How do you clean your lever gun?

in my marlins I remove the bolt and clean from the breech, on my Winchesters and Remington pumps, I use a carbon rod from the muzzle and use a brass muzzle guard. eastbank.
 
As far as barrel cleaning goes, the Marlin gets cleaned from the breech with a cleaning rod. The Winchester also gets cleaned from the breech, but I use a bore-snake for that.
 
I'm still waiting for someone to tell how they clean their gun, not just the barrel. What happens when you hunt in the rain?
 
when i get indoors with a rain-snow soaked firearm(marlin) I take the bolt out and spray the heck out of it with w-40 and blow it out with compressed air. wd-40 will displace the water and after blowing it out I use my wifes hair dryer to dry it out and then lube it with a good oil.. you could lay it on a heat registor or hot air vent. if I know I,m going to hunt in the rain-snow I take a syn stocked bolt action rifle, much easier to take down and dry-clean. eastbank.
 
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I only own Marlin levers.
Winchesters are overpriced for what they are, Savages have moved into the collectors' realm, Brownings are just overpriced altogether, and Henrys don't appeal to me (too clunky and unrefined).
Well, actually... I guess I do own a Henry, but it doesn't live with me. So, I never think about it.

Normal cleaning is pulling the lever and breech bolt (and ejector so it doesn't go walkabout or snag patches), inspecting for appropriate movement of the firing pin, cleaning the chamber and bore, wiping the bolt down, re-lubing, and reassembling.

Proper cleaning - after hunting season, or 3-5 range trips - is a full tear-down. Everything but the barrel and sights/optic come off or out off the receiver. I even pull the magazine and clean those parts. Everything is scrubbed as needed and inspected. Then everything is re-oiled, reassembled, and function-tested.

Most people can get away with never giving a centerfire Marlin lever gun a proper cleaning, or just squirting WD-40 in it once a year; and still have it function well enough to go bang.
I like those rifles. I can buy them cheap, because they look like crap and the action is gummed up, and turn them into a slick, smooth shooter with a deep cleaning.
 
My neighbors Model 99 gets a boresnake from the breech.
Twice a year i take it apart for him and clean the works.
 
I only own Marlins and I drop the bolt and clean the barrel, and wipe what I can reach within the action. I have taken my M1894 and M336 completely down, and I don’t recommend doing that. If you can blow crud/water out with compressed air, you are better off doing that then buggering up the screw heads. These firearms are not simple to take apart, too many different screw heads and screws to loosen for one thing. I do not believe the average owner of a lever action, then or now, ever cleaned the thing, and I mean something simple like cleaning the barrel. Fewer still took the action off the stock, the bottom steel out, nor the fore end parts.
 
I don't detail clean my levers. I will blow them out with the air compressor and oil. I only shoot powder coated cast bullets so there is no fouling...oil patch is sufficient for the bore. And, I always give the exterior a thorough wipe-down after each trip afield. Occasionally, I will remove the stock and forearm...but that does not happen very often as there is never anything there when I do.

The one exception to the above is the Model 39A Marlin...it gets a detailed cleaning about once per year because of the dirty rimfire ammo.
 
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After being in the rain, my stainless 1895 does not require that much of a cleaning. A shot of Ballistol here or there and a wipe down does it. It just does not get dirty since I started shooting mostly the HSM Cowboy or Bear Load. Winchester and especially Remington (Safe for all Rifles) it was filthy but with the HSM it stays clean.

I tear if fully down to just parts once in a while. I use Mobil 1 grease sparingly on the bolt and a few other wear areas, other than that, just Ballistol.

This is a newer rifle and it cycles smooth as glass and very reliably, the more I shoot it the smoother it gets. Those take down screws that are occasionally available for the lever are useful, I got one in mine.
 
Cleaning my Marlin 336 I use a pull through with a little CLP if I'm worried about rust as it's usually taken in from very cold environs to a warm house, but at the end of the season I field strip the rifle so I can use a cleaning rod from the breach and use a copper solvent like Patch-Out or Bore Tech Eliminator...

Somewhat like what Slamfire does. After removing lever, bolt and ejector I use a forceps (big locking tweezer) with a patch and some cleaner and clean the inside of the receiver as best I can then relube.

