How do you clean your handgun?

B

Bartholomew Roberts

Moderator
I served in the military and I am familiar with the wet patch/dry patch routine of cleaning. What I am interested in is the various new stuff out on the market. Does anyone have any experience with the Sentry Solutions products? What are you using to make cleaning better and/or easier?

What steps do you take to minimize exposure to solvents, vapors, etc?
 
I shoot Glocks and one of their greatest advantages is that the entire gun can be cleaned with Simple Green, water, and a brush.
No more brake cleaner toxins and Hoppe's fumes for me.
TRY IT YOU WILL LOVE IT!

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BOYCOTT SLICK & WESSON

"To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it."
Confucius
 
I use this new-fangled stuff called G-96. Supposed to clean and lubricate in one step. The idea is that the cleaning agents are volatile--they evaporate quickly. The lubricating agents are persistent--they stay behind.

But the main reason I use it is that it smells halfway decent. My wife does not kick me out of the house in the winter when I clean.

I've been using it for 2 years now, and I'm still on my first can, so its not terribly expensive overall, either.

I spray some on a bronze brush and work it through a few times. Then run patches through till they come out clean. If there are any doubts, I'll repeat. In fact, if the bore looks really bad, I'll use some Hoppes or GunScrubber first. When the patch is clean, I spray some G96 on a patch and run it through to lube the bore.

I spray some on a cloth to clean/lube the slide, rails recoil spring and mag(s). Spray some on a toothbrush/patches to clean nooks & crannies.

Afterwards, the moving parts and exterior seem appropriately lubed. Slick, but not gummy.

Haven't been using it long enough to know for sure that it protects against wear as well as traditional oils, but it seems to.

If anyone else loves/hates G96, I'd like to hear about it.
 
#9 through the barrel, spray the gun with Crud Cutter or similar product, toothbrush with BreakFree, or shoot it dirty.

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"All my ammo is factory ammo"
 
I use MPro7 as my "sprayer/scrubber" which is a non-toxic, non fume bio-degradable cleaner. Its the Cleaner that H&K recommends for their USP. Pretty amazing stuff, actually. It strips all the oil and carbon off your gun (and any oils finished wood too!)while not creating a toxic waste dump on your kitchen table.

I spray my gun down with it, wait 5 minutes, and then scrub it with a toothbrush. I use a metal brush for areas that are persistent like the breachface. I then use a rag to wipe it off and Q-tips to clean the crevases. Any remaining amounts will evaporate and not attract dirt.

I also spray the MPro-7 in the barrel and let it sit. After running a bristle through it a few timers, I patch it out and then send a damp patch with CLP through it. Follwed by a dry patch.

THEN I use CLP (BreakFree). I use it on a rag that I lightly impregnate with the CLP and I wipe down the whole gun. I use Tetra Gun Grease on the rails (not liquid so it doesnt run everywhere) and a teflon RemOil on the trigger and hammer moving parts as it is a very thin liquid spray that penetrates tight tollerance moving parts well.

Finally, I take a clean rag and wipe off all excess CLP so that the gun is dry to the touch.

My armorer in the Army said that too much CLP can both attract dirt and accelerate rust over time (he was talking 6 months t oa year of disuse in a humid hot climate), so I try to not let too much accumulate.


J.T.

As usual, FWIW, IMHO, and all the other disclaimers
 
I second the Simple Green idea. Use the hottest water that you can stand, and dry the gun off in a WARM oven.(WARM is the lowest setting. It works!!! :)

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BOYCOTT SMITH AND WESSON!!!
Defend the Constitution from the foreign threat!!!!

"Man killing is nasty business"---Finn Aggard
 
Remington Bore Cleaner for the bores, wet/dry patch, followed by wet patch of CLP, and dry patch. I then spray everything else down with CLP, wipe dirt off with a soft cloth, and then reapply CLP.

If time allows, after wiping off the dirt, I like to spray a heavy coat of CLP on the disassembled parts, and let them sit for 24 to 48 hours before wiping off until dry to the touch, and reassembling the gun. After this procedure, the slides feel like they are running on ball bearings. Never had a speck of rust on any of my handguns. Just don't get the CLP on grips or polymer frame parts.
 
