As with many other aspects of gun care, the use of various gun cleaning tools is very much subject to opinion. Different shooters swear by whatever their experience has proven best, and their opinions often are loud and clearly stated.
Note, too, that you can purchase gun cleaning tools either separately or in kits. Most kits contain many or all of the tools we'll be discussing here. Even so, depending on which long guns you have, you may want to use some of the information here to customize your kit to better suit your own firearms needs.
To get a variety of perspectives on the topic, we talked to several members of the shooting industry with experience manufacturing, selling, and using gun cleaning tools to find out what they like best: Reid Coffield, who heads the Technical Services section at Brownells, Inc.; and Stan Simonian, sales manager, and Scott Lee, Vice-President, of Ox-Yoke Originals. Here are the items they felt every gun owner should have in his or her cleaning kit.
Reid Coffield says, "I don't think it really matters whether you use a coated rod or a stainless steel rod. I would encourage using a single-piece rod. Where you have joints, you can run into problems." The joints never fit properly, he says, and they can catch in the chamber or the barrel and damage the metal. The joints also are good places for crud to collect. In situations where carrying a one-piece rod is inconvenient or impossible, a flexible cable-type cleaning tool is an excellent choice.
Coffield emphasizes that you should clean the rod every time you use it to clean the gun.
"Wipe the rod down before you put it in the barrel," he says. "Then after you finish cleaning, wipe it down again. That will go a long way toward eliminating wear and damage to the barrel."
Stan Simonian, however, sees no objection to jointed rods, especially for use in the field.
"They're convenient," he says, "and a three-piece rod will fit where a one-piece won't. Obviously a one-piece rod is more durable, and you don't have a problem with threads coming loose or being stripped."
"In this case, function is more important that material," Coffield says. "You'll see them made from everything from fired cases that have been drilled out to plastic and brass. The most important thing is that you use it so the shaft of the rod is guided and doesn't touch the inside of the barrel."
"Twill tends to be a little more aggressive, and it doesn't have the fuzz a flannel patch has," Coffield says. "But it doesn't compress as well. They all do the job, but I prefer flannel because it has good absorption. I don't think it's as much which patch you use, as whether or not you use them."
He is a bit skeptical about using synthetic material, however, particularly if it's something you find in a scrap bag. "If it's made of some kind of petroleum product and you put solvent on it, it may soften up," he says. "I'd be very careful if I didn't know it was cotton or something else that will handle the solvent I was using."
Besides being made of different materials, patches also come in a variety of shapes. Though they most commonly are round or square, a number of companies have come up with innovative shapes designed for specific purposes.
He says both bronze and stainless steel brushes do have their place in gun cleaning. When a barrel is extremely dirty, such as in an older rifle that has pitting and rust in it, then he uses a metal brush.
Lee disagrees.
"On our range use here, we use all phosphor bronze," he says. "We feel they have enough abrasiveness to do the job without damaging the bore. Nylon doesn't have enough cleaning power. And I wouldn't use stainless steel because if they're not used properly that can scratch the bore. It's kind of like using heavy-duty steel wool on a fine finished surface."
"If you start using it to clean, you'll end up with the nastiest, ugliest, dirtiest thing you've ever seen in your life," he says. "Then what do you do with it?"
Lee has a different philosophy.
"A lot of people use them just for finishing," he says. "But a lot of people use them as a quick cleaner with some solvent, particularly in shotguns. They can be used either way. It's kind of a catch-all tool, really."
"Use a hollow-ground screwdriver," Coffield says. "It's a parallel-bladed screwdriver. If you use one that's tapered like a traditional hardware screwdriver, it will tend to ride up out of the slot as you turn it."
A few guns also use Phillips-head screws, Lee says. You may need one of each.
"They're very handy and very useful," he says. "But you're going to have to make a call about what you're going to use on what part of the gun. You don't want to remove blueing or anything like that."
He offers several suggestions.
"If you're working with a Remington 1100 or 870, you might want to have a punch," he says. "This is to remove the pins that hold the fire control assembly in the receiver."
Another firearm for which he suggests a specific tool is a Model 12 Winchester. A spanner wrench will enable you to remove the nut on the end of the forearm, so you can pull the forearm off the slide assembly and clean the metal under the wood.
For two-piece stocks, which are primarily found on shotguns, you'll need a buttstock wrench. Depending on the particular gun, you may need a socket or a blade on the end of the wrench.
As I pointed out earlier, a number of companies sell gun cleaning kits that contain these basic tools. But with a little planning, you can have a custom-designed kit that contains all the tools you need for your specific firearms.
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