A gun needs to be cleaned every now and then. We know that a person won’t be using a gun daily so, keeping it on a safe would result in the gun to be in not so good condition. There are extensive gun cleaning kits which can be used to clean guns without any hassle. These cleaners, however, can cost a lot of money. But there are also some other types of cleaning methods which cost a little to no money. We’re taking a look at this hack today. It involves the use of household items and they can be very useful for cleaning a gun. We will talk about how to clean a gun with household items only.
The main goal that must be obtained while cleaning a gun is that the gun works properly without any problem. In addition, you’d also want to make the gun look good too. You might think it’s difficult to clean a gun using only household items but that is not the case. It is actually very easy. In this article, we’re going to see the ways and the methods to clean the gun using only the household items.
Best Gun Cleaning Kits You Can Use At Home
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Is It Necessary To Clean A Gun?
Gun firing is actually a very dirty process. Even if you’ve fired only a single shot, you can still witness debris in the barrel of the gun. Given that the gun is blow-back operated, you also get a fair amount of gas pressure entering the action. This, in turn, spreads debris on the internal components of the gun. Some people tend to clean their guns very little while others clean it often.
The main thing that determines the frequency of gun cleaning is the ammunition that you’re using. Ammo with iron-based metal has corrosive properties that can rust the internals of the gun as soon as you finish firing. This can be seen mainly in hot weather. Though the frequency of gun cleaning is kind of ambiguous, you can always clean your gun after a few days of using it. You don’t need to clean it that frequently. There are also some certain things that you might want to consider. The type of the gun, the age of the gun and the type of ammo being used mainly determines this frequency.
How To Clean A Gun With Household Items
Yes, it’s possible. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a gun cleaning kit. There is an easier and cheaper way to clean a gun using only household items. These items are easily available. Even if you have to purchase them, they’re available at a reasonable price. All you need is lubricating oil, scissors, cloth, etc. to implement this method. You can also make a household gun cleaning solvent if you want. More on that later.
Usual Gun Cleaning Process
First, let us dive right into the procedure of cleaning the gun. We’ve listed the steps as given below:
- The first thing that you’d want to do is to make sure that the gun is not loaded. Disassemble the gun. Disassembling can be specific to the gun model but it’s not a big deal. Make sure to separate the gun in a way that enables you to look over the chamber, frame, barrel, bolt of your gun.
- After you’ve disassembled your gun, you’d now want to start cleaning the bolt first, clean it properly, then clean the chamber and the barrel.
- Take a clean piece of cloth and cut it into small squares. Make sure these clothes are small enough to fit in your barrel. Keep them on the side for a moment.
- Now, use the leftovers of the cloth, make it really wet by putting it into lubricant oil. Dip it completely. Using this moist cloth, start wiping out all the dirt from carbon, oil and other debris from the bolt. Thoroughly clean the bolt with this moist cloth till you start seeing a smooth clean surface on the bolt.
- The inner side of the bolt has the firing pin. Make sure it gets proper attention. Clean it really nice. Once the bolt is clean, you can now focus your attention on the chamber and the barrel.
- Handle the part of the gun that has both the chamber and the barrel. Now start clean all the mess of that barrel. Remember the square cloth you cut earlier? USe that to insert into the chamber and clean it thoroughly. You can use a toothpick or a nail to insert the tiny piece of cloth in and out of the barrel. Repeat this step until all the dirt comes out of the barrel and the chamber.
- With the chamber and the barrel part of the gun on your grip, you’d now want to employ the cloth left to clean the interior part of the chamber. This is similar to cleaning the bolt, just wipe off the excess oil, carbon impurities and debris from the gun until you get a shiny and clean surface.
- This concludes our gun cleaning process. You can now restore your gun. Do a function check without loading the gun by firing. Make sure that the gun is assembled properly.
Things we used: Lubricating oil, Scissors, A piece of cloth, A toothpick/nail as the cleaning rod.
Required Household Items
Household Gun Cleaning Solvent
You must be wondering what the “Lubricating Oil” in our gun cleaning process refers to. Well, lubricants are used to make the engines of vehicles run smooth. A gun roughly resembles the same mechanic as the vehicle engine on a small scale. So, Lubricants can be used. But, how is it a household item? The answer is obvious, anyone who owns a car, bus or even a cycle needs some form of lubricating whether it be gear oils, transmission oils, engine oils or grease.
But if you don’t have a proper amount of lubricant, then you can mix some of them with some other material to make your custom gun cleaning solvent which works even better. Before the actual mixing of these materials, let’s first see what ingredients we’re using and why we’re using them.
Transmission oil
Transmission oil is a lubricant that keeps your gearbox functioning. It is designed to clear carbon impurities and other waste that gets accumulated in a gearbox. These same impurities are present in the gun too. So, you must get transmission fluid. Just keep a bottle at your home. It is available at a cheap price too. Brands don’t matter, just get a cheap one, it’ll work fine.
Kerosene
Everyone has kerosene at their house. It’s a general purpose solvent. You need 1-K kerosene because it has less sulfur content than 2-K kerosene. Also, try to find the purest kerosene out there, see if it has a red color or what. Red colored and low-odor kerosene tend to have fewer impurities. So, you can go for that.
Mineral Spirits
They are very good at dissolving oil. They are also sold as the aliphatic spirit which can be found in any hardware store for cheap. Check out your garage, you could’ve just put some spirits on the shelf. They are a handy item to have in your house.
Collected all the ingredients? Good. Now what’s left to do is mix the ingredients. You can mix each of them in equal quantities. Make sure you mix them properly, maybe about 5 minutes or so. After you’ve mixed them, it’s completed. Yeah, I know, right? It’s that easy!
After you’re done mixing, you can just store them at a small metal bottle. Use a metal bottle if you can, otherwise, a plastic bottle is fine too.
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Precautions Of Cleaning A Gun With Household Items
There are some precautions you should take while cleaning a gun with household items. Some of them are explained below:
- Use the right gun cleaning solvent. Do not clean your gun with regular oils. They’re not meant for lubrication. Cooking oil, Hair oil, etc. have compounds that are considered as impurities when putting in a gun.
- While cutting the cloth into square pieces, make sure they’re not too small. If they’re too small they can get stuck inside the bolt, the barrel or the chamber. You wouldn’t want that. Keep the size of your gun into consideration while making the cut.
- Clean the gun thoroughly. Do Not clean it for a minute and leave. Give it some time. Perhaps 5-10 minutes for each item.
- Unload and Disassemble the gun before cleaning and Reassemble after cleaning. Make sure you do this properly.
- Function check without the bullets after you’re done to make sure that the gun works.
Final Words
This concludes our Gun Cleaning tutorial with household items. It’s a rather easy process if you follow all the steps properly. All you need are some basic items that you’ll find in your home. Even if you don’t, they’re available at a cheap price. You can also make your own solvent if you want to clean your gun properly. There are also some precautions you should take to make sure that your gun works properly. In the end, the household items work as great as the professional gun cleaning kit which is available for purchase. You just need to follow some steps. You can save a lot of money with household items.