A Comprehensive Cleaning Process
Every shotgun owner should be proficient in caring for and maintaining his or her guns. Proper care is a gesture of respect for the gunmaker’s art, and the shotgunner should ritualize a replicable cleaning process. When cleaning and maintenance fall by the wayside, bigger issues arise—issues that can be challenging and costly to mitigate.
Routine cleaning and maintenance as explained by gunsmith and author Del Whitman are relatively straightforward when approached as a two-phase process. The first phase includes care done before the gun is disassembled at the bench for deep cleaning, and the second is the more involved cleaning and protecting of wood and metal.
Most catastrophic damage often occurs immediately at the end of the hunt or shoot when guns are forgotten on the roofs of vehicles, fall off tailgates, get run over by moving carts or simply get left behind in the field. With that:
• Immediately upon returning to the truck, cart or vehicle, unload the gun, check the bores for excess moisture or blockage, and then place the gun safely in the vehicle in a case or slip.
• If the gun has gotten very wet, wipe the entire gun with a clean, absorbent cloth.
• Place the gun case in a safe spot in the vehicle where it cannot fall out or be crushed by shifting cargo.
• Once post-hunt needs (e.g., uncollaring dogs, changing clothes, admiring birds and so on) are attended to, wipe the gun thoroughly with a clean, dry cloth to remove excess moisture or condensation. Attend to any blood on surface parts, as blood can erode metal finishes quickly.
• If the gun has gotten very wet, wipe metal surfaces with a very thin coat of rust-preventative oil, such as Birchwood Casey Barricade or LPS2.
• Run a clean bore snake down each bore, to remove debris and moisture. Use a bore snake appropriate for the gauge. (Note that bore snakes should be cleaned regularly. They can be placed in a mesh garment bag and laundered with gentle detergent in a home washing machine.)
• Do a quick check for debris, especially in recesses. The tolerances on a fine gun are tight, and any foreign object stuck between the barrels and breech face or in the lump recesses puts pressure on the locking mechanism.
• No solvents or protectants are required at this stage; the primary focus here is to remove moisture and debris. Though many folks wipe a gun down with a worn, oily rag, clean cloths or shop towels are the better choice.
Once the gun is on the bench for cleaning, it can be disassembled into barrels, stocked action and forend.
• Allow the gun parts to dry thoroughly in a warm space, and open the case fully so that it can dry too. Be cautious of direct heat; a warm, dry room should provide an environment suitable for drying.
• It is advisable to clean guns in a well-ventilated space and to wear latex or vinyl gloves. Moreover, use less-corrosive solvents and protectants that pose decreased risk to humans.
• Ensure that the cleaning surface and ideally the floor beneath the bench are clean and padded. Incidences of gun parts falling from the bench to the floor are not uncommon and can be catastrophic. Moreover, dirty surfaces are vectors for abrasive material that can scratch wood or metal surfaces.
• Consider using a padded holding or clamping device to keep the barrels, action and buttstock, or forend firmly in place while cleaning, recognizing that heavy clamping pressure can bend, dent or crush fragile parts.
Barrels
• Begin with the barrels. First, take a clean, dry cloth and wipe down the externals.
• Use a quality nylon bristle brush (those ubiquitously known as “M16 brushes”) to clean behind the ejectors/extractors, along the ribs, in the rib vents, and behind the forend loop. Take time with this step, as bits of overlooked debris or unburnt powder hold moisture against metal surfaces and can impact the tight tolerances mentioned above.
• Use a small air compressor or cans of compressed air to blow out recesses.
• Look down each bore to see the level of fouling. After a day afield, you may see some powder residue, plant matter, pine needles or other foreign bodies. After a high-volume day at clays, you may see more plastic residue. The volume of residue is an indicator of the amount of effort required to make those bores shine.
• Attach a brass/bronze bore brush (sized to the gauge) to a cleaning rod for cleaning the bores. Dewey-brand rods are nylon coated and will not mar the bores or chamber openings.
• Choose a solvent designed to remove powder and plastic residue, noting that many solvents and bore cleaners are corrosive to wood finishes. Tend toward products like Ballistol or G96 for bore cleaning, as both are gentle and less caustic to wood or skin.
• Apply a generous amount of solvent to the brush or bore (via aerosol or spray bottle), and then brush the bore thoroughly with a back-and-forth motion. Use a clean brush, and clean your bore brushes regularly after use. (Brushes can be cleaned with Dawn dish soap and water.) Do not dunk bore brushes into the solvent bottle, as doing so will contaminate the clean solvent.
• Scrub until the bore is likely clean, being careful not to rub the rod against the edge of the chamber. Note that using a cleaning rod and brush chucked in a drill is not advisable, nor is a rotary cleaning motion. Were a grain of sand or other abrasive to be rotated through the bore at high speed, scratching could be extensive.
