Henry Rifle Forums

Cheaper than Dirt has an interesting article on cleaning guns: What Will Happen if I Don’t Clean My Gun?

Thanks for the read.

I agree that clean every gun needs cleaning differently. Most of my cleaning routines are in the middle of cleaning every time I shoot them and never cleaning them.

I cleaned my 30-30 just a few hours ago, after a range visit earlier. No pics of groups from that range trip; I was suckin' like bucket full of ticks the way I shot today.......

Anyway, I used a very stout ammonia smelling copper fouling solution for the barrel; Sweet's 7.62 or some such. The wet patches turn blue when they contact any copper. And I swear, I went through more patches, wet and dry both, that I ever have till they stopped coming out blue. Thought I might have to resort to cutting up and using articles of clothing there for awhile. No pair of underwear was gonna be safe if I had run outta patches, I tell ya......

Anyone else have similar experiences with stuff like that?

Mr. Neutron wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:28 pm

I cleaned my 30-30 just a few hours ago, after a range visit earlier. No pics of groups from that range trip; I was suckin' like bucket full of ticks the way I shot today.......

Anyway, I used a very stout ammonia smelling copper fouling solution for the barrel; Sweet's 7.62 or some such. The wet patches turn blue when they contact any copper. And I swear, I went through more patches, wet and dry both, that I ever have till they stopped coming out blue. Thought I might have to resort to cutting up and using articles of clothing there for awhile. No pair of underwear was gonna be safe if I had run outta patches, I tell ya......

Anyone else have similar experiences with stuff like that?

Yup. I use TetraGun. Take care not to get copper fouling solutions on the brass alloy parts.

Mr. Neutron wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:28 pm

I cleaned my 30-30 just a few hours ago, after a range visit earlier. No pics of groups from that range trip; I was suckin' like bucket full of ticks the way I shot today.......

Anyway, I used a very stout ammonia smelling copper fouling solution for the barrel; Sweet's 7.62 or some such. The wet patches turn blue when they contact any copper. And I swear, I went through more patches, wet and dry both, that I ever have till they stopped coming out blue. Thought I might have to resort to cutting up and using articles of clothing there for awhile. No pair of underwear was gonna be safe if I had run outta patches, I tell ya......

Anyone else have similar experiences with stuff like that?

Yes, I use Eliminator bore cleaner which turns green when in contact with copper. Does a great job of letting you know when the bore is free of copper. Takes a lot of patches, I buy the big bulk pack.

Hatchdog wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 01, 2023 9:54 am

Takes a lot of patches, I buy the big bulk pack.

Yeah, the reality of my situation I described above was that I've simply been lazy about cutting new patches. The bulk patches I buy seem to be a cotton t-shirt material, and pretty large, so I need to cut them down to size. The ones that work best for me are cotton flannel bought from a fabric store. But again, some time and effort with scissors is needed for those also.

The article linked above was indeed a nice read. I tend to pretty much try to clean my bigger hunting rifles' bores after each outing, and the rest of the gun gets cleaned when it needs it. Weather (we get a bit of rain out here...... Sandy, OR averages somewhere around 70" a year ) somewhat dictates when that happens. If it got dirty and/or wet while hunting, I clean the parts of the gun where the water or crud got into. Kinda like was mentioned in the article, my poor little .22s. seem to get shot the most, and receive the most neglect.