How do you regularly clean your bolt action rifle?

[streetstang67]

After a trip to the range or a hunting trip, how do you clean your rifle? Assuming nothing major happens, no dropping it in the dirt or water or anything.

I pretty much just run a bore snake through then wipe the outside with a oiled cloth. Sometimes I spray some Rem oil in the chamber/barrel, but I'm beginning to think that I should use something else (copper cleaner) or nothing at all.

 

[RNB65]

Pull the bolt. Run a patch soaked with Break Free thru the bore. Wipe down the bolt, action, and exterior metal surfaces with BF. Depending on how much shooting I did, I may pass a nylon brusth thru the bore a time or two. Push clean patches thru on a jag until they come out reasonably clean. Lightly lube everything with a patch that has 2-3 drops of BF on it. Put bolt back in. Give everything a final wipe down with a silicon cloth. Done.

 

[aka108]

Clean the bore with Hoppes, when clean, saturate bore with Hoppes and lie the rifle on its side for a couple of days giving the Hoppes time to work on the copper, run a couple of patches through, light oil and done. Found shotgun brushed pretty good for chamber cleaning. Clean after every firing session except for 22 rimfires. They get cleaned after 3 or 400 rds.

 

[Texas Colt]

I clean mine after every shooting session. Hoppes #9 in the bore soaks for a few hours and then clean with bore brush and clean patches. The bolt is removed and cleaned, especially around the extractor. The bolt and outside of the gun are then wiped down with a silicone cloth.

 

[CH47gunner]

Hoppe's #9 & nylon bore-brush, Hoppe's #9 & patch, then oily patch. I won't use the bore-brush on my rimfires tho.
I clean after every use (yes Dad) and I always seperate the action from the stock so I can get to the trigger assembly. Quick wipe-down & lube, then reassemble & torque screws.

 

[General Geoff]

Being that my only bolt gun is a Mosin Nagant, and that I typically shoot corrosive milsurp through it, I give it a pretty extensive cleaning after a day at the range. Break-free CLP and Powderblast, usually.

 

[ocabj]

Barrel with Montana Xtreme and Montana Xtreme 50BMG solvents, with Montana Xtreme bore conditioner.

Clean receiver bolt lug recesses and chamber.

Clean bolt face.

 

[ALS]

I clean mine as soon as I'm done shooting it. It might just be me but it seems like it is easier to clean when the barrel is still warm. I make the cleaning mess at the range and don't have to put up with the solvent smell in the house. This way when I get home I just pop the gun in the safe and forget about it.

 

[ArmedBear]

Run a patch soaked with Break Free thru the bore.

A real no-no according to the accuracy guys, but the military does it all the time, even competitive shooters. Shrug.

Boresnake with Hoppes for me, occasionally use foaming bore cleaner to get the copper out. Bullfrog Lubricant and Rust Blocker on the moving parts, Bullfrog Rusthunter or just Hoppes on a patch on the parts that just need rust protection and to get the sweat off.

 

[ConfuseUs]

I shoot a lot of milsurp ammo. I do own a modern centerfire, but it costs a fortune to feed. My cleaning regimen:

1) Clear rifle and remove bolt.
2) Spritz Windex down barrel from breech end until it runs out the muzzle. Use Windex soaked patch to wipe off bolt face.
3) Wipe bolt with CLP.
4) Run a couple patches down barrel to remove Windex.
5) Fill bore with bore cleaning foam and wait 15-30 min.
6) Run brush through bore. Marvel at the blue goo.
7) Run patches through bore to remove bore foam residue.
8) Run CLP soaked patch through bore.
9) Run a couple dry patches through bore.
10) Wipe down receiver and metal with CLP soaked patch, then reassemble rifle.

CLP alone does not seem sufficient to deal w/ corrosive ammo. I have a group of steel cases that I cleaned with various techniques living in the bathroom. Sooner or later I will saw them in half and take pictures to post.

 

[mpmarty]

Unload and verify.

Remove Bolt.

Dry brush with bronze brush two or three passes.

Sweets 7.62 on nylon brush work into barrel with several passes re apply 7.62 as needed then let sit for five minutes.

Another pass with nylon brush and Sweets 7.62 followed immediately with clean dry patches until they come out clean. Repeat Sweets on nylin brush if necessary.

Thoroughly dry bore with clean patches then swab with Mil-Tec 1 oil on patch.

Brush out bolt lug recesses and dry w/ Qtips, clean bolt assy w/brake cleaner and lightly re-oil with Mil-Tec 1.

Wipe down exterior with Mil-Tec 1

Use only Dewey one piece rods or equal, carbon fiber is nice too.

