How to Clean Handguns

welcome back one of the most oft asked questions that I receive is what procedure I use for cleaning handguns well first of all I'm going to let you in on a big secret here it's no big deal I don't know how this culture this cult of cleaning has boomed in the last few years like it has but it's obviously it's an internet phenomenon handgun cleaning is it's like it's like cleaning your sink it's like cleaning a toilet boy you just clean the thing and it's that's it there's nothing associated with it that's any mystery we'll take you through the basic process because I know everybody's begging to learn how to do this some it's been it's been turned into some great mystery but I'm going to show you that you can put all that aside and make it extremely simple we're going to go through a revolver in a couple of a couple pistols I and in just a second so here are all the tools that you'll need first of all you need a good cleaning rod I've got a I've got a couple of different lengths here that I use for different length barrels and you need a proper size brush for each caliber that you have it should be if you have a 45 caliber revolver or pistol then you should have the appropriate size 45 caliber brush always get bronze brushes nothing wrong with nylon brushes but they're a waste of time they really don't do a good scrubbing and there's nothing in your barrel is going to have be harmed by a good bronze bristle brush never ever use a steel brush a steel brush will one of those stainless steel brushes will definitely damage your barrel some hobby solvent I prefer hobbies over others simply because of something I've been using for many years it works very well I can't attest to too many others because I haven't used them I have used ballast all and ballast all is fine I have nothing I have nothing against it but it's oily when I'm cleaning I don't want to be applying oil it's it's it's a contradiction in terms I don't need to be oiling my gun as I'm cleaning it I want to be cleaning my gun isn't cleaning it and solvent nitro solvent is all that you need you need to cut the carbon and the strip build-up from your gun that's really all you need to do if you have if you had lead deposits in your barrel then you need to get yourself a Lewis lead remove it to remove that the lead deposits which are basically just copper screens that have pulled through a barrel with a rod and a rubber button but if you're having that sort of problem you really need to address the issue to begin with which is improper softness of the bullets for the velocity and the pressure that you're using next you need you should have cleaning Jags the cleaning jag is preferable to a slotted tip simply because it fits the bore and they should be you can get them in different calibers and also flannel cleaning patches now I don't I don't care for any of the fancy fiber patches the only patch that I consider to be worth while is is just a plain cotton flannel patch nothing nothing abrasive about it these patches here are soft flannel on one side and they just cost cost the cloth on the other and and always have one hand some sort of a just a just a nylon toothbrush is sufficient but these these m16 style brushes at the military-issued for many years of fine and if you have a if you have a bottle of Hoppy's oil you know I've got this is CLP there there is all kinds of different oils there but you know what this is all you need this I think this bottle cost me two dollars and twenty five cents six years ago and is still two-thirds full oil is not something you should be using on a gun and I'll be talking about that at length you might want to have a few q-tips to maybe clean recesses that's it and also a silicone cloth this is one of the most valuable things that any gun owner can have silicon cloth that you just keep in a sealed plastic bag that you wipe the gun down with these are the guns that we'll be cleaning I've got a super black clock and I'm not I'm not trying to promote any particular gun but I'm just trying to show the process that's involved with cleaning revolvers versus automatics they're the same thing we all we're doing here is forget that it's a gun all we're doing here is just cleaning steel and we're trying to avoid getting involved with wood furniture on the gun which can which can damage it and can cause it to get soft and brittle ok so let's start out with the 1911 45 we're going to keep everything very simple here one thing I didn't mention is just standard bore swab it's just a cotton ball swab wound on a wound on a stick very much like your brushes and it's very useful I just apply a little bit of a little bit of solvent to the swamp and then run it into the barrel a couple of times into the slide wherever this wherever there's accumulation of build-up and you know you can see that for yourself you don't want it you don't want to be aggressive with any of this stuff it's very simple and that's it I've got now here's here's something that here's something that people should do periodically is to take their magazine apart and what people don't realize that even magazines that have welded bottoms can be broken down I'll show you how to do that first of all take just two two cottages and please don't call them bullets these are bullets are a component part of the contra it is to a cartridge as flour is to bread I'll see so we'll take I can find my drift rod when you have the when you have the cartridges in just simply in in the second hole plus press the two cartridges down in the second hole place your drift rod through until it comes out the other side remove the cartridges set them aside and then you'll notice that