I was reading Western Optics Hunter, and there was an article about pre-season gun preparation written by Jim Schmidt, the president of Arizona Ammunuition Inc. He mentions that a good gun cleaning should take 2-3 hours (any less in fact, and you "may as well go bowling"). I've attempted to contact him for some comprehensive cleaning instructions, as I'm not much of a bowler, but wanted to find out if anyone here has similar opinion, and any pointers for getting that hunting rifle squeaky clean.

Thanks,
Jason

I can't possibly imagine what takes 2-3 hours.....

Clearly the barrel is only a portion of what needs cleaning, but on a bolt action rifle I doubt that I could spend more than an hour on a very thorough job.

Field stripping a model 70 takes less than a minute.....other guns just slightly longer than that.

Mr Schmidt is an unusually persnickity man.

I guess I am supposed to take up bowling (Not). I can't see it taking that long even if you had not cleaned the gun in a year of regular shooting!

Did he include maintenance as well in that? Steaming out a dent etc

Doug

Nonsense.

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes once you get to the do-it-yourself car wash.

First, use the suds setting and stick the muzzle right up against the nozzle, After about a minute, switch over to rinse and let it go for another minute or so. Voila!

The wax for the gun is optional, but you can use the remaining wash time for a quick once over on the car or truck. And then you can go bowling for the remainder of the 2-3 hours! -TONY

[ 10-18-2003, 05:38: Message edited by: Outdoor Writer ]

What a load! It only takes me about 15 minutes from start to finish. Run a brush down the bore with Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner about 6 times. While that works I rub BWGC over the bolt and chamber. Let the whole thing set for about 10 minutes, dry patch the bore, wipe off everything else. lightly oil and I am done!

I shoot 50 to 100 rounds per week in matches, stainless Krieger barrel with cut rifling.

Mr. Schmidt does not know what he's talking about.

I clean with two patches Butch's Bore Shine, one dry, and then a final one with Hoppe's #9.

Every 800 rounds I swab 10 times with J&B bore paste.

Indy

Glad to know I'm not the only one who should take up bowling.

I was wondering what you could possibly do besides clean the barrel well and all moving parts around the trigger. I haven't heard from the author of the article, but I don't imagine he's real keen on email, so maybe I'll send him a snail-mail for the heck of it. He's been shooting longer than I've been walking, so I can't say he doesn't know what he's talking about.

J

So that means when I clean and patches start coming out clean I should just keep in cleaning?

The guy has got to work for the government.

Wait, it was the government that taught me how to clean a gun. Sergeant Bernie Williams, Echo Company, 5th Battalion, third training regement, 5th Army, Fort Leonard Wood, MO. I mean WEAPON! This is my weapon, this is my gun, this is for killing, this is for fun. I gurantee you it didn't take hours, but minutes to clean my M-14. Sergeant Williams saw to that. And when he said it was clean, by god it was clean.

Let wipe out sit for 30 minutes and 4 or 5 dry patches and oil.....

Shoot it 3 or 4 times before you go hunting...a clean barrel is a no no for hunting...I never clean a gun during hunting season unless I'm in very humid conditions, then I fire a fouling shot or two before I hunt...

When Winchester first came out with those damnable Black Talon / Failsafes it used to take me quite a while to get a clean bore (due to their "moly" coating and also likely due to my ineptness) but never more than about a 1/2 hour or so.

The point made earlier about never hunting with a clean barrel is a very good one. I don't know about 4 to 5 shots but when checking your zero after a trip at least "throw away" the first shot or two i.e. keep them off the paper.

I don't know what he's doing but I've never spent that much time cleaning a rifle. No matter how roughly used. If, every time I went shooting, I had a two or three hour cleaning job ahead of me, I'd probably take up bowling. Actually, I already bowl. To make a simple projection, imagine you took 4 rifles to the range (shoot one while another cools, etc), even doing the "quicky" two hour job, is an 8 hour task. Sorry, no way.
Its probably another case of "well, they've got to write about something" and if he sez he takes that long, we'll think he's a real perfectionist.

When I clean my BAR or 81 Rem. It takes about 1hr. each. That is every pin,spring and screw is removed. All parts are cleaned and inspected. So I think 2-3hrs is bullsh#t.
Fuzz

Happen to be cleaning my VS 223 right now, just letting the Sweets soak for another couple minutes, started at 5:05 and will be done in about 10mins. Started with 3 patchs od Shooters Choice, then 10 passes with the brass brush, couple of clean patches, and now the Sweets is doing it's job, so, it looks like it's going to be less than an hour. Jay

I just got back from the range a little while ago. I have been working on some loads for a 30.30, and a 22.250. I shot those two and my 375, and cleaned them all when I got home. Took about an hour for all three. I do not clean rifles every time I shoot, other than a quick swab down the barrel to hit the heavy stuff, except for the 22.250, which seems to shoot better if I clean it real good, and as Ray mentioned I never hunt with a clean barrel. I do bowl a bit, but I have never spent 2-3 hours cleaning any rifle. Arizona Ammunition does specialize in ammo for 50BMG, maybe you could spend an afternoon on one of those, or maybe this guy has WAY too much time on his hands.

DGK

I've run across so many Myths on gun-cleaning, and I've ruined barrels by cleaning them to much.
I agree with Mr. Atkinson on letting wipe-out do the work. The only thing I do differently is to use a bore-snake.

Cleaning is depedant on the quality of your barrel. Alot of us out here shoot highpower competition. Approx. 3000 rounds in a season through our match rifles. The trend is going towards clean it once at the end of the season weather it needs it or not. I gave up brushes and ammonia years ago. NEVER MIX SWEETS & SHOTTERS CHOICE!! I use mollied bullets in my match rifles and pain in the sporting stuff. I gave up cleaning also. My bore looks clean and the rifle is a hammer. It always took 10 or so minimum shots for the rifle to settle down after cleaning and some barrels it took 50 rounds. No visible copper founling and when I finaly clean it hardly any blue comes out on the first patch and then none. I used to get more blue out of the barrel when I cleaned it after every match. Most harm to barrels is done by cleaning. Copper fouling is always present. Even in cheap barrels where you can use sweets for days, the patches are big time blue and you never get all the copper out, so what? If it shoots so what. If it doesn't shoot get a rifle that does. Copper fouling adhears to the nooks and crannies in the metalurgy. If you clean the shit out of a barrel the nooks and cranies become open again and copper fouling has a place to stick to. You are kind of chasing your tail. If you look at the above scenarios with a bore scope you will understand. A nicely seasoned barrel looks pretty smooth. Clean it with ammonia and it looks like a dry lake bed. Of course corriosion is one thing to look out for. I do clean my chamber as needed and then one dry patch through the bore. Just my current thinkin on the subject.