MAGNUM MAGNUM - Jeffersonian

THE
Roy Huntington
INSIDERTM
insider
The Opposite of Dirty?
I’d say the second most-askedabout
topic in the reader mail
pile would be questions about
gun cleaning. The first?
“What’s the perfect home
defense gun/ammo?” We won’t
go there right now, but I promise
to simplify that one later; and it
can be simplified, honest.
Nevertheless, the gun cleaning
questions are rampant and
often accompanied by much
hand-wringing and worrisome
comments like: “Am I slowly
destroying my (fill in the blank
gun) by not completely taking it
apart down to the last pin and
cleaning it within an inch of its
life whenever I shoot even one round
through it? Am I a failure? Will my
wife divorce me if I don’t? Would that
be a bad thing?”
Actually, you’re more than likely
prolonging the life of your (fill in the
blank gun) by not taking it apart down
to the last pin whenever you shoot it.
We’re not sure about the divorce thing
though. A neighbor of ours owned
a much-loved Ruger Standard Auto
.22. He was one of those “detail strip
it every time you shoot it and even
sometimes for no reason other than
you feel like it” guys. I have a vivid
memory of that gun virtually coming
apart in my hands when I first took it
apart. And that’s not easy to do with a
Ruger Standard Auto! The tolerances
were so worn, it even rattled. Mr. Wallace
had loved his gun to death.
What do you need to do to keep
your guns ready to go? Not much,
actually. I have several “levels” of
clean for my own guns. Comedian
Bill Murry once said, “A man’s
laundry hamper can have several
levels of dirty, some of which are still
perfectly wearable.” Guns are sorta’
the same way. My “working” guns
around our modest ranch here are
wiped off now and again before I stow
’em. They don’t get shot much but are
Kinda’ Clean … Sorta’
Everything you need to clean most
handguns in about five minutes or less
is sitting right here. Lube and solvent
(or anything else in the picture for that
matter) can be substituted with what
you probably have on hand right now.
handled lots, so there’s no real need to
clean them completely all the time.
With my carry guns, if I shoot more
than a few rounds, I field strip it, give
it a quick clean, lube it up, put it back
together then shoot it at least once
more to make sure it goes bang. Then
I consider it ready. My general “safe
queen” guns have their own “sublevels”
of clean. I can honestly say I
never give it a second thought to shoot
even a fancy gun, then simply give it
a quick wipe and stow it. As a matter
of fact, I have guns I’ve never cleaned,
and have shot quite a bit. Heresy you
say? Naw … just lazy, and damn, if
they don’t seem to work fine. Don’t get
me wrong, if you enjoy cleaning your
guns, go for it, but most people overclean,
over-fuss and over-take-apart,
causing undue wear and tear. Wipe off
the outside so it looks nice, but don’t
get any angst over the rest.
With modern powders and ammo
— short of living in a humid climate —
you don’t have to clean a bore simply
because you shot the gun. I’ll be honest
and tell you I don’t generally clean
a “recreational” gun until it’s dirty
enough to sort of be an embarrassment
if I show it to somebody,
or if it stops working because it’s
kludged-up with crud. I think if I
owned only a half-dozen guns I
might feel differently, but when I
might shoot a dozen in one day,
the thought of cleaning all of them
forces me to take a nap instead.
How To Clean
First, ignore most things you’ve
ever read on a forum about cleaning or
what products you have to use. Next,
take it apart if it’s an auto (unload it
first, etc., blah, blah) and have an old
towel folded in half to put the bits on.
Wipe everything off with some paper
towels or those nifty red mechanic’s
cloths. Once all the loose crud is wiped
out (use Q-tips too), run a dry brush
through the bore and chamber, then
run a solvent patch through it and put
it down. Then use a dry brush of some
kind (toothbrush) to brush at the cakedon
crud. No solvent or anything yet or
you’ll just make black stinky goo.
If you have to, dab your toothbrush
in a bit of solvent (put a splash in
the lid) and go at the corners where
the crud is still hiding. Dry wipe
everything again. Once everything is
looking nice, slightly dampen a patch
with whatever solvent you have laying
around (Hoppes is nice because of
the manly smell) and wipe everything
down. You’ll see a bit of black come
off, the residue of what didn’t drywipe
off. Then brush the bore with a
brass brush, then a few damp patches,
then some dry ones. Unless you’ve
been an ogre, that will clean the bore.
If it’s heavily leaded, then more brass
the insider Continues on page 112
114 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • MARCH/APRIL 2011