Do you love adventure and much fun in your life? If yes, your firearm would be the first thing to make your life more adventurous. It ensures that you are always ready to put yourself in the field. Well, firearm cleaning is essential to bring more fun to your shots.
Most people don’t know about the first step of firearm cleaning. No doubt, it’s not a daunting task to clean your gun once you have understood the basics. You have to make sure that you are doing the gun cleaning with an appropriate method.
The main reason for considering the careful cleaning of the gun is that a minor mistake may lead to severe damage at the time of the shooting. Without cleaning, rust will damage the gun’s body and affect its performance. No doubt, there are several cleaning processes for the firearm.
But you have to choose one according to the gun’s condition and the type. So, let’s focus on the complete firearm cleaning process, including the first and essential step. If you are new to this process, don’t worry; practice makes a man perfect.
Table of Contents
Things To Consider Before Cleaning A Firearm
To keep your firearms in good shape, clean them after each usage. This will make it more likely that the action will run safely and correctly and that the ammo will function as it should. Work on a table or bench that has been cleared. Give cleanliness your complete attention at all times. Never maintain a firearm while performing another task.
Verify that the rifle is unloaded and point the muzzle in a certain direction. Take every round of ammunition off the cleaning table. Field strip the rifle as instructed in the firearm owner’s manual for the most thorough cleaning. Next, clean every component on its own.
The rifling inside the barrel provides the stability of the bullet, however, as a gun is used, debris accumulates and alters the projectile’s path as it leaves the barrel. Mechanics in guns can move. The number of moving components and potential for failure due to poor maintenance increase as the complexity of the gun increases.
Jams, misfires, inability to evacuate stovepipes and other problems can happen. If ignored, a few of those performance problems can even become hazardous. Untreated gun damage can progress to the point of catastrophic collapse.
Even if something appears in good condition on the exterior, inside problems may exist. Once a gun deteriorates, it must either be retired as a wall-hanger or taken to a gunsmith.
Steps To Clean A Firearm
Safety Is The First Priority
Before cleaning your gun, always make sure it is unloaded. If it has a detachable magazine, pull it out and empty it of any cartridges. Make sure that the internal or fixed magazine, if it has one, is empty. To ensure the firearm is emptied, visually and manually check the chamber.
Repeat all of the previous steps to verify your gun once you are certain it is unloaded. There can never be too many redundancies when it comes to safety. Keeping all ammunition out of the area where you’re cleaning your pistol or locking it up is one of the finest practices.
Cleaning Items
Before starting the cleaning process, ensure you have your firearm’s complete cleaning kit. Otherwise, you may have to compromise on a few steps during the process. That’s why it’s better to collect all the necessary cleaning items earlier.
The necessary cleaning items for the firearm are cotton buds, bore brush, oil, rag, fabric patches and a patch holder.
Use A Higher Quality Cleaner
If there is rust on the firearm, a simpler cleaner or washer is not enough for cleaning. At that point, you will require a high-quality solvent solution or product. So it can dissolve the rust in it efficiently. Moreover, you will not need to put too much effort while cleaning with a solvent compared to a cleaner.
So, a cleaning with a single patch is more than enough to get the best results.
Remember to perform this cleaning process in an airy area or garage. The reason is that the rust will leave a mess and spots on the floor. That’s why working on this process in an outdoor area is better. Moreover, the fresh air will help to dry the firearm parts instantly.
Don’t forget to clean every part of the gun with solvent, even if there is no rust.
Use the bore brush wherever needed, or you can use it. No doubt, bore cleaning is time-consuming. But you have to make sure of the cleaning of this part as well as other metal parts. Once you have cleaned with the solvent, use a dry patch to ensure the appropriate spotlessness. Let the parts dry completely before joining.
Oiling of Metal Parts
The oiling of the barrel is essential for the better performance of the gun. For this, you can use a patch of sticky oil and apply it to the barrel. You can slide the patch more than once to ensure the stickiness level of the barrel.
The gun’s barrel and other metal parts require a thin layer of oil. So, consider sliding the sticky oil patch on all the metal parts of the firearm. Make sure to unload your gun before starting work on this oiling step. You are all done with the cleaning and oiling of your gun!
Dry The Firearm In An Airy Place
To dry the firearm after cleaning, you need to place it in the horizontal direction in an airy area. It will help to dry out all the metal and other parts of the gun in less time. Moreover, you can also store the gun in a face-down direction. This way, the excess oil will come out of the barrel instead of blocking the back end.
Ideally, nothing would be better and safer than a gun rack to place or store firearms. The reason is that it’s not safe to put your weapon simply on the table or shelf, especially if you have kids in your home. Avoid storing the firearm in the vertical direction with the butt facing down.
Maintenance After Cleaning
Even if the gun has entirely dried after cleaning or oiling, you still have to clean it with a dry patch before firing a shot. From time-to-time cleaning, the gun will remain the same as after the first day of cleaning. Moreover, dry patch cleaning will help remove all the excess oil from the surface.
Keep The Firearm Parts Well-Lubricated
Gun grease and oil are both lubricants, in theory. The line between too much and not enough is quite thin, but having neither will ultimately be detrimental. Even if the gun is unclean, properly lubricated weapons will continue functioning as intended.
Oil is more like a liquid, but gun grease is more like a cream. Instead of globbing on gun oil, it is very softly polished using patches or lint-free cloth. Parts with a lot of high friction benefit greatly from grease. Even after applying, you should ensure there isn’t any extra layer left behind.
Moreover, you can also keep your gun well-maintained with higher performance by focusing on the following points:
- Don’t use the oil for barrels and metal parts of your gun before cleaning. The dust and dirt on the firearm will make it less effective, especially after oiling on dirty parts. So, it’s better not to use the oil before and without cleaning.
- Regular dry cleaning of the gun will keep it well-maintained for a long-time. So, you always don’t need to go for the deep cleaning if you are considering regular firearm maintenance.
- Don’t use low-quality cleaners during the maintenance of the gun with the help of the first step of the cleaning. Ideally, you can use the same first step for cleaning any other type of gun with the same attributes and components.
- Use a rack to store the complete cleaning kit for your guns and firearms.
Final Words
Hopefully, this article will provide you with complete guidelines, especially about the first step of firearm cleaning. So, if you are thinking about cleaning your gun, you can do it efficiently by following the same process. In long-term storage, cleaning weapons every five to twelve months is a good idea.
It’s a lot to process, but frequent cleaning and maintenance are essential to preserving and properly operating your firearm. You can feel more assured that you’re cleaning your pistol properly now that you’re aware of the procedures and recommended frequency.
You can also add your creativity and knowledge to maintain the guns or firearms like a pro! All you need to do for this is thinking outside the box. That’s All!