JT -- I've been using MP7, too, and like it...but I'm not at all convinced that it's really getting the metal out of the bore. There's a theory that, unless you're shooting in a sub-MOA bench rest situation, copper traces only build up to a certain amount and don't really matter. I don't know whether this is right or not (and we're talking only copper, not lead). I've been following up with Hoppe's BenchRest and/or Shooter's Choice, both of which are pretty aggressive chemical cleaners, but they're not doing alot either. I can clean out the copper with JB bore cleaner -- but by the end of the first magazine it looks the same anyway. I'm sorta on the verge of deciding that some copper traces in the grooves is just life, that it's not going to build up to the point where it's going to affect anything, and therefore just use MP7 and be happy. But then there's this nagging feeling from years of shooting that I really ought to get all the copper out...

...any thoughts/opinions?
 
JNewell: You're not using a phospher-bronze brush with those copper-eating products are you? Use a stainless steel brush or else the copper from the brush will get deposited inside your barrel. :eek:

FWIW,

(1) I use a Q-tip to "scrub" MPro7 into the bore, and set the barrel aside. I use the gel MPro7, not the liquid.

(2) I take the frame and a toothbrush with a tiny bit of Hoppe's Semi-Auto #9, turn the frame upside down and scrub with the Hoppe's. I set the frame aside, upside-down, so the solvent doesn't drip down where I don't want it.

(3) I use brake cleaner to flush out the filthy toothbrush, and rub the brush off on a rag or towel. (If you spray the brush inside a jar, you can reuse the brake cleaner to clean brushes. The gunk settles to the bottom.) (WEAR EYE PROTECTION--I got brake cleaner in my eyes once and believe me, you don't want that.) I use the cleaned brush on the upside-down frame to get rid of the Hoppe's and more gunk. I set the frame aside, upside down.

(4) I flush out the tooth brush again, and put a little CLP on. Then I use the brush on the upside down frame; it usually comes out clean.

(5) I repeat this process on the slide, holding it and setting it down "muzzle down," so nothing drips into the firing pin channel. I detail clean the breechface and extractor with Hoppe's and a Q-tip.

(6) When the frame and slide have been cleaned, I patch out the Mpro7 in the bore, apply more MPro7 to a bronze brush and scrub the barrel good (20-50x). I patch out the MPro7, flush out the bronze brush. I dip the clean brush in Hoppe's Semi-Auto #9 and scrub the barrel again, more or less depending on how much gunk remains. Then dry patch--wet(Hoppe's) patch--dry patch--apply gun oil with mop.

(7) Gun is now clean. If necessary or desired, lubricate inside surfaces (except the bore) with Q-tip and CLP, detail cleaning as you go. Apply Lubriplate grease sparingly wherever slide touches frame and reassemble. Rub Breakfree LP (not CLP) on all exterior surfaces.

Comments are welcome on my procedure. It's quicker than it may sound. YMMV.

Ledbetter

[This message has been edited by Ledbetter (edited June 14, 2000).]
 
I use an ultrasonic cleaner, its large enough to clean 2 handguns at a time.
My cleaning goes like this:

1. takedown gun
2. put in ultrasonic cleaner for 10 minutes
3. rinse gun with tap water
4. put in lube pan on top of ultrasonic cleaner for 5 minutes
5. blow gun off with air compressor
6. put gun back together

No more sitting at the kitchen table for 2 hours cleaning. :-)
 
J.T.King,

Amazing! After years of trying different products and combinations of them, I have chanced upon virtually the same routine and products as you. Works for me!

HJ
 
PTGDVC,
Does the simple green thing work for other guns besides Glocks? It works great on them, but I would like to use it universally on all my guns. I know there was a dicsussion on the subject some time back,but I cannot find it.

------------------
BOYCOTT SMITH AND WESSON!!!
Defend the Constitution from the foreign threat!!!!

"Man killing is nasty business"---Finn Aggard
 
My favorite method for cleaning the frame of my ("plastic") pistols is to just spray them with Breakfree PowderBlast. This stuff cleans, drips off, and then evaporates leaving a little seemingly-lubricating residue. I clean the slides with Q-tips and some Powderblast, MP7, or Hoppes/Shooter's Choice.

