I have to be honest here: cleaning my guns is not at the top, nor near the top, of my favorite pastimes. It’s one of those chores that must be done often if you want your firearms to perform properly and maintain their finish. And being even more frank, I probably don’t clean my guns as often as I should, though I'm trying to be better about it. Depending on where you live, the amount of humidity, some other environmental factors, and how often you use your guns, the frequency at which you need to clean may differ. I have to clean my carry gun much more than I do my big-bore double rifle, and my deer rifle usually gets a thorough cleaning at the end of the season, but not much more than that. And my favorite .22 LR—the Ruger 77/22 I’ve had since Christmas of ’85—gets more attention because I use it almost year round for pests.
Now I’m willing to wager that at one point in time or another you’ve screwed together a sectional aluminum rod and unceremoniously run it up and down the bore—from the breech of bolt guns, or single- and double-barrel shotguns, or from the muzzle of lever guns and autoloaders—with a patch soaked in Hoppe’s No. 9 solvent. While the inexpensive rod of my youth may have been replaced by a Dewey or Tipton nylon-coated rod with a ball bearing handle, I still love the smell of Hoppe’s. For most of my rifles, I like to use a bore guide, to protect both the rifle and the rod. I also like using the nylon brushes, as they won’t disintegrate if I have to use one of the ammonia-based solvents used for removing copper fouling from the copper monometal bullets. The cleaning process you choose is up to you – perusing the hunting magazines and internet articles will reveal some very passionate folks with very specific cleaning methods—but the goal is the same: get as much of the fouling out of your bore as possible to avoid pitting and damage to the bore, and install some amount of rust preventative to keep things clean.
Our modern primers have long been considered “non-corrosive”, especially in comparison to the primers of a century ago, which would develop an exorbitant amount of corrosion in the bore, and needed to be removed rather quickly. But burnt powder, gasses, copper and lead fouling can still play a role in the function, and the accuracy, of your firearm. Autoloading rifles and pistols often depend on the burnt gasses of the fired cartridge to cycle the action, and those gasses and residue can make things good and dirty, especially when it mixes with lubricants. Some rifle and pistol designs can handle being filthy better than others, and your gun will assuredly let you know when it’s unhappy.
Get enough copper or lead fouling in the bore of your rifle, and you’ll certainly see a degradation in accuracy. Some shooters only clean their bore when they see the accuracy slip, while others don’t let things get that far; I tend to fall in the former category, though I am admittedly not a competition shooter. If you shoot the copper monometals, like the Barnes TSX, the bore fouling will be a bit different than if you were shooting copper-jacketed/lead-core bullets, and there are special solutions—the Barnes CR-10 comes quickly to mind—to help deal with that fouling. As I’ve mentioned, you’ll want a nylon bore brush, as those solvents are ammonia-based and will not only help remover the copper from your bore, but will eat the brass bristles of a conventional bore brush. If you shoot lead bullets, as many handgunners do, a conventional solvent like Hoppe’s No. 9, M-Pro 7 (one of my other favorites) or Birchwood-Casey’s Gun Scrubber, and a healthy amount of elbow grease should get things clean is you don’t let it go too far.
One handy and affordable cleaning tool I've recently found is the R-Tool, developed by Marine Corps veteran Dakota Adcock, and marketed under the R-Tool name. This simple plastic tool works in conjunction with a cotton swab to get into those nooks and crannies that brushes can easily miss.
“During my military service as an infantryman, I recognized an issue with our gun cleaning gear that kept us busy in the armory maintenance bays for hours and hours. There was simply no way to quickly and adequately remove carbon and debris from the weapons we were required to take care of. Brushes, scrapers, and solvents did a great job of breaking up carbon and debris, but we were limited to using old shirts as rags and cotton swabs to physically remove the debris from our weapons. Keeping critical spaces clean, such as the recessed chamber area, was always a point of conflict and headache,” Adcock related.
“Having battled this cleaning issue for so long, I set out to create a purpose built solution. After years of thought, I finally realized the most simple solution possible. “What about a tool that holds a cotton swab? A precision cleaning tool, if you will.?” Thus, the R-Tool was born.
“The first working prototype was made using an old makeup brush, needle files, and a small drill bit just large enough to make a hole for a Q-tip. After years of researching material sciences,
manufacturing methods, and an applied sciences degree later, the production grade duty rated R-Tools were ready for use,” Adcock said. This tool won’t break the bank, but I find myself reaching for it quite often these days. I’ve even included one in my travelling hunting kit.
And speaking of travelling kits, my own has changed much over the years. I’ve been blessed to hunt many remote locations around the globe, and have run into some cleaning issues, both at home and abroad. I clearly remember losing my footing while crossing a small Adirondack stream, and plugging the first three inches of the barrel of my .300 Winchester Magnum with mud. Despite whittling sticks and making a sound effort to clear the barrel, there was still debris in the bore, and I was out of business. I’ve since carried a Bore Snake in my hunting bag; they take up very little room, weigh next to nothing, yet can be a life saver when you need it. Essentially a nylon rope with an integrated brass brush of specific caliber and a small brass weight on the other end, these are great for cleaning and/or lightly oiling your bore if hunting in the rain, or in dusty conditions. I have a Bore Snake for nearly all the calibers I take hunting, and they are close at hand, especially while on safari or on a remote hunt.
I don’t like overly oiled bores (too much oil in the bores of my Heym double rifle causes a major shift in point of impact), but there are situations on remote hunts where a bit of gun oil is highly valued. Hell, I’ve even used motor oil taken off the end of the dipstick in a pinch. But these days, I prefer to be a bit more prepared. I’ve used Rem Oil for quite some time, and still like it for those guns which don’t see a bunch of action year round, though I’ve really come to appreciate the way M-Pro 7’s gun oil and the Hoppe’s Black lubricate and preserve (the latter smells wonderful). I have a bottle of M-Pro 7 in the glovebox of the truck, and a small bottle and a lint-free oily rag (usually old t-shirts or bed sheets) are in my Pelican guncase for trips.
If you’re a clean-freak—and sometimes I wish I would lean that way—owning an ultrasonic cleaner isn’t a bad idea. There have been times where, on an especially unkempt handgun, I've removed the stocks and stuck the entire unit in the ultrasonic, only to be appalled at what came out of the gun. My Catholic guilt would kick in, and I’d vow to be a cleaner shooter, only to have the wheel turn and the cycle repeat. The ultrasonics I have were intended for reloaders who want to clean brass cases, but they’re great for cleaning small gun parts like the bolt assembly, firing pins, muzzle brakes, and all those little parts that can get gunked up over time.
There are instances where traditional lubricants might not be suitable, and once you’ve cleaned or de-greased your gun, you might want to use something more different than the normal gun oil. I clearly remember a caribou hunt in Quebec—late season, mid December—where the temperatures dipped to -40 degrees, to the point where diesel vehicles wouldn’t start and the well-oiled rifles wouldn’t fire, as the oil in the bolt assembly had nearly frozen. Should you anticipate hunting in conditions anything close to that, skip the oil and go with a powdered graphite lubricant. Gunslick had a good graphite lubricant, but it’s been discontinued, but you can pick up powdered graphite at Brownell’s.
While I am not the most diligent scrubber of bores, I tend to reach for the cleaning rod more than most of the African Professional Hunters I know—“Phil, we shoot them clean…”—and I try to avoid letting things get so dirty that accuracy or function is impaired. I have learned to keep some sort of means of cleaning and lubricating a gun with me on the remote hunts, as there have been several instances over the years where it made the difference between continuing the hunt and heading home.
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