This question comes up in every long precision marksman class we teach and everyone expects to hear from us the final say on how to properly clean your precision sniper rifle. So we figured we would take this opportunity to elaborate on this important topic. What we are going to cover in this article here is the concepts and ideas around rifle cleaning, so it will not include a lot of pictures, but we will include a few because we all like to look at pretty rifles anyway.
The Overall Goal
When discussing any topic, it is usually beneficial to talk about the overall goal of the topic and what we are trying to achieve, and then work toward achieving it. So what is the overall goal for cleaning your rifle? Is it to make the bore spotless? To apply preventive maintenance measures? To make it pretty? Well, all of those are great, but for snipers, I would say it is to maintain accuracy so that the rifle will shoot where you want, when you want. So how do we insure that happens? Well, we use the good ol’ Sniper Central mantra… Consistency Equals Accuracy. I will admit we “borrowed” that saying from one of the instructors at sniper school many years ago. I just don’t remember which one it was.
You see, there are many different ways a rifle can be cleaned and there are a million different products on the market to do that cleaning. Literally, there are probably a million different products. But this is another one of those times where people tend to get way too caught up in hype. If some CLP was able to make a M16 clean and semi-reliable in the jungles of Vietnam 50 years ago, it’ll certainly get the job done on a modern bolt action sniper rifle. I am not advocating CLP, but I am advocating that basic cleaning products and methods can do just fine. Do not worry about the latest wiz-bang product, good ol’ basic gun cleaning solvent will do the trick. Though there may be something to be said about the health benefits of some of the more newer bio-safe products like Frog Lube, but time will tell if they hold up under all the extreme conditions.
What we are ultimately trying to accomplish is to become consistent. Because consistency equals accuracy, and that applies to cleaning your rifle as well. There may be a thousand ways to clean a rifle, and as long as it achieves acceptable cleanliness to prevent corrosion and maintain reliability, then just be sure you do it the same way every-time. Consistency. (yes, we know what it equals) So, provided it gets clean, it prevents corrosion, and it maintains reliability, then just do it the same every time and you should be good to go. But with all of that being said, there are some Do’s and Don’ts that I have come across over the years that I personally try to adhere to.
Do’s
Typically I recommend that you DO use a single piece cleaning rod if possible. When a multi piece rod is threaded together there is a tiny little ridge where the pieces meet up that can, over time, wear on your rifling. Combat deployments or other scenarios sometime dictate a more portable multi-piece rod be used, so use it if that is what you have. Its better than nothing. Also, if possible, I recommend a rubber/plastic coated rod to provide even more protection to the rifling. The barrel is the most critical part of the rifle.
Do use a bore guide inserted into the chamber to help guide the cleaning rode down the barrel and prevent nicking and banging the rifling and especially the chamber/throat area.
Don’ts
Do NOT scrub the bore/barrel with a bore brush, especially a brass one. If you have some stubborn carbon build up, a single stroke with a bore brush should be enough to loosen it up to clean. Do not scrub the bore barrel back and forth like you are polishing a boot. Its hard on your rifling.
Do NOT use a rod tip that is larger diameter than your cleaning rod where it meets up. It can nick the crown. Some people only push patches from the chamber to the muzzle and then remove the tip and patch to pull the rod back through. This can prevent any damage to the crown…but it takes forever! If you are shooting for world championships, do it. If you are in combat, use a well fitted tip attachment and get back on the line.
Do NOT only use a Bore-Snake. Contrary to advertising, a Bore-Snake will NOT get your barrel completely clean. They are a great tool to start the cleaning process, and they are great for in the field. But when you are doing a full clean, you will need to use patches and a rod to get a satisfactory cleaning job.
My Method
Like I have already mentioned, there are a thousand ways to clean a rifle. Here is my personal procedure that I use. It does NOT mean it is the best, or the only way. It is just a way I am comfortable with and gets the rifles clean…and I consistently do it the same way every time, because consistency equals accuracy.
I start by making sure the rifle is unloaded (yeah, basic gun safety). I remove the bolt from the rifle and then clean the bolt using simple 3″ square cleaning patches. I typically will put some solvent on a patch and rub and clean the bolt followed by dry patches to insure the bolt is dry. I do this as much as necessary to get it clean. Including the bolt face and other tight spots.
My next step is to run a Bore Snake down the bore…with a little bit of solvent on the snake in front of the brass bristles. I only pull it through once, primarily because of the bristles on it. I do not want to over use them and once is typically enough to loosen all the grime to get it clean, and the long tail of the snake does do some cleaning, but as mentioned above, not enough.
I then insert my bore guide and run a wet patch, as in wet with gun cleaning solvent, once down and back. I then run dry patches until they come out clean. If it was a long shooting session and the rifle was extra dirty, another wet patch will be run followed by more dry patches. Repeat until clean.
I then remove the bore guide and clean inside the chamber and action with dry patches using whatever means I need to. Once that is all done, I re-insert the bolt and wipe the exterior of the rifle down with a cloth. The silicon infused clothes can be used for additional corrosion protection on the exterior. Up here in Montana it is pretty dry and my gun vault is dry as well. So I store my rifles dry without any oil on them. For those in humid climates, if a silicon cloth is not enough you can put a very light coat of gun oil on exterior surfaces and run a single patch with oil on it down the bore and store the rifle that way. If your barrel is stainless steel, you do not have to worry about it.
Snipers in combat or on Law Enforcement SWAT teams may want to shoot a ‘fouler’ round through the rifle after a cleaning session. This will dirty the rifle, and is done as a clean bore will shoot different with the first round versus all the other subsequent rounds. This is not a bad idea and modern ammo is non corrosive, so it will not hurt the rifle. But if you do it…do it every time! Consistency…You know the rest.
Well, there you have it. The most ambiguous “how to” probably ever written. Just do what works well for you and do it the same every time.
Mel E.
Sniper Central EIC
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