A step-by-step guide to properly clean your rifle

Even the best rifles can lose accuracy and consistency. Whether you’re a sporting shooter or a hunter, whether your preference is for a centrefire or rimfire rifle, regular maintenance is important if you want it performing at its best. Residue from burned powder or copper deposits can foul the bore, introducing extra friction and pressure affecting accuracy.

As NIOA’s armoury manager, Keith Grundy has remedied hundreds of firearms with accuracy issues. Here he explains how to take care of a Savage .308 centrefire to ensure you get a clean, consistent and accurate shot every time.

Setting up your work bench – what you will need

The Tipton Gun Vise is an ideal “third hand” for cleaning and gunsmithing. It features a rubberised cradle and jaws to protect and grip your rifle, a quick release cam action for easy access, moulded-in compartments for solvents and small parts, and is made of tough, solvent-resistant polymers.

I use a variety of bore brushes – stainless steel brushes, copper and nylon bristles as well as a brass patch pusher which I’d recommend, plus some wool mops – all stashed neatly in a tackle box-style container. Although this cleaning method has very little to no bristle brush or wool mop use they do come in handy to agitate stubborn fouling and a wool mop can be useful for solvent or oil application.

You will need some lubricating oil. With this, it really comes down to personal preference. Uniglide is a good product and adheres to the firearm well, perfect for wet conditions, though my personal preference is the G96 Gun Treatment which lubricates and protects your rifle in one operation like most other quality gun oils but G96 smells amazing unlike others.

Cotton patches – get plenty of them – because you are going to burn through a heap, especially on centrefire rifles, and make sure you have the correct size for the calibre.

Copper solvent breaks down the copper build-up in the barrel.

Handy hint – It can get a bit messy so I put some patches into a ziplock bag and tip the solvent in to saturate them. One of the best all-round solvents available is Hoppe’s No.9. No.9 BLACK is my go to for removing copper fouling in centrefire rifles.

Lastly, you will need cleaning rods. I like the one-piece Hoppe’s carbon fibre rod with the ball bearing handle that allows the brush or patch to follow the rifling.

Now that you are set up with your cleaning components, here’s the process I recommend you follow to clean a centrefire rifle, in this case a Savage model 10 .308.

Step 1

Ensure you remove every component you can from the rifle without affecting the rifle’s zero. Some solvents are quite harsh and could possibly blemish stock coatings, rubber and plastic components, keep a rag handy to clean up any spills.

Step 2

Next, spike a patch, soaked in solvent, to the 30 calibre patch pusher on the end of the cleaning rod and insert it from the chamber end of the rifle. Remember, a single push, all the way through the bore…and then let that sit for a while as the solvent does its work (NB. Check the directions on the solvent bottle for the recommended soak time).

Step 3

Once you have let it rest, take a clean patch, apply it to the rod and push it through the bore. A good indicator that the copper cleaner is doing its work is a purple/blue-coloured residue on the patch. Repeat this process until the cotton swab is clear.

Step 4

Most cleaning kits come with a copper bristle brush. For centrefire rifles, I recommend NOT to use one of these due to the copper from the brush depositing onto the bore resulting in the purple/blue colour once solvent cleaned. You can find yourself chasing your tail in an attempt to remove copper that you have unintentionally put in the barrel with the brush. Instead I opt for a nylon bristle as a bore scrubber if I feel it necessary to scrub or agitate the fouling to help with removal, this may be required on some barrels that are stubborn to clean or have heavy fouling from lack of cleaning, in these cases you can use the bristle brush with solvent in the barrel to help distribute the solvent in the bore more evenly and agitate the fouling. Then repeat steps 2 and 3.

If you are planning on going shooting in the next few days, your rifle and you are ready to go on your next adventure.

Step 5

But if you plan on storing your rifle or you are going on a long hunting trip with possible nasty weather, I’d suggest taking a clean patch doused in some of your favourite gun oil and run that through the barrel. Repeat this with a clean patch to reduce the amount of oil residue which can create carbon deposits in the combustion process.

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