there's a your follower is now free lift the follower straight up and rotate it towards the back and get simply slide it out and forward and that's all there is to it and you'll notice that it's got a dogleg on it's got a dogleg on the back right here that can that can get greasy you want to get any grease off of your you want to get any grease off of your pots you don't want any oil and I'm going to say this over and over and over again because I keep getting I keep getting emails one after another probably four or five a week that people ask me what oil do I prefer do I like this oil of that oil I don't use any oil oil is something that to me has nothing to do with a gun whatsoever there's no need for a gun to have oil in it it's not it's not reciprocating machinery now once that once that drift pin has been removed I can take that spring out and with a little bit of with a little bit of solvent on my rag and by the way I like to get these Scott Oh rags in a box and they're very handy so right now all I'm doing is I'm taking just plain old copies number nine solvent and nothing there's nothing that will clean it any better than that and it's all you need to do is get to get the junk off you want to get any residue off and do the same with the do the same with the mainspring the slide spring and your any pins just simply wipe them down with the harpy's now we're going to take the same we're going to take that same swab I'll refresh it and put a little bit of new new harpy's on it get it wet you don't have to saturate everything now and be very careful this wood furniture right here is expensive and it can get easily damaged by you know this this gun has this gun is I purchased it in 2011 and I've shot hundreds and hundreds of rounds through this gum in it and it's like it with purchased the first the first day I bought it it's in absolutely pristine condition so what you're seeing is how I have cleaned guns for over 50 years and much of that time was done professionally as a certified armor for Ruger for Smith & Wesson and for Remington now once I've once I've run that solvent through there I can also take some of that same solvent and put it inside the magazine and clean out any the only thing I'm looking to clean out is dust and dirt that accumulates and as you can see there's some you know some dirt that's built up now I can take that now I can take a slotted tip I know I have one here one of the few times I use a slotted tip and I'll simply take a piece of cotton swab and put it through the slotted tip you fold it in a triangle if you were old enough I could say I'll fold it like a diaper but what you wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about my day diapers were delivered by a truck and you're walking and reuse them but anyway here's all you do the objective is to basically clean that clean that magazine out never ever under any circumstances ever apply oil to the operating cost of a magazine you know some people get concerned when they when they hear the magazine squeaking when they're loading it full of em oh and they hear that they hear the thing squeaking and they think that it needs oil it's not it's not a rocking chair it's it's a magazine and they're not intended to be oiled if you own a gazillion you're going to be one of those people who complains that their that their gun tends to stovepipe and throw rounds out the top this is something that happens very frequently because what happens the D what I'll do is all I'll take care of that later but it's a reverse process normally you don't even have to Nam normally you don't even have to worms use the cartridges again you can just simply feed it right in like that and that's that's all there is to it so this the magazine works fine you can try a couple of cartridges make sure that you have them the thing working in correct order this is what would happen if you if you own a magazine the lips of the magazine are constructed to have a certain certain frictional coefficient so they hold on to the cartridges and that friction change them in place until until it's time for the slide to load them into battery if you oil this thing what you're going to have is slippery cartridges that are going to be bleeding out of the top a magazine and they tend to bleed they tend to bleed out most often in about the second or third round and that's that's something that will really gum your gun up so keep your magazine absolutely clean now take take your rag and now that your solvent has completely has completely gotten rid of all that grime just wipe out things and dry them off you want to dry off everything completely if you want to take this if you want to take this you can watch my video and see how you can remove the retainer and take the firing pin out in the spring and you can clean that out periodically but if you're not oiling your gun and if you're not if you're not overusing solvents and getting solvent down into the firing pin hole you really shouldn't have too much of an issue just keep just keep wiping it things down with with your Hoppy's and dry things off bone-dry that's probably going to sound very weird to a lot of people who are being cultured to think that a 45 Auto has to be lubricated like a John Deere tractor nothing of the sort I carried this 40 foot not this 45 but I carried a 45 in Vietnam and down in Fort Polk Louisiana and I my 45 ran all the time believe me I did a lot of shooting with it it never it never once stopped up I was very I was very thankful to Uncle Sam for all the practice ammo that he afforded me and for the many years that I was on the police department I also did a lot of practice never once oiling the 45 I never old