As I have been cleaning rifles after the course this weekend, I realize that I'm way ahead of how I used to do it when I had limited tools available to me.

One of the loaner rifles for the course got handed out after an attendee sheared his TRG22 bolt handle off in the cold in the morning of Day 1.

It's a Surgeon .308 with AI bottom metal.  It got shot and drug through the snow and frozen mud, in sleet and regular snow in fairly cold temps for 2 days.

Memories of how we used to maintain the M24's have been popping up as I clean it.

It wasn't until this morning that I was finally able to get the rear QD sling swivel out of the socket, which had become clogged with frozen mud and sand.  After a can of air and some WD40, I finally got it free this morning, and I've been working on it since I got home after midnight on Saturday/Sunday.

I've been using my ultrasonic cleaner for a lot of things cleaning related, and wish I had it when I was in.

Most of what I do for general cleaning comes from years of my life spent elbow-greasing weapons in the Army.  Barber brush, GI OD Green weapons toothbrush, and a rag do a lot of the dirty work.

My AR's are almost maintenance free since I have almost every metal surface Cerakoted.  What a huge contrast for cleaning compared to a bolt gun.

Letting oil sit for a while and work on crud, carbon, and rust makes final cleaning much easier.

I like the Slip2000 Carbon Cleaner a lot.

Here's SCW's 6.5 Creedmoor during and after the course:

Wanna see my filthy rifle?