But I know some hunters who pull through a patch of Hoppes #9 or 3-in-1 after the season is over, stack their rifle in the closet, and don't think twice about it :).
 
I pull the lever, bolt , and ejector of my 336 and clean the bore and barrel with Hoppes #9. I use a flexible cable type cleaning tool. After the Hoppes I wipe everything down with CLP inside and out. I don't take it out in the rain.
 
When I come in with a wet rifle, I stand it up with an open bolt, behind the woodstove. When it gets nice and warm, it's also nice and dry.
 
Slamfire, I'll bet you are the 1% of lever guys that have completely taken down a lever rifle because 99% of lever action users never field strip let alone completely disassemble. And non the worse....doesn't seem to be a need to. And I think a Win94 is even more of a challenge to take apart.

The lever hunters I know have never read an internet gun forum let alone participated in one....and I am not condescending. Some are good friends and just ain't gun nuts like me :)

The best hunter/outdoorsman I know harvests more game of ALL kinds, small, medium, big, varmints, etc and he once told me "I never clean my guns", just a wipe with an oily rag on the outside.
 
I used to repair guns for a local sporting goods store in Oakland, ME. I lost count on how many lever guns I strip-cleaned, most had never seen disassembly. With all the screws and parts on a 94, the actions were either never fully cleaned, or people used the wrong screwdrivers and damaged the screwheads. It's obvious that some actions were oiled heavily and set in a corner. Oil ran down the tangs and rotted wood buttstocks at the wrist. I've fired many 94s and Marlins, but never bought a lever centerfire. Winchester 88s are especially difficult to reassemble without a diagram, since parts can be put together wrong...several ways.
 
Besides a field strip of my 336, and by field strip, I mean just removing the lever screw and then the lever, bolt and ejector. I have never attempted a full detail strip on a lever gun.

A few years ago I replaced a magazine spring and follower....I don't know if it was really necessary but the rifle is a 336 "Texan" of 60s vintage and I decided to replace what parts I could with new ones.

The mag tube and spring were a bit rusty and I would guess that most older Marlins and 94s, that see any regular use, probably have a mag tube and spring with varying degrees of corrosion. But that's just a guess based on my experience with one rifle.
 
Slamfire, I'll bet you are the 1% of lever guys that have completely taken down a lever rifle because 99% of lever action users never field strip let alone completely disassemble. And non the worse....doesn't seem to be a need to. And I think a Win94 is even more of a challenge to take apart.
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A Winchester 94 is easy. I built my first one with a barreled receiver and a cigar box full of parts when I was 15. A 92 is a little harder. I pull my Winchester 94 and Rossi 92 down about once a year. I took my original Winchester 1887 down once when I was about 16. I'm 61 now.:D I don't have a problem cleaning bores from the muzzle. Been doing it for 51 years now with brass, aluminum, just whatever cleaning rods I have. I haven't damaged one yet.
 
The mag tube and spring were a bit rusty and I would guess that most older Marlins and 94s, that see any regular use, probably have a mag tube and spring with varying degrees of corrosion. But that's just a guess based on my experience with one rifle.
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I would say that's a fair assumption.

By no means have I seen hundreds of the things, but I've been inside at least a dozen and a half Marlin centerfires spanning 100+ years (1893, 36, 336, 444, and (modern) 1895 -- still no 1892 or 1894s). Other than fairly new, or very well maintained rifles, the internal surface of the magazine tube, the magazine spring, the magazine follower, and the hidden surfaces of the magazine tube plug are nearly always brown and fuzzy. If abused or regularly neglected, they'll actually be pitted and flaking with rust.

Most people would probably be quite surprised at the amount of lint, hair, and dirt, and the number of dead spiders, that can be found in the magazine of a 20+ year-old Marlin 336.

My experience with the Winchesters is close to zero, but I feel safe in assuming that they'd be much the same.
 
Thanks for the comments guys.

I have a .357 Puma 92 and 22LR Marlin 39A. The Marlin is easy since it breaks down and can be cleaned from the breach with a proper cleaning rod.

The Puma, unfortunately does not have an easily removed bolt. While I have detail stripped it once to tune the action and replace some plastic parts, I regularly just use a boresnake to clean the bore.
 
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