doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Good shotgun cleaning kit?

I am sick of rooting around in a drawer for bits and pieces of a cleaning kit. What do you suggest as a shotgun only kit.
CHAZ

While you are in the heat of your frustration and most likely to spend some money i would buy three stout alloy cleaning rods.

If you put them together and screw them up tight with some lock tite you wont take them apart.

Stick a phosphor bronze on one, wool mop on the other and a quality brass jag on the third.

Its very hard to lose one 34 inch long aluminum rod; losing 3 is particularly difficult.

Wooden rods are fine but i shoot black powder and when cleaning the barrels out with hot water and washing up liquid the wood soaks up all the water and can be wet for days. A tough patch resulted in the snapping of one wooden rod i had and its just inconvenient if your relying on that as your only rod.

This rod here ( im guessing you are in the US so you will have to hunt around for similar ) is about 12.5mm thick of aluminum.
The attachments that come with it are OK, but the plastic jag wants binning and replacing with a brass one.

http://www.uttings.co.uk/p103863-gmk-alloy-rod-cleaning-kit/#.Vt1lD33XuUk

If you have multiple gauges of guns get a little organiser box to keep everything in smartly, fine something suitable at a pound shop or something.

Plastic jags are hopeless and the brass ones have much better threads, look nicer and last longer.

http://www.uttings.co.uk/p103940-napier-ultra-jag-12g-4728/#.Vt1lLn3XuUk

Had this frustration with cleaning kits going missing and such and i thought hang it and just bought more bits than I'll ever need, when i lose an attachment i just use a new one, never bother looking for the missing one, eventually i find them in some drawer or other and they go back in the box but i got fed up of losing them.

I built a wooden box for my den that contains all the small bits.

I dislike jags and the commercial slotted tips don't hold a large enough patch so I make my own one piece rods from 1/2 inch hardwood dowel. Flatten the last 3 1/2 inches then cut a slot 2 inches long. Now you can shove a serious patch down the barrel. I add a wooden handle from the hardware store. A cheap wooden file handle works great.

I use an old jointed rod for the brass brush.

I've been using a fake lambs wool rod with a bronze brush screwed in the business end. I hose the bore with a light oil (Rem Oil is the usual) then brush/swab it several times. That's it. No copper/lead solvents on soft soldered barrels.

While you're putting the kit together buy several of these in all gauges/bores. This is absolutely the best patch jag I have ever used. You can pull the tight fitting patch back out the breech end, as it stays on the jag even when you push it all the way out the muzzle before withdrawing it. Been using these for probably 15 years.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/2093284613/bore-tech-shotgun-cleaning-jag-nylon

BTW, I favor one piece rods for cleaning in the shop, but I've got a nice old three piece rod in a kit, maybe an old Parker Hale, that came with Rangoon Oil, mops, the works. It is infinitely better for traveling, IMO.

SRH

I have one of these and love it: www.shoottowingear.com . It's definite overkill, but I shoot a lot - 20-25k per year, and I'm a lazy cleaner. I also use wad stripping choke tubes in my competition gun, and this rig and a good solvent clear plastic in a heartbeat. Do I need it - no. Do I like it - absolutely.