How to safely check barrel?

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random_gun

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I have a Ruger 22/45. I noticed a few times the bolt wasn't held open after the last round. I opened the bolt and saw nothing. How can I be sure there is nothing stuck in the barrel? How can I safely check it?
A mirror?
 
I always keep a cleaning rod or wooden dowel with me at the range for many reasons. This being one of them.
 
But I have to field strip the gun to use the cleaning rod... field strip a mark iii at the range isn't very convenient....
 
Lock the slide back, push the rod/dowel down the muzzle. If it stops before hitting the slide where you can see it. There is something in there. If it goes all the way back and hits the slide. It's good to go.
 
First, listen for the bang. No bang then stop and assume you have a potentially unsafe condition: a bullet stuck in the bore or at the very least a hang fire or failure to fire.

I keep very small dowel rods in the bottom of all our range bags for the very purpose of verifying an unobstructed bore.

Of course, if you're really worried and have no other means, disassemble the gun, verify the chamber is empty then and look down the barrel.
 
No, an occasional rod down the barrel does not damage the crown. Repeated scrubbing action may or may not damage the crown. It is a convenient way of checking for a squib without the mentioned field-stripping. I agree that is not very convenient...

I had a Mark I, and it never held open, was pretty sure it wasn't designed to. Check your manual to make sure it is supposed to hold open.
 
Forget the rod down the muzzle, you're training a bad habit. Instead, keep a bore snake with you and drop the weighted end in the chamber. If it doesn't come out the muzzle you have a problem.

That way you are not training yourself to put your hand in front of the muzzle.
 
Been putting my hand in front of the muzzle of empty guns, when cleaning them, for over 30 years now.
Still have all my digits.
Putting your hands in front of the muzzle of an empty gun is not a bad habit.
Putting your hands in front of the muzzle of a gun, without first ensuring that it's empty, is the bad habit.

No one has EVER been shot with an empty gun. Only with loaded guns that weren't properly cleared first.
 
+1

Clear the gun.
Lock it open.
Take the magazine out.

With the bolt locked open, stick your finger in the ejection port to reflect some light and look through the barrel.

It's not gonna shoot you with no ammo in it and your finger in the way.

rc
 
Random, I'm guessing you've been told never to insert a rod from the muzzle end of the barrel to avoid damaging the crown. That is certainly good advice for cleaning, and when you have reasonable access to the chamber end of the barrel. But with many guns, it is just not practical to insert a rod from anywhere but the muzzle. This is an area to apply some common sense.

There is a big difference between running a rod back and forth when cleaning and inserting a rod as a probe, once, carefully.

There is no likelihood of muzzle damage if you use a wooden dowel, or a brass one, again carefully.
 
Overaggressive pumping of a cleaning rod through the bore of a gun will cause excessive wear at the muzzle. That is because of the cleaning rod rubbing against the bore.
Careful cleaning will do no harm.

I clean from the chamber, when possible.
 
Forget the rod down the muzzle, you're training a bad habit. Instead, keep a bore snake with you and drop the weighted end in the chamber. If it doesn't come out the muzzle you have a problem.

That way you are not training yourself to put your hand in front of the muzzle.
Click to expand...


Look, I know about firearms safety, firmly believe in it and teach it in every class. However, comma, pause for effect, I am also not paranoid about these sort of things either and would go the same route as rcmodel. Is this breaking the first rule of firearms safety? Technically yes but with your bolt locked to the rear, the chamber cleared and your finger in the ejection port, the odds of this really being a problem are really not an issue.
So now you're ready to scream about safety and burn me at the stake but first, let me ask you this. How does this work with a muzzle loader then? Any time I need to start a patched ball down the muzzle of my Hawken I am using a ball starter and that puts my hand directly over the muzzle. How about CCW with an IWB holster? Aren't we kind of at risk of putting a hole in our ass as well? There's being safe and that's not a bad thing but then there's going overboard too.
 
The first rule of gun safety is to keep the gun pointed in a safe direction. But that one, obviously, has to be suspended when you are cleaning the gun, since you'll often wind up looking down the bore of a revolver to check on how clean you're getting it.

Common sense needs to be given its proper place in the hierarchy of values. You cannot clean most guns without pointing them in unsafe directions. Therefore, we knowingly. . . and intelligently. . . suspend that particular rule for that particular occasion.
 
rcmodel said:
+1

Clear the gun.
Lock it open.
Take the magazine out.

With the bolt locked open, stick your finger in the ejection port to reflect some light and look through the barrel.

It's not gonna shoot you with no ammo in it and your finger in the way.

rc
Click to expand...

^^^ This. I'm kinda OCD about safety but there is such a thing as common sense. :D
 
Cant just stick it down the muzzle?

Thats how I do it if just checking to make sure there were no obstructions. If you think it will be too hard on the bbl to go from the muzzle end with a cleaning rod get some pipe cleaners and use those. all you are doing is making sure there isnt something is lodged in there. heck even a piece of string would work
 
Heck, you can try to blow through it if you don't have a pipe cleaner.

Black powder shooters do it all the time to keep the powder fouling soft!

As long as the gun is cleared, and your finger is in the breech, it's not gonna shoot your eye out.

Simply because, it can't.
Once cleared, it's just a tube with a hole in it.

rc
 
I guess some people here on the automatics forum have never cleaned a revolver. Short of removing the barrel they is no other way to get a cleaning rod into a barrel other than the muzzle end.
 
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