Cleaning, lubrication and related maintenance

What type of cleaning of cleaning regime do you use on your rimfire, cf and 45.? What solvents, equipment and lubricants do you use?

For me, I shoot about 3-4 times a week which amounts to about 300 rounds of 22, 38, 45 each per week or somewhere where around 1200-1400 rounds/ mo through each gun.. I also shoot about 150 rounds of 9 mm per week or about 50-600 rounds per month out of my Sams 92. Here’s my routine:

1. 22-clean 1x week. Take down Model 41 and use MPro 7 on bore and all surfaces to remove carbon. I use pro shot rods and jags with iosso blue plastic bore brushes. Pro shot patches. Wipe mags and followers with MPro 7. Any carbon on bolt face and mad followers removed with tooth brush. Wipe all surfacs with Remoil, reassemble.

2. Cf-similar process and tools for my 52-2 except I use brass pro shot pistol bore brushs and sometime Hopes No 9 (I like the smell). I also use a heavier oil like Hopes or old Gunslick (remember that?) in the yellow can withflip up nozzle for lubrication.

3. 45 wadcutter-same as no 2

4. 45 hardball and 9mm-since I am using fmj, I use the same technique as 2 with a few exceptions: I use shooter choice solvent for carbon removal and follow up with sweets 762 for the copper. I still use a pro shot brass brush with the shooters choice but switch jags to a bore tech to keep the sweets from giving me a false copper indication with the sweets. Bores are swabbed out dry and lightly oiled with rem oil. Guns are reassembled and lubed with heavier gun oil as in 2. On my Sams 92 9 mm I also put a light coat of go grease on the barrel cone.

For the 22, 52, and 1911 wad guns which a sport Ultradots I dust the occular and eyepiece with a Gitzo rocket photography bulb and wipe each end of the glass with a Zeiss pre- moistened optics cleaning towlet. Each pistol is the wiped off with a silicone rag, grips screws and mount screws/ bolts all checked and tightened as needed.

Question: what torque spec do you use for your mounts and rings? Also how often do you change your recoil springs? For me I am planning on every other month for cf, 9mm and 45s. Not sure on the 22.

Please share your techniques, tips and experiences. Any constructive input is appreciated.

Thank you and good shooting to you!

I use brake cleaner for everything but the barrel. For that I use Hoppes. For lube there are many oils out there. I use Break Free.

IMO you might be over cleaning, especially your 22.  I might just be a marksman but when in college I was carrying a 288 average with 3 position smallbore rifle.  We rarely cleaned our rifles.

Thanks for the reply.

I too have used Brake Cleaner as well as electrical contact cleaner and Gun Scrubber. Worked great but the chemicals proved too much for me. Melted my nitrile gloves so I started to wonder how toxic the chemicals were as they evaporate almost immediately.

Any one else? I know of a few people who use ultrasonic cleaners. Looks intriguing.

After living most of my life across the street from the beach, I got used to cleaning my guns alot or face the inevitable rust. I had a Perazzi rust on me overnight. Heart breaking to say the least.

Simple things like leaving the window open to enjoy the sea breeze resulted in epic disasters for my guns and reloading gear.  Window was open 300 plus days a year so, this was life.

Wife said deal with it, so clean and lubricate everything became SOP.

WOW! Ok so now I understand. Living near the beach would be a cause to up your cleaning.  Living here in the mid-west doesn't cause those problems for me.  LOL

Allen Barnett wrote:IMO you might be over cleaning, especially your 22.  I might just be a marksman but when in college I was carrying a 288 average with 3 position smallbore rifle.  We rarely cleaned our rifles.

what he said, 

once a barrel is seasoned, leave it be unless it is obviously filthy or accuracy drops off, (learned that from a small bore shooter)

this part,,

Question: what torque spec do you use for your mounts and rings? Also how often do you change your recoil springs? For me I am planning on every other month for cf, 9mm and 45s. Not sure on the 22.

I've never torqued a ring, or base, and have not  had one shoot loose, (have broken a screw, once,, )

as far as changing springs,  hope you do not mean monthly, 
yearly, maybe, 
or every few years,  
depends on round count

Springs are every other month or about every 3000 rounds. Only exception is for 22. I shoot nearly every other day. Exception is when I go to the rifle range or trap/skeet range.