When my father taught me to clean a gun, he did it with good ol' Hoppes and oil. Eventually I got tired of messing with the oil and switched over to one of the CLP aerosol cleaners.
While I wasn't too impressed with the cleaning compared to Hoppes, I did like the lubrication/protection because it felt like the spray got into all the nooks and crannies. I quickly learned, however, that the aerosol left a LOT of oil in the mechanisms, and this would gather carbon and crud and just turn to absolute gunk very quickly.
I thought I'd gotten it all figured out and started blowing the excess out using compressed air. Bam! The excess oil goes away while leaving a nice protective covering behind. And it worked pretty darn well too, if I say so myself.
Well, lo and behold, my 10/22 starts acting up on me. Instead of feeding bullets, it would just sort of lodge on the lip of the barrel. So I tore it apart and gave it my usual cleaning. No dice. At this point I was concerned that one of the aftermarket parts I put in was either defective or caused a malfunction - neither of which I'd be too pleased about.
Took a closer look at it and noticed the ejector looked a bit off-kilter (or at least still dirty). Figuring that maybe some carbon had built up in the nook and that was it, I tore the rifle apart again but this time detail stripped it. When I got the firing pin assembly out, the entire top of it was varnished and gunked up with old oil. I guess that while the compressed air worked for blowing out some guns, with the 10/22 it just sort of funneled it into the top and let it sit. Anyway, the firing pin was frozen solid and there was just crust all over. After whacking it all apart and going after it with steel wool everything works easy-peasy.
Anyway, lesson learned about over-oiling causing more problems than it helps (even if the over-oiling wasn't intentional).
While I wasn't too impressed with the cleaning compared to Hoppes, I did like the lubrication/protection because it felt like the spray got into all the nooks and crannies. I quickly learned, however, that the aerosol left a LOT of oil in the mechanisms, and this would gather carbon and crud and just turn to absolute gunk very quickly.
I thought I'd gotten it all figured out and started blowing the excess out using compressed air. Bam! The excess oil goes away while leaving a nice protective covering behind. And it worked pretty darn well too, if I say so myself.
Well, lo and behold, my 10/22 starts acting up on me. Instead of feeding bullets, it would just sort of lodge on the lip of the barrel. So I tore it apart and gave it my usual cleaning. No dice. At this point I was concerned that one of the aftermarket parts I put in was either defective or caused a malfunction - neither of which I'd be too pleased about.
Took a closer look at it and noticed the ejector looked a bit off-kilter (or at least still dirty). Figuring that maybe some carbon had built up in the nook and that was it, I tore the rifle apart again but this time detail stripped it. When I got the firing pin assembly out, the entire top of it was varnished and gunked up with old oil. I guess that while the compressed air worked for blowing out some guns, with the 10/22 it just sort of funneled it into the top and let it sit. Anyway, the firing pin was frozen solid and there was just crust all over. After whacking it all apart and going after it with steel wool everything works easy-peasy.
Anyway, lesson learned about over-oiling causing more problems than it helps (even if the over-oiling wasn't intentional).
