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Cleaning: help me convince my dad

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mljdeckard

mljdeckard

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Jun 5, 2006
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In a part of Utah that resembles Tattooine.
I have spent my adult life unlearning what my dad taught me about taking care of guns. He strongly believes that after each war, you might want to give a rifle a cursory wipedown. :banghead:

He has some nice rifles, and I have taken it upon myself to clean them when I get the chance, but I have decided that I won't really have the time to do it well and often. He has a S&W (Howa) 1500 in .270 that had so much copper in the bore that I had to fill it with foaming bore solvent and let it sit for days. He has a Remington 700 VSSF in 22-250 that he doesn't bother to clean. It helps that it is stainless.

Here's why it's hard. His guns work for him every time. I have seen him kill many deer, and if he's ever missed, I don't remember. He only shoots prior to his hunts to make sure his scopes are good, and that's it. He has never had a weapon fail from poor maintenence. I suppose there is a lot to be said for getting good gear in the first place.

Here's the selfish part. I will inherit these guns one day, and I'm afraid the bores will be destroyed.

Is there better reasoning to try to get him to put more effort into it than; "Your gear is expensive and if you buy it it deserves the best care."?
 
Not that big a deal to me. Sounds like he does not shoot alot of rounds, so stop by once in awhile and clean them for him.
I always cleaned after every shoot for years. Now I wipe them down and clean every couple hundred rounds. I think the big thing is he at least wipes them down when done with a hunt or use.
I am not saying its ok to never clean your guns and you got them cleaned up now. Every hundred rounds or so clean them up for your Dad.
Should be good to go now that you got the barrels cleaned up.
 
leave them alone.

they're his guns, not yours.

i don't clean my guns either. they work fine. far more damage has been done to guns by excessive cleaning than normal use with non-corrosive ammo.
 
When I was growing up my Dad got a nice semi auto shotgun and we hunted and shot clays a bunch. I lived at home I cleaned the guns. Dad bought the ammo and I cleaned. After I got married and left I would return and clean his shotgun about once a year. Then we moved away and the family took my time and money and I couldn't go home every year.
Long story short after he passed I took the shotgun home and my son and I shot it quite a bit and it started to gunk up. I cleaned it one more time and now I will let my son clean it after I am gone. I enjoyed every minute of the time I spent cleaning and thinking of Dad if it was dirtier it would have been better. Let it go until it is time. :)
 
Convincing old timers to clean their guns, is like convincing 60 plus year old people, that FDR was bad for the country, and that they are not Democrats, the party has changed too much. They are just not going to hear of it, no way, no how.
There was an excellent article on cleaning, and several rifles tested, and the diff of how they shot from a dirty, as opposed to a clean bbl, and how they grouped, and how close they were to the first shot point of aim. but since your dad is not a paper puncher, or a moa freak, this again, will not matter 1 bit to him.
The only thing i can think of, is to tell him this; powder and carbon that dries inside a bbl, gets very hard, like concrete. Then, when temps change or even humidity changes, inside the house, this carbon residue will now sponge it up, and holt onto the water. Eventually , this water will make it's way through the buildup, and sit right against the bore of the rifle. Underneath the buildup, it will rust, dry out, then pit the steel. It will take time, but it will happen, unless the bore is cleaned and oiled regularly.
 
leave them alone.

they're his guns, not yours.

i don't clean my guns either. they work fine. far more damage has been done to guns by excessive cleaning than normal use with non-corrosive ammo.
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Bingo, you want to always clean gun buy your own. Let dad do what he wants with his.
 
As long as the ammo is not corrosive and he doesn't put them up wet, I doubt you'll notice any problem with the bores.

Seriously. 99% of the obsession with cleaning bores came from the day and age when they would literally rust overnight due to the corrosive primers. Nowadays you can leave a weapon dirty for years and not have a corrosion problem in the bore.

Mike
 
I won't give you cleaning advice. I'll give you Dad advice.

Mine died 3 weeks ago. I would give one million dirty guns to have him back for one day.




Leave his guns alone. Don't fight him over it. Love him. You will never ever regret that decision.
 
I looked forward to watching my son learn how to dissassemble my M-1 because he is own it one day.
 
