How do you do it?

D

DOCSpanky

New member
I of course have my owners manual, but I want to know how YOU clean your Browning Gold shotgun. I made the dreadful mistake of shooting 12 boxes of "Promo" loads (yes, I know, and I hope many of you are calling me a dumb-donkey) through mine (I used to shoot exclusively AA's or Premiers) and now for the first time have had function troubles out of my up to this point, utterly reliable gun.

I'd like to know specifically, how far do you dissasssemble the gun, what do you use to clean it, both chemical and tools wise, and most importantly what do you use to clean the barrell gas port?

Also how do you clean the internals of the piston assembly?
My magazine tube has what seems to be a near solid ring of hardened residue etched onto it. What might I use to get this off? I fear if I get too aggressive trying to get it of that I may mar the surface of the magazine tube and it might alter the guns performance.

Help me, I never thought I'd see the day I'd run crying for help, but I had 6 failure to cycles at the range yesterday.

DOCSpanky
 
Boy, I at least thought someone might have a suggestion as to how to get the encrusted ring off the magazine tube.......
 
For the residue, just use whatever gun cleaning solvent you have on hand. Get some on there, and let it soak for a while before having at it.
 
I have an SX-2 camo duck gun that's pretty much the same design as yours. I clean the barrel with a 12 ga. patch wrapped around a 12 ga. brush. Okay, a bunch of patches. The quickest cleaners I have are Hoppe's Benchrest and Shooter's Choice - it makes short work of the plastic fouling. Then I take the choke tube out and clean the threads in the barrel with a toothbrush.

The gas ports I clean with a pipe cleaner if I've shot a lot of shells. If I'm just checking to make sure the hole isn't totally clogged I use a little piece of solid copper wire with the insulation still on it. I can't remember if I've used one of those little gun brushes on it or not. I probably have since I brush cleaner on anything I can reach, like the bolt. Brush, spray the sludge off and lube.

The piston is the first thing I clean - I spray some BreakFree or MPro7 on it first thing and let it sit while I clean the rest of the gun. Then I spray it off with GunScrubber or whatever spray was on sale and lube it with BreakFree or Birchwood-Casey Sheath to keep the saltwater off it. (I overlube every gun I put in a boat.)

Speaking of overlubing, if my gas gun failed to cycle I'd pull the forearm off and dump some lube on the all the moving parts. BreakFree will loosen the crud and usually get a dirty gun running.

Being a waterfowl gun that gets used around saltwater, I pull the trigger group out and spray it with RemOil, let it soak for 10 or 15 minutes, and shake it off. That's what Remington recommended for my 1100 and my '93 Express Magnum and it's worked just fine so far.

I don't worry about the magazine tube getting discolored, but if you do get a ring on there you can snag with your thumbnail just rub it with a patch and whatever you used to clean the bore.

If none of that helps then pull stock off and clean and lube the big spring in the butt. I only do that at the end of the season to get the seed heads, burrs and goose feathers out.

John
 
Okay so call me a dummy............

I did the complete teardown and rebuild today. Pulled the trigger group and bolt assemblies out of the gun and thoroughly sprayed them out. The piston had enough gunked up powder residue in it that as I sprayed it, it totally discolored my cleaning mat/towel. The amount of crud that came out of the bolt and trigger assemblies was horrifying. Of the two gas ports in the bbl., I had a rough time getting the pipe cleaner through the left port it was so clogged, and the right had a good bit of fouling/residue in it too.

To give the background to this story, my local wal-mart just went up .50 a box on AA's, so being the moron that I am, I bought a box of the Winchester PROMO loads. I had thoroughly cleaned the gun and piston assembly, (not the trigger & bolt), and it was clean as a whistle. After only 100 rounds of these shells, it totally fouled/crudded the action to the point that my utterly reliable Browning GOLD, balked 6 times out of 100 rounds at the trap range Saturday.

Dumb me I guess. I went out and picked up 100 rounds of AA's after this cleaning and fired right through them with no faults and the takedown afterwards was remarkably clean.

The motto kids is....... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!

Anyone know where I can buy 20 guage AA's in bulk and have a cost effective shipping method?

A very humbled DOCSpanky
 
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