Swiss arms / SAN rifles FAQ
- Thread starter wildphil24
- Start date
Steve Janes
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Calgary/Ontario
I misunderstood entirely. You are correct receiver to butt stock is less than ideal for a full length rifle. Frankly, it sucks
winnipegger
CGN frequent flyer
Hahah see see ! Atoadaso
I'm patiently awaiting my vcas, know any here to get legit (none airsoft) hk hooks for 1 1/4" webbing?
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both 1/10 and 1/7 have flash hiders.
if you are unsure and want to find out check it with a cleaning rod. Put a little little tape around it and leave the ends of the tape taped together, making a little flag. Push the cleaning rod into the chamber end of the barrel, measure the how far the little flag is from the chamber or any fixed point on the rifle, then push the cleaning rod until the flag makes one complete rotation ( you will need to use a rod that spins free of the handle) and once that flag makes one full rotation, measure again. If it moved 7 inches you have a 1/7 if it move 10 inches to make one full rotation you have a 1/10 twist. Either way you got a great barrel. At times there are a 1 or 2 designation on the barrel indicating a 1/10 or 1/17 I forget which is which.
Dizzy, I was referring to the slightly longer machined flash hiders that's the 1:7 barrels normally have. Mine was advertised at 1:10 but it had the 1:7 muzzle device. I ran a patch through the barrel to engage the rifling and marked my cleaning rod and my rifle is in fact a 1:7 barrel which is disappointing as I specifically bought it for being 1:10.
As a new owner, I am wondering if one should use grease in their guns exclusively or if something like CLP Breakfree offers at least as much protection. I know if the Swiss build something and tell us to use grease I should just use it but with modern lubricants available I wonder what others are doing with success. Oil alone? Grease on things like the piston/spring and bolt/carrier but oil on everything else? I hope some of the forum can chime in with what is used and has worked for them. Thanks
winnipegger
CGN frequent flyer
I use the grease on bolt and guide rails in the receiver. And paint a light coat on recoil spring. I use oil on the gas tube To prevent rust and that's basically it. Has worked for me. I don't use grease the winter however (barely any lube actually just a couple drops of oil)
I find oil in the summer far too thin and gets blown out quickly. Due to how clean the bolt and carrier and guide rails stay( piston design with the rubber dust lips) the grease is the best option for warm weather.
I find oil in the summer far too thin and gets blown out quickly. Due to how clean the bolt and carrier and guide rails stay( piston design with the rubber dust lips) the grease is the best option for warm weather.
I kind of do a hybrid cleaning on my PE90/Swiss arms classic green. The swiss use the grease even to clean the bore and looking at my 1943 it appears to work quite well. The only trick is to put it in the barrel when it is still warm. That is not always practical for me so i've resorted to using more moden chemicals and methods.
I use automattenfett on basically everything except for the inside of the barrel and the trigger group. I find that if I lightly coat everything (except the exterior plastic and receiver) with the grease it seems to prevent some of the carbon from sticking on and can be easily wiped off for the next cleaning. I also use a dab of grease on the rails as well. The inside of the barrel I clean with a rod and use traditional nitro and copper solvents and the protect with a light coating of gun oil or CLP which i remove before shooting. The odd time I will also use wipe out to get some copper out as well. The trigger group very occasionally might get a drop of gun oil on some of the pins but that is very rare. This video on youtube apparently shows how to clean a STGW/FASS 90 the way it is taught in the military. I basically do the exact same, except i apply a dab of grease to the rails and I clean the bore with my different method above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfddU8WpJ7I
Steve Janes
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Calgary/Ontario
I'm sure you clean your rifle just fine, after all, it's not rocket science, and there is more than one way to skin a cat!
However the guy in that video seems like a bit of a tool, he admits himself to not being a gun person, and not shooting often, and says the only reason he even has this rifle is Swiss law forces him to serve. Every other video he's made is about weird ass computer games. Definitely not the kind of guy I would take advice from. That's just me though
well apparently this guy was an instructor in the military if that makes a difference. Also from what I have read in the swiss military handbooks and from my experience at a few swiss shooting clubs it appears that this guy is pretty close to what everyone else over there is doing. I don't do the grease in the barrel thing and use modern methods. I guess the main take away point from me would be that I use grease and not oil on my swiss arms and I haven't had a problem yet.
p.s. that guy in the video is not me nor do I know who this guy is. It was the only cleaning video I could find that shows how they do it in the military. I found a lot of SIG556 cleaning videos online but I don't trust those guys at all. I figured i'd at least start with the way that several hundred thousand rifles are being cleaned for the last 22-23 years and go from there. What do you use to clean your swiss arms?