-z
 
Ledbetter -- no, I mostly use .30 USGI patches on a solid Dewey jag. When I brush, I use a fiber brush. I'm interested in why you're using Hoppe's SA on the frame? -- I use MP7 on that, too. To scrub in/around the extractor and the corners of the breech face, as well as the frame rails, I use pipe cleaners (which are getting a little hard to find these days, unfortunately!)

JKnight, what did the US cleaner cost you? I've seen folks do this and it seems a slick trick (literally) -- although it obviously cleans all the lube out -- but the cleaning machines I've seen were very, very pricey.

Denfoote, I've only used Simple Green on CMP Garands (which arrive very, very greazzy) -- mostly because SG cuts grease like noone's business, it's cheap, and I'm going to completely re-lube anyway. I believe SG is water-based, and I worry about the possibility of corrosion unless everything is re-lubed completely. I could be wrong, though -- any ideas, anyone? I'm not sure there's any reason to use more expensive products like MP7 anywhere except the bore and breech face/extractor, but I'm concerned that Simple Green might cause corrosion unless every trace of it is removed and the surfaces wiped down with some kind of lube.
 
JNewell,

The ultrasonic cleaners are very exspensive but they are well worth it. I purchased my Crest unit from a police supply dealer for $1100. This unit is big enough for 2 handguns and came with all the accesories, cleaning agent and lube. I justify the cost of the unit with the amount of time I save. Cleaning 2 handguns the old way would take me anywhere from 1 to 1.5 hours. With the ultrasonic unit it takes me less than 20 minutes to clean 2 guns and they come out clean as new. My wife also uses it to clean her jewelery.

If your interested in a ultrasonic unit find my post in this forum with the title Crest Ultrasonic Demo units. This guy e-mailed me just after I purchased mine and he has some like new demo units cheap. Also you get what you pay for with ultrasonic cleaners. I wouldn't recommend the cheap units, they don't work as well because of the cheaper electronics.
 
JNewell: I use only a _tiny_ bit of Hoppe's SA on a toothbrush for the frame. It removes all traces of old grease and crud from the slide rails, as well as any powder residue or other stuff from the mag well and trigger group. I'm not as confident as some here about MPro7 evaporating completely, especially in the gel form that I use for the bore.

[This message has been edited by Ledbetter (edited June 15, 2000).]
 
on the can of breakfree powderblast it says to keep away from plastic and wood. could it melt or harm in any way the polymer frame on glocks? how about plastic grips on other guns?
 
JNewel:
I am not convinced it is either, TBH.. But I only shoot about 1000-1500rnds per year. I have noticed a VERY SLIGHT buildup of something (copper? Lead?) in the polygon barrel of my USP45 after about 1500rnds. I am not a huge fan of scrubing hell out of my barrels tho... more for eventual wear than lack of interest on my part. Maybe I am not completely clear on its effects but I figure I'll wait until I have put a more significant amount of rounds through it and then reevaluate my bore-cleaning technique.

My main complaint about MP7 is the cost relative to the copius amounts I spray everywhere. It ain't cheap! I also have heard good things about PowderBlast (by Breakfree) and am curious as to how it differs price vs effectiveness to MP7.

Hydejam:
Great! I used to be a Breakfree (CLP) only guy from my time in the US Army, but I got into RemOil almost by accident as a gunstore near me didnt have BreakFree so I bought that. It has turned out to be a great oil for the little tiny parts as I use it very spareingly. I dont really care that its "RemOil" so much as I like the spray can with the little tube as a means to spritz a little teflon in trigger and the hammer without getting disgusting amounts of it everywhere.

The MP7 expereiment started with my USP45 and I am sold now. I love hosing the sucker down with it and the fact that it is so inoffensive makes my life easier as my wife lets me clean at the kitchen table.

Ledbetter:
I had the same reservations as you about MP7's evaporative properties where the jell is concerned... Hence I use the liquid. I tested it out at my gun store/range on one of their guns first and it seemed to evaporate entirely with no residue that I could see (assuming that you got the gun clean that it...). Seems ok so far <shrug>.

Quick quesiton for everyone...

When would one use a Jag as opposed to a bristle bore brush and why? Can you use one with a polygonal barel?

Thanks!

J.T.

As usual, YMMV, FWIW, IMHO, etc...
 
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