• With scrubbing complete, wipe the solvent from the rod, remove the brush and switch to a jag (Del prefers the aluminum type fitted with O rings). Push a clean patch (or several), small pieces of blue shop cloth or even balled-up paper towels down the bore until they come out clean and dry.
• Look down the bores toward a light source. Remaining plastic or lead fouling will appear as a haze, hazy ribbons or streaks, particularly near the forcing cones. Repeat the scrubbing process until these signs are removed.
• Once the bores are clean, spray a dose of solvent in them, and then put patches/cloths/paper towels through each until they come out dry and clean.
• Protect the bores with Birchwood Casey Barricade or LPS2. Apply a very thin coat with a patch through the bores. One pass should do it, ensuring that there is not so much oil in the bores that it can run back into the action or pool.
• Note that screw-in choke tubes that are not clean, firmly seated or removed periodically run the risk of becoming stuck—and stuck choke tubes are problematic. Though bore cleaning with the choke tubes in the barrels generally removes most of the plastic fouling from the tubes, they should be removed regularly so that the threads can be cleaned.
• To clean choke-tube threads, remove the tube, take a fresh bore brush, wrap the brush in cloth and add a bit of bore solvent to the cloth. Insert the brush into the muzzle and rotate gently in and out, effectively brushing out the threads. Wipe the threads with a clean dry cloth or patch on the brush.
• Clean the exterior of each choke tube as well. Brush the ports, and dry the tubes and wipe them down. Be sure to brush the external threads with a clean nylon brush. Apply a very thin coating of high-temperature nickel anti-seize grease (available at most auto parts stores) to the threads on the tube. Screw the tube back in, and then run a patch down the bore to remove the bead of grease that will invariably have squeezed out.
• Make sure the chokes are seated fully back in the barrels. Do not over-tighten.
• Wipe down the exterior surfaces of the barrels once more with a clean cloth. Brush out the texturing on the rib surfaces (i.e., file cuts) with a nylon brush, and be sure that any recesses are clear of debris.
• Apply a light coat of the same rust-preventative oil to a clean cloth, and wipe the barrels thoroughly.
• Put the barrels aside.
Action & Buttstock
• Foremost, be cautious about taking off lockplates or taking down the gun too far. The potential for damage in doing so is real, particularly when ill-fitting turnscrews are applied to dainty screw slots.
• Give the buttstock and action a wipe with a clean cloth. Brush out recesses with a nylon brush, or use compressed air to blow out the lump recesses, between triggers, beneath the toplever and so on. Use a light to look into shadowy spots, and use a Q-tip to dab out hard-to-reach junk.
• During the thorough wipe-down, note any proud screwheads, chipped wood or irregularities. These blemishes are often easier felt than seen.
• Next, use a soft child’s toothbrush to brush out the checkering. Checkering that appears dull is often simply filled with grime or debris, and a thorough brushing can quickly restore sharpness. Brush from the margins toward the center of the checkering pattern so the stock finish will not get marred. Loosened debris will fall free or can be blown out.
• Dull or dry wood finishes can be re-touched and protected with a light coat of Howard’s Feed and Wax applied with a clean cloth. Rub this natural wax finish into the wood, and wipe off any excess. Do not get wax into the checkering pattern. Some old guns (especially Winchester 21s and some Parkers) have a high content of varnish in the finish, and “crazing,” or micro-cracks, will show in the finish over time. A natural wax will restore and protect these finishes. Stay away from synthetic waxes or anything with a drying agent in it; you don’t want the wax to build up and harden.
• If the gun has a leather-covered pad, the leather requires regular replenishing. Treat a leather pad like a fine pair of leather shoes: Wipe a dab of high-quality paste shoe polish onto the leather with a finger or clean cloth, let it dry and then buff it off with a cloth or shoe brush.
• If the gun has a synthetic pad, clean and treat it with Armor All. Again, avoid getting these treatments on the wood.
• Wipe the cleaned action with a very thin coat of rust-inhibiting oil, and make certain there is no pooling of oil in the action recesses.
Forend
• Basically, treat the forend wood and metal as you did the buttstock and action.
• Any gun with ejectors will have recesses in the forend metal that can collect debris. Make sure these are thoroughly cleaned.
• Clean out the recess where the forend loop fits.
• Any forend with an Anson-type pushrod (i.e., a button on the front of the forend) will have a retaining screw that keeps the push rod from turning. Make note if this screw is backing out, as if the locking screw is lost or the rod is lost, the fix can be costly.
• Once the forend is cleaned and the metal parts wiped with a thin coat of oil, the gun can be reassembled and stored.
• It is not a bad idea to store fine guns muzzle-down, to prevent seepage of excess oil back into the buttstock. That said, judicious use of the proper oils should not result in seepage.
There you have it: a thorough cleaning process that can and should become a habit. In the words of gunsmiths everywhere, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!”
First Published in Shooting Sportsman Magazine
