My thoughts on Gun Cleaning

Every one know that you are supposed to clean them. They get dirty. I was probably a lot like other people in that I did do some cleaning and had a bent cleaning rod or two that was a dirty aluminum sectional out of an old Outer's gun cleaning kit. To go with that I had some old brushes that were good enough with at least 50% of the bristles left  and some cut up t-shirts for patches because I had used up the small sample of patches that came with the kit that I probably got at a yard sale.
  A few years ago I put on lay away an actual new .243 rifle, not just new to me but actually new. I decided that I wanted to take really good care of it so I set about learning about how to properly clean a rifle and what equipment I would need. There are a lot of good articles on the Internet, mostly written by bench rest shooters on this topic. These experts do have some difference of opinion but all express some of the same basic principles. Let me share with you some of what I think is good advice on proper bore care and gun cleaning.

1. Cleaning Rods. If you have the sectional rods made of aluminum or God forbid, steel like the U.S. Military rods, use them for something else, don't clean firearms with them. Use them for your blow gun or cleaning your flute not your firearms. They are not stiff, enough, they are usually not straight, they are over sized and make too much bore contact. The worst thing is that they get embedded with with bits of metal and crap that will harm your bore. Use a nylon coated, carbon fiber or brass one piece rod in the RIGHT SIZE for your rifle. If you have to use a segmented rod get a good one like the one out of the Swiss Military rifle cleaning kits.
Clean what ever rod you have BEFORE you use it. Really clean it, if it brass polish it. If it is nylon while you are cleaning it feel for tears in the nylon. If the nylon is hacked up, discard it, you are better off leaving the gun dirty that damaging it with a rod with a bad coating.

2. Clean as soon as possible after you are done shooting. If you can't clean the gun with in a few hours then at least wipe the bore down with a nitro solvent and leave the solvent in the gun until you can clean it, a pull through can be used for this if no rod is available. With in a few hours after shooting the crud in the bore hardens this means you will have brush the bore more vigorously. With a quick cleaning when you are done shooting you may not have to brush at all and may be able to just use a patch and get it clean.

3. Brushes. Brush as little as possible only use them when you have to. Inspect your brushes, if they are green, it they have bent or missing bristles. discard them. You can get a lot more life out of brush if you carefully clean it after you use it and you should never use a brush that has not been cleaned. I will use electrical contact cleaner or hot soapy water to clean a brush. If you use water use heat to make sure they are dry before you put them away.
Use the phosphor bronze brushes or plastic when ever possible. Discard the nylon ones after few uses, the material gets imbedded with grit you cant't get out.  Save the stainless tornado type  brushes for only cleaning a very dirty crusty barrel, the stainless ones cause too much bore wear.Use the right size brush and never reverse in in the bore. I try to only clean from the back to the front and try not to ever pull a brush back through the bore. Bullets only go one way so your brush should only go one way.

4. Patches. Ya a t-shirt is probably OK if it is clean but you can buy patches by the thousand that are the right size and pretty cheap. Use a Jag not the slotted tips. The slotted tips are just one more thing that might contact the bore that you don't need and don't do as good of a job as the proper sized jag.

5. Clean from the breach if possible and use a rod guide, if you have to clean from the muzzle be very careful inserting the brush or jag and keep the rod straight, better yet use a muzzle guide that it also nice and clean. More rifles have been damage by rods pressing on the crown or the shoulder of a brush or jag hitting on the crown than probably any other cause,

4. Use a gun vice or a buddy to hold the gun still when you have a rod in it.

5. Choose the right solvent for the job, If you are shooting lead bullets you need something for that, if you are shooting jacketed you need something with Ammonia in it to dissolve the copper. Don't use copper solvents with a brass rod. Use something that is a good carbon cleaner in either case. I have been using Tetra-Gun copper solvent and it works good but it stinks to high heaven and will burn your hands if you have any open wounds and make your eyes water. If using corrosive ammo use a cleaner made for that ( usually black powder cleaners) or use hot water and a little soap.

So I hope this helps, I will be adding to this thread so stay tuned

The Swiss Rifle cleaning kits

These very high quality, well thought out kits. Made in the late 50's for the Swiss K31 and StG 57 in 7.5 Swiss, The brushes that come with it will fit any 7.5mm or 30 cal. Including 7.5 swiss, 308, 30-30/, 7.62 and many others, you can use them on 8mm sized bores but they will be a little looser. An adapter is commonly available that will allow the use of any standard American brushes, swabs or Jags with this adapter it could be used with calibers larger than .30 including shotguns.

 The kits include a nice rubberized canvas pouch, a sectional cleaning rod that can be used shortened for pistols, a very clever and unique combination rotating patch jag and attactment tip for brushes, Three brushes a bronze chamber brush, a bronze bore brush and a nylon bore brush, an inspection mirror that has an actual peice of precision ground glass in it, a bore cleaning patch jag. and a very sturdy comfortable handle for the rod, and two large grease tightly sealing grease pots with good grease in them and aplication brushes.

Most people ship these out as they come in with dirty brushes (very hard to get that ancient dried grease out of), missing parts and with bent rod segments. I carefully inspect and clean each kit including painstakingly cleaning the brushes. (these are very nice when cleaned) replacing any unusable or missing equipment with servicable equipment from other sets and I hand pick the better of the cases. What you get is a nice clean useable cleaning kit that is both an increadible historic item and a useable field cleaning kit that shows quality far better than anything being made today that I know of. This is not a Wally World cleaning kit from the Orient, it is something all together different and special. May have metal or plastic grease pots. Both are equally nice.

 The cleaning rod on these is cleverly designed so that no steel can touch your bore, the joints are actually polished brass bearing bands far superior than the American steel rods that came with their rifles. Thats why the CMP rifles that are coming out now have the lands worn to nothing and the k31's coming out have good bores. Watch the video for a closer look at them. Free shipping to the United States 

These are available on Ebay or Email me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X40FANRHeA0&feature=plcp&context=C495527eVDvjVQa1PpcFPEwJUkP6QaKvUIjqJiPBOQHD0XAKmBSec=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X40FANRHeA0&feature=plcp&context=C495527eVDvjVQa1PpcFPEwJUkP6QaKvUIjqJiPBOQHD0XAKmBSec=