Gun cleaning

[juststarting]

So random thought here... As always. I know bunch of you gun geeks have one or two (add arbitrary amount of zeros) guns in the safe that are rarely used or almost never used.

I am wondering, do you do something like a yearly clean, oil, maintenance thing, if it's been properly stored, but hasn't been used in a while?

Would you oil and put back, would you clean the bore? Etc.

Discuss.

[Wombat]

Got to give them an airing and a quick wipe over every month or so - otherwise you end up with rust.

[juststarting]

Every month? Really?

[Wombat]

Or so....Depends on temp and humidity and temp variations.
I left some for a year when I was younger, lesson learnt.

[bigfellascott]

Got to give them an airing and a quick wipe over every month or so - otherwise you end up with rust.

Thank god I don't have to do that to mine, I'd sell em before I put myself through that. I might drag em out every year or so and give em a wipe over but they seem fine if I don't do it that often.

[juststarting]

I have humidity absorption and all rifles in silicon treated socks, so I don't think monthly is really a requirement here. But now I am worried and must inspect everything. Thanks!

[Oldbloke]

Depends a lot where you live. High humidity or within say 2 km of the sea seem a bit more risky to me.
Personally if I have time about every 6 months. But might go 9 months.
1. Inspect
2. Wipe over with oily rag. Lanoxs or light oil.
3. Run an lightly oily patch though the bore.

[AusTac]

Leave me used guns dirty, but if i know i'm not going to use something for a while i'll make sure its squeaky clean, oil and lube the barrel parts that need to be lubed, try and cram it in a gun sock and store it towards the left of the safe, then every now and then i turn it end on end, muzzle to stock or stock to muzzle, depends on what it is too, most of my collection besides two are cerakoted and my .303 has enough pre historic lube in all the right places, otherwise its just a wipe every now and again try to keep finger prints and stuff off any blued guns

[Pythonkeeper]

After recently having to send back a 7 month old Lithgow LA102 (243) with a severely corroded chamber and bore I leave nothing to chance. I now store my rifles with an oiled/greased woolly mop up in the chamber from a larger caliber, eg 45 mop for 243 and 308 etc, I also fix an oily rag over the muzzles with a rubber band after a good spray of lube down the bore.
I go shooting at least once a month (usually more often) and all my rifles get a quick wipe over with an oily rag and a squirt down the bore while I've got my cleaning gear out to clean the guns I've had out to use.
My cleaning and lubing practices are more thorough than anyone I know and I still had the corrosion problem, personally I believe the rifle in question must have been faulty to deteriorate so quickly (7 months old, 100 rounds give or take) but that's another story.

[pomemax]

After recently having to send back a 7 month old Lithgow LA102 (243) with a severely corroded chamber and bore I leave nothing to chance. I now store my rifles with an oiled/greased woolly mop up in the chamber from a larger caliber, eg 45 mop for 243 and 308 etc, I also fix an oily rag over the muzzles with a rubber band after a good spray of lube down the bore.
I go shooting at least once a month (usually more often) and all my rifles get a quick wipe over with an oily rag and a squirt down the bore while I've got my cleaning gear out to clean the guns I've had out to use.
My cleaning and lubing practices are more thorough than anyone I know and I still had the corrosion problem, personally I believe the rifle in question must have been faulty to deteriorate so quickly (7 months old, 100 rounds give or take) but that's another story.

The answer your looking for is in your statement above " and a squirt down the bore" a real good squirt from an Aerosol can I bet .

After working in an Aerosol filling factory for 5-6 years and watching STAINLESS steel Rust out in 6 months (Mild Steel forget it lasted 2 weeks ) and not from the product but from the gas in the filling rooms .If I am using a spray can on fire arms its on a rag or mop and then let sit for 5 minutes before it goes near steel/wood of any kind. look on the web for a recipe for EDDS RED use that instead of spray cans

As for cleaning when not in use 1 Sunday every 2 months Strip and clean 6 to 8 ( normally start at 11 flagon dragon brings me out lunch at 1 and pack up round 5.30 ish ) next 2 months another 6-8 and so on till all been done and so on , any I use at the range normally 5 a week bore snake and oily rag before they are returned to safe and properly cleaned in the rotation .

Look on most manufactures web pages most often they will tell you the biggest cause of problems is is poor cleaning and lubrication followed by to much cleaning and way to much lube
accross the bottom of the safe i have 8 off .half kg bags of he silicon dryer that come in machines from overseas of that helps a lot

[Oldbloke]

I use Ed's red on the bore too. Never any rust.

[Daddybang]

Just a quick tip for those using fancy moisture absorbers in their safes. Grab a plastic container and put about half a dozen tea bags in it and put that in. Learned that one working as a furniture removalist in weipa.

[Bigjobss]

Well oiled with Lanox and Sweets and into a gunsock in a safe with a $4 aldi dehumidifier - which even comes with a refill!
My safe is in the garage but even so I was suprised at the amount of moisture that thing trapped, ive gone through 2 sets in 12 months and i think it was a wise $8 spent.

[Oldbloke]

or rice place it in the oven give it a good cook it will go almost crispy (can be used in some recipes like this too ) put in cotton bag will absorb a lot of moisture even rice not oven treated will work well.

Plaster too

[Supaduke]

Never hurts to pull lesser used firearms out every few months and give them a wipe over. Takes 10 mins to do maintenance and there is nothing wrong with a bit of random gun fondling. What happens between a man and his gun , stays between a man and his gun.

[bladeracer]

Thank god I don't have to do that to mine, I'd sell em before I put myself through that. I might drag em out every year or so and give em a wipe over but they seem fine if I don't do it that often.

I'd sell them before I'd leave them in the safe for a year!

[Pythonkeeper]

After recently having to send back a 7 month old Lithgow LA102 (243) with a severely corroded chamber and bore I leave nothing to chance. I now store my rifles with an oiled/greased woolly mop up in the chamber from a larger caliber, eg 45 mop for 243 and 308 etc, I also fix an oily rag over the muzzles with a rubber band after a good spray of lube down the bore.
I go shooting at least once a month (usually more often) and all my rifles get a quick wipe over with an oily rag and a squirt down the bore while I've got my cleaning gear out to clean the guns I've had out to use.
My cleaning and lubing practices are more thorough than anyone I know and I still had the corrosion problem, personally I believe the rifle in question must have been faulty to deteriorate so quickly (7 months old, 100 rounds give or take) but that's another story.

The answer your looking for is in your statement above " and a squirt down the bore" a real good squirt from an Aerosol can I bet .

After working in an Aerosol filling factory for 5-6 years and watching STAINLESS steel Rust out in 6 months (Mild Steel forget it lasted 2 weeks ) and not from the product but from the gas in the filling rooms .If I am using a spray can on fire arms its on a rag or mop and then let sit for 5 minutes before it goes near steel/wood of any kind. look on the web for a recipe for EDDS RED use that instead of spray cans

As for cleaning when not in use 1 Sunday every 2 months Strip and clean 6 to 8 ( normally start at 11 flagon dragon brings me out lunch at 1 and pack up round 5.30 ish ) next 2 months another 6-8 and so on till all been done and so on , any I use at the range normally 5 a week bore snake and oily rag before they are returned to safe and properly cleaned in the rotation .

Look on most manufactures web pages most often they will tell you the biggest cause of problems is is poor cleaning and lubrication followed by to much cleaning and way to much lube
accross the bottom of the safe i have 8 off .half kg bags of he silicon dryer that come in machines from overseas of that helps a lot