the slides I never old the I never old the rails I may have put a drop or two occasionally on the link pin but really there's no need to oil any part of a 45 it'll run forever it's not going to go I fear it galls me when I when I hear guys say that you know you have to use SuperDuper Froglube and all sorts of stuff on your on your slide so you don't have galling if you have a gun that's galling get rid of it because gun steel should not gall this this is this is high-grade steel it's the the lubricity is built into the slide itself it's not gonna it's not going to drawl up this there's nothing there's nothing that's going to impact that gun in closeted is it there's a little bit of shine on here there's another there's another mystical thought that I I hear this there's some gun manufacturers out there I know exactly which ones they are they might know something about building guns but they don't know anything about service this this there's no reason to worry that you have shiny shiny surfaces matter of fact if you have a shiny surface on a gun it means that has been what we called in the in the armed schools has been married and those at that marrying of parts together causes some shiniest now here what I'm going to do is I'm going to take my brush the correct diameter 45 brush and now that that solvent has had a chance to work I'm going to run the brush through all the way through don't ever don't ever stop the brush halfway and and bring it back out again because you're going to you're going to crimp those bristles and ruin an expensive brush not so much the brushes are expensive but if you're buying them online you know the the shipping in and handling now is a fortune so just run it in and then look down look through the light and you know I can see on that white surface right here that the inside that barrel is absolutely spotless now this gun not been this gun had not been fired recently and I haven't fired these guns you know for the course of the for the sake of cleaning them right now we have almost four feet of snow out there so I'm really not interested in going outside and shooting but now that's it I've cleaned the slide it was only a matter of using some solvent on it to get rid of any and sometimes you have a lot of you have a lot of carbon especially if you're using powders like unique and some and some you know powders that he used commercially are very dirty but just simply use whatever amount of solvent is necessary to just simple solve it just get this just get the gunk off and then use your you use your your brush to clean those parts out if necessary if if things are things are in the corners use that maybe your the q-tip clean out the rails and then just put it back together and leave it at that make sure that all your make sure that all your components in your in your grip are clean and dry don't be don't be sticking oil in places just because they're cracks in the in the gun that it looks like it's an inviting place to put oil I see people dropping oil down into the you know beside the the hammer and beside the trigger in all these places it serves no purpose whatsoever except to gum the gun up and cause and cause a tray it attracts dirt and it tracks all kinds of crud lint from your clothes you know it attract practicals of holster fuzz leather and everything you don't want to have any of that stuff adhere to the metal the metal should just be shedding anything that it comes in contact with so if you if you happen to be in a dusty environment if you're if you're doing traffic if you're if you're a police officer and you're doing traffic you don't want to be standing there you know in a beside a pit where they're excavating a hole in the highway and having your gun get filled up with mud simply because you've oiled it leave the leave the oil alone ok so now we'll we'll turn our attention to we'll put this gun away we don't have to we don't have to assemble it online everybody who has a gun should know how to assemble and take apart your own gun now I'm going to do a I'm going to do a striker fired gun the reason why I'm doing this is because you know I don't know why but for some reason or another the company I won't mention their brand name but the G company will call them the G company for some reason they promoting this the need for some some sort of special lubrication process if you if you look if you look here this is not this is not a G gun but it's you know it's a copy of it alright everything in here is hardened steel if if a G gun isn't hard and steel and they need some special treatment and well that's that's not my fault but these shiny these shiny surfaces here after this gun has fired a few thousand rounds things have gotten a little shiny they're not wearing through they're not ever going to wear out they haven't changed their dimension and if you notice this slide right here this this slide is as black as Tyrus it's never been reblued or we refinished or anything this there's no we're going on here there's no absolutely no need whatsoever for arm lubrication I don't lubricate anything in here I don't put I never put I never put oil in the striker penny area I never put grease in the slide I never do anything I just leave it bone dry and that way there I know that it's always going to function the spring the spring area you know if it makes you feel better if it makes you sleep better at night if you want to put a drop of oil on this so that it looks like it might be it might be nice there's no need to oil this spring the spring is going to spring itself regardless um you know your your trucks bring underneath your underneath your vehicle never gets greased in it and it's it