Is it Just Me Or Is Cleaning 22LR Revolvers a Pain?

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Hi all.. I just got done cleaning my S&W 617 once again after a trip to the range. This gun has become my plinker and I love the fit and finish of the gun. Basically, it has the frame of a .357 Mag S&W (K-Frame), but chambered in 22LR. My model of 617 has a 10-round cylinder.

Anyway, despite how much I love the gun, I find it a real pain to clean. I was wondering if it is just me and a poor cleaning technique or if this gun just gets real stinkin dirty. Cleaning my semi autos, my rifles and my other S&W revolvers usually goes quite smoothly and I can get clean patches going through with a little bit of effort. However, with my S&W 617, I can spend a long time just running patch after patch through the cylinder and it is still dirty.

I'm wondering if this is because I'm not using strong enough solvent, if 22LR is really filthy, not scrubbing the chambers hard enough with brush, or all of the above. I'm thinking the dirtiness of the 22LR ammo must play some part in this, but I just cannot understand why after so much effort I cannot get clean white patches running through the chambers. On another note, I don't seem to have much problem cleaning the barrel. The S&W 617 barrel gets clean quite fast, but the chamber area is a different story.

Another area that I have a hard time cleaning is the throat of the barrel. No matter how hard I go at it with the nylon brush and solvent, there seems to be dark residue area that will not be removed. I'm afraid to use any more abrasive brushes or solvents on the area as it is close to the barrel and I don't want to scratch metal. Any suggestions here about cleaning techniques?

I'm shooting Federal 550 Red Box and CCI MiniMag. The ammo is decent plinking grade 22LR and I cannot afford to shoot anything better out of a 22LR. The whole point of shooting the .22 is to save money.

Anyway, I'd like to hear people's inputs about best ways to clean 22LR revolver and if others have this trouble.
 
I think all revolvers are a little more time consuming to clean just because of the multiple chambers.

The more there are, the longer it takes.
 
I. hardly clean mine, A super solvent that works great is methyl ethyl ketone MEK for short. Go to the plumbing supply area of ahardware store. Get a small can of CLEAR plastic pipe cleaner, for sure dont get cement!!! This stuff stinks, aint good for you, catches fire easilyand attackks every stock finish I ever got it on. The little swab in the can is perfect for cleaning a 38 snubbie
 
To me it is a labor of love

the only issue that i have w a 22 revolver is the little recesses in cylinder. Everything else is fine.
 
The only pia was nickel-plated:barf: model 13 S&W. The powder residue was very hard to remove I will not own another gun with this type of finish.
 
I've had the same 10 shot model 617 for some years now, and I don't clean it after every range trip. I wipe it down, make sure the area under the ejector star is cleaned with a toothbrush, and I just brush out the bore and chambers. I only really clean it with solvent and patches about every 5th or 6th range trip, if that. I love this gun so much, it gets shot not only every week, but sometimes twice a week. I'm retired, so the better half and I go shooting twice a week in nice weather. Burn up a bulk box of Federals a week. The wife shoots her old model 17 and a model 317 and we don't do a lot of cleaning, since they are only going to get dirty again is a few days.

I adhere to the 'don't clean too much' school of thought. With the revolvers, we find just a quick brush out, and make sure there's no fouling under the ejector, is good enough. About a minutes work with an old toothbrush with just a little bit of Shooters Choice on it, and a wipe down with a rag, and that's it.

Shoot more, clean less, have more fun.

Carl.
 
Bore snake and some hoppes works great on the barrel and interior of the cylinder. As for the area around the forcing cone I use a brass brush and solvent. Wiping down with a silcone impregnated cloth finishes up the job nicely.

Total time spent about 4 minutes.
 
I have the 4" 10 shot 617. Love the gun. Ahrends retro combat grips.

For the chambers I'm using a .25 nylon brush with some Kroil for a quick scrub. Started using that on my M18 because the chambers were so tight and made loading difficult after a few reloads.

Toothbrush and Hoppes over the rest of the exterior. Shooter's Choice and Kroil for the bore. My forcing cone gets a good scrub, but I'm not trying to get it to look new.

DSCN0986.gif
 
I hate cleaning any gun. The .22's tend to especially dirty because of the number of rounds and quality of ammo fired through them. Add a cylinder to the cleaning equation and you have to clean 5 or more bores along with the barrel itself. Real fun. :rolleyes:

Fortunately, .22s don't seem to mind running a little dirty. Which allows most people (myself included) to only give them a light cleaning most of the time and still operate okay.
 
I mostly leave the barrel alone. The chambers and sometimes the forcing cone I clean out regularly.
 
nylon brush
Click to expand...
That right there is your problem.
Get a bronze bore brush and lose the nylon one!

Only thing they are good for is applying Copper Solvent that will eat up bronze bore brushes.

And you can use the bronze bore brush & solvent in a Cordless Drill to quickly clean the chambers spotless.

rc
 
You're way overdoing it. Bear in mind that I shoot 2000-3000rds of .22LR every month and most of that is with revolvers. I simply wipe them down after use. I clean them when they need it. I NEVER clean a .22LR bore unless it is leaded. I swab my chambers every several hundred rounds. Some need it more often, some less. Absolutely zero need to clean every range session or to clean until your patches come out clean. It's a waste of time and potentially damaging. Unfortunately, many shooters are brainwashed into thinking if they don't clean every range session their guns will corrode into a rusty mess overnight.
 
Some of us were taught to shoot by folks who grew up with corrosive primer ammo. Shooting THAT ammo meant THOSE guns HAD to be cleaned after every use or they would start to rot from the primer residues. Noncorrosive primers became the norm after WWII, but old habits (and advice from gun store salesmen) die hard.

Today, you rarely NEED to clean a gun to keep it from starting to self destruct. The closer the tolerances the more frequently you may need to keep the operating reliability up. But on things like mil-spec 1911s or Glocks you can pretty much shoot all you want and clean every year, whether they need it or not.

As for 22 rimfires, I've read that the powders and lubricants used in most of the quality ammo are designed to protect the bore without further cleaning. Each shot blasts any residue from the prior shot out the muzzle, and leaves its own residue in place. So I'm like CraigC - I leave the bores alone pretty much all the time. I DO find it helps to clean the chambers fairly regularly, to remove the buildup of residue at the front end of the cartridge case.
 
Thanks.. THere is lot of good advice here. I appreciate your input Craig, about not overdoing the cleaning. Definitely, I enjoy shooting more than cleaning, so it won't be hard to convince me not to clean every session at the range.

Some people here suggest using bronze bore brushes for cleaning the forcing cone area of the gun. What I'd like to know is if there is any risk of scratching up the finish or any other steel parts of the gun with the brush? I guess I was kind of afraid to use the bronze brushes on the outside of the gun for that reason. I know the nylon brushes do seem to suck for getting rid of any serious fouling around the gun. I cannot for the life of me clean the area around the forcing cone on the 617. So, is there a general consensus here that a bronze brush soaked with solvent would be safe and effective for cleaning this area?

Another question I had is what do people use to clean muzzle area in the front of the revolver? Do most people leave this alone, due to the proximity of the crown? I notice this area is starting to build up some residue as well. Normally, I scrub it with nylon brush, but I am not sure if that is the greatest idea.
 
I've always had great luck removing the muzzle/crown buildup using nothing more than a solvent-soaked patch on a fingertip. If things are really built up, put a fingernail behind the patch and just twist it around on the end of the bore. Remember that solvent will dissolve powder residue, so if things don't come off immediately with a simple wipe, leave the muzzle damp (not dripping) with solvent and come back in an hour.
 
CraigC said:
You're way overdoing it. Bear in mind that I shoot 2000-3000rds of .22LR every month and most of that is with revolvers. I simply wipe them down after use. I clean them when they need it. I NEVER clean a .22LR bore unless it is leaded. I swab my chambers every several hundred rounds. Some need it more often, some less. Absolutely zero need to clean every range session or to clean until your patches come out clean. It's a waste of time and potentially damaging. Unfortunately, many shooters are brainwashed into thinking if they don't clean every range session their guns will corrode into a rusty mess overnight.
Click to expand...
There you go...
 
ditto Hobie and Craig

I will swab my barrels twice, spritzed (one heavy, one light) CLP patches, no brushes; all my 22s rarely see a bore brush; 22-250s they ain't
another two soaked patches thru the cylinders
two more larger spritzed patches rubbed around forcing cone, under ejector star, etc. etc.
that's about it, six patches, and then exterior wiped down with a mostly dry clean patch; that more for just my grubby fingerprints than anything else
(though I do clean 'em every session, and I am a tad picky about what patches I use)

just cannot relate to folks who think there should be no black stain rings on cylinder faces, or use Flitz or power drills and all that

most of mine (mainly Ks and Js) have had many thousands of rounds thru 'em, and (blued or SS) still look better than a lot of "LNIB" guns.. and shoot better than most NIB too.. I shoot whatever cheap bulk rimfire ammo I stumble into, at about half of Craig's round count, average ~300 rounds a week

PS
you still keepin' 'em on the straight and narrow over at leverguns.com, Hobie ?
good to see you here
 
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Darn it!..

.....Guillermo took what I was thinking as soon as I read the question! It is a labor of love. I have an old NEF that makes dime-sized holes at fifteen yards. I take a lot of time to clean that firearm since it shoots so well. Gotta love those old H&R/NEF .22s. Also have a 999, but it's not as good as the R92.
 
Gun Scrubber, Hoppes, Rem oil, Bronze brush, patches = done.

Tip - use tooth brush first, dry, to knock off the loose crud.
 
I have the 10 shot 617 also. I don't put but about 100 rounds at a time through it, but I only clean it occasionally, mostly just run a boresnake through it. A patch with Hoppe's, etc. will usually clean the muzzle and front of the cylinder if I let it soak awhile. Definately the hardest part is the frame around the forcing cone. I recently tried one of the spray cleaners on that area (Blastaway??) and it seemed to work pretty good, but I usually use a small knife blade to scrape away all I can. Recently read on one of the forums about squashing the mouth of a .223 case and using it to scrape that area. Might be a good idea.
 
I clean only enough to maintin reliable function. Cleaning down to the bare metal every time tends to remove metal.
 
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