William Wright migrated to the Rockies when they still presented a barrier to wagon trains. His first meeting with a grizzly came as he hunted along an alpine creek. The bear was unaware and posed no threat. But Wright thought it close enough to kill neatly with his .44-40, so he fired. The animal spun and rocketed toward him, its murderous intent clear. Frantic, Wright jacked the lever of his ’73 Winchester. Alas, its extractor failed, leaving the hull in the barrel. Options suddenly gone, Wright took to the creek, submerging to his chin under the bank. The frigid water had almost claimed him when he crawled ashore. The bear lay dead beside his rifle. He pried the case free with his knife.
A rifle failure also shook Col. John H. Patterson, charged with building a bridge over Africa’s Tsavo River for the Uganda Railway. He arrived late in 1898. So did two lions that brazenly snatched workers from camps at night and ate them within earshot of their compatriots. Patterson bravely if often ineptly tried to kill the cats. On a beat, one of them emerged from cover just 15 yards away. “He caught sight of me … and growled savagely. As I covered his brain with my rifle, I felt that at last I had him. I pulled the trigger, and to my horror heard [only a] dull snap … .” Caused by a light strike to the primer, that misfire might well have ended Patterson’s crusade. But as luck would have it, the man-eater bounded off.
Predator hunting is safer now, and firearms more reliable. But rifles function best and shoot most accurately if they’re kept clean and well adjusted. There’s no drama to cleaning a bore; we do it to avoid drama. My cleaning routines have been distilled from the advice of crusty, gimlet-eyed sages who coddle their firearms as if they were children.
Smokeless Powder and Fouling
The few flecks left in a rifle’s bore after firing smokeless charges are mainly powder residue. It’s easy to remove but in dry climates does no immediate harm if left. Still, powder is hygroscopic. In humid places it can attract moisture that causes rust. A patch soaked in bore solvent swabs out powder bits, also dust, dead flies and thread fragments from previous patches. The bore should glisten. But copper or metal fouling is more stubborn. Stripped from bullets by the rifling, metallic scale clinging to the bore not only traps moisture but tears at the jackets of bullets that follow. This fouling has a progressively greater effect on accuracy.
Metal fouling arrived on the heels of smokeless powder at the turn of the 20th century. Smokeless powder sent bullets faster than could blackpowder. Boosting lead-bullet velocities over 2,000 fps left melted lead in the bore. Sheathing bullets with hard metal jackets allowed the rifling to engrave the lead core but kept it separated from the barrel steel. To conserve copper, early jackets were made of steel, coated with cupronickel. They worked fine in the .30-40 Krag (220-grain bullet at 2,200 fps), but left deposits in .30-06 rifles that added 200 fps. Lumps of jacket stuck to the cool steel near the muzzle.
After the Great War, the U.S. Army reduced metal fouling in rifle bores by following the French, who’d used strips of tin in artillery powders. The tin formed an alloy with the copper in projectile jackets, so copper didn’t adhere to the bore. In 1921, cores of .30-06 Match bullets included one part tin to 30 parts lead, and their cupronickel jackets were plated with tin. But over time, jacket tin could “cold-solder” to the case, hiking neck tension from 60 to 600 pounds! Exacerbating this problem was Mobilubricant, also introduced to mitigate fouling. It boosted breech pressures from 50,000 psi to 70,000. After several case necks left with .30-06 bullets, the Army decided fouling was the lesser problem.
Western Cartridge Company came to the rescue with Lubaloy, a jacket material of gilding metal (zinc-alloyed copper), with 2 percent tin. Frankfort Arsenal then found gilding metal without tin worked as well and left no additional metal fouling. Bullet jackets are still commonly made of gilding metal. Zinc percentages have, generally speaking, decreased. Most jackets are now 95/5, copper/zinc.
