Gun Mats

I have always just used an old thick towel.

I like Tekmats and have a few with exploded parts diagrams of my favorite firearms. I have one that has 1911, AR15, and AR10 at the same time. That is my general do everything mat.

I get alot of high-density foam mats and blocks at work.

They come in handy for all sorts of home and auto projects used as floor sliders, shims, antisqueek foam, etc. Ive even used them as riflestock bedding material.

Light green wool felt from the fabric store.

Some rubber roofing.

I’m usually on the floor when cleaning so I lay out a tarp in the living room and that’s my gun mat.

Utterly random collection of gimmees and cast offs. And some left over tool box shelf liner material (it's oil absorbant out of the box).

Cokeman said:

I have always just used an old thick towel.

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An old towel is what I used for most of my shooting life, but a couple of years ago I bought one of these Lyman mat's from a local gun store.

https://www.lymanproducts.com/gun-care/the-essential-gun-maintenance-mat-2784

I like it a lot. It is real nice having those little divided sections and a raised edge all around to keep stuff from rolling away.

Looks good

I won a couple of rubber Winchester mats in raffles and I got a soft Springfield Xd mat from somewhere. I set them on my Husky rolling cart with the wooden top. No issues with solvents, oil etc. damaging that top .


Stay safe.

I have an old green one like the OP, and an AR type one. I've also found that a yoga mat cast off from the wife or one of the two daughters works well too

-Jeff

I just use an old large mouse pad from a computer.

I'm essentially thrifty and follow the "Bath Towel Life Cycle" method. From bath/shower to car wash to gun mat. A plus for towels is they're long enough for long guns.

I like the texture and designs of the TecMats...I’ve come to discover, though, that the dark gun parts are hard to see against the black mat. Of course, alighted color would get “dirty”, but I’ve come close to misplacing a couple of screws!

Navy87Guy said:

I like the texture and designs of the TecMats...I’ve come to discover, though, that the dark gun parts are hard to see against the black mat. Of course, alighted color would get “dirty”, but I’ve come close to misplacing a couple of screws!

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I think you'd like the Lyman mat that I linked to above.

Remember when you used to get newspapers? I used to use old newspapers, but I don't get a single newspaper anymore. Newspaper was the best, as you could just roll up the paper with all the wasted patches, no clean up, just throw it all away. Now I have one of the large mats.

I have a mis-matched floor mat out of an International 9100 semi. It does all sorts of duties on my workbench.
Most often it goes on the floor to protect the brass buttplate on my flintlock while swabbing the barrel.
It has also been doubled and curved in a U and used as a vice jaw protector.
If I remember it, I bring it along to the club shoots to ground my rifle butt during cease-fire.

Mine is a door mat from the Home Depot, on which towels that Mrs. X62503 has designated as crap towels are spread.

the farm shop is the last stop for our crap towels. They're done for after that.

Tshirts get cut into cleaning patches.

BigAlShooter said:

Remember when you used to get newspapers? I used to use old newspapers, but I don't get a single newspaper anymore. Newspaper was the best, as you could just roll up the paper with all the wasted patches, no clean up, just throw it all away. Now I have one of the large mats.

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Yes, I've used newspapers, and still do on occasion when I'm doing something quick and don't want to break out the Lyman mat. I still get the local paper delivered, but it seems like the delivery person does it as a hobby. Sometimes it's early, sometimes it's late, sometimes it doesn't arrive.

It is handy to just chuck the paper in the recycle bin when you're done.

We had a left over box of puppy pads a few years ago. I have been using them sense then.

I use that foam-like shelf liner, makes a nice non-skid surface
I have also used old rubber bath mats
Neither holds oils or solvents and keeps the guns from slipping.

I love the Ransom Master Mat

Most of the time I don't use one. I clean my rifles on my gun vice/cleaning station but if I need to do repair or install an accessory I use a heavy cloth fender cover that I have in my garage, just to make it easier to see dropped parts.