Posted: 1/14/2023 11:59:25 PM EDT
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What prompts you to clean your rimfire rifle? When you clean, how do you clean the barrel? How do you clean and lube the bolt? What do you do for the trigger? |
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Quoted: What prompts you to clean your rimfire rifle? When you clean, how do you clean the barrel? How do you clean and lube the bolt? What do you do for the trigger? Great thread on rimfire cleaning and such Other than making sure the carbon ring in the chamber is cleaned out...I don't touch the bore with more than a patch soaked in a carbon cutter (NOT a lead remover, just trying to get out the carbon crud). Follow that with a patch or two to wipe/clean/dry the bore out. I honestly haven't shot enough to have accuracy to go crap on me...but everything I've read says "shoot until it's noticeably not grouping like it used to any more, THEN consider cleaning the bore if you can't find another reason or source of the problem".. For the rest of the components, I clean them as usual whenever I think it's necessary. So far, not so necessary on my Bergara, and I'm about to start trying to work up a 10/22 as well...the Bergara tolerates having a can on it pretty well, not a lot of excess gunk in the chamber area. No idea how the 10/22 will deal with that. |
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Some people never clean. I find that out every time I buy a used gun. ME? I clean after every time I shoot a gun (any gun, not just rimfire). I have so many 22's at this point, it could be a week, a month, a year, or a few years before it gets shot again. So I always clean after every shooting, weather it is 1 round or 1000 rounds. It gets cleaned. I have bought used guns that were not cleaned before long storage and white powder and crud comes out of the barrel from the lead and powder residue corroding, as well as the dried bullet lube. Powder residue is hard as a rock on everything else. I use a wet patch a couple passes, a few strokes with a bore brush, then a couple more wet patches, then a dry patch. The rimfires usually clean really easy unless it is a used gun I bought and the barrel is like what I mentioned above, then I usually have to scrub it a little more. If a bolt action, I clean the breech of the barrel with a rag wrapped around a pick/small screwdriver, or a toothbrush. I use the toothbrush and rag on the bolt face as well. Everything gets cleaned that could have powder residue on it. Semi autos get the same treatment, but the action gets disassembled to clean the bolt, recoil spring, and receiver. |
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Here is a good article on cleaning the .22. https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/a-guide-to-22lr-barrel-care-for-the-precision-rimfire-shooter/ I basically do that. For bolt I spray down with Hornady One Shot and then cleaning bolt face with Qtip so nothing to gum up the works and then greasing the lugs where bolt and action make contact. |
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Thanks for the links, guys. I will read it straight away. I am most concerned about the action. This is a bolt action trapped inside a tube gun chassis, so access to the action is somewhat limited. Overall, the action was a bit cruddy, with lots of powder residue everywhere from lack of cleaning. I used a bunch of Q-tips to get out most of the debris but this also forced the debris into tiny nooks and crannies. I sprayed those inaccessible areas with WD-40 to flush out the remainder. I am unsure about the use of WD-40. Do you use grease or oil on the sliding surfaces of your bolts? I have a few greases from which to choose. |
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Quoted: Thanks for the links, guys. I will read it straight away. I am most concerned about the action. This is a bolt action trapped inside a tube gun chassis, so access to the action is somewhat limited. Overall, the action was a bit cruddy, with lots of powder residue everywhere from lack of cleaning. I used a bunch of Q-tips to get out most of the debris but this also forced the debris into tiny nooks and crannies. I sprayed those inaccessible areas with WD-40 to flush out the remainder. I am unsure about the use of WD-40. Do you use grease or oil on the sliding surfaces of your bolts? I have a few greases from which to choose. Do not use WD40. It will turn into a varnish. If you need to flush gunk out, any number of solvents come in aerosol form these days...Hornady makes a good clean/lube product. Otherwise, just using hoppes-soaked qtips should work just fine too...you can always yank the action from the chassis if you need, and re-torque to spec. I wouldn't use grease on a semi 22lr; it would rob too much energy and probably prevent it from cycling all that well. But a bolt gun...eh you can probably get away with it, but why bother - a light coat of oil (that is - drop a dot of oil on a surface and spread it all around with your finger, or get a patch, drip a couple drops on it, and use that to wipe down the bolt) should be more than sufficient. A bolt gun doesn't need to be dripping with oil; other than the barrel, it won't really get all that hot to prevent cycling without lubrication... YMMV, of course. Good luck! |
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Oh wow, the Vudoo, Eley and Anschutz articles each present entirely different cleaning regimes. Mine is an Anschutz barreled action. Vudoo says says "seasoned" barrels are better. Eley and Anschutz say keep it clean but differ in the cleaning method. They all mention getting rid of the carbon ring from the chamber. |
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I clean after every match or range trip which comes out to every couple hundred rounds. I dont clean it down to the bare metal. Just a quick pass or two with a Kroil/Shooters Choice soaked VFG pellet. Let it sit for a few minutes, push a couple more dry pellets through and wipe the grime off the bolt/lugs. Done. I cant control how dirty a barrel gets, but I can control clean it stays. And consistent is better. For me. In the end, do what works for you. Not what gives you warm fuzzies inside, but shows up as an improvement on targets. |
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I ordered it from Bore Tech several days ago, but thanks for the tip. This question is well suited to a poll but I cannot create one. Do you do a one-way cleaning, either pushing the cleaning rod down the bore or pulling it back out? Do you do both, in a back and forth motion, alternately pulling and pushing without removing the brush/jag/patch holder? |
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Clean my 22s when accuracy and reliability start suffering. Other than a wipe down after handling. With the 10/22, it is typically accuracy that goes first. I have a hole drilled in the rear of my receiver, so I clean from the back end, no barrel removal needed. The Mossy 44 I just pull the bolt and go - it was a pawn shop rescue bought for about 1/2 the value of just the sights (never mind mag and whole gun) and the exterior is kinda rusty, but it shoots good and the S130 sights are fantastic irons. With my 22 pistols (Ruger KMK512 and Browning Buckmark) it is typically malfunctions that drive a cleaning. With the Ruger I'll get an OOB pop or two, with the Buckmark it stops feeding properly. On all of 'em, cleaning rods go in the back and out the front, no back-n-forth. Only thing that gets back-n-forth is the muzzle loader, and even there it is with just a tight fitting wool mop (get that suction going to really hose it out with hot water), and that is only because the CVA breech plugs aren't designed to be removable for cleaning/service. |
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Minor update - I received my package of Bore Tech Carbon Cleaner. I haven't yet used it but may get to it, later today. @Jeeps-And-Guns Quoted: I clean after every time I shoot a gun (any gun, not just rimfire). I found an Anschutz sticker that came with the barreled action when I bought it. Anschutz says, clean after every use. This implies they do not buy into barrel "seasoning", does it not? |
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I put one of those felt patches in the chamber, soaked with Bore Tech C4 Carbon Cutter. No scrubbing, just let it sit there for a while. Yeah, wow, an amazing amount of gray material came out of the chamber. I did it again and even more came out. When I get this rifle clean, I am going to do my other rifles and a rimfire pistol I have. |
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A minor update - I bought a video bore scope ($60) to verify my cleaning methods are working. The Anschutz stainless steel barrel is clean and looks new but it still has a bit of a black ring at the case mouth area of the chamber. I'll use some more of the Carbon Cutter to dissolve that. My 1937 Remington Model 37 also looks pristine except for that same black ring in the chamber. This barrel is not stainless but has no corrosion and looks virtually new, even after 86 years of use. |