Gun Cleaning 101.

[Adam Helmer]

It always amazes me how folks assume they know what they are about when they begin a task. Yesterday a neighbor came by with a STUCK cleaning patch in a very nice M19 4-inch S&W revolver he recently inheirited along with some ammo and cleaning gear.

"Clyde" shot off a box or two of factory .38 Special ammo in said M19 in his backyard. This is his first firearm and he figured his way through the shooting segment of the exercise. He then went into his garage to clean the pistol. He did not read the printed cleaning instructions inside the lid of the cleaning kit because he had a "Plan!" He put a brush onto the cleaning rod and then wrapped a cleaning patch AROUND the brush and introduced it into a chamber of the cylinder. It got stuck! Happily, he came down the road to my house and sought help.

I removed the cylinder from the M19 at my bench. I put the "masked" cylinder in the vise with the cleaning rod down and gently tapped out the brush and patch. We then had a seminar on proper gun cleaning. "Clyde" does not own a pair of ear protectors because, "he was only going to shoot a few shells." I gave him an old pair of my ear protectors.

Many "pilgrims" are not aware they lack gun savvy. I see Basic Instruction as a basic need for chainsaws, guns, tractors and garden tillers, etc.

Adam

[Rustywreck]

I always wrap a patch around the brush for the last couple passes of cleaning my rifles and revolvers. Although, when I clean my revolver I remove the cylinder and clean that separately. I like how the tight absorbant patch removes any residual cleaning chemicals.

With the cylinder in place I can see even having trouble pulling a brush out back wards.

[Gil Martin]

I like a story with a happy ending. All the best...
Gil

[Adam Helmer]

Rustywreck,

A cleaning patch and a brush are SEPARATE steps in proper gun cleaning; especially when a bore-size brush is involved as was the case in my initial post. If you wrap a patch around a brush and get it down a bore, the brush had to be well BELOW bore size. The cleaning kit instructions stated a patch and then a brush, but not together.

Adam

[Rapier]

A garden tiller? Aw, heck, I like to watch the newbie gardener and the front tine tiller go hopping out across the yard..... builds character and muscles... But as a teen, taking on my first Roto-Tiller in Oklahoma in the late spring, hard clay that, I sure could have used some instruction. It ain't like a tractor with a disk set.

I think my dad did that "go till the garden" on a purpose.
Ed