A Perennial Favorite
In my youth, Hoppe’s No. 9 was to bore cleaning what Kellogg’s Corn Flakes was to breakfast. I still use this solvent, partly because I like the way it smells. No. 9 also delivers bright bores, and it’s not as harsh as some newer options. There are many. Some, from Hoppe’s, Bore Tech, Pro-Shot, Birchwood Casey, Shooter’s Choice, with brands such as Barnes CR-10, Wipe-Out, TM, Butch’s and Montana X-Treme, attack lead and copper residues. Darrell Holland, of Holland Shooters Supply, pitches his Witches’ Brew. Some of these are best left to work for hours; but Sweet’s 7.62 shouldn’t remain in the bore “for over 20 to 25 minutes at a time.” You’ll want to wash brass or bronze bore brushes of ammonia-based solvents.
A word about WD-40 — that red, yellow and blue spray can in every garage and utility room. This aromatic mix of hydrocarbons arrived courtesy of Rocket Chemical Company in 1953. Developed to protect the outer skin of the Atlas missile of that day from corrosion, it became a commercial product in 1962. As versatile as it is popular, WD-40 penetrates, lubricates, prevents rust and displaces water. That last faculty appears in the name: It was the 40th water-displacing formula trialed. A squirt of WD-40 on small parts in hard-to-reach nooks makes sense. Drips indicate excess, which is best wiped off. As with gun oil and bore solvents, WD-40 has no place on walnut stocks.
Cleaning rifles isn’t like changing pickup oil. You needn’t do it in a dimly lit garage, your back on a scrap of cold cardboard. You’ll clean more often and get better results in a warm, bright room on a clean bench or table. If that doesn’t describe your shop, well, you have plenty of company. I clean in my office, with help from a Tipton or MTM rifle vise. These polymer cradles steady the rifle on desk or table without marring. Receptacles hold cleaning supplies, tools and a bore guide — a short tube that slides into your rifle’s receiver where the bolt goes. It keeps the cleaning rod from flexing, so limits its contact with the bore. An 18mm guide fits most bolt actions. After checking that the rod tip will clear the muzzle with the guide in place, insert the rod tip through the guide, attach a patch and ease the guide into the race.
Bores of lever, pump and auto-loading rifles must be cleaned from the front. Sinclair International offers a Dewey brass bore guide that protects the muzzle. Without this device, take special care inserting that rod, so there’s minimal muzzle contact. Even a tiny nick can affect accuracy, because it causes uneven gas release at exit, tipping the bullet.
The Cleaning Ritual
Having teethed on three-piece aluminum and (better) brass cleaning rods, I’ve since mended my ways. A one-piece rod flexes less and has no mismatched junctures. I clean my McMillan-barreled rimfire match rifle with a Teflon-coated steel rod. My Tipton and Dewey .30-caliber rods are coated, too. But I use an uncoated steel rod as much. Any coating requires frequent wiping with an oily cloth to ensure it hasn’t picked up grit that might scratch the bore. A free-spinning handle lets patch and brush “take” the rifling in their travel, to scour the junctures of lands and grooves.
You can use a jag or a slotted tip. A ribbed jag holds a wrapped patch against the rifling. A sharp-tipped jag centers the patch, which collapses down upon it like an umbrella. Both designs favor one-way swabbing, which purists point out doesn’t subject the bore to residue removed by the initial pass. I find a slotted end (plastic or brass) most convenient. It holds the patch in butterfly form, for two-way swabbing
After the initial run through a dirty bore with a patch wet with solvent, remove it at the muzzle to avoid pulling gunk back through. A wet brush comes next. For compliant fouling in my smallbore match rifle, I stay with nylon bristles. Brass is not too harsh for the barrels of centerfire predator rifles. After all, they endure the friction imposed by jacketed bullets thrust through at Mach 3! Before inserting the brush, be sure it’s the proper size for the bore. There’s no reversing a brush too big if it gets stuck. Hammering one free does no good for brush or bore. Check again that with the bore guide in place the rod is long enough to push the brush out the muzzle. I pump brushes both ways, eight passes.
The first dry patch after brushing usually emerges as black as the first solvent-wet patch; I don’t bring it back through. The next patches, progressively cleaner, get return trips. When patches show only faint dark streaks on their folds, I finish with a clean, lightly oiled patch, twice forward and back. A blue-green stain indicates copper fouling, perhaps the need for more work with a brass-specific solvent.
