‘Detail Cleaning’ the Low-Tech Way

A gunsmith can pick up some decent money just by cleaning up the mess that many shooters leave behind. You know the kind of customer I’m talking about. He walks in, deposits a gun on the counter, and says simply: "It’s not working." What he doesn’t say is that the offending gun hasn’t had any maintenance since Richard Nixon was President. You, being blessed with superior intelligence, already suspect why "it’s not working." And the "why," of course, is dirt.

This scenario seems to happen routinely—often with gun owners who should know better. But, in the case of the gun I’m using as an example here, I can’t hold the owner of the pistol solely responsible. But I’ll get to that in a moment. The example I’m using here to illustrate my "lo-tech cleaning method" is an Astra Cub—caliber .25 ACP. This little pistol was originally imported from Spain by the former Firearms International of Washington, D. C. (of all places).

The pistol hasn’t been imported since 1968, when it showed up on the prohibited list of Lyndon Johnson’s Gun Control Act of 1968. The Astra Cub was also sold by Colt as the Colt Junior, but that also came to a halt in 68. As far as I know, the pistol went out of production shortly thereafter. This particular Astra Cub was the first handgun ever purchased by its owner (for $39, he told me) and had been oiled regularly, but had never been fired.

Years later, when the owner had a much larger collection of much larger pistols, he made the mistake of lending the little Cub to a friend who wanted to teach his wife to shoot. The friend promised to return it promptly. "Promptly" turned out to be an empty promise, and the Cub wasn’t returned to its owner for many moons. When it finally did show up, it was so Even the exterior slide serrations are now free of the gunk that filled them. badly fouled inside it was totally nonfunctional.

The owner brought it tome for repairs. After field stripping the pistol and removing the grips, I could see lots of fouling but didn’t see any obviously broken components. This suggested that the problem with the little pipsqueak was probably dirt, and that it could be a perfect candidate for a simplified cleaning technique I’ve used for many years.

I call it my "lowtech, almost-hands-off, looks-like-it is-but-isn’t-really-a-detailed cleanup." I’ve mentioned this method in passing in the text of other articles, but I’ve never fully explained it in a dedicated article. Since the technique works like a charm and is such a timesaver, I felt it deserved greater exposure. So here goes. Here’s what you’ll need: a gallon can of mineral spirits, some hardware

cloth with 1/4-inch squares (also known as "rat wire"), a rubber or plastic squeeze bulb, some 1/4-inchthick blocks of hardwood, an aluminum pan or plastic tray of sufficient depth and length to accept the firearm (preferably with a cover), and a roll of paper towels. The squeeze bulb can be found in a drug store; you’ll find everything else at your nearest hardware or building-supply store. As you’ll read in a moment, there’s no need for anything high-tech or expensive like an ultrasonic cleaning setup.

With these most basic supplies, you’ll be able to clean almost any firearm and return it to its owner as spotless as if you had stripped it down and spent hours scrubbing each of its parts. This "hands-off" approach to gun cleaning is especially beneficial when you’re handed a firearm model you’ve never worked on before. Maybe it’s old, maybe it’s been out of production for years, and in all likelihood replacement parts will be hard to find.

Or maybe the gun is worth so little that you know the owner won’t want to pay your hourly rate for the time it takes to disassemble the piece and do a real detail cleaning. Or, conversely, maybe the gun is a highly prized family heirloom that’s been hanging over the fireplace getting coated with smoke and dust for the years. Trust me, any gun in the heirloom or collectible category should be handled as little as humanly possible.

The only thing I omitted earlier on your list of supplies is something to speed up the drying of the firearm after cleaning. Personally, I use a hair dryer, but the fact that mineral spirits is somewhat flammable makes our editor nervous, so he suggests you use plain old room-temperature compressed air. The aluminum tray pictured here is large enough to hold half a dozen Cub-sized pistols.

The tray is prepared by placing four of the wooden blocks in its bottom and placing apiece of hardware cloth cut to fit inside the tray on top of the blocks. Field strip the pistol, and be sure to remove the grips and set them aside. Place the field-stripped components on the hardware cloth, cover them completely with mineral spirits, and put the cover on the tray to keep the mineral spirits from evaporating away.

After an hour or so, fill the squeeze bulb with mineral spirits and force the liquid through the action. Then place the field-stripped pistol back on the screen and replace the tray cover. Repeat this flushing process at regular intervals of about a half-hour or so. What you’re doing is forcing out any accumulated, even hardened residue, and allowing it to settle to the bottom of the tray. The blocks and the hardware cloth supporting the workpiece keep it from soaking in its own muck.

Once a close visual inspection proves that you’ve left no fouling behind, remove the gun and place it on a bed of paper towels to drain. You can now use the hair dryer (or compressed air) to blow off the pieces and evaporate any remaining mineral spirits. But don’t use a heat gun; some of them generate enough heat to take the temper out of springs. Finally, apply a light coat of a good-quality gun lubricant to all internal parts including the bore, and then reassemble the gun.

How effective is this "almost hands-off" cleaning technique? Look at the photo of the square of paper towel I used to filter the mineral spirits back into its original container for reuse. All that black stuff came from the little Cub. You might also wonder if this will work with a rifle or shotgun. You bet it will. All you have to do is scale up the parts tray and maybe buy a little more mineral spirits.

After removing the wood from the action, the process of soaking and flushing is identical to that used with a pistol and produces similar results. Oh, and by the way, as far as the larger container is concerned, you don’t have to hire a sheetmetal contractor to make you a tank. Just look for the place in your local paint or building-supply store where they sell wallpaper. Then buy one of those wallpaper soaking trays. It will accommodate almost any barreled action you might ever want to clean. ■