalwork in a very thin layer , getting into all the screw heads nooks and crannies etc. Stay away from the scopes lenses and moving parts , just do the rings . The grease will stay on the gun for a very long time and even when it does dry out it is still a rust preventing coating . Oil is the enemy of accuracy because it eventually seeps down into the bedding and softens wood stocks and rots non metal bedding materials . It can also pool under recoil lugs and action base flats and cause loss of accuracy . For long term storage in any conditions think grease not oil . Attach a tag to the gun that reminds you to patch out the chamber and bore before you fire it again .

Yep, I use tags also.

[JohnV]

A trick you can use so a gun can be quickly used is only use light oil in the barrel and leave a pull through in the bore with the patch sitting in the chamber .
You can grab the gun rip the pull through out and whack the mag in and your good to rock and roll .
I used this in basic training to always have a pristine dust free bore on parade . The instructors could not work out how I did it .
A thin coating of oil in the bore that has dried out over many months is less of a bulging risk than grease is. So I attach tag just incase I forget .

[b066y]

Hey thanks everyone. Appreciate the tips.