I won't give you cleaning advice. I'll give you Dad advice.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mine died 3 weeks ago. I would give one million dirty guns to have him back for one day.




Leave his guns alone. Don't fight him over it. Love him. You will never ever regret that decision.
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Even though it's been 10 years for me, plus one.
 
When my Grandpa starting getting "older" I noticed a lack of service to his firearms. It was not because he didn't care - just that it was "forgotten" I guess....

We would go down there every month or so as he only lived two hours away. So when I was there I would descreetly check them out and give them a wipe down....

I did this for probably 15 years or so before that great man left us for better hunting grounds.

My advice would be to simply do it yourself and forget about trying to "educate" your dad. Enjoy him and take him shooting, hunting, fishing while you can. I spent many great hours, days and years with my Gramps but it doesn't seem like enough now!
 
You're lucky to be able to clean his guns.

As others have said, the day will come when you would give anything to see him again.

And don't forget who changed your dirty diapers and wiped your little bottom. :)

Tinpig
 
leave them alone.

they're his guns, not yours.

i don't clean my guns either. they work fine. far more damage has been done to guns by excessive cleaning than normal use with non-corrosive ammo.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% - a lot of emphasis has been put on clean rifles over the years; I think it's filtered down from the military & people think "if it's good enough for the army I'll do it, guns are their business" & yes I had a discussion with a friend who said something like that to me.

The military fires a lot more rounds in a war than most will in civilian pursuits (not all but most) & they are training for war. That's why they destroy so many rifles by cleaning them, in a fight the amount of shooting & environmental debris will catch up to the cleaning efforts taught in basic & the taxpayer picks up the tab for the worn out crowns. But hey, I'm all for it if the money spent saves some troops life some day when his training kicked in.

You & your dad aren't drill instructor & boot; enjoy the days you have & clean the weapons the way you want when & if you inherit them.

Just my opinion of course.
 
is like convincing 60 plus year old people, that FDR was bad for the country
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Hey buckwheat, I'm 60 and never saw or heard FDR - he died three years before I was born.

JFK was the man. :)



Copper ruins accuracy. Lots of longtime shooters don't know that and never clean for copper removal, they just wonder why their rifles don't shoot so good anymore.

But when all you need is minute of deer it's too much trouble to get the copper out.
 
Yeah older people are always set in their ways. I tried to convince mine that I could build him a computer that would be better, more reliable and more inexpensive than those big name pre built computers, but to no avail he feels like wasting his money. There are some men you just can't reach.

Let him do things the way he wants for now. When you receive them, treat them how you want to.
 
His guns work for him every time
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.

Have you considered the possibility he knows his guns better than you do? It sounds like cleaning guns is not something your dad enjoys doing.

When you do make your yearly visit don't spend time on things you both don't enjoy. Someday you'll wish you had more memories of you and your father together watching football, and fewer of you alone with a bottle of Hoppe's.

Here's the selfish part. I will inherit these guns one day, and I'm afraid the bores will be destroyed.
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You're right, that's incredibly selfish. Your dad should spank you.
 
Ironically enough,

I DID give him a boresnake today. (Cursory cleaning is better than NO cleaning.) He went to find one of the rifles it was meant for and found that when he last used it, about a year ago, he had tossed a wet poncho over it and left it. Rust speckles all down the barrel and receiver. I bit it off while he called his gunsmith buddy. Looking through the gun locker, he gave me two rifles he hasn't used in a long time and said I would take better care of them than he would.

My dad is a better hunter than me. He's a better shot than me. But he knows much less about his guns than I do, he's usually deferring to me for advice. I also agree about the army overcleaning and damaging their guns. It's just that in his case, he literally won't clean anything until it malfunctions. I think he's getting a maintenance rest for Christmas, he DOES want to start getting very tight groups from that VSSF, wants to use it for prairie dogs and pot guts. We've lined up the reloading components, it's time for a rod guide, a one piece rod, a chronometer, and lots of Hoppe's.
 
Don't feel bad.................my brother believes that his car has self changing oil. (That's the kind that changes itself as it burns it.)

So I just enjoy the parts of the relationship that we agree on. And don't discuss religion or politics. (or maintenance) :D
 
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