Tips when cleaning your Hunting gun

Here, I'm gonna give you a few hunting gun cleaning tips.  I've mainly geared this toward the shotgun.  But similar tactics apply to handguns.  First things first.  UNLOAD your gun.  And if you think you did it already, take the few seconds necessary to check again.  There's no need for you to be a statistic cause you're in a big fat hurry.  I realize that's in the gun safety category.  Gun safety applies to when you're cleaning your gun, too.

Check out Hunting!

Although I'm writing about cleaning your gun here, you might enjoy reading a more comprehensive article on the subject of HUNTING in Wikipedia.  It's pretty good and covers all facets of hunting including the history.  Click here in HUNTING if you want to go to that page.  Also, at the bottom of this page, I've put up my favorite video from Youtube that's a show and tell about how to clean your shotgun.  It's always good to actually see how it's done and not just read it, especially since so many of us hunters are visual types.

Not to some tips.  I like to use a bronze wire brush for normal bore cleaning.  However, when removing copper, heavy lead fouling, or plastic shotgun wad fouling you should use a nylon brush with  a good bore cleaner.  One such good bore cleaner is Shooters Choice.  Just a note that it's a powerful bore cleaner and can eat up bronze brushes.  Run the bronze brush through the bore once for every round fired.  For light cleaning, I like Hoppes #9 solvent.

If you are serious about the care of your gun, you might consider investing in a coated steel or brass cleaning rod.   Aluminum rods are soft and can collect grit and particles.  They've also been known to scratch the bore, something you really don't want.  Wipe off the rod with each pass through the bore.  You should use a brass jag to push patches through the bore. When you drag a dirty patch in a slotted tip back through the bore, that's not really  what I call cleaning.  You can use a bore guide or brass "bumper" to protect the chamber or muzzle crown from possible damage.  Clean the action with a blast of pressurized solvent such as Gun Scrubber by Birchwood Casey.  It cleans without leaving any residue.

Use just a little bit of oil.  In other words, OIL LIGHTLY!  Oil attracts dirt.  You'll know that you probably oiled too much if you can see the oil!  If you're concerned that you've oiled too much, try storing your gun with the barrel down.  This will keep the oil or solvent from seeping into the wooden stock.

Strip clean about every 800 rounds or so.  If you don't know how and don't have an owners manual, take the gun to a reputable gunsmith.  It doesn't cost that much and is cheaper than having to have him replace that spring that went flying into the recesses of your work room or garage.

There's a lot more to proper gun care.  I suggest you read your owners manual and follow the directions there.  But this information should put you ahead of the Hunting game.

Hunting Gun Cleaning - Properly cleaning barrels on a shotgun