Taking Care of Your Handgun
Gun Cleaning 101
Introduction
By Kathy Jackson
Gun cleaning is one of the subjects I have hesitated to address. It's
not that I don't know how to clean a gun (I do), it is that there are
a lot of very vehement opinions about gun cleaning among gun
owners out there. I'm not really eager to gore anyone's sacred cows, so
let me just say this: what is shown below is a way to
clean handguns, not necessarily the way to do it. If
you or someone you know and love has a different way of doing things,
that's really okay. Just so long as the gun does get cleaned often enough
that its function remains absolutely reliable, it's all good.
Oh, yes: I would simply hate it if someone read this page and died of
a misprint, but please do note the disclaimer at the bottom of the page.
This tutorial assumes that you are an adult and that you are going to
read and carefully follow the directions on each and every bottle of gun-scrubbing
goop you pick up. If you don't, and come down with a nasty case of the creepy
crud, please don't blame it on me. Follow the instructions on the bottle,
wear the safety gear even though it feels silly, and if you have any doubts
about your ability to do this safely, find a knowledgeable person to walk
you through the process personally.
When to Clean
One of the first questions beginners usually ask is, "How often should
I clean my gun? Do I need to clean it after every time I shoot it?" The
answer to that question is, "It depends."
If you are cleaning a range toy rather than a defensive gun, you can probably
allow the crud to build up a little bit before cleaning it, even though
it is usually somewhat easier to remove the crud when the cleaning is
done immediately. Years ago, back when buffalo roamed the plains, everyone
shot black-powder rifles which absolutely positively had to be cleaned
immediately after shooting, because black powder was (and is) such a corrosive
substance that it would ruin the gun if the fouling were left in the barrel.
Modern powder is not corrosive, and so it won't eat its way through the
metal of your barrel if it gets left in there for awhile.
The fouling can and often does affect reliability, however.
Uncleaned guns are more apt to jam when you most need them. Because the
crud can slow down the slide, dirty semi-automatic firearms are prone
to failures to feed or failures to completely eject the spent cases. Uncleaned
revolvers are prone to binding up, and the double-action trigger can become
difficult or impossible to pull if the cylinder isn't turning easily.
Poorly-cleaned or uncleaned firearms are thus far less reliable than their
well-cleaned and properly lubricated counterparts.
For this reason, I highly recommend that you clean your defensive handgun
immediately after every trip to the range, no matter how many
or how few shots you fire. Since you will be betting your life on the
function of your gun, it's a good idea to keep it as clean as you can,
in order to avoid fouling-related problems.
Why Clean Your Own Gun?
Many of us women live with men who are perfectly willing to clean our
firearms for us. If that's the case, why should you do it yourself?
Cleaning your own gun helps you become familiar with how your gun works.
Although the mechanical function of the gun may not be fascinating to
you, it's still a good idea to know how it works. That way, if it ever
stops working when you need it most, you will have a solid idea of what
went wrong and whether you will need a professional to fix it.
Taking the gun down and putting it back together again on a regular basis
helps you develop confidence in your gun-handling skills. This confidence
carries over to how you handle the firearm on the range and in real life.
Cleaning your own gun allows you to visually inspect all the inner pieces
of your gun, so that you spot the signs of wear and tear and are able
to replace worn pieces before they break on you.
And let's be honest: men aren't always a permanent fixture in women's lives.
If he runs off to Tahiti with that bimbo from his office tomorrow, it's one less
thing for you to learn once he's gone.
The Basic Cleaning Kit
With a few exceptions, the cleaning products shown in the pictures on
this page and the pages that follow are nearly all
Hoppes brand. That is because, for the purpose of this tutorial,
I went out and purchased the most basic ten-dollar cleaning kit I could
find, and the kit was Hoppes brand. My thinking was that these kits are
available 'most everywhere in America, and this was how a beginner would
probably start. As time goes on, you will probably find your own preferred
products, and fill in your kit with other tools and supplies. Until you get
to that point, these basic kits are a perfectly acceptable way
to clean guns and a good place to start.
Inside the basic cleaning kit, you will usually find:
- A bottle of solvent [Image]
- A bottle of lubricating oil [Image]
- A rod [Image]
- A jag (attaches to the end of the rod)
- A patch holder (attaches to the end of the rod) [Image]
- Patches [Image]
In order to complete your cleaning kit, you must purchase a
bore-cleaning brush which attaches to the rod in your cleaning
kit. The brush has to be purchased separately because they come in different
sizes for different calibers of guns. A 9mm bore brush is too small to
effectively clean the bore of a .45 ACP firearm, for example, while the
.45 ACP bore brush will not even fit within the barrel of the 9mm gun.
So make sure you get the correct size of brush for your gun.
Plastic, stainless steel, and bronze brushes are available. For basic cleaning, the
brush should be made of bronze rather than of plastic or stainless steel. The only reason
to switch to a plastic bore brush is if you are going to be using a separately
purchased, super-powerful solvent designed to dissolve copper fouling,
because bronze brushes will also be dissolved by such solvents. In all other cases, the bronze brushes
are far easier to use and will get the gun cleaner with less hard work
on your part than the plastic brushes will.
