Gun Cleaning and Lubrication

[SHMIV]

Growing up, my father taught me how to safely handle a gun and he taught me loading and shooting. However, no one ever taught me a damn thing about maintaining a gun.

I am quite mechanically inclined, so breaking down a weapon for the purpose of cleaning and lubricating is not an issue for me. In fact, my experience with mechanical things tell me that I should regularly clean and lubricate my gun for optimum performance, which leads to my question.

In doing research online, it seems that brake cleaner, or sometimes carb cleaner, is an acceptable substitute for the more expensive gun cleaning solvant. Has anyone had a bad experience with this, outside of melting plastic parts or eating paint?

Also, what type of lubricant would you guys recommend?

[Palladin]

Old reading for while you wait for current answers...

http://vagunforum.net/general-discussio ... ion#p79687

http://vagunforum.net/general-discussio ... ion#p58229

http://vagunforum.net/handguns/high-tem ... ubrication

[Jakeiscrazy]

I have never tried it but I would think break cleaner would work great on metal but I don't know about how well it would work on the barrel. Keep it away from plastics. In fact I would keep almost all solvents away for plastics. Also some solvents may not be safe on nickel plating.

With lube, remember a little dab will do ya. Lube helps keep things free and moving but it also attracts dirt and burnt power. Many like to use grease instead of lube because it stays in place. A couple people at one time or another have used motor oil. I think it's to thin but that's just my opinion.

I personally use Hoppes lube because it's cheap and comes in the gun cleaning kits you buy. If you just have a couple guns you can use a boresnake to clean the barrel. Walmart will have them in most calibers.

[jdonovan]

In doing research online, it seems that brake cleaner, or sometimes carb cleaner, is an acceptable substitute for the more expensive gun cleaning solvant. Has anyone had a bad experience with this, outside of melting plastic parts or eating paint?

Also, what type of lubricant would you guys recommend?

If you are going to resort to carb cleaner, then i'd say go one isle over in the store an get a quart of 10w-40. Never thought of going to the car store to buy my gun stuff.

With the cost of ammo these days a few bucks in good cleaning solvents and lube is cheap next to 2 boxes of 45acp.

[M1A4ME]

Carb cleaner will melt/soften some plastics (the grips on my old Ruger Mk1 show it). So far it has not had an effect on the plastic on the AR15's, but I do not spray it on the stock/handguard on purpose.

Brake cleaner is said to be safer for plastics and I have used some but prefer the carb. cleaner.

After using the carb. cleaner (I only used it when a gun is really nasty dirty) I always use some spray oil/lube (like Rem-Oil) to put oil back on the surface of the metal, if you don't it'll rust because the carb. cleaner completely strips the oil off the metal surface along with the crud.

Oh, I've read carb. cleaner will damage the paint on a Ruger 10/22 receiver.

I use mostly Mobil One for lube these days.

Also, no need to tear a gun down every time you shoot it. It depends on the gun, the number of rounds fired and the type of ammo which all affect how dirty the gun gets and how often it needs tearing down for cleaning.

And I do use a lot of lube. Southside of Richmond isn't dry/dusty so extra oil hasn't yet caused me an issue.

Any time I handle a gun and touch the metal I wipe it off with an oily rag to keep the salt/oils off my sking from rusting the metal.

[gunderwood]

Pretty much any solvent will do, but things like carb cleaner, brake cleaner, etc. are typically not very good for you. They great for their intended purpose, but that purpose generally is outside in a well ventilated place, with parts that aren't susceptible to their harsh ways, and in a configuration where you don't have to touch them much during the cleaning. I'd recommend you generally avoid them.

If you clean your firearms regularly (like you should), you won't need really harsh chemicals. I typically lean towards the M-Pro 7 as it's non-toxic (or similar). I use that to clean up the carbon. No issues with your health and you don't have to worry about it "melting" anything either. For copper in barrels (e.g. rifles) I like the Montana Extreme copper killer. It's primarily ammonia though so you could mix something similar up yourself. I just buy it because you don't go through that much.