Maybe I should have explained myself better, a squirt down the barrel was more a figure of speech than something to be taken literally, you would be right though that some (1 of) of the products I use come from an aerosol can however I don't spray these products directly on or into the rifle. When applying to the bore and chamber I use a wet patch, lube soaked mop or bore snake and run it through a few passes to get even coverage. Same applies to the externals, spray or squirt onto the rag and wipe over.......I use g96 (aerosol), frog lube liquid clp (squeezy bottle), Hoppe's no 9 bore cleaner (screw top bottle), innox (squeeze bottle with needle applicator).....I pretty much only use the g96 as a general clp with a bore snake out when out on a hunting trip as its more convenient than the other products I use.
Now although I personally don't spray aerosol products directly on or into my firearm I'm pretty sure it wouldn't make a difference as allot of people do, including people way more knowledgeable on the subject than you or I, and if there was a problem with it we'd see allot more posts like my post above and it would have been declared a no no long ago. Heck, some aerosol products such as foaming bore cleaners etc are designed to be sprayed directly down the barrel, they can be used any other way and one would think they contain the same gases as other aerosol cleaning and lubrication products.
Also the rifle I was referring to above, (IMO) even if it was abused should not have gone the way it did in such a short time frame, it is apparently made of military grade steel (or something to that effect), the same gear they use to manufacture firearms for our armed forces....
As for my safe, I'm a reptile keeper/breeder and have been for many years so I know a thing or two about humidity and how to manipulate it to the level I need it as it is an important part of reptile husbandry, my safe has very low humidity end of story...

[Pythonkeeper]

Should also point out, the rifle in question was replaced with a brand new rifle and spare mag so it wasn't all bad, although it took over 2 months and very poor communication/ customer service before I finally got it back.

[pomemax]

Have a read if you have time it shows just how quick rust can form even with gun oils of different types
http://www.dayattherange.com/?page_id=3667

[AusTac]

Ok i f***ed up, upon reading some of these replies i got a bit paranoid and had a gander at my collection and low and behold, i found some surface rust ( i think ) in my .308's chamber which i must have forgot to oil all fixed now but damn that was close!

[Pythonkeeper]

Incidentally, another Lithgow LA102 (243 also) was returned to my local the same week as I returned mine with exactly the same problem, or so I was told by the bloke who handles all the instore warranty returns.

[Wombat]

Well oiled with Lanox and Sweets and into a gunsock in a safe with a $4 aldi dehumidifier - which even comes with a refill!
My safe is in the garage but even so I was suprised at the amount of moisture that thing trapped, ive gone through 2 sets in 12 months and i think it was a wise $8 spent.

If that is the type with the white granules like the "Damp Rid" ones I wouldn't leave it in the safe. Search for the MSDS and you will find that you end up with a container of salt water sitting in your safe ... If the granules are used up and it starts evaporating in a hot shed....
Coles do a kitty litter that is basically silica gel, but is has a frangrance that optics dont like (so fine if there's no scopes). Recharged silica gel is free if you can get some old sachets. The tea bags or plasterboard are cheap or free and work.

[AusTac]

My .308,s a lithgow also...

[Oldbloke]

Old thread but thought I would ask a question.
There are many "modern" carbon cleaning compounds out there.
But I remember someone years ago saying kero was the go.

Has anyone tried kero, turps, white spirit or other common solvents? Just curious.

[straightshooter]

This seems to be something that is hard to understand.
No solvent dissolves carbon!
When you have a very aggressive solvent mixture like for example throttle body cleaner or carby cleaner what they are doing is dissolving the gunk that is holding the carbon.
In a rifle barrel you don't have that situation.
So carby cleaner or similar liquid will only wash away loose carbon.
A wet patch pushed through the barrel will remove loosely adhering carbon.
A bronze brush with the aid of a good solvent will be needed to remove firmly adhering carbon.

[Oldbloke]

"No solvent dissolves carbon!"

That is a very good point.

[Bigjobss]

Well oiled with Lanox and Sweets and into a gunsock in a safe with a $4 aldi dehumidifier - which even comes with a refill!
My safe is in the garage but even so I was suprised at the amount of moisture that thing trapped, ive gone through 2 sets in 12 months and i think it was a wise $8 spent.

If that is the type with the white granules like the "Damp Rid" ones I wouldn't leave it in the safe. Search for the MSDS and you will find that you end up with a container of salt water sitting in your safe ... If the granules are used up and it starts evaporating in a hot shed....
Coles do a kitty litter that is basically silica gel, but is has a frangrance that optics dont like (so fine if there's no scopes). Recharged silica gel is free if you can get some old sachets. The tea bags or plasterboard are cheap or free and work.

Woah thanks for the headsup, had no idea.