Stainless steel bore brushes have the opposite problem. Unlike plastic,
which is generally too soft to do a good job, the metal in a stainless
steel brush is as hard as the metal in the bore of a firearm. This means
that a stainless steel brush would damage the barrel if the brush ends
were bristly. In order to avoid this problem, manufacturers of stainless
steel brushes use a slightly different design from the plastic or bronze
brushes, so stainless steel brushes are looped rather than bristly. Unfortunately,
this design just doesn't clean as well as good old fashioned bristles
do, so you get a double whammy with these -- the stainless steel brush
is so hard that it might damage your barrel, but it still doesn't clean
as well as a bristly brush made of the softer bronze.
After a few uses, you will run out of the kit-supplied cleaning patches.
When that happens, you can go out and buy more store-bought patches. Or
you can simply make your own by cutting similar-sized squares out of old
cotton tee shirt material. If my kids haven't outgrown or otherwise destroyed
enough old tee shirts when I need new patches, I usually just purchase
"new" old tee shirts from the local garage sales for a quarter apiece.
Yes, I am a cheapskate.
Other Cleaning Supplies
There are other supplies you may want to have on hand. Some of these are
simply nice to have, while others come close to being essential. Most
of them can be found lying around your house.
- An old toothbrush. You can purchase
a specially-designed scrub brush in the same basic shape [Image].
A plain old toothbrush will do just as well. Do make sure it's been very
thoroughly rinsed to remove old toothpaste grit.
- Q-Tips. I mean cotton swabs. Q-Tips
is a brand name, and the brand isn't important. Some people hate them
for cleaning because they can leave lint behind if you're not
careful. I love them, and I avoid leaving lint behind by being careful.
- Pipe cleaners. [Image]
Don't get craft-store pipe cleaners, which are usually made of nylon or
some other non-absorbent and not so useful material. Genuine pipe cleaners
are made of cotton and are designed to clean awkward small spaces; you
can usually find them in the big-box stores in the same checkout stand
where cigarettes are sold. Some pipe cleaners have flecks of bristly-brush
nylon interspersed between absorbent cotton fluff, and these are very
cool if you can find them.
- Cleaning rags. You can get by with
only one rag, but will probably want a handful. You can specially purchase
shop rags made for the purpose, or just use hand-sized squares of old
cotton tee shirt material or an old dish towel you aren't going to use
in the kitchen anymore. Try to avoid using anything too lint-y. Expect
to stain these rags; they can be washed1
and re-used, but the stains will probably be permanent.
Safety Gear and Other Protective Stuff
In addition to your basic cleaning kit and cleaning supplies, you will
need a way to keep any spilled or dripped solvents from destroying the
finish on your furniture. I use several layers of newspaper, laid out
on top of a large plastic garbage sack. When my gun cleaning chores are
done, I crumple up the newspaper and the icked-up disposable patches,
then flip the plastic bag inside-out to catch the whole mess. Turning
the bag inside-out neatly places the smelly solvents on the inside
of the bag, thus trapping the smells a bit better. (To avoid wasting trash-sack
space, I then empty the rest of the trash in my home before carrying the
bag out. Waste not, want not.)
You will also need a way to keep the solvents off your hands. To some
extent, this problem could be solved by purchasing some of the
newer, high-tech solvents which tend to be a bit more hand-friendly. However,
no matter how "non-toxic" the solvents themselves might be, they are still
disolving some pretty nasty stuff that is better to avoid getting on your
hands. Oh, plus they are going to destroy your manicure if they get anywhere
near your fingernail polish; that's what solvents do for a living, after
all. So get yourself some gloves. I use gloves made of nitrile, not
latex. Latex gloves are cheaper, but they tend to fall apart before the
cleaning is done, which really defeats the purpose. Nitrile gloves hold
up to the solvents and since I began using them, I've never again ruined
one fingernail of a fresh manicure while gun cleaning. (Stuff the guys
just won't bother telling you!)
Finally, you really should wear safety goggles whenever you are
working with gun-cleaning solvents. Even the not-so-toxic types are dissolving
some very nasty stuff which can do some significant and permanent damage
to your irreplaceable eyeballs if it lands in your eyes. As you run the
bore brush in and out of the bore, the stuff is going to spray
around a bit no matter how careful you are, so you do need full eye protection.
I probably sound a bit cranky about eye protection. There's a reason for
that. A few years ago, when I first got into firearms, I accidentally
splashed a bit of solvent onto my prescription glasses. The plastic lens
was immediately etched deeply by the cleaning stuff. I was so thankful
that it wasn't my eye, but quite irritated that it destroyed my new pair
of glasses. Don't take the chance of it being your eyeball that gets etched
like that, okay?
Conclusion
The remainder of this chapter will soon contain links to three different
types of handguns for cleaning: a double-action revolver, a 1911-style
pistol, and a Glock. My reasoning
for choosing these three guns for the tutorial is that these three popular
types of guns between them probably cover a significant portion of new
gun owners. If you do not own one of these three guns, you should
choose one of these step-by-step guides and read it anyway.
Although the specific take-down information will not apply, gun cleaning
is gun cleaning and the general information about how to clean a gun does
not vary much from one gun to another. So you should find some information
of value to you there even if you are not cleaning one of those specific models.