Clean, Clear & lube ???

[GhostMutt]

Hi folks,

Brain picking time again

Just wondering how often you guys clean your barrel?
de-gunk your bolt face and lube the bolt?

Bore snake or cleaning rod + patches?
My trigger unit has a lot of visible gunk around it but none on the important parts and because I use aguila (dirty ammo) the bolt face gets gunked after 200 rounds or so.

Does optimal performance on this platform work better with a clean gun or does it not really matter?

HA ha Newbie strikes again
A wise man, when asked how he had learned so much about everything, replied: By never being ashamed or afraid to ask questions about anything of which I was ignorant.

 

[RedNeck Jim]

I clean the 15-22 after about 500 rounds, but I shoot clean (relatively) CCI. I run a bore snake twice thru the barrel. I do think such a gun performs best when properly cleaned.

The following is from another thread & posted by Lon... Majorlk. I agree 100% with him.

- Separate the two receivers
- remove the BCG (bolt carrier group)
- Clean the barrel and chamber, either with the traditional cleaning rod, brush and patches or a BoreSnake. Put a drinking straw over the ejector to prevent snagging it.
- clean the inside of the upper receiver. A baby bottle brush works well for this.
- blow out the lower receiver with 90 psi compressed air. IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO REMOVE/DISASSEMBLE THE FCG (fire control group, it trigger assembly).
- clean the bolt face making sure to remove all powder debris from around the extractor.

As for lubrication, a single drop of CLP or similar on the bolt latch, a drop of CLP on either side of the bolt carrier rails and a very small drop on the trigger and hammer pins is all that's necessary. It is not necessarily to put anything extra on either the bolt body or the upper receiver interior except what's left of the CLP from cleaning.

 

[Hereford]

Hey GM - it's a regime but it's something I actually enjoy! I concur with the above post and clean 'properly' every 4-500 rounds however if I've been to the range I've invariably shot that so it's every time!

Like you said, after 200 odd rounds or so, the thing starts getting dirty whatever rounds you push through it. Bore snake is fine on its own if you've been out hunting and maybe only fired a dozen rounds or so - when I've been to the range, the following is my particular routine that works for me.....

Let the gun cool for at least 15 minutes before you start anything on the barrel - I strip the upper from the lower and give the lower a good blowout with compressed air (I use the kennair canisters you can get from a camera shop) this works well in blowing out all the loose stuff first - I also give the upper a blowout too. I take out the bolt and charging handing and then give the bolt a good spray with Browning Legia and put it to one side to 'soak'.

Then, on the upper I go in with cotton wool buds and an old toothbrush (I'll spray a little browning Legia on these to get things moving). Learnt the cotton wool bud thing off TacDaddy on YouTube (really good video on how to clean the 15-22 - highly recommend watch).

I keep going with these until they start coming out clean (can take a while as the receiver gets very gunked-up.

Once the upper (barrel) is back to ambient temp, I go in with the bore snake, 2 to 3 times being particularly careful not to snag it on the extractor I then get a rod and put a lambs wool mop on it - I then put drops of Wipe Out bore treatment and Wipe Out accelerator on said mop and and push it through once. I'll then leave the barrel for 10 minutes or so for this to work.

Whilst that's happening I strip the bolt, guides, spring etc and give the bolt face etc a good going over with the tooth brush and cotton wool buds (cue tips for our brother over the pond). Make sure this is all clean and then blow out again with compressed air. Reassemble, spray a little more Legia and wipe it off, then this bit's done.

Back to the barrel, I pop a nylon brush on and push through half a dozen times - then on with the jag and push through maybe 8-10 patches until I'm happy with it being clean enough!

Upper and lower internals get a quick spray of Legia and wiped out - bolt assembly in and upper and lower put back together. Barrel and flash eliminator + thread gets some Clenzoil as my barrel suffers from what I can only describe as about 3 inches worth of 'parkerisation' (barrel goes grey basically) and the Clenzoil brings it back a treat......