Steve Janes
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Calgary/Ontario
I have cleaned my rifle with a lot of different stuff, a lot of the time I'm too cheap or lazy to even use a solvent of any kind and just clean it by chipping away carbon and lightly oiling the parts. Rarely do I actually use a solvent, I have in the past however used:
Break free CLP, Hoppes 9, Wipe Out, some others I can't remember, all worked well and did the same thing that the other did.
I clean my rifle pretty much every 200-300 rounds so that ends up being about every 2 or 3 weeks, so there is rarely enough carbon build up to even require intense cleaning. I take it apart, chip the carbon off the piston head, and anywhere else it's built up, then run a brush and an oily rag through the gas tube, and lightly oil the piston and tube as I reassemble the gas system. Then quickly run a clp soaked boresnake through the bore a couple times and then put a light coat of oil on everything by wiping it with the oil rag as I put it back together. Lastly, wipe off and lightly oil the bolt and bolt head and then I lightly grease the tracks in the receiver. Finally examine the bore for obstruction and cleanliness. Takes about 15 minutes tops. If I miss a little something then I see it the next time. With the frequency I clean it's become pretty routine.
It can be done with what I have in my pistol grip (Oil Rag, carbon cleaning tool, and shorty boresnake) on a bad day in the field in around that same amount of time. If it's really wet or muddy, of course you'll need a dry rag or something from your kit, but otherwise, you don't really need to have a lot on hand to maintain these rifles.
Like I said, it isn't rocket science, and there's more than one way to skin a cat
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Thanks for all the comments on your cleaning/lubing routines. After some research I picked-up 4oz of TW25B today to use on the Black Special Brothers. If it's as good as a lot of people say they should be happy with it. Sig Sauer seems to think it's the cat's pajamas...
winnipegger
CGN frequent flyer
Sling update:
So i got the Vcas in the mail today (thanks OST fast shipping!) My first impression of the sling is positive and it will for sure be the the sling I'll be using on my swiss. I loop one end around the butt stock (lower piece) and tried attaching it via a universal sling adaptor to the front ring (gasblock). As i had thought this config does not work for me. It applies to much tension to the sling (even with it lose) and gives it a feeling of slinging a bow using the bow string. I then tried using the sling to create a hand guard loop and the feel was excellent. I have decided that i will need to mount the sling somewhere just forward of the magwell.
Because of this I will be ordering a new plastic handguard set from a swiss website so that i can mount a side rail from with to attach my new sling (withouth wrecking my oem one although i suppose they will both be oem). Will update again when i receive it and mount the rail. For now im stuck with a hokey-ish hand guard strap ( the one positive about this is the male end of the folding stock clip does not allow the handguard strap to slide off the hand guards onto the receiver.)
So i got the Vcas in the mail today (thanks OST fast shipping!) My first impression of the sling is positive and it will for sure be the the sling I'll be using on my swiss. I loop one end around the butt stock (lower piece) and tried attaching it via a universal sling adaptor to the front ring (gasblock). As i had thought this config does not work for me. It applies to much tension to the sling (even with it lose) and gives it a feeling of slinging a bow using the bow string. I then tried using the sling to create a hand guard loop and the feel was excellent. I have decided that i will need to mount the sling somewhere just forward of the magwell.
Because of this I will be ordering a new plastic handguard set from a swiss website so that i can mount a side rail from with to attach my new sling (withouth wrecking my oem one although i suppose they will both be oem). Will update again when i receive it and mount the rail. For now im stuck with a hokey-ish hand guard strap ( the one positive about this is the male end of the folding stock clip does not allow the handguard strap to slide off the hand guards onto the receiver.)
notlong. i woukd highky recomend not lubing the piston and keep the piston tube dry. wipeout willl work to keep the carbon out of the piston and leave a coating making it a little tougher for carvon to stick. anything oily in the piston tube will turn to carbon quickly and only gum your piston up unnecessarily
Great dizzy, makes perfect sense now that you mention it. I'll get some Wipeout and use it in my gas tubes, thanks for that also. You mentioned foam before I recall but I wasn't sure exactly what you meant to use, now it's clear. I think I'm finally on the right track in properly caring for my rifles thanks to you guys. Much appreciated!