WD-40 works ok, but the reality is that it's nothing more than mineral oil and that's hardly the best lubricant. It was designed as a water dispersant, not as a high load oil. If it's what you have, use it, but I personally wouldn't intentionally use it. As a general rule of thumb, if two flat surfaces move past each other or there is high loading on the parts, use grease. If it rotates with any velocity, twists, etc. use oil. Your instruction manual should also tell you where and with what to lubricate the firearm with (hint: you can download most of those for free too).

[SHMIV]

Gentlemen, thank you for your input. It is greatly appreciated.

The thought of brake cleaner as a gun cleaning agent hadn't occurred to me until I read a few forum posts that popped up in a Google search. In one of these, a guy who claimed to be a chemical specialist wrote that brake cleaner was the same chemical make up as most gun cleaners. Of course, forum posts are generally anonymous, and I could claim to be both a brain surgeon and a rocket scientist in order to qualify my opinions, if I desired...

One of the reasons that I liked the idea of carb cleaner is that it evaporates quickly, therefore it would eliminate a concern of left over cleaning agent "eating" the lubricant

Yes, the manual to my gun recommended a certain brand of cleaning and lubricating agents. I have an H&R shotgun; H&R is owned by Remington. Naturally, they recommend Rem Oil, and Rem Action Cleaner. I'm guessing that those, also, are Remington brands.

I suppose that I always have a tendency to try to cut costs with out cutting corners.....

[frankD]

I've used brake cleaner and carb cleaner in the past. I only use the non-chlorinated ones though.

[TooQuick]

I've been using this grease less spray... It's actually a lubricant and cleaner. It's called safari charlie gun lube, have any of you used it yet? it has some pretty good reviews:
http://www.superslickstuff.com/lubrican ... -Lube.html
Just pointing out a good spray alternative in case you are interested.

For those who have used it, let me know what you think!

[grumpyMSG]

The brake cleaner will work fine, I would shy away from everything else including carburetor cleaner, some times they have a way of taking the finish off of stuff. Nothing looks funnier than a purple M16 where the anodized finish was damaged or on that is a shiny grey because it is clean gone. I believe in reading the book on the firearm and following the manufacturers recomendations for lubricant.

One thing gunderwood forgot to mention about using the Ammonia based bore cleaners is there corrosiveness. if you are cleaning a semi-auto rifle make sure you clean it with the gas system up so the cleaner stays in the bore. For example, an AK or AR keep then sights up, if it is an M1 Carbine or Garand clean them sights down. Make sure you get some oil down the bore after using the ammonia based bore cleaner to neutralize after a few minutes.

[gunderwood]

One thing gunderwood forgot to mention about using the Ammonia based bore cleaners is there corrosiveness.

Thanks. I did seem to forget mentioning that here. Typically I only use that product when I need too and regardless of what cleaner you use I recommend a patch of 91% rubbing alcohol down the bore and then dry patches. Unless you have a chrome lined barrel or something like it, I'd put some oil down the barrel too. Don't use the 70% stuff as there is too much water. Rubbing alcohol not only makes sure you've removed all the solvents, but it helps with removing the protective oil before shooting (i.e. use it again before you shoot). Old trick I learned from a army sniper and helps with cold bore shots.

[M1A4ME]

I don't know the age of anyone on the forum (except me) and I don't know how old some of your guns are.

I do know that my dad is almost 80 years old. He has his dad's old Western Field single shot .22 and the bore looks like new in that rifle and it was used to feed the family during the 1930's and 1940's. It was loaned to any family member or friend of the family that wanted to do a little small game hunting and dad and his brother used it into the 1950's for small game hunting.

All its ever been cleaned with is what ever bore cleaner they could buy/find (Hoppe's #9 for as long as I can remember was the only old glass bottle of cleaner in the house) and lubricated with 3n1 oil.

The point is that all the fancy stuff may sound good, the packaging might make wonderful claims, it might even work great - but the old standards, if used regularly and properly will still work just fine. One thing I can tell you about grand dad's rifle and shotgun - if you shot them you cleaned them when you got home, if you pick them up and handle them and touch the metal then you wiped them down with the oily rag before you put them back in the corner or the case. Neglect will ruin anything, including firearms.