I've never found a kit that I liked. I have pieces of various kits that survived, but these days I buy quality components individually to make my own "kits".
Here are some of my guidelines.
Here are some of my guidelines.
- Don't buy jointed rods. They will all break eventually and when they do, there's the potential for injury and damage to the gun. Buy a high-quality, one-piece cleaning rod.
- Don't bother with loop style cleaning attachments. I use only the jag style cleaning attachments.
- Don't bother buying patches. I've had good luck with heavy-duty paper towels or "shop-style" paper towels torn to size.
- Safety Glasses should be part of the kit. I've had more potentially eye damaging incidents working on/cleaning guns than shooting them.
- If you need a bore brush (and don't be fooled into thinking that one is always required to clean a gun) you might as well use a good quality bronze brush. IMO, anything you can do with a nylon cleaning brush you can do with a jag and patches. IMO, if you need a steel cleaning brush you're doing something wrong.
- Foaming bore cleaners work well and don't have a strong smell. Hoppes Elite and MPro7 cleaners (not the foaming varieties) work very well and don't have a strong smell. Be sure whatever you buy is in a LEAKPROOF container.
- There are lots of gun oils out there. The practical differences aren't really in how well they lubricate. The practical differences are in corrosion protection, messiness and smell. Poke around on the web and you can find tests that provide a lot of data that will help you make a good choice. If you don't want to mess with that, Hornady One Shot (spray on) is not a bad choice--it smells and is messy during application but is more or less odorless and completely dry once the carrier evaporates. Lubriplate FMO-350-AW is a good choice that provides good lubrication, good corrosion protection--with the additional benefit of being non-toxic and nearly odorless. It's available from Lubrikit in a bottle, or from Lubriplate as a spray on lube. Lucas Oil makes a gun oil that has a mild and pleasant odor. Again, LEAKPROOF containers are critical.
- If your gun needs tools for disassembly, get the PROPER tools and include them in the kit.
- Include a good quality toothbrush style cleaning brush. Probably not an actual toothbrush as toothbrush bristles are often softer than ideal.
- Include cotton swabs--the ones with the wrapped paper sticks like Q-Tips--they are very handy. The ones with plastic sticks are too flexible, and the ones with the conventional wood sticks break too easily. There are some high-quality swabs with bamboo sticks and they work well.