Aluminum baffle maintenence and cleaning tips help

[irishlad]

I ordered a Rugged Mustang 22(1st suppressor) in early July. Is anybody coating their aluminum baffles with bore butter, silicone spray etc. Any maintenance tips? Cleaning tips? Thanks in advance.

 

[James Petti]

I would follow the manufactures instructions as the people who made it know more about it than everyone else. There are countless things that one could do, but shouldn't. They can't list them all.

 

[A526051]

I have been using silicone grease. It seems to work pretty well.

 

[irishlad]

I would follow the manufactures instructions as the people who made it know more about it than everyone else. There are countless things that one could do, but shouldn't. They can't list them all.

"
MUSTANG22™ CLEANING
Rugged Suppressors recommends cleaning of the disassembled
baffles using an aluminum-safe gun solvent and nylon bristle brush.
There may be some carbon residue remaining on the parts after
cleaning. You can continue cleaning these with a brush and cleaning
solution if you desire; however, it is not necessary. The inside of the
suppressor tube can be cleaned using normal gun solvent and cleaning
techniques. A nylon brush can also be used to remove any carbon that
remains. WE DO NOT RECOMMEND USING AN ULTRASONIC CLEANER
ON THIS SUPPRESSOR"

Pretty basic instructions( I had already read them). I like to hear from people what solvents and methods have worked for them, gives me a starting point on what to buy(or not) and what has worked(or not) for them . Thanks for your input.

 

[a_canadian]

I've been using this stuff for about a year now. Brilliant for ease of cleaning, durability with .22lr subsonics, and almost complete lack of smell when shooting compared to every other ablative and baffle protectant I've tried over the past decade.
https://www.amazon.com/CRC-05361-Silaramic-System-Grease/dp/B0091KCG0W?th=1

Silaramic white high temperature brake grease is amazing stuff. About 1mm coating the blast baffle then about 0.5mm on the next few will make your next cleaning a breeze with a paper towel. I've tried a purple high temperature brake grease, and just about puked from the smell after a few shots indoors. White lithium grease works okay, though its not very durable, perhaps good for 50 shots before cleaning the baffles, though I tested with a 10/22 once to 100 shots and it still helped somewhat. The white stuff was discovered by Stan1 in an ongoing discussion on nfatalk where a bunch of us were trying various things, including baking baffles with silicone oil. This stuff just out-performs everything else anyone has tried by a large margin. It ain't cheap, but you don't need much. I managed to find a little tub of it for $50, about twice as much in there as the squeeze tube. It'll probably be plenty for me for 10 years anyway.

 

[GaryNC]

I found out about this stuff food grade anti-seize on another forum. I am new to suppressors and am still learning. The 2,300 temperature sounded good enough to me after reading about it. So far, I have found it to work well, not smell, and does not get me very dirty. In April of this year, I paid $37.75 with tax and deliver fee for one pound or 16 oz can of the stuff. I had other anti-seize in my home shop that may have also work but they were messy (ie.: made my hands dirty) when I used them so wanted something that would not get me or my clothes dirty when I use it.

 

[irishlad]

bunch of us were trying various things, including baking baffles with silicone oil.

Did this seem to help? I'm thinking of doing it and coat them. I already have a soda blaster as a last resort. Thanks!

 

[a_canadian]

There have been a couple of guys saying the silicone oil baking worked a little bit, but from what I could see it was no better than lithium grease, which blows off the blast baffle in a .22lr can very quickly. Silaramic stays in place surprisingly well. It gets black very quickly but stays where you put it, protecting the metal a lot longer than anything else I've tried. Here's the thread if you have access to that forum:

http://nfatalk.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10344

 

[Nuclear]

I’ve used the silicon oil, but I’ve stopped baking it on the baffles. I just spray it on after I clean them and I can wipe the deposits off. It also works nicely on AR bolts.