How to Clean a Gun Barrel

1. Always clean from breech to muzzle in the natural direction of the bullet

After your gun is fired, the powder residue and dirt are in the barrel. The chamber and receiver are clean. If you run a brush or patch from the muzzle end you will push this dirt, residue, and moisture into the chamber and receiver. This is a major cause of stuck cases or problems with lever actions and auto-loading rifles and shotguns. If you push or pull a brush back toward the chamber, you will notice the brush will throw the debris from the bore back into the chamber and locking lugs

2. Be sure to center the tip and rod when inserting it in the barrel

Be careful not to let either rub the bore.

All firearms record their history. This is the reason most people look down the barrel of a firearm. An experienced eye can tell the method of cleaning, the number of shots, and the gun maintenance applied to the firearm. Many marks are caused by people who carelessly let the tip or rod rub the inside the barrel.

3. Use a clean patch surface each time you go down the barrel

After you have used Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner to de-lead the bore be sure to use a clean patch in the barrel. This is similar to mopping a floor and rinsing the mop out. When you are using your firearm you will get abrasive dirt in the muzzle. The patch with solvent will flush this dirt out in the shortest distance. If you use this patch surface again, the dirt will be deposited in the chamber and neck. The next bullet down the barrel picks up this dirt and erodes the throat. This is the exact equivalent of cleaning in the wrong direction.

4. Never run a brush in the barrel first

This will damage the firearm. The brush will pick up dirt, moisture or powder residue and deposit it into the chamber or receiver. Never dip a brush in solvent. The solvent at the brush core will collect dirt and drop it into the receiver and chamber.

5. Never go back and forth reversing the brush

This will bend the bristles on the brush. This is the equivalent of bending a wire back and forth until it breaks. You will always ruin a brush if you reverse it while in the bore.

6. Go light on oil

Use only a few drops of lubricant. Oil also attracts dust and dirt which causes corrosion and rust. Too much can gum up the works. Many people think the more solvent the better. However, this will damage the firearm. Use only the solvent that the patch will absorb. If you see too much, the oil will drip down into the trigger mechanism. This will cause a gummy trigger.

Using an excess of oil will allow dirt and rust particles to become encapsulated in the oil, creating a chance of scratching of the guns bluing.

Screw-in choke tubes are a special case. They should be turned off and cleaned more often than barrels because carbon can build up under the threads. Moisture can also rust them. Clean thoroughly with solvent and a stiff nylon brush, then coat threads with an anti-seize grease. Screw-in style breech plugs and nipples on muzzleloaders must be similarly maintained.

7. Be cautious of oil on firearm stock

Many people drench their gun with oil when cleaning. This causes a serious problem with the wood. What happens with over oiling your gun is that the oil seeps into the wood, both the forearm and stock, and can cause the wood to crack easily and badly discolor. Worse, if something were to happen to the stock, it can make it impossible for a gunsmith to fix because the wood has broken down and become too soft to work on without further damage. If something does happen to the wood on an over-oiled gun, you can spend a great deal of money repairing it. In most cases we see the stock is so damaged it has to be replaced.

8. Maintenance of your gun

For external rust on guns, old style blued guns suffer the most in this. They have less protection against the elements than say those with more modern finishes, like Melonite or Tennifer. Stainless guns, and the chrome and nickel coated guns are also very good, but they too can pick up rust spots, and these can sometimes threaten good function. Just handling older style blued guns can deposit oils from your skin onto the surface of the firearm. Those oils alone can start to bring on rust given the right conditions. The best rule of thumb, if you take it out, rub it down with oil or silicone cloth before you put it away. Much less, if you take these guns out into the field, they will need to be wiped down as well. When rust does occur, use Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner.

No matter how diligent are you are, surface rust can happen to original bluing. When it does, use Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner to remove rust and then apply a light coat of oil to preserve the bluing. Order Now!