doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com cleaning vintage bores

Bingo. Clean your gun, take care of your car and neither will leave you in a lurch when the time comes to use them. I guess the Benellis are part of that recent class of maintainence-free disposable consumer goods that when it breaks you just get a new one.I'm not picking on S-N-R, it's his gun, but I like wiping down the walnut and steel ones knowing that in a 100 years it will still be shooing. And yes I have kids. After shooting we wipe the guns down and put them away. They also make their beds in the morning.

Benelli??........does that even belong on this thread??...I thought this was the doublegun bbs

CJ

I had a friend in high school who shot an old Stevens and never cleaned the bores. His theory was the more crud that was in the barrels, the more there was to come out at the game, thus increasing the probability of a hit. Who was I to argue with such logic?

Lots of good replies here. I will admit that I clean my guns probably 3-4 times a year, on the average, not every time out. When I do it, I use the simple, effective method I described above. I do wipe the outside with a wipedown cloth after every use. The dry Southwest climate I live in is very kind to guns and minimal maintenance is required.
Bragging to your friends that "I never clean my guns" is like saying "I never use deodorant". They already knew it. You're the one whose gun is always malfunctioning, holding up your squad and you're the one who always smells.

Now that you say that, what you do makes more sense to me Jim.

I have proven to myself that using a boresnake immediately after shooting on a warm barrel followed by some CLP will remove eighty to ninety percent of the fouling, etc. in a barrel. Like you, I always wipe down the exterior with a cloth that has seen some oil in its life.

Prior to my next outing, I run a boresnake through again which seems to remove some material.

I periodically clean my guns with a rod and patch application and probably do so more often than three or four times a year. This depends on use. And on the shells used. For some guns, this means a thorough cleaning at home with rod and patch after each use.

Using a rod and patch is more effective than a boresnake no doubt. When I shoot a lot, as at a Vintagers' meet, I use the rod and patch.

I almost never let it go more than a hundred rounds (good round no. for skeet, sporting clays) or a week and I always wipe down barrels, action bar, receiver, maybe breech end of barrels once the gun acclimates to house temp. in case. I'm not the "gunroom" sort so I don't have rosewood rods, little brass oil cans and such but I have two cheap three piece alum. rods, one with no handle and a steel-wool covered brush and the other with handle and brush ("soft" jag for giving bore-shape to kleenex "patches"), a cordless drill for motive power on the wool, lighter fluid cans of Ed's Red, pint cans of Ed's Red, gallon cans of Ed's Red, pint of Ballistol, one stainless one-piece rod for all rifles, two pistol rods, one stainless, one aluminum (made from an old rifle rod), muzzle guides (storebought and homemade), brass jags and brushes for the rifles and revolvers, and an assortment of toothbrushes, Q-tips and ten trillion large muzzleloader patches for everything above 30 caliber and a few odd lots of patches that work OK for .22<.27, this grease and that, and everything but the three long rods stuffed in a Flambeaux tackle box for instant access. For a period of several years, it took me longer to find all that stuff than to use it.

jack