Gas piston Cleaning advice?

hal9000

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How do most people clean the gas piston to keep it from getting coated with black after shooting?
Mine seems to get very darkly coated which is hard to clean off after shooting.
Is this normal? Any way to limit or minimize?
 
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Is it necessary to clean each time after use? Is this black coating going to cause any problems? Do you oil the piston head?
 
I use a scotch brite pad on my gas system in my sks, the shinny piston head is black, and just a few effortless wipes its all silver again.
 
I know people say to run the gas systems dry, but I tend to run mine a little wet on SKS's, and SVT. The pistons tend to clean up nice with some G96, a toothbrush and a bit of elbow grease.

If its really caked on, just let the piston soak in something likes Hoppes #9 for a bit of time.

It is necessary to clean after each use if you run corrosive ammo. If you don't, you'll end up with nice surface rust on any parts that are in direct contact with the gases produced. If you let this rust sit long enough, you'll pit the metal and slowly eat away at the parts.
 
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Is it necessary to clean each time after use? Is this black coating going to cause any problems? Do you oil the piston head?

Yes, every time if you are shooting corrosive ammo. If you get all the carbon off but a stain remains it won't hurt anything, but scrubbing usually takes it off pretty well. Gas systems are typically run dry, as any oil will usually burn and foul worse than leaving it dry.

I soak the piston in varsol for a few minutes, then scrub with a brass brush, so I guess another vote for the brass brush treatment from me.


Mark
 
Phosphorus bronze brush with solvent for me. And about oil, in military service gas systems are run dry. Reason being the oil will bake on and make it a real mess. In civilian hands we typically don't get our guns hot enough for long enough for this to happen. Modern gun oils designed for military rifles are very resistant to heat breakdown and can take the punishment of your gas system for our usual shooting sessions. Even us trigger happy nutz. And as stated above, cleanup is easy. The oil remains wet and suspends the powder fouling so it can be wiped away. So you can oil it if you want or run it dry.
 
I would just soak mine in oil for a few minutes, then take a brash brush to it by hand.

If there was still some carbon baked on there, I'd just scrape it off with an exacto knife.

It's a CZ, not a fackin' peppermint latte or some sh*t lol

It's not going to be shiny at the end of a cleaning. It's exposed to a lot of heat and a lot of dirty dirty gas over and over.

Just do as above, then oil it again and throw it back together. You aren't going to make this gun run any different than it was designed to do Sir.
 
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