And that's it, done, ready for the next time - it's a habit I've gotten in to with my other rifles and so the Smith gets the same love.....! Some may say it's overkill but I a. enjoy it and b. believe the gun will last longer for it....

 

[TheMaineEvent]

I clean it every time I use it, but I generally shoot at least a couple hundred rounds in a session so it's dirty by that point.

I use Ballistol so I break the rifle down, spray some Ballistol on the bolt, down the barrel, and in the upper receiver. I then clean with a brush and run a bore snake down the barrel a couple times. I clean the lower with Q tips and I also wipe down any magazines that were used.

The bolt gets another spray of Ballistol once it's clean to act as lube and I wipe off any excess and put it back together.

 

[Dezfan]

Wait! You gotta clean these things?

 

[photoracer]

Hey GM - it's a regime but it's something I actually enjoy! I concur with the above post and clean 'properly' every 4-500 rounds however if I've been to the range I've invariably shot that so it's every time!

Like you said, after 200 odd rounds or so, the thing starts getting dirty whatever rounds you push through it. Bore snake is fine on its own if you've been out hunting and maybe only fired a dozen rounds or so - when I've been to the range, the following is my particular routine that works for me.....

Let the gun cool for at least 15 minutes before you start anything on the barrel - I strip the upper from the lower and give the lower a good blowout with compressed air (I use the kennair canisters you can get from a camera shop) this works well in blowing out all the loose stuff first - I also give the upper a blowout too. I take out the bolt and charging handing and then give the bolt a good spray with Browning Legia and put it to one side to 'soak'.

Then, on the upper I go in with cotton wool buds and an old toothbrush (I'll spray a little browning Legia on these to get things moving). Learnt the cotton wool bud thing off TacDaddy on YouTube (really good video on how to clean the 15-22 - highly recommend watch).

I keep going with these until they start coming out clean (can take a while as the receiver gets very gunked-up.

Once the upper (barrel) is back to ambient temp, I go in with the bore snake, 2 to 3 times being particularly careful not to snag it on the extractor I then get a rod and put a lambs wool mop on it - I then put drops of Wipe Out bore treatment and Wipe Out accelerator on said mop and and push it through once. I'll then leave the barrel for 10 minutes or so for this to work.

Whilst that's happening I strip the bolt, guides, spring etc and give the bolt face etc a good going over with the tooth brush and cotton wool buds (cue tips for our brother over the pond). Make sure this is all clean and then blow out again with compressed air. Reassemble, spray a little more Legia and wipe it off, then this bit's done.

Back to the barrel, I pop a nylon brush on and push through half a dozen times - then on with the jag and push through maybe 8-10 patches until I'm happy with it being clean enough!

Upper and lower internals get a quick spray of Legia and wiped out - bolt assembly in and upper and lower put back together. Barrel and flash eliminator + thread gets some Clenzoil as my barrel suffers from what I can only describe as about 3 inches worth of 'parkerisation' (barrel goes grey basically) and the Clenzoil brings it back a treat......

And that's it, done, ready for the next time - it's a habit I've gotten in to with my other rifles and so the Smith gets the same love.....! Some may say it's overkill but I a. enjoy it and b. believe the gun will last longer for it....

Man if I did all that everytime I cleaned my competition 15-22s I would give up the sport. Here is what I do about every 1k-2k rounds:
A. One pass with a clean, unlubed bore snake because the bullets lube the barrel.
B. Clean the bolt face, breech, and feedramp.
C. Put some lube on the bolt rails, use the special Giessele grease on the trigger.
D. Put the bolt back in, load mags, and go shoot.

 

[photoracer]

After 2 recent matches at my own club (which I won) I did not even bother to clean it and went to a rimfire steel match in another part of my state. Even used Win 36g HV ammo. Out shot the entire 43 entry field in the 4 rifle stages shooting low score in all 4. Still may not clean it as yet. Many match shooters won't clean it till it hiccups at least once. I usually don't wait that long.
As an aside any serious rimfire benchrest shooter will tell you a rimfire shoots more consistently when slightly dirty as opposed to clean. Cleaning it more often might make it last longer but won't make it shoot better however. Only you can decide based on what you plan on doing with it.

