Gun Cleaning

[Alan_L_Texas]

The gunsmith was closed today, so I won't be able to get my rifle in there until Wednesday. Glad to here its probably not dangerous. If I had a clue as to how to get it apart I would do it, but since it might need some work related to the firing pin, I'll just let him take a look at it.

As for the quality of the ammo, my son-in-law had no trouble shooting those same shells in his .22 rifle. I guess this could mean the shells aren't as good as others I've had, but his has a stronger firing pin spring.

Just so happens I have now located a box of 550 LR hollow point .22 shells that got lost in a move a couple of years ago. So I have about 900 or so shells to shoot. Now if I just had my gun working.....

I'm also good on .357 cartridges, with almost 5 full boxes of 50. Next time, I will run a few .38 specials through it.

By the way, my .357 is a Colt Trooper Mark III. My dad had it I don't know how long, but he seldom ever shot it. He qualified for his Texas concealed license with a 9mm semi-automatic, so I don't think he even took this one to class. He died at age 80 more than 3 years ago. Anyway, this gun has sentimental value to me, and I hope to leave to my son.

Thanks for all the help. I have learned more from this board than I could from any of the gun boards I have visited.

I'll keep yall posted on what they say about my .22.

[GaryM]

HAve any of you tried the "Bore Snake" I believe it's called. basically it's a synthetic rope type deal that's a snug fit in the bore. There are bronze bristles installed at the front end. In front of that is a cord about 35 inches long, and behind the bristles is a tail about 2 ft. or so in length. drop the cord through the barrel and pull rest through behind it.

Works pretty well and fast too.

Look here http://www.ndsproducts.com/boresnake.html for more information.

[Alan_L_Texas]

That rope deal sounds like a good idea. Wonder if you could use to go from the chamber to end of barrel to keep stuff from falling into the works. My book says to do it that way, which I find impossible with the standard rod arrangement.

[wingnut]

you mean there's another way to do it besides the pull-through? That's what I was taught to use in the military and never saw any reason to change ...

[GaryM]

You got it right WingNut! Maybe a slightly better technology, but maybe not. The bore snake has the "advantage" of not needing patches, and the bristles are built in.

I clean my guns with the bore snake from chamber to muzzle. It's possible to go either way.

[robertn]

If you have not gone to the gunsmith yet, you might want to give the .22 a good cleaning.

There are a few things that might be happening. As another poster mentioned, you may have a weak spring. The bolt and firing pin may just be gummed up. This coud be because it's dirty, or over oiled.

I overoiled the firing pin/bolt on my old Desert Eagle .44 once. It was clean as a whistle, but was misfiring, with light firing pin marks. I popped it apart real quick, and found it had too much oil. I wiped the oil off, and cleaned the bolt firing pin hole of excessive oil. It worked perfect.

Too much oil just aint good for them. As others have noted, it attracts and holds dust. And, too much can interfere with operation. It was explained to me once that if the firing pin is over oiled, you can get hydraulic effects, which hamper motion of the firing pin.

Check the gun show for .357 shells. I reload, so... Lead stuff is cheaper, but as the velocity goes up, so will fouling. .357 and .44 are nice in a revolver. You can "plink" with .38 or .44 special stuff, or do longer range shooting with the magnums. A buddy of mine loaded his S&W .44 mag. He worked up .44 special loads that were accurate at 50 yards. Then he worked .44mag loads that were accurate at 100 yards. All this was done without having to move the sights for the two loads. I have fired it on numerous occassions with both; it works well.

I found as far as cleaning goes, a black powder revolver takes the cake. My Walker replica gets residue in every nook and cranny. I love to shoot it, but it is a pain to clean.

Easiest gun to clean is a black powder rifle. Pull the barrel wegde, and drop the breech end of the barrel in the water. Run a patch up and down a bunch of times. Pull it out of the water(water is so hot it dries on it's own in seconds). Clean around the nipple, oil, and your done.

[Alan_L_Texas]

<font color="blue">If you have not gone to the gunsmith yet, you might want to give the .22 a good cleaning.
</font color>

When I took the gun in, the gunsmith got the live rounds out of it pretty quick. He suspects it just needs a good cleaning too, but I left it with him to clean and also check it out. If necessary he will put a firing pin and whatever else it needs in it.

The gun had been stored uncleaned for quite some time. I cleaned the gun, then shot it and thats when the problems cropped up.

[Alan_L_Texas]

The gunsmith says he cleaned the gun and shot a magazine load with no problems. I got it home, loaded up and had 2 misfires in a load of 15 rounds. These are the Blazer shells I had bought.

I had a box of Federals I had not even opened. Shot over a 100 rounds today with NO misfires. Bad bullets. I won't be buying Blazers anymore.

[robertn]

Some shells feed different for different guns. I've never had ones that wouldn't fire, but have heard of it. Maybe you have some shells from a bad lot.

[Alan_L_Texas]

I fired 100 or so rounds in the gun with no problem, but put it away dirty. Next day, my son-in-law wants to shoot a few rounds. Out of the "good" box of shells, the first one misfires, the second gets stuck again.

This time, I manage to get both bullets out with a knife. I had bought some spray cleaner, sprayed quite a bit up in the action, then cleaned the whole gun and sprayed some Rem oil in there too. Shot a few rounds with no problem.

I guess the gun just doesn't want to fire when it sits a day dirty. I don't know what any other explanation would be.

I do know that the Blazer brand failed regularly, so I still won't buy any of them anymore, for my gun.