A while ago I bought a vintage three screw Single Six. It's extremely fun to shoot, but runs surprisingly dirty, even with copper coated ammo. I clean the easily accessible parts after each use, but can't find much info on recommended deep maintenance.

Are there any guidelines for these kinds of single action guns?

Wipe it down after shooting.  Punch the bore and cylinder once in a while.

Unless it is heavily used by 3 generations of owners, there is unlikely to be any deep maintenance, unless you keep it on an off shore boat.

Ok, thanks. No, it's pretty cherry, lives in the high desert, so no rust issues either.

One of the nice things about revolvers- aside from cleaning don’t need any “routine maintenance “
I have revolvers well over 70 years old on all original parts
Things like swapping springs on a round count/ schedule just isn’t a thing on revolvers.

Huh, great information, I grew up and have used semi autos exclusively, so I guess I just got used to that.

SSS for off shore boating:

Off hand, I can't think of any FMJ .22 LR made today. I think you mean copper washed.

As for being grubby, yes, rimfire's get dirty. As for keeping them cleaner, I wipe them dry and then spray the mechanisms down with Rem-DryLube before I head out. It'll prevent a lot of the build up that the wet lubes cause. I give things a quick wipe down with a soft rag, a pull or two with a bore snake, a respray and then off to the races again every 150 +/- rounds or so. Before I put them back into the cases, I'll wipe them down again and another snaking but no spray as I'll clean them up when I get home.

Because I do clean and oil mine after use, I'll send a mag or a couple cylinders worth (usually cheap thunderbolts) into the berm at some object to settle things in (fouler's). I find it makes a difference, some don't.

One other thing I do with .22's is I'll send them thru my tumbler with corn cob for 45 minutes or so. It takes the waxy coating off. The coating is a sort of lube. After they tumbled, I throw them in a towel and roll them around to remove any dust then spray them down with the dry lube to replace the waxy crap. It seems a bit overboard but I can do a brick at a time. As I take .22's with me at every session, I keep a brick in each hard case (about 10) and a couple more prepped bricks on my going to the range shelf. I just replace what I use along with targets and such when I get home. I do the same to my .380's, makes everything super slick. Nope to the question does it cause more FTFs.

I'll have the tumbler out anyway as I first disassemble the guns and start soaking them, while that's going on I'll pop primers on the centerfires and send them into it with some walnut, start my cleaning, switch over to corncob then finish cleaning and putting things up.

You are correct sir, brain fart on the copper. I hadn't shot 22lr since I was a kid with an old bolt action 514. I guess it could have been as dirty since I was just a kid, but I don't remember it being so. Anyhow, thank you for the information.

What year is that one? Beautiful looking gun. Mine's blued with wood grips.

Many single action revolvers need the screws tightened after every trip to the range, but either you are already doing that or your single six doesn't as the screws would have already given you problems.
As far as deep cleaning, take off the grips and spray into trigger/hammer sear area to clean it. I've never heard of a gun that needed more than this, yes you can take out the hammer and trigger and clean them but I don't see any reason to do that, even on a once in a decade cleaning basis.

Other than cleaning the bores of the barrels with a bore snake, and the bores of the cylinders with a copper brush, and wiping off burnt powder from around the forcing cones, I haven't done shit to mine.

I don't expect I'll ever have to.

Attached File

I left my trapping .22 pistol in the trap box one year, forgot about it in the summer. Started to rust, and the leather holster actually took off some of the blue.
Complete tear down and clean, and I cold blued the bad spots on barrel & cylinder.
But usual maintenance, just clean the bore, and run a brush through the cylinder. Soft bristle brush the rest, and wipe it down.

Once a century, tear down for full cleaning.

CD

I recently picked up a blued 3 screw Single Six made in the early 60’s and a SS Single six made in 1980.
I shoot them- take the cylinder out- brush the barrel and cylinder wipe down and they will be good for another 30 years.

Picked up a 1964 Marlin 39 to match the  3 screw single six.

Figured I would expand my 22lr collection considering ammo costs.

My 50's era three screw has never been taken apart.  CLP, ballistol, whale oil or something squirted, poured through the trigger/hammer a couple/few times.  Clean the cylinder, forcing  cone and barrel chamber every session, bore sometimes.

 The shit blueing is shit.  Ruger will reblue for about 150 bucks...maybe next decade.