What do y'all do to clean your magazines? For years and years, I have cleaned magazines by disassembling them, dragging a paper towel through them, then Q-tips with solvent if the mags were excessively dirty. Usually no lubrication afterwards, but if I feel the need, then I use a dry graphite spray. I do not clean my mags often, usually only maybe twice a year.

But I've run into a recent phenomenon with my SW22 mags, and also my Ruger 22/45 mags. Rounds are being pushed up very slowly, like the innards of the mag are covered with molasses. If you shoot slow, things work fine, but moving to even "slow-ish rapid fire" and things can't keep up. I'm thinking this is due to a waxy build-up from the ammunition I've been shooting over the recent years. Aguila Super Extra Copper Plated. I shoot other ammo too, but this is my go-to plinking stuff. The ammo definitely feels waxy, as do many other ammos I use (e.g., CCI Standard Velocity) but the inside of the mags don't feel waxy, so that's somewhat of a contradiction to what I'm seeing in the molasses-like feeding. The inside of the mags actually feel pretty clean to me.

I was thinking of disassembling and dumping all these mags into my ultrasonic cleaner that I use for reloading brass. I think I have some "gun parts cleaner" liquid somewhere (usually I use the "brass cleaner" liquid for reloading).

Sooooo, what do y'all do to clean your mags, and how often do you clean them? Has anyone else experienced the "molasses feeding"? I've been shooting for decades and decades and never run into this phenomenon. I don't know what else it could be other than ammo-related.

Thanks in advance for any help/hints.

I uses CRC "Dry" silicone to clean magazines, which I disassemble first.
I spray them liberally, wipe them dry, and reassemble. The heptane (white gas) propellant evaporates and leaves a trace of silicone on the internal parts. Don't forget to clean and wipe the spring, also.
The .22 ammo often has a wax coating that builds up in the magazines, even when you can't really see much of anything.

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Science plus Art

Thanks for the reply. I was planning on doing my extensive magazine cleaning this weekend, but didn't get around to it. Since the Victory mags are stainless I think they're probably impervious to many things, so I'll try out the cleaning procedure on one of them first, before moving on to the Ruger 22/45 mags which don't seem quite as impervious as the Victory mags to me. I'll go for the ultrasonic with heated gun cleaner fluid first, then advance as needed to whatever else comes to mind, up to and including pressure spray brake cleaner (none of that on the plastic bumper pads though). If I make it all the way to the brake cleaner, I'll need to lube things up afterwards, then wipe them down, since brake cleaner would wipe out any protective lube coating that exists on the magazine innards.

I use a 9 mm Nylon bore brush in my Ruger 22 magazines. It gets all the junk out. I then lube them with EEZOX on a long Q-tip.

On my SW22 I just spray with a break cleaner, wipe them down to dry and then wipe them with a silicone cloth from Hoppes or whomever. Try to do it once a year. I rotate five mags a shooting session and leave them unloaded between range times. I just saw where MidwayUSA got more in.

Hmmmmm.

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Mike
S&WCA #3065

I would not use any oils on your magazines. What I would recommend is disassemble the magazine. I use MPRO7 cleaner and a rag to thoroughly clean the mag. Then wipe dry with another cloth. I would use a mag brush, dry, to clean out the interior of the magazine and spring. My magazines look and perform like new. You do not have to do it every time with 50 to 100 rounds, but anything beyond that, I would surely clean them as stated above in detail. The magazines should be dry when ready to use. Again, just a simple mag brush is all you need to overcome most of the cleaning on your mags.

Nick

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NRA Instructor\GCA Gunsmith

I take mine apart and use a old toothbrush on the inside to clean them out. A quick spray of Hoppe's No.9 does the trick with the brush and a clean paper towel wipes them clean from all traces of the yuck that builds up in them.