exposed to salt and stand-in and stones everything else this is just tucked away neatly inside your gun and that spring will continue to work back and forth without any hindrance and it doesn't need lubrication no pins need lubrication again the same thing with the magazine the magazine can be taken apart and should be and should be cleaned out of any dirt and crud that's in there so that operates slick and smooth clean off the clean off the follower and that's it just put it back together put it back together dry and go out and shoot several thousand rounds and I guarantee you that the gun will be the same condition as the day you bought it there's nothing there's nothing in this gun that's going to wear out there's nothing in this gun that's going to wear down all these parts are all hardened steel they're not they're not made of they're not made of cupcakes they're it's real it's real gun metal there's nothing that you need to do to lubricate the plastic plastic is by itself self lubricating but there's no plastic parts to touch or do anything that that that requires any lubrication you certainly don't need to lubricate the trigger mechanism you know some people concerned about striker fire guns because they feel they have a spongy trigger well I'll have news striker fire guns have a spongy trigger because it's a double action style trigger as you pull the trigger back you're actually not you're not pulling off a sear you're actually drawing back to the striker another sixteenth of an inch or so three thirty-seconds of an inch or so to where it finally lets go so it's going to have a spongy feel so don't worry about that has nothing to do with it you're not going to get rid of that sponginess by greasing and oiling and please get away from the notion that a gun has to feel slick guns don't have to feel slick they only have to they only have to fire when you when you pull the trigger the gun will continue to fire it has whether whether it feels slick or not is is a VOC consequence as long as it continues to fire that's the most important thing and trust me all these guns will continue to fire as long as you keep them clean you know I've been I've been perplexed why people you know boast about all the cleaning processes that they go through and the most important thing of all is simply cleaning the gun and drying it off and getting back to work okay and here's a standard single action revolver and whether you're whether you're cleaning a single action revolver or a double action revolver the process is essentially the same the there's nothing different about this each one of these each one of these chambers can be easily cleaned out I have a see if I can find that I have a special brush that I have been using for the last 30 years or so and right now if it's gone I can't find it but there's a there's a there's a there's a just a nylon bristle brush I have it has round nylon bristles that I can clean out this the cylinder with each of his chambers and also I can naturally use my your chambers now because they're larger you want to have you know whatever your board diameter is it's going to be a little bit bigger for your chamber so I use a 45 caliber I use a 45 caliber brush for the chambers of a 44 Magnum and then I'll use a standard 44 brush for the for the barrel and again now this is this is after I've after I've used solvent on each of these chambers and on the bit on the on the gun and running solvent down through the barrel with um with the swab then I allow it to soak just a couple of minutes and then brush it out I like to I like to just simply there's no there's no particular number of times that you need to brush it this is the case where I have to use a larger this is my big rod it's easier to handle the shorter rod when you don't need to have the long one and run it all the way back and all the way out that's it and just look down the barrel now the way you can look down a barrel of a handgun is simply to put your put your thumbnail angled toward the light and look down inside the barrel if it's if it requires if it requires a few more brush strokes give it to them but but it's not something that it's not something that requires any particular number of strokes usually you know usually six or seven times back and forth is sufficient now if you are all done just take and I should have mentioned this with the other one you can simply take a you can simply take a clapping or cotton swab and run it through and this one still had some apparently I hadn't cleaned it from the last time I test-fired it but it's ready to put back together now this is the this is perhaps the one of the few times that I recommend oil on a gun and it's only for the base pin the base pin of a the base pin of a revolver can sometimes bind and it's handy to have a drop of oil on that and when I say a drop of oil please this is one of these things where you know just because one drop is good it doesn't make two drops better one is all you need and it goes right where the entry point of the each pin is right here and that will allow the base pin to move back and forth without binding and it will all also lubricate that the base pin is the axle of the cylinder and that that will make it a lot easier to feed that through if I'm going off camera I'm sorry trying to watch what I'm doing about the same time maintaining some sea bass pins on 44 super Blackhawks can sometimes get a little bit annoying so that's it Hoyle nothing else I I don't any pins inside I don't want a hammer I don't know a trigger I don't anything I just simply let it go with that this is where this is what I do with oil this is an oil I should say a silicone cloth when I'm