Well, I finally bought an SKS

Buy windex. You can use other cleaners but the active ingedient must be acidic. Take out the bolt and gas system. Spray windex down barrel and gas port. Then rinse with warm water. Do the same thing for the bolt, piston and gas tube. I dont but you could also clean the inside of the bolt where the fireing pin is. After rinsing with water, relubricate as u would with normal cleaning. Once u get used to it its not a big deal.
 
dnewma02 said:
Buy windex. You can use other cleaners but the active ingedient must be acidic. Take out the bolt and gas system. Spray windex down barrel and gas port. Then rinse with warm water. Do the same thing for the bolt, piston and gas tube. I dont but you could also clean the inside of the bolt where the fireing pin is. After rinsing with water, relubricate as u would with normal cleaning. Once u get used to it its not a big deal.
Click to expand...

windex contains Ammonium hydroxide which is a base.

From wikipedia

Basicity of ammonia in water[edit]
In aqueous solution, ammonia deprotonates a small fraction of the water to give ammonium and hydroxide according to the following equilibrium:

NH3 + H2O is in equilibrium with NH4+ + OH−.
In a 1M ammonia solution, about 0.42% of the ammonia is converted to ammonium, equivalent to a pH of 11.63. The base ionization constant is

Kb = [NH4+][OH−]/[NH3] = 1.8×10−5
 
Kryogen said:
windex contains Ammonium hydroxide which is a base.

From wikipedia

Basicity of ammonia in water[edit]
In aqueous solution, ammonia deprotonates a small fraction of the water to give ammonium and hydroxide according to the following equilibrium:

NH3 + H2O is in equilibrium with NH4+ + OH−.
In a 1M ammonia solution, about 0.42% of the ammonia is converted to ammonium, equivalent to a pH of 11.63. The base ionization constant is

Kb = [NH4+][OH−]/[NH3] = 1.8×10−5
Click to expand...

In more plain English, the residue left from firing corrosive ammo that you're trying to dissolve is a form of salt. You can dissolve FAR more salt into solution using warm water than you can into Windex which is essentially alcohol and ammonia.

I usually just strip the gun, wash the metal bits with warm tap water, spray it down with WD-40 to displace the water, then clean with Hoppes #9 as usual. No rust yet.
 
the windex i bought used lactic acid. i left it at my range but if anyone wants to know i will post the specific type (because i guess it is not run of the mill windex). Who knew.
hoppes 9 is better since is dissolves copper, but is more expensive. wd-40 is a good idea. i bet i could save 10 minutes instead of running a millions patches to dry it lol
 
yeah, warm water....... I blast some windex in the chamber, run some hot water through it (lots, i soak the thing), rub it dry as best i can

then WD40 to blast out the water..... again i soak it (i dont care about getting oil on the wood... military gun.... most of them have oil in the wood anyway)

then i let it drip dry upside down onto an absorbant board

then i do a normal cleaning
 
thats why I have never shot it so far, I don't want to clean it :p Maybe this summer I will bring it to the range, empty the crate, then clean it... then never touch it again.
 
Kryogen said:
thats why I have never shot it so far, I don't want to clean it :p Maybe this summer I will bring it to the range, empty the crate, then clean it... then never touch it again.
Click to expand...

You should be cleaning all your firearms after putting rounds through them ;)

Now that I've done it a few times, I can disassemble, clean and assemble back to perfect condition in under 30 minutes.
 
LeverFever said:
You should be cleaning all your firearms after putting rounds through them ;)
Now that I've done it a few times, I can disassemble, clean and assemble back to perfect condition in under 30 minutes.
Click to expand...

I dont have enough time for that. I used to do it, I dont anymore.
I clean when needed, or when I have time, which does not happen very often.

But I never shoot corrosive, because I don't want to HAVE to clean.

The only gun that I need to clean more is the .22 semi mossberg, it starts to fail after 500 rounds. It's a pita to clean with solvents, but just dumping it all in the US cleaner is quite easy.

As for the semi centerfire, they work fine after 1000 rounds no issue....

Bolts I just soak a patch of "patch out", let work 20 min, patch again, let work a few hours, then patch clean.... if still dirty, I let soak overnight. No brushing, no bs, no solvents.

Seriously, I hate cleaning guns.

Pistols and caked semi auto parts, I drop all I can in the ultrasonic cleaner with simple green HD, and let work until it's clean.

But, all my guns are properly lubed, work well, and never rust.

Of course if I hunt in the rain or something, I clean the gun...
 
This is the way I look at shooting corrosive vs non corrosive. I might shoot off about 400 rounds of 7.62x39 in a range visit. Corrosive (20x$3.5)=$70 vs non corrosive(20x$17)=$340. A savings of $270 for about half hour of my time to clean the gun. That means I'm paying myself $270x30 min=$540 an hour! If your only going to shoot 10 rounds, It wouldn't matter much but when I drive an hour to the range I'm going to put some lead down range.
 
Last edited:
The great thing about the sks is you can field clean it pretty damn quick with the attached tools. Bring some G96, spray the barrel and gas tube, wait a couple of minutes, brush them both out, then run patches through them both. That's the quick version and takes about 10 minutes.

You'll have a well functioning sks for decades to come.

@ $0.17 per round I don't mind putting in the effort and I rather enjoy cleaning them.

Now if I hated cleaning firearms, that would be a different story :)
 
I got one from a different vendor recently, a laminated refurb. I bought an unissued unfired, with a solid stock as my first and I thought it was nice, but I must say I am very impressed with the laminate, its just a beautiful gun.
 
Last edited:
i wipe everything with paper towel.
then i dip everything in the bathtub, except the gas tube and trigger assembly.
then i wipe everythign again.

then i use remmington bright bore and a qtip anywhere i can find any more black stuff.

then i coat everything with oil.

the reason i dont put the gas tube in, is because i dont want to soak the wood, and then have it hold moisture against the metal. im concerned corrosion on the gas tube where i cant access it do to the wood, so i just spray lots of oil on the tube and hope it runs back there. i spray bright bore inside the gas tube and cram paper towel into it then pull it back out, until it looks like just bright bore comming back out.

i spend a couple hours on it, from start to finish. i thought i was doin a super awesome overkill job... which i dont mind because i enjoy doing it... but last time i had it apart there was a bit of corrosion on the piston and inside the gas tube.

any advice?
 
LeverFever said:
You should be cleaning all your firearms after putting rounds through them ;)

Now that I've done it a few times, I can disassemble, clean and assemble back to perfect condition in under 30 minutes.
Click to expand...

Your are absolutely correct on cleaning ANY gun after use. They shouldn't go back into storage dirty, small exception made for pump shotguns.
30 mins isn't bad.
 
Check out the You Tube articles on improving the trigger...I went with Sailor Curt's 5 part video and Wolff springs and the trigger on my SKS is miles from where it was! Install a rubber buffer on the back of the action as well...for just a couple of bucks and a bit of work on your part you can make it a much nicer rifle. Enjoy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom