Revolver cleaning ?

ben777lemay

ben777lemay

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
325   0   0
Location
Canada
Hey guys, what are you using to take care of your revolvers ???

I bought my first wheel gun ( blued S&W ) a couple months ago and I'm enjoying it quite a bit but hey, these things get dirty as f...

So I'm curious to know how and what products you use to clean yours.
Oil/solvants, copper/nylon brushes, etc...? Brands ?
Do you use different products for blued vs stainless, avoid certain types of brush in a blued cylinder ?

I'm particularly curious to know what you use to clean the chambers/barrel and the bore.

MPjGOlq.jpg


Picture borrowed on the net...
 
Last edited:
I use eds red for cleaning. Google the recipe. But it really does not matter what solvent you use. What I do is I coat it in solvent then clean it a couple days later. couple of my friends remove the cylinder dump it in a bottle of solvent and clean it later.
 
Newer 629, 1 wet patch with G96, 1 pass with a stainless steel "tornando" brush, through the bore and all six chambers. Used wet patch to wipe down frame and cylinder, Brass brush to get around forcing cone area. Wipe all over with nasty rag that has been on the bench for a long time. Dry patch through bore, flip patch over and run through chambers. Spray with oil, wipe and 1 last dry patch through bore and chambers. 10 minutes tops. Bore still looks like new. Pulled the side cover after 10K+ rounds and washed out the internals with aerosol parts cleaner. Sprayed with oil put cracked cover back on. Stupid gun looks like it's going to outlast me.
 
That is about what I do, I spray the gun with G96 , and than wipe with a rag, do the cylinder fluts, etc, top strap with tooth brush, or id real bad a little brass brush, bore with bronze brush and than a patch, or more often , bore mop, I love those, clean them when they get bad with break cleaner or soap and water.
Also brush under the star.
 
Another Ed's Red fan here. It's cheap to make and works for quite a while. But it's very smelly so perhaps not something you'll want to use in the house. If you are in a place where the odor and fire issues with the solvents in a lot of cleaners is an issue perhaps stick with a CLP style oil. It takes longer to clean but isn't a tenth as smelly. BreakFree CLP oil works pretty good for that situation.

A revolver special hint for .357 and .38Spl guns is to get a few short .40Cal bore brushes. Used with a hand drill these do a beautiful job on getting fouling out of the chambers. The brushes last for a decent while but as you can imagine it's rather hard on them. I find they last pretty well for around two dozen cylinders worth of cleaning. But the brush with the drill does such a great job of removing the fouling at the front just before the smaller throat. Just don't push the brushes all the way through. The damage to the brushes is done when the oversize brush tries to fold down too far in the throats.

For the barrel I find that I only seldom need to use a brush. Mostly a good fitting jag and patches is enough. I look for signs of dull lines at the rifling after a couple of solvent patches. If I see any that's a bit of lead build up and that's when I'll use a bore brush. Otherwise I just use the couple or three solvent soaked patches, dry patch, lightly oiled patch and call it done.

For the fouling around the inside of the main frame and front of the cylinder I use some cleaner with an old toothbrush. It won't remove all the staining from the front of the cylinder. That's pretty badly baked on. And besides it'll be dirty again soon enough anyway. Seriously, anything that will remove the staining on the front of the cylinder is very likely to remove the blued finish over time or polish up a stainless cylinder. If it's getting seriously crusty, and it has, I'll smoothen away the worst of it with a brass bristle brush and some cleaner. But I don't bother with trying to get it back to factory new looking condition.
 
Like Hickok45, I use mostly Ballistol. spray generously everywhere. brush in the bore and a bit chambers. Then patches down the bore and chambers. brush on and around forcing cone. wipe everywhere with big cotton patches or rags.
Gilbert
 
I generally remove the cylinder and throw it into an ultrasonic cleaner. That takes care of the bulk of the gunk on the cylinder face and chambers. The rest is taken care of using a few patches with your favorite cleaner, and if necessary a brush.
 
Gillis2 said:
Like Hickok45, I use mostly Ballistol. spray generously everywhere. brush in the bore and a bit chambers. Then patches down the bore and chambers. brush on and around forcing cone. wipe everywhere with big cotton patches or rags.
Gilbert
Click to expand...
This and the Lead free cloths to clean up the tight areas on Stainless models..
 
Gillis2 said:
Like Hickok45, I use mostly Ballistol. spray generously everywhere. brush in the bore and a bit chambers. Then patches down the bore and chambers. brush on and around forcing cone. wipe everywhere with big cotton patches or rags.
Gilbert
Click to expand...

This ^^^, although I also use Ed's Red from time to time. As to cleanig the bore, I use a patch over a smaller nylon bore brush (ie .30 cal brush for .38/357, a .38 cal brush for .45)

I made a cleaning stand for my handguns, consisting of aluminum rods set vertically into a piece of plywood, which sits in a shallow plastic tray. When I get back from the range I open the cylinders of the revolvers and place the barrels on the rods so the guns are standing vertically, spray with Ballistol and let them sit while I clean up and do other minor chores. For semi-autos, I remove the barrel and put it on the rod.
 
i'm surprised no one has mentioned FLITZ for getting carbon off your cylinder mouths
 
marshall said:
That is about what I do, I spray the gun with G96 , and than wipe with a rag, do the cylinder fluts, etc, top strap with tooth brush, or id real bad a little brass brush, bore with bronze brush and than a patch, or more often , bore mop, I love those, clean them when they get bad with break cleaner or soap and water.
Also brush under the star.
Click to expand...

This pretty much sums up what I do as well.
 
FIREClean(Crisco)actually works very well as a stainless steel revolver cleaner. I don’t know why, but the stuff dissolves carbon. Way too expensive though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom