What is your Garand cleaning procedure?

[7mmsavage]

I am asking specifically about the M1 because of all of the parts affected when the gun is fired, and because of the corrosive surplus ammo available for them. Something I read said not to fully disassemble the rifle everytime it is fired, in order to maintain point of aim. Instead only clean the barrel and chamber unless a large number of rounds had been fired. One week ago I fired 48 rounds through my rifle. When I came home, I ran a couple patches of Windex through the barrel, a few with Hoppes #9, a few dry and finally a little oil. This morning I took it out to check the barrel and give it a more thorough cleaning. Well, I almost puked when I pulled it out of the safe, there was rust on my op rod!!! So needless to say the rifle was completely taken down, cleaned, oiled, and greased. I scrubbed the rust off of the op rod with some hoppes soaked patches. there was also rust on the barrel under the gas cylinder along with a lot of fouling. The ammo I used was Korean surplus. Do you all think the rust was from the ammo or the Windex? I guess I am not asking so much for cleaning procedures, what I really want to know is if you guys strip your rifles everytime you shoot them.

 

[MechAg94]

Who knows, but the Korean available now is corrosive and will rust quickly.

Buy some Lake City or Greek ammo from the CMP. There are a few sellers who have the greek ammo also. J&G Sales has some.
http://www.jgsales.com/index.php/ammo-for-rifles/30-06/cPath/12_44

 

[tkendrick]

I know this is going to set a lot of people off, but it could very well have been the windex. I guess that's become the cleaner of choice for a lot of people, it's supposed to by good at removing corrosive salts and all, but..... it's like using soapy water, you'll get it every where, it's water based, it HAS to be removed from all your metal surfaces, and it has ammonia in it, which is corrosive in its own right. I understand not wanting to completely strip a gun to clean it, I do the samething with my M1. But throw away the water based cleaner and use something with a petroleum base.

BTW- I hope you didn't get that windex in your gas cylinder.

 

[Jeremy2171]

If your Korean ammo had a "KA" headstamp then it's corrosive...."PS" is non-corrosive.


Check my webpage for more info:

www.100megsfree4.com/airground/ammo/ammo.htm

 

[7mmsavage]

I don't know if it got in the gas cylinder or not. It looked ok inside after I cleaned all the fouling out. Why the about getting windex in there, it's stainless steel? Not being a smart @$$, just asking. Anyway, how about sweets 7.62? I remember reading that it will dissolve the salts that come from corrosive ammo without putting anything water-based into my gun. Again how about this tearing my gun down everytime I shoot it, I don't mind doing it, but I have read a lot about not repeatedly removing the gas cylinder and separating the buttstock fromthe reciever/barrel. Thanks

 

[Gator]

I don't know if it got in the gas cylinder or not. It looked ok inside after I cleaned all the fouling out. Why the about getting windex in there, it's stainless steel?

The cylinder is SS, but the gas port in the barrel and the op-rod (behind the button) isn't!

Sweets is good, but it has ammonia in it so be careful with that too. Use regular bore cleaner and Sweets once in a while for copper fouling, but when you use Sweets be sure and clean out the gas cylinder afterward.

 

[Dienekes]

The old standby for corrosive ammo is hot soapy water--hot as you can stand it--followed by dry patches and then a good oil. I would also give the gas cylinder and the op rod tip the same treatment if you are going to use mystery ammo.

If you are not running a match grade, bedded, all mods rifle go ahead and field strip it. Down the road you may decide to rebarrel, do all that and avoid taking it out of the stock--but by then you will be shooting better noncorrosive stuff too.

BTW my bedded rifles get cleaned without field stripping more than once a year unless something acts up. Just do a good job and make sure you have grease in the right places. It's a heck of a lot easier than cleaning ARs, that's for sure!

Garands are like old Jeeps--pieces of history and usually a work in progress.

 

[mukluk]

If I shoot any corrosive ammo, the rifle gets disassembled and throroughly cleaned as soon as I get home from the range. If non-corrosive ammo was used, I clean the bore and chamber after each range session, the gas system gets pulled apart and cleaned every 200-300 rounds, and it gets a full takedown and thorough clean once a year.

 

[Bwana John]

for corrosive ammo I use boiling water and dish detergent.

for protecting the muzzles crown I use a pull thru cleaning kit.

and dont forget lots of grease on the bolt lugs and their raceways