 

[Hereford]

Maybe I have OCD..... ��

 

[murphydog]

"Clean, Clear & lube ???"

If you "clear" your 15-22 after you start cleaning be prepared for loud firing noises.

"Out shot the entire 43 entry field in the 4 rifle stages shooting low score in all 4."

Weren't you supposed to shoot high score?

Back to the original post...if you routinely shoot 200 rounds per session and the bolt face has visible firing residue, that sounds like a good point to clean. It's an easy process with this rifle. If dirt has no effect on function, why doesn't the military advise to wait to clean until your weapon fails?

I rarely leave a fired gun uncleaned before the day is through, no matter how many rounds go through it. It can be a pain with 3-6 to clean at one session, but you know the old saying about what is next to cleanliness...

 

[Hereford]

Amen - it's not just me then.....

Forgot to say before that I usually go out (to the range, that is) with Smith + 1 or 2 other rifles - I clean them all together at the end and stagger the barrel cleaning / wipeout bit so really it only takes me about a half hour to clean 3 guns... This after maybe 3 hours of shooting.....

This is what I was taught when I was in the mob - this is not something I'm going to un-learn in a hurry. For me it's all part of the process and I enjoy it. It's worth pointing out also that my Smith this side of the pond cost me maybe 4 times as much as it would be in the US!

Molon Labe brothers - I've done everything I can to ensure mine won't jam if the s**t hits the fan!

 

[photoracer]

Low score is the fastest and therefore shortest time. If it was points scoring like bullseye it would be highest score.

 

[photoracer]

"Clean, Clear & lube ???"

If you "clear" your 15-22 after you start cleaning be prepared for loud firing noises.

"Out shot the entire 43 entry field in the 4 rifle stages shooting low score in all 4."

Weren't you supposed to shoot high score?

Back to the original post...if you routinely shoot 200 rounds per session and the bolt face has visible firing residue, that sounds like a good point to clean. It's an easy process with this rifle. If dirt has no effect on function, why doesn't the military advise to wait to clean until your weapon fails?

I rarely leave a fired gun uncleaned before the day is through, no matter how many rounds go through it. It can be a pain with 3-6 to clean at one session, but you know the old saying about what is next to cleanliness...

Yes but that does not mean it has any effect on the guns shooting. The reason they tell you that in bootcamp is because under combat conditions stuff of all kinds gets into the firearm. And since your life depends on it you clean it any chance you get. For competition purposes you want the gun to function the best and shoot the most accurate and those 2 conditions don't always mean when the firearm is clean. I used to clean my rimfire similar to my centerfire raceguns but I kept finding that I had to shoot 50-100 rounds after cleaning to get the gun back to where I wanted it to be. Some pros told me to use less lube. So gradually I started reducing the amount of lube I used until I got to the point that I could go from cleaning to shooting the match with nothing in between. At that point I was putting lube on the bolt/slide rails and that was it. I was cleaning it with a product that also laid down a lube into the metal (Eezox) so areas I just cleaned also got self lubed by the actual cleaning. I do nothing to the trigger and sear area except blow it out with canned air maybe every third cleaning.

 

[midias]

Ballistol and a toothbrush, field strip and boresnake the barrel EVERY time I fire a round does not matter if it is 1 or 1000.

 

[fyimo]

I clean all my guns after every range trip and especially 22LR guns because the ammo is so dirty. It really doesn't take that long to clean and lube them.

 

[roadkill45]

blow out entire gun with my air compressor
brake cleaner and toothbrush on inside of receiver~5 minutes
boresnake with brake cleaner sprayed on it, straw, pull through 3 times
set boresnake to side to dry
blow out again with compressor to evap all the brake cleaner
remoil boresnake and pull through 2-3 times
wipe all inside with dry rag then use a syringe with Mobile 1 in it and hit the lube points that's it for the rifle.

work begins after i break the can apart!