 

[streetstang67]

wow, as much work as yal do, it makes it seem like my cleaning job is just pathetic....boresnake and rem oil for internals, silicon cloth for wiping outside

 

[mpmarty]

Been doing it that way for more than forty years now. Used to have to make my own bore cleaner with Ackleys formula using 28% stronger ammonia until Sweets 7.62 came along many years ago. My 22/250 has over 24,000 recorded rounds through it and ten shots will still hide behind a dime at a hundred yards.

 

[R.W.Dale]

If my rifles don't get wet I don't clean em until I have a couple hundred rounds through the barrel, About all I do is wipe down the metal work with a oily cloth.

And yes all my rifles look and shoot as good as the day I bought them

 

[ConfuseUs]

wow, as much work as yal do, it makes it seem like my cleaning job is just pathetic....boresnake and rem oil for internals, silicon cloth for wiping outside

I do all that work because practically every time I fire my rifles the bores get coated in potassium chloride (residue from the priming) which attracts moisture and in solution is very corrosive to steel. If I was shooting new ammo primed with styphnates instead of chlorates I would probably clean like you do. I might add that 50% of my cleaning time is spent watching TV waiting for the bore foam to do its work.

 

[middlechainringguy]

Don't feel bad, Street. (Or at least we can feel bad together.)

What I do:

After shooting, I use a Kleene-Bore kit on the barrel (wet and dry patches, not too many of either, maybe 10 mins.) Try to get any big pieces of gunk out of the action. Wipe off the rifle with n Si cloth. Put it away.

... and, once a year, take it to McBride's for a professional cleaning for $35 each.

 

[Zak Smith]

I don't.

 

[nwilliams]

Its just a habit of mine to clean after each time I shoot, I like my guns to be clean. Bolt action or not you won't find an uncleaned gun in my collection for long.

Of course if I'm shooting corrosive ammo I would certainly clean after each shooting session, that's a given. I start by spraying down the bore, bolt and chamber with Windex and then finish the job with regular bore cleaner.

If the ammo isn't corrosive I usually just run a few patches down the bore and use paper towels and bore cleaner to wipe down the chamber and bolt.

I always finish by wiping down all the metal parts with a silicon cloth. I developed this habit when I used to live on the coast of Maine and there was so much humidity that surface rust was always an issue, especially if there were fingerprints. Out here in Arizona its less of a problem now I do it more out of habit.

 

[itgoesboom]

I clean my rifle after roughly 50 rounds. Accuracy starts to degrade with my rifle after about 75 rounds.

Normal cleaning is a patch with CLP run through, a few swipes with a bronze brush, then a clean dry patch till it's not coming out fouled.

I wipe down the bolt with a light coat of oil, then wipe it off with a dry patch.

A more thorough cleaning is done after my bore has significant copper fouling. I use Wipeout, fill the bore, and lay the rifle on it's side. Let it sit one hour. Fill it back up with Wipeout, and lay it down on the the other side.

Let it sit one hour.

Run a clean dry patch through until it comes out dry and clean.

 

[taliv]

seriously zak, you don't ever clean those AIs?

 

[eliphalet]

If to the range it depends sometimes yes sometimes no. HUnting? When season ends or it gets caught in rain or snow. '06 I hunt with has gone periods of months, maybe a year after shooting with only a wipe down. Bought new over 25 years ago it groups and functions as new.

 

[heron]

I clean mine as soon as I'm done shooting it. It might just be me but it seems like it is easier to clean when the barrel is still warm. I make the cleaning mess at the range and don't have to put up with the solvent smell in the house. This way when I get home I just pop the gun in the safe and forget about it.

+1
. . . and, I think I may have gotten that idea from one of your own previous posts. Works very well for me, since, if I don't clean it immediately, I'm likely to leave it for a day or two before I get to it.
I have a trash bag attached to my shooting bench, and the mess and stink stay there.

 

[salthouse]

I have a can of brake cleaner and a can of silicone. I pull the bolt and spray with the cleaner, and saturate the bore with the cleaner. Then I run brush through with a patch on it, and a second for the extra residue. Wipe down the bolt with a clean rag. Finally saturate everything with the silicone spray. I let it all dry and reassemble. For my wood stock firearms I use a lemon oil to clean/coat the stock and the metal parts.

I do all of it at the range, because I hate having to clean my firearms at home later.

 

[theken206]

VERY VERY well

 

[Zak Smith]

seriously zak, you don't ever clean those AIs?

Pretty much. I live in a dry climate; of course if they do get wet, I make sure they are properly dried and lubed.

The following group was shot after approx 1500 rounds and one year without cleaning the bore:


............... Larger version of above photo.

A conversation of shooters at the Steel Safari down in NM last weekend revealed that regular and obsessive bore cleaning is not done by the top shooters at that match.

Of course, we aren't benchrest shooters; we're satisfied by as poorly as 1/4 MOA.

-z