Firearm cleaning routines?

[usmcveteran]

Just wondering what everyone's routine is for cleaning their firearms?

For me I obviously disassemble first after ensuring its unloaded.
I take what ever solvent or cleaner I am using and apply it to my brush and scrub all the parts inside and out.
I then run a wet patch through barrel and let that sit for a little bit before taking a brass barrel brush to clean barrel.
Then I run another wet patch or two through barrel.

Now that everything has been scrubbed and still covered in my cleaning agent I take all the parts over to the bathroom and rinse them off using hot water. I take my fingers and rub off any cleaner on it while its under the running water.

After all the parts have been washed with hot water I go through with dry Q-tips and get into the hard to reach places to take out powder residue and water. If you have an air compressor this would be a good time use it to get water out of parts. If you don't then put parts in front of fan and allow to air dry for the parts you can wipe up.

Once everything is dry I think take out my silicone rag and wipe every part down and carefully assemble the firearm using the silicone rag to hold the pieces that way nothing has the oils from my hands on it.

I have found that the silicone provides enough lubrication for operation of the firearm as well.

[camper4lyfe]

A small trick you could do to help dry after washing with water is to rinse with, as pure as you can find, rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol as you can find. We use it here at work to help dry parts that may rust after being cleaned.

[GUNSICK]

All you use is silicone? Is this for just handguns or do you do the same for rifles? I do the same cleaning procedure with Hoppes then wipe it off with rags instead of rinsing in water. I don't like to expose anything to water if I don't have to and I don't like fish with 3 eyes either. I only use water if I've shot corrosive ammo. I lube bolt actions and .22s with Break Free CLP everything else gets lubed with a mixture of Mobil 1 synthetic oil, Mobil 1 synthetic tranny fluid and STP oil additive. This mix runs super slick doesn't burn off and stays where I want it. Nothing will stick to it either, you can just wipe the parts clean with a rag.

[phritz]

I use the same procedure up to the rinse in water. I just wipe the solvents off the best I can with a rag & dry patches. And then lube with whatever I happen to have.
My question is this- I love the idea of qtips to get into all the nooks and crannies, but every time I've tried it, I need to spend a ton more time picking bits of qtip lint out of every little spot that it's gotten stuck in. How do you avoid that? Is a certain brand of cotton swab less "linty" than others?

[GUNSICK]

I use the same procedure up to the rinse in water. I just wipe the solvents off the best I can with a rag & dry patches. And then lube with whatever I happen to have.
My question is this- I love the idea of qtips to get into all the nooks and crannies, but every time I've tried it, I need to spend a ton more time picking bits of qtip lint out of every little spot that it's gotten stuck in. How do you avoid that? Is a certain brand of cotton swab less "linty" than others?

I use medical swabs my wife steals from work. The tips are more tightly wound so they don't get lint fibers everywhere. The wood sticks give you better leverage also. http://www.amazon.com/Cotton-Tipped-...ZK0TKYKC1Y0VW3

[thughes]

Ballistol: teardown, wet patch or two throught the barrel to soak for a bit, spray everything else down, scrub nasty bits with nylon brush and run bore brush through bore a few times, wipe everything clean with rag, dry patch or two down bore followed by a slightly wet one, reassemble. A drop or two where necessary for lubrication but nothing excessive as the ballistol leaves a protective coating (as well has cleans/protects wood, plastic, leather, etc.)

Ballistol, it's a floor wax, no....it's a dessert topping, no....it's a gun solvent, no.....etc.

[LibertyOrDeath]

I like to heat the metal up with a heat gun and then use Froglube. Gets into the pores of the metal. Then when your firearm warms up from shooting the lube is activated. Smells good and makes future cleaning much easier.

[phritz]

I've been wanting to try froglube. Just waiting to run out of some of the stuff I have.

[masterswimmer]

I like to heat the metal up with a heat gun and then use Froglube. Gets into the pores of the metal. Then when your firearm warms up from shooting the lube is activated. Smells good and makes future cleaning much easier.

I've been using FL for the past year. I like it. Previously I was a Hoppe's guy. Once I tried Frog Lube I never went back.

[usmcveteran]

For the most part the rag is all I use with some exception. AR's I use CLP or some type of lube on the bolt, basically anything that really needs the lube gets it but other then that I run thing pretty dry.

I also have Militec-1 on some of my firearms too and that seems to keep things running smooth without reapplication all the time.

Using hot water also does not hurt anything . I talked to a couple gun smiths before that own their own shops and said that when they tell customers about hot water they kind of freak out a little lol. I learned about it in the Marines and haven't had any rusting problems what so ever.