You Can’t Un-Smell It

Enter Aerosols

Time marches on, and technology didn’t skip around the gun cleaning world. Some years ago, companies began marketing various aerosol spray cleaning products, primarily for people who either don’t want to or don’t know how to disassemble a semi-auto pistol, so they spray it throughout with an aerosol.

A lot of these products dry after a couple of minutes, after effectively cleaning out a lot of crud. I have found, however, my pistols still require a good scrubbing with a bore brush, followed by patches. In the days I was actively teaching firearms safety and personal protection, each of my student groups got the 10-minute lecture about cleaning their guns after a shooting session: Never case a dirty gun for any length of time.

What I’ve found with aerosols is that one still needs to brush and mop out the bore for a complete cleaning. I recommend cleaning from the breech toward the muzzle rather than the other way around because you want to push powder residue out the front end rather than down into the action. I realize this doesn’t seem possible on lever-action rifles or pump and semi-auto shotguns, which are not disassembled. But wait a minute …

Get a flexible cleaning cord that is designed to be inserted into the barrel at the muzzle and pushed backward toward the receiver. There, a brush, mop or patch holder may be attached and pulled back toward the muzzle. This keeps crud out of the action.

If you’re cleaning a revolver, open or remove the cylinder, clean out the bore, clean the individual chambers and reassemble, or simply close the crane if it’s a double-action with a swing-out cylinder.

My firearms are not just tools; they are investments and maybe even family heirlooms one day. We can’t take them with us, and we all want them to be functional, safe and well-maintained for those who will have them and the memories after we’re gone.