Don’t neglect the chamber. Pulled back through the bore, a brush sprays the chamber with grime and solvent. After dry patches come clean, I remove the bore guide and gently spin oversize or shotgun patches inside the chamber to remove residue. A plastic slotted shotgun tip or a shotgun swab can help in this effort. I follow with a spin from a lightly oiled patch.
A wicker basket on the brick apron of my wood stove holds scrapped newsprint for starting fires. It also catches dirty patches and solvent spray from the muzzles of rifles I’m cleaning. If you’ve no such bin, use a waste-basket lined with newsprint to snare splatter. Commercial receptacles hung on the muzzle also protect floors and marriages. Patch Hog, Splatter Box and Muzzle Mate come to mind.
As powder gas pops a bullet free, its cartridge case expands to grip the chamber. An oily chamber lets the case slip back, increasing strain on the locking lugs. Before firing a new rifle or one freshly oiled after cleaning, ensure the chamber is clean and dry. I can’t resist leaving a trace of rust-preventative.
Cold-Barrel Shots
Dry or lightly oiled, clean rifling can send a bullet to a lonely place, apart from where subsequent bullets land. So my practice after cleaning is to hang a “first-shot target” at 200 yards and send one bullet from prone with a tight sling, my favorite and most-used field position. If that shot hits center, the target is retired until after the next cleaning. Ideally, the first shot from that clean, cold barrel will land next to the other. A tight trio of cold-barrel shots on point of aim boosts my confidence in the rifle, load and zero. Almost always, the most important shot on a hunt is the first. Groups fired as the barrel heats and accumulates residue tell you only approximately where that first bullet will strike.
As a film of oil is all that’s needed to keep a bore from rusting, it’s enough on the bolt, receiver and trigger mechanism. Dousing a rifle’s internal parts in oil may ward off moisture, but it attracts grit, which can impair function. I occasionally apply a dab of gun grease to locking lugs, and routinely wipe exposed steel on rifles with an oily rag or silicon cloth. Usually, that’s all. When they’ve been in rain or snow, a prompt wipe-down to dry them is in order, with disassembly for a thorough cleaning soonest.
Barrel Down Storage
In storage, excess oil yields to gravity, migrating down. That oil winds up in the stocks of rifles racked muzzle up. You’ve no doubt seen old rifles with walnut stocks blackened by oil that soaked into the tang. I’m unaware of any way to reverse that discoloration. Oil also softens the wood.
To ensure against that damage, I prefer to rack rifles muzzle down on cardboard. Any residual oil then drains from the muzzle. This method also spares a recoil pad the rifle’s weight, which over time, and depending on material, can fatigue and take a set. Rubber pads hardened by age can crack.
Incidentally, storing rifles in scabbards is a bad idea, because tanned leather contains salts. Better: breathable soft cases and foamed-lined hard cases slightly open to let air circulate. Adding a small packet of hygroscopic crystals to snare moisture makes sense.
Early in the 20th century, the Kumaon region of India was beset by man-eating tigers. One such beast reportedly killed 200 people in Nepal, then doubled that tally after crossing the border. Her 436th victim, a girl, gave government hunter Jim Corbett a fresh trail, but the tiger kept eluding him. Convinced at last she’d laid up in bush that could be driven, Corbett urged fearful villagers into the jungle. Their loud if halting advance put the cat briefly in his sights at distance, but the shot had no visible effect. Then, her escape cut off, the tigress burst from cover at 30 yards. Corbett fired both barrels. She flinched, but his .500 was now empty and he had no more cartridges, having brought only three!
Spotting a villager with a shotgun not far off. Corbett “took the hill at a run,” grabbed the ancient arm and raced back.” The beast lurched toward him. At 20 feet, “I raised the gun and [saw] to my horror” a wide gap between breech and barrels! Pointing at her open mouth, he fired. The old smoothbore stayed together, but belched its crude missile into a paw. A tense heartbeat later, the man-eater collapsed, dead from her other wounds. Corbett would remove the last slug from her paw “with my fingernails.”
A clean rifle in good repair is a first step toward a successful predator hunt. That, and cartridges.
