All posts tagged 40 Caliber

Keeping your guns clean and preventing rust

There has  been much improvement in synthetic lubrication in recent years and I’m hoping that the older toxic gun cleaning materials that I have in my home will eventually get used up and cleaned out.  I’m not going to push Green Energy or some environmental issues on  you, but I have often wondered if I should have been more cautious in the way I cleaned some of my guns and my exposure to some of it.   I’m aware that good ventilation is important, but there are many times when I have attempted to use gloves while cleaning, but it’s very hard to get some parts back into place when you are  using them.

There was a time when I had large containers of Hoppes gun cleaning liquids and those were some of the harshest.  I’ve moved towards using Break Free CLP for most of my gun cleaning, but in recent years I have been using Mobil One synthetic oil for most of my lubrication.  Gun cleaning supplies are becoming easier to use and the old cleaning rods of the past can become your newest rack queen.   I use pistol cleaning rods fairly often, but I rarely use my one piece cleaning rod and mostly use Otis gun cleaning kits or boresnakes for my semi-auto rifles.   The less you have to touch your firearms or the dirty gun patches or cleaning brushes the better you’ll be.   Long exposures to toxic materials does catch up to you.

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Extensive gun cleaning and gun supplies

I recently did a walk through at a Dick’s Sporting goods store and I was recently at a Cabela’s here in Pennsylvania.   The gun cleaning kits that I had when I first got my own rifle are still being made, but I just don’t have the urge to give something like that as a Holiday present to family members.  I’m not sure exactly what is going on, but I have so many family members getting their first firearms and it’s been a lot of fun getting them setup with targets, joining gun clubs and helping them take apart and clean the guns.  It’s also been a learning experience because I  didn’t know how to do everything until I did a little research.

I still highly recommend that people have atleast one strong one piece cleaning rod for a rifle or handgun around, but that is only for clearing any bore obstructions.  Boresnakes are the easiest thing for a new shooter to use because not everyone has young eyesight and can see clearly inside the gun to know that everything has been cleaned.  For anyone getting an AR15 or knowing someone getting an AR, the Otis gun cleaning kits are probable the best gift you can give them.    Make sure you get the M16 kit because it has special brushes and tools to get into areas that a cleaning rod just won’t touch.

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Advanced gun cleaning for the obvious idiots

I don’t read gun boards very much anymore.  I have had good experiences with some of them and I know some people just like to bash the BS that they see, but not talk about the good.   I have met many people from the forums  in the Northeastern United States and found the vast majority to be above average in intelligence and responsibility.   I say this because I just read some of the dumbest stuff about gun cleaning and think that it may be time for some of these people to turn in their firearms due to showing since of being on the lower level of human evolution.

When you are choosing the cleaning tools for your rifle, make sure you match the cleaning brushes and cleaning patches to the caliber you are using.  If you are using a 22 caliber firearm like an AR15, do yourself a favor and use 22 caliber bore snakes.   I know that may not be common knowledge, but there are idiots out there that  may try and jam or pull a 30 caliber bore snake through the barrel, and guess what, it won’t fit.   You can mess a barrel by doing something as stupid like this, but it happens.  I’ve had pistol cleaning patches get stuck, but I was smart enough to dump a bunch of CLP into the barrel to loosen it up and then back it out, there’s your advanced gun cleaning tip of the day.

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Police trade in getting fixed up

glock barrelsI think more than half the guns I have picked up for my collection were police trade ins.    CDNN investments is always one of the best places to find used handguns.   If you are a Glock, Sig or Beretta gun lover.  Check out their yearly catalog for used but hardly shot guns.    I picked up a Glock 17 a few month ago and like many of the guns that are trade ins, this gun had mostly holster wear on the outside.    One of my friends got one that was much more worn especially around the barrel.   While something like barrel wear has to be analyzed closely, it rarely is much of a concern to me.   Many of the used firearms you find in gun shops probable have less than 500rds  through them and the reason they look beat up is because of the holsters that they were used with and the fact the owner didn’t clean them very well.

I have a few rifles that were not maintained as well as others and you can see the difference in firearm wear after a few thousand rounds.   My friends Glock 17 did show signs of not being as accurate as mine so I did suggest he look into getting a new barrel.    For another $150 or so, you will get your accuracy back and from my experience, most glock barrels can just be dropped in.    Even though there is much to back that Glocks do not need as much lubrication, it’s still a good idea to maintain your firearms, mostly to reduce the amount of wear and tear.    I’ve seen huge variations in Beretta 92FS barrel wear just because I could tell the operator was not lubing their pistol correctly.   I’m also a big fan of using small amounts of grease in specific areas of handguns just because it grease doesn’t dry up or slide off as easily.

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How much time are you going to waste on cleaning?

Hoppes boresnakesI’ve had this argument with friends when they were arguing that direct impingement guns weren’t really hard to maintain and that spending another $500 on a piston driven AR15 wasn’t worth the money because you could basically buy another gun for that money.    I’d like to see people use the same argument if someone came out with a car that only needed an oil change every 15,000 miles instead of every 3000 miles.   How many times are you going to have to pull over and drop the car off and wait for a mechanic or waste an hour on a Saturday doing an oil change?  Keep that in mind the next time you go shooting and bring 3 or more rifles with you and then spend all Sunday night cleaning them.   If you could cut your cleaning time by 2/3s and reduce the need for brushes and cleaning patches for $20 would it be worth it?

Even though Hoppes boresnakes have been around for awhile, I still know an awful lot of  people that never used them.   I can guarantee you that these are not a gimmick and Hoppes boresnakes  do an excellent job of cleaning your barrels.   Another thing I often see is people jamming cleaning rods down rifles and unknowingly scratching up the inside of the barrel.   A boresnake takes of less room than traditional guide rods and they are easy to clean.    They are caliber specific so you have to consider picking them up for each caliber.    I really appreciated having mine after cleaning 3 rifles that were all 5.56 chambered and just went from one barrel to then next in seconds.   As long as you take good care of your guns, the brushes on the boresnake will clean your rifle as good as any rod driven brush.

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