Large Volume Cleaning

Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder. Here I am at Camp Costalotta—weather’s hot, food is not… This summer I was privileged to participate in a Scouting BSA (Boy Scouts of America) Shooting Sports program. Participating in such a program allows you to see many shooting cycles compressed in to a very short time space. For example, our weekly shotgun range budget was between 1,100- 1,400 shotshells and rifle range budget was 9,000 rounds.

Shooting that amount of ammunition every week for a sizable group of Scouts sees problems cropping up that must be resolved fast. Because of the press of time, running a bore snake down the barrel was initially deemed adequate cleaning. Hah! At these volumes of shooting, those espousing that opinion were not the ones dealing with the dayto-day issues on the firing lines. It is a simple fact of gunsmithing that many problems encountered area function of inadequate cleaning.

Our range conditions highlighted that fact. The American Gunsmithing Institute offers a course in gun cleaning. Besides a tutorial in using an ultrasonic cleaner and a tutorial on adding the gun cleaning service to your gunsmithing business, the course includes an Infante Ultrasonic Cleaner, stainless steel tanks, a hot oil ultrasonic lubricating system, and stainless steel baskets. You also receive a bottle of cleaning concentrate and ultrasonic lube.

The course materials are very useful and come loaded on a handy memory drive that is easy to take with you anywhere. I gave the entire system a very intense workout this summer. The following leverages off AGI’s gun cleaning course with their Infante gun cleaning system. I used it for the entire summer camp as a support to our shooting sports program.

All told with the firearms based in camp plus a few miscellaneous that came into camp with parents and permission of the camp commissioners, we cleaned 50 firearms per week for five weeks. I consider 250 firearms cleaned in just over a month a pretty good system workout. I have used the Lyman and another before this and found they are not in the same class as the Infante system.

Weekly Chores Weekly cleaning and routine maintenance (sights and trigger pulls for instance) become a time critical production issue at summer camp. As the campers leave on Saturday, everything must be reset before the next batch arrives on Sunday, making a more traditional method of cleaning firearms nearly impossible. In this instance, the maintenance scope encompassed two armories. Our rifle armory was composed of 32 Savage, Ruger, and Henry 22 LR rifles.

The shotgun armory was a little lighter because we could only accommodate two shooters on the line at a time. The shotgun armory was composed of six 20 gauge Benelli M2s, five Remington 870s, and a Stoeger Coach Gun. Each firearm had its quirks and challenges. To sum up, each week we serviced 32 rifles, 14 shotguns, and two Ruger There are seven more in the background. As illustrated, it is an endless task. Each rifle is placed in a cradle pointing down range to maintain safety.

Each is checked that the chamber is empty and the magazine, if there is one, removed. Then we can start cleaning operations. Single Six revolvers—oh yes, and I also did no small amount of work on 45 Genesis bows and 14 assorted recurves. We may have closed the ranges at 9 PM but our activities ranged far into the night. A common cleaning technique was to spray some cleaner around the bolt, run a boresnake down the barrel, and put a little oil on various parts.

As an exercise, I had a group disassemble a pump and a semi-auto shotgun. Taking the barrels of both shotguns I had each member of the eight-person group scrub them first with a boresnake; they all agreed the barrel was pretty clean. Then I took a properly sized bore brush and a bottle of Hoppe’s No. 9 and each Scout again scrubbed the barrel. The black running out should have been a clue, but to make it perfectly clear, I ran a white patch down the barrel and it came out

22 caliber rimfire rifles. The gap is usually filled by the rifles on cradles. These rifles see an average of 9.000 rounds a week. These shotguns fire between 1,100 and 1,400 rounds a week of Federal Top Shot shells. black. I took a dental pick and ran it along the extractors and under the hooks and showed them the caked grime that made extraction touchy. These cleaning problems were not touched by a boresnake and sometimes missed when scrubbing with a toothbrush or brass cleaning brush.

Benelli M2 shotguns have an additional concern with carbon building up in the locking lug recesses. Failure to regularly clean these recesses results in weak firing pin strikes and misfires. We had two Benelli shotguns on the range that were particularly susceptible to that problem. One of the cleaning crew wanted a closer look at a Benelli choke tube and I pulled it. He asked if it was okay to clean it. It turned out he got more than he bargained for.

After a great deal of scrubbing, he asked if I would look at some deposits in the tube. The material was firmly encrusted to the interior of the choke and resisted removal. After soaking for two hours in Hoppe’s I was able to remove the deposit with a toothbrush. Upon inserting the clean choke tube back into the barrel, I found the inner diameter of the barrel was slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the choke tube, leaving a ledge.

While it doesn’t impede the passage of the wad on its way out the muzzle, it does appear to allow a buildup of debris. Patterning the shotguns demonstrated the change in performance between clean and dirty chokes. Choke cleaning became a weekly, lengthy chore. Rifles were another matter. Without getting into brand names, let’s just say some ammunition is very dirty. Repeated firing of such ammo results in a build-up of carbon in the recesses of firing pins, extractors, and ejectors.

The build-up also increases wear on the extractor, requiring early replacement. I will say that both Savage and Ruger were very supportive and sent me whatever I needed to keep the rifles running and their cus- These chokes saw a heavy buildup with each week’s shooting which resisted most cleaning efforts. Bolt disassembly was frequent and time consuming. tomer support was first class. The Henry rifles were part of a different program and had a lighter duty cycle. I never needed to order parts for the lever guns.

Dirty ammo creates another problem. As the chamber fouls, it is more difficult to load and remove cartridges. When you have multiple people firing specifically-defined courses of fire, the attendant problems slow down range operation. Slow range operation made it difficult to maintain our schedules and resulted in some very late nights on the range. We would not allow Scouts to fail because of the equipment.

A Modern Solution I asked Jacob Kelly how they came to choose the Infante Ultrasonic system and he explained it was true industrial grade equipment with heavy duty transducers and wellinsulated power supplies. The Infante was designed for gun cleaning and comes in a variety of sizes to fit the needs of most shops. The system also includes a hot ultrasonic oil bath system that I will discuss more later. This was a game changer for me and the folks I worked with.

If you have ever taken the time to thoroughly clean a single action revolver, you know how much time it takes. The most time-consuming part is cleaning the cylinder. This system changes all of that. I merely removed the stocks as recommended, pulled the cylinders, and placed it all in the basket. Two revolvers easily fit in the tank. Les-

A failure to extract can be time consuming to clear. We kept cleaning rods stationed between stations to punch out stuck brass. Using the concentrated cleaning solution and ultrasonic lube takes hours from a heavy maintenance cycle. son learned, the cylinder pins will drop through the mesh of the basket. I recommend making a smaller basket to hold small parts like those in the cleaner.

Infante warns that you should not leave any painted or anodized finished parts in the cleaner more than a few minutes as the cleaner will remove the finish. Some inexpensive revolvers have a marginal finish that you will want to check every couple of minutes. The superior finish on the Ruger Single-Six revolvers were not a problem. Infante makes a secondary stainless tub designed to set on top of the cleaner with the base in The cylinders and the cylinder pins are "in the soup" as well. the cleaning solution.

This is filled with a reusable ultrasonic