How do you clean a rifle?

Answer 1

To clean a rifle, the best way is to follow the instructions in the owner's manual. If your gun didn't come with a manual, you can usually either download one from the internet for free, or request a copy by writing to the manufacturer.

The best way to clean a rifle usually involves a partial breakdown or disassembly, and you may need to consult the manual for instructions about that. But you can do a pretty good cleaning job most of the time without disassembling anything.

The general steps to gun cleaning (assuming only light shooting with non-corrosive ammo, and normal handling) are these:

1-- Make sure the gun is unloaded, and put any live ammunition away, out of reach.

2-- Take out the magazine. Depending on the make and model of the gun, maybe it is best to take off the grips, or the stock, or other easy partial disassembly.

3-- With a soft cloth that is made of a cotton blend that does not shred or leave fibers behind, wipe the gun down with light oil. If you don't have gun oil, use light household oil like the 3-in-1 type. Use WD-40 if you have to, but keep in mind it is only a cleaner but not a lubricant.

Open the action and wipe inside the action with the oily cloth. Use the cloth wrapped around your fingers or around the handle of an old toothbrush or some plastic thing that will let the cloth reach deeper into the gun.

Cut a small strip of cloth that can be pushed down the barrel with a cleaning rod. Push that oily cloth through the barrel several times. It should come out black and gritty.

Then throw that dirty patch away and do it again with a clean one. Maybe use a bronze or stiff plastic scrubbing brush inside the barrel at this point. Finish with more lightly-oiled cloths (patches) pushed through the bore. They should be tight, but not so tight that you can't push them through by hand with one attempt.

If you used gun solvent or WD-40 in the early stages of cleaning, you now have to LUBRICATE the gun, since solvents like those don't have good lubricating properties. Put a drop of oil on some of the moving parts. Wipe the gun's metal parts with a lightly oiled cloth or patch. Push a few more oily barrel cleaning patches through the barrel.

Don't oil the wood stock or grips of your gun. That will eventually make the wood too dark and soft. Keep them dry if you can, or take them off and give them a different kind of cleaning with products made for wood.

When finished, make sure all the cloths and patches are out of your gun. Wipe your fingerprints off of it.

P.S. Never oil ammunition. Ammo should be clean and dry.