Gun Cleaning

A

Adam0041

Inactive
I got a hold of our old parts washer from my work after they changed suppliers, it's only about 5-7 years old and big enough to fit a rifle in. We always used a mineral spirits variant at work and I think it will be too corrosive for my rifles. I was thinking of using the Hornady one shot gun parts cleaner but it says for use in ultra sonic cleaners. Does the solution have to be in an ultra sonic cleaner to work or would it be ok to use to soak my rifles and guns in prior to cleaning? Not to mention it has a pump and hose connected to a brush that I could do most of the cleaning with. I thought if it would work it would be nice for say the gas tubes on my ak's, ar's and my saiga shotgun to cut down on some of the cleaning time. These are the guns I like to shoot the most but they are also the ones that take the longest to clean.
 
If you're talking a comprehensive cleaning after a shooting session then you're making this way more complicated than it needs to be. I want nothing sloshing around lots of action/trigger parts and I don't think there's a gun made cannot be cleaned in 15 minutes.
 
I think that mineral spirits is the main ingredient in gun cleaning products.
Tim is right, the AR is one of the easiest rifles to clean, I dont know about the AKs and the saiga but traditional methods should work fine. They dont need to pass a white glove inspection as most tend to think.

A thorough cleaning might be needed, say, if you were doing 3-5 second rushes and one got resheduled to a 1-2 second rush. (you tripped into the dirt)...the rifle ends up on the ground first, just a moment before it bounces up into your chin.
 
There is no reason to clean the gas tube of an AR. Ever. Counterintuitive, I know, but true.

Oneshot would not be the ticket for a cleaning tub. If you can't resist using the tub, use a suitable tubjuice.
 
Years ago (you know, dirt was new and rocks had not been invented yet), we used to soak M16s in a trash can full of solvent then scrub them. But that was for full dress inspections (USMC dress blues have white gloves). When I worked in a gunsmith shop, we had a 5-gallon bucket we would soak really grungy parts in before we scrubbed them. I think a parts washer would be cool with the right solvent, but flammable solvent in an open container sounds a little too dangerous to me. Like tim s said, don't overcomplicate it, cleaning a rifle is easy, just scrub and wipe.
 
Maybe it's just me being anal as usual but my father was a gunsmith and dealer and growing up after my dad and I would shoot he would expect my gun cleaned completely after each outing and would inspect the gun before I could put it up and expected it to be spotless and if he found any residue I would be cleaning it again, so I don't own a single gun that doesn't take me at least a half hour to clean, including my wife's 38 special. Not that I hate it because actually cleaning my guns is somewhat therapeutic to me. It was just weekend's like this memorial day where we took out about 9 of my guns it gets a little overwhelming getting them all cleaned and got me thinking of easier way's to get it done.
 
I have a parts cleaner similar to the one you are talking about that I use for cleaning firearm parts. I also have another one for cleaning automotive parts etc. Both of them use Safety Solvent and is available in 5 gal cans at your local automotive parts store. Keep in mind that you want to use a very fine filter for your firearm tank. Mineral Spirits is not a good idea because it is flamable.
 
I think that parts washer thing would be great for cleaning the metal parts of my black-powder guns, since black powder residue gets everywhere. But, yeah, that seems like too much for just basic cleaning of smokeless powder arms.
 
I'd do a dirty deed to be able to throw my cosmo covered mosin in it...I'm not looking forward to cleaning it at all.

otherwise I think it's a little overkill.
 
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