My name's Keith Watson. We're down at Garlands Range doing a little ammo testing. We've been
shooting the gun for quite awhile, I'm just about to shoot the last three bullets through
on the one target. And then we're gonna move on to cleaning the rifle and the reasons why,
and why it's so important.
Right, we'll let the gun cool down then we'll move to showing you some cleaning products.
Alright, we've fired quite a few rounds through the rifle, just about to go through the motions
of cleaning it and I'll explain to you the equipment I'm using and the reason why I choose
to clean my rifle. One of the first things that you're gonna
need is a cleaning rod, preferably in one piece, the ones that join together I don't
find really favourable. You will need some form of jag in which the two that I use is
that sort. One of them, will accept these little cleaning felts that you screw onto
the rod and the other one accepts your standard patch that you just push on, put your solvents
on and push it on there. Both work equally well, but my preferences are for the little
felt patch so I'll just take the silencer and the bolt out of the rifle and we'll move
forward to actually cleaning the bore.
One of the things I use when I'm using cleaning rods is a bore guide. Basically it helps you
keep your rod true to the barrel. You will get a little bit of flex on the rod, as you're
trying to push it through the bore. They come in different sizes and it's not 100% necessary
but I would recommend you use them because most people can't feel that they are flexing
the rod against the side of the barrel. So, that fits in the rifle.
That is actually supposed to come in line with the bolt but on mine it doesn't, so it just sits there.
The next stage, once you've got the bore guide in position, have your chosen cleaning rod
with your chosen patch and whatever solvent you choose to use. There are multiple manufacturers
of solvents, this particular one is Butch's Boreshine. I've been using this for quite
awhile and it's the one that I tend to favour. Basically, if you saturate the patch in the
chosen solvent you'll notice that there's a cloth with the stock of the gun, just to
stop me from dripping solvent on the stock, just incase it would react to the finish but
basically once you get it to that point push it forward until you can feel that it's just
about gone in the barrel which is there. I always give it a light spin prior. I just
push the bore guide to hold it in position, and with firm and equal pressure, just push
it until the patch comes out.
Once you've removed the rod, after you've put the patch through, it pays if you just
pull it through a cloth and wipe it off, that way there is no debris on the rod, you cannot
be scratching the bore with anything that's built up on the rod. So, every time it goes,
the patch comes out and you take the rod back out, wipe the rod off prior to putting a new patch in.
The next stage, after I've put a number of patches through and normally that's about
five or six, the next stage for me is to use one of the various brushes you've either got
nylon or phospher bronze. My preference is phospher bronze, the solvent
will react from the phospher bronze as much as it will the copper in the barrel. That's
just one of those things you have to live with, basically screw it on to the rod.
Douse it in solvent. And the only tip I can give when using the
phospher bronze brush is never pull it back when it's halfway down the barrel.
When the phospher bronze brush has exited the barrel, and only when it's exited the
barrel, if you pull it back gently until it centres itself back on the barrel, keep hold
of the bore guide and pull it towards you, and pass it forward and back five or maybe
six times.
Making sure it exits the barrel both ends every time otherwise you will bend the bristles
of the brush excessively.
Once I get the rifle to that stage, patched out with patches and solvent, then I'll scrub
it with a phospher bronze brush. I choose to leave the solvent that's in there, five
or ten minutes, just to let it do its work. And then I'll keep patching it until the patches
come out clean. i.e. nigh-on as clean, on the way out as it is on the way in. Then the
bore of the rifle is done. That's the towel that I use to wipe the rod off and you'll
notice it's got a lot of blue green tint to it which is the solvent I'm wiping off the
rod. The solvent goes in the barrel brown, the green, or the blue colour here is the
reaction of the solvent against the copper in the barrel.
And I don't know if you can see it on camera but if you look there on the crowning of the
gun you can see that it's all blue, and there it is, look.
Now that's after I've scrubbed it with a phospher bronze brush, and some of that blue will be
off the phospher bronze but either which way it still indicates that there is copper in
your barrel, and this is the reason why we're cleaning the gun.
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