Lubrication/Grease/Cleaning/Maintenance

[navybowhunter]

This is my process for cleaning/lubing/greasing a rifle/pistol.

I have a post in here about me not touching the bores of my rifles.  I did that for two seasons on my Garand/03A4/03A3/1917/AR10/M1 Carbine and AR15 service rifle.  I have since swapped to doing my bores once a year and only once a year.  I did notice some rust buildup in some of the bores that had been in the safe a long time. 

I made the change because my groups did open up eventually on my AR10 (after 700ish rounds).

So....what I do annually, is I do the JB bore paste/final finish with Kroil and VFG pellets. 

Here is what I do after each session, with say the AR15.

Return home with a dirty rifle.  I separate upper and lower, set lower aside.  Disassemble the BCG.  I then place the BCG and smaller parts into a cheap Harbor Freight Ultrasonic Cleaner (cost like $50).  I use Slick2000 for the solution and run it for two 480 second intervals. 

Dry the BCG and small parts off.  Then I use a GG&G bolt cleaning tool to remove any stuck carbon from the rear of the bolt.  I then coat the BCG and parts with frog lube applied with an all purpose nylon brush.

I clean the interior of the upper receiver with BrakeClean.  I had been using Gunscrubber, but Brakeclean is essentially the same stuff and a lot cheaper. 

Next is a GG&G chamber cleaning tool, with a  .223 bore brush drenched in break clean.  I work the chamber 10-12 times with that, and then swap over to a mop, soaked in brakeclean.  I do not apply any lube to the chamber, nor should you EVER.

Chambers stay dry.

Then I wipe the interior of the upper, to remove any old gummed up frog lube.

Coat interior of upper with frog lube.

In the summer, in my garage it is pretty hot, the frog lube is almost liquefied.  In the cooler months, I use an old girlfriends hair dryer to heat up the frog lube.

Wipe out the lower, clean off the hammer and that is about it.

Reassemble and shoot again.

After maybe 700ish rounds, I may opt to run a wet patch with Mpro-7 to remove carbon fouling.  I do not remove the copper fouling till the end of the season.

At the end of the season, I brakeclean the entire lower receiver, remove buffer and spring and do the same.  I then re-grease the Gieselle trigger as per manufactures instructions, re-grease the buffer spring and re-assemble the rifle.

Some rifle specific tools I use:
Dewey Nylon coated rods....
Dewey Muzzle guides for the M1 Garand and the .22 rimfire
M1Buddy (a yellow plastic tub, that keeps the solvents from getting into the action of the Garand)

Garand Specific:
I try not to remove the barreled action from the stock if at all possible.  Tight lockup is desirable.
I use a GG&G articulating head chamber cleaning tool.  Thing is awesome!
Once a season I remove the barreled action from the stock. 
I NEVER remove the gas cylinder.  I clean that from the rear of the rifle with a rod and brush.
I only use TETRA grease for the Garand and M1 Carbine.  Applied to applicable grease points.

Wood Bolt Guns:
I use a generic (think it is a Dewey) cleaning rod guide.

10/22's:
I have done the mod to rear of receiver that allows a cleaning rod to be used from chamber to muzzle. 

For heavy copper fouling, the JB thing annually handles it for me for the most part.  I have used Sweets sparingly, and that is the best copper fouling removal (in solvent form) I have ever used.

Maintenance:

I have not yet done this...but this year I will.  For my competition AR15's:

1.  I plan to check the headspacing with the go/no go/field gauges to ensure the bolt is still serviceable.
2.  Replace bolt and check headspace again, replace barrel if needed.
3.  If bolt still serviceable, I intend to replace the gas rings
4.  Using a firing pin protrusion gage, check firing pin...replace if needed
5.  Replace buffer spring

Garands:
I plan to replace this winter (after 3 seasons of shooting competitively), the springs in the Garand.  Op-Rod and whatever else comes in a Garand Spring kit.
Same for the Carbine

That is what I do/or plan to do.

Caution/Words of Advice:

A friend I compete with had a serious issue with accuracy at 600 yards with his AR15.  He is my vintage sniper partner and is a very hard holder in prone.  Turned out that his Float tube came loose on him.  Never have I heard of that.  But.....if you have a float tube, and are experiencing accuracy issues, it may be something to check.  His was so loose he could turn it by hand.  Conversely, an A2 upper I bought from Creedmoor (assembled by Criterion I think) required heat, Kroil, PB Blaster and a Ford Wrench to remove! 

Proper Preventative Maintenance Prevents Unscheduled Maintenance!
The above was a saying a Navy Master Chief used to drill into my head on a daily basis when we worked on aircraft.  It is absolutely true!  So.....changing cheap consumables out on a regular basis I think is a wise choice.  A firing pin for an AR costs what? $10?  How much is reliability during an AQT or a big match worth to you?  More than $10 I would bet.

For those with muzzle breaks/flash hiders.  A very accomplished shooter told me this one a few weeks ago.  Ya gotta clean them as well on a somewhat regular basis.  He dips his in a bucket with some kind of degreaser.  My future barrels will not be threaded for flash hiders, I have no need for them.  But....till then I do clean em once in a while.

Witness Marks, a little white sharpie witness mark on critical fasteners can be a great thing.  You can visually see that something moved. 

Checking torque on things like barrel nut, scope mount etc....I do annually regardless.

Keepers on leather 1907 slings.  I plan to procure a few extras for my Ron Brown and replace every 2 seasons.

For competitors that use a shooting cart.  I learned this one the hard way.  I have a Creedmoor cart and anyone that has been to Camp Butner...or even worse Camp Perry will know what I am alluding to here already.  Gravel roads will loosen things up, and typically at the most inconvenient time.  Last year I had a wheel come loose at Camp Perry! LOL

SO...since then I have removed every fastener from my cart (I was surprised at how many fasteners were loose), and lock tited em all back.  Haven't had an issue since.

If your cart has pneumatic tubes in the tires, best to have a bike tire repair kit and a can of air.

Spotting Scope articulating head:  I use the Creedmoor Polecat, but there are several out there to choose from.  Every month or so I try to tighten that thing up, it does loosen and can be a pain when you are trying to set scope up in prep and the thing won't secure for you.

For those that use the miners type lamp or Ray Vin smoker.  That stuff is corrosive!  Suggest adding to your maintenance/cleaning routine to spray off the front sights with Brakeclean and then a light coat of lube on it.

That is all for now.  Bored today and this is passing the time.

R/
Chris

[VAshooter]

Many civilian competitive shooters come into contact with military team shooters when at the big matches. Since the military team shooters are among the best shooters around, watching them can teach you a lot of techniques  that will help you improve.
There are some things you need to keep in mind when picking the techniques you want to adopt. First: The military shooters are competing with whatever the coach gave him or her to shoot. It may or may not be the best choice for you. Second: The cleaning regime they use has been taught to them by the team armorer and may not be the best technique for you. Remember, the team shooter does not own the weapons they shoot and will turn them in at the end of the year. If they wear out the barrel, no big deal. Just turn it in and draw another weapon. For example, when I was shooting a Garand on the Navy Team Don McCoy (the guy who built them) told us to clean the bore  with the old style solvent which has been outlawed for many years with a bronze brush twenty strokes each way followed by two or three patches to wipe out the bore. We also cleaned the chamber with a chamber tool with a patch wrapped around the chamber brush. This was done every 20 shots, in other words, after each stage or match. At the end of the shooting day the action was knocked out of the stock and a detailed cleaning was done. We used the solvent they told us to use and we lubricated with the grease they gave us. Every year we got a new rifle, actually two because we always carried a spare. Of course, we had a practice rifle, which was last years number one rifle and a Combat Infantry Trophy Match rifle. Each team member carried all those rifles except the spare which was carried on the Navy armorers truck in case someone had car trouble and showed up with no rifle to shoot.
Most civilian shooters have a lot of money invested in their equipment and most military shooters have no understanding of what it means to have to support there personnel shooting career so you may want to choose a less rigorous cleaning schedule to extend the life of your equipment. 

[d2331]

You mean you're supposed to clean 'em!

In actuality, I probably clean every 8 months or so.  I'm a fair weather shooter so I clean when it gets cold outside and I won't go play for a few months.

My "beater" m4orgery, that's another matter