all done and this applies to all the guns and this is what I do with my rifles and shotguns everything else they just simply wipe them off with the silicone rag it leaves a nice it leaves a nice sheen on the gun and it doesn't destroy the furniture there it's a if it's not going to make that wood punky you don't want to get you know if you get oil into into wood what happens with it is it dries it out and it's like dry rot it will begin to crack all you have to do is go to the used gun stores and look up and down the rack of the countless number of old guns that have telltale cracks around the tang of the rifle a shotgun which indicates that the gun had been oiled year after year and standing on its standing on us but that oil eventually dribbles down into the stock you know let me say this about oil gravity if I put it if I put a drop of oil on something on a on a on a working pin that drop of oil may stay in the pin but eventually it it'll dribble down the sides of the gun and pins don't need to have oil on them anyway they're all side and steel they rotate back and forth those pins will act as perfect axles as long as you own the gun and and throughout the next 30 generations there will be no problem but if you have oil on a pin and it ended eventually gravity will cause it to dribble down and it comes to rest at the lowest place and usually if you've got a Woodstock gun it's going to come in contact with the wood let me show you a little bit of a trick about removing stocks every now and then you need to remove the stock on a the grip on you know a revolver to clean out underneath it take you take your screwdriver closely always a good clothes sitting through driver and then push through this one here coming through very easily but push through this screw here and that will that will push the backside off never under any circumstances pry take a screwdriver and try to pry those grips push the screw through and that and that will pop it out and for those of you who have a Ruger of this sort the method of the method of removing that spring it if for any reason you ever want to remove the hammer or take the gun down you [ __ ] this you [ __ ] the hammer back and there's a hole right here and you insert right here at this at the end of the at the end of the OOP that's not the right side pin hang on right on the spring strut to the hole and that you can see it right there there's a hole see if I can get in line with the camera but this this spring strut has a hole on the end say a [ __ ] it and place you place your drift pin through that hole and then pull the trigger and that will allow that will allow the hammer to the strut to free itself from the back of the hammer and then to put it back into place you again put the saddle back where it belongs right here and then [ __ ] the [ __ ] the gun back into place so that's all there is to it and on these guns if you can you know she if you have a small pin you can keep a pin in this in this roll pin here and just store it in there and that that will act as a field drift pin for you so rather than having you to drift pin you've got off you got a little pin right there so you can take a you can take a like a six penny nail and cut it and just stick it in that hole for storage and that's it so that's all there is to it when you clean your guns just approach it like you're cleaning your your wrenches in your in your toolbox there's nothing mystical about it and there's nothing there's nothing really fascinating about it it's one of the it's one of the to me it's one of the necessary evils that go but you don't have to you don't have to make a culture out of cleaning the gun afterwards just clean it and put it back together and keep it dry you know and you'll save you'll save a ton of money i buy i buy Hoppy's in a very large bottle if you happen to like ballast all that you know that's fine the only thing is remember that ballast all is also an oily it's an oily product and when you get done putting that oily product on you can't you can't get it off so you get done shooting your gun and then as smoke for a half hour after you've shot your rifle I don't need I don't need to have my gun smoking any more than it does and you know if you if you're cleaning your gun you just want to clean it which you know as you saw with that 9-millimeter the stuff the stuff just last forever with the minimum care all you need to do is just wipe it down with a with a cloth and and maybe a little an oily rag is fine but just just a light amount of oil you don't want to have us you don't want to have a slippery greasy gunky you know if you even if you perceive that there's oil on the gun you got way too much on there gunmetal should be you know Lakey when you look at an NRA you know American Rifleman magazine they have a they have a gun on the front of the cover and it looks beautiful and the the metal is gleaming that's the way your gun should look it shouldn't look oily it shouldn't it shouldn't be picking up it shouldn't be picking up lint and Dustin and grime and all that stuff so that's it I have a good time shooting and god bless

Channel: GunBlue490

Views: 177,300

Keywords: Small Arms (Industry), clean, handgun, solvent, hoppes, #9, glock, s&w, ruger, armorer, easy, weapon, stainless, blued, steel, rust, corrosion, oil, spring, lubricate, lubes, smith & wesson, G96, grease, frog, brush, swab, barrel, receiver, revolver, auto, full, 1911, SR1911, colt, model, automatic, magazine, rod, patches, lubrication, sights, grips, walnut, plastic, kroil, outers, snake, mobil, synthetic, combat

Id: olOzxldPXXI

Length: 36min 10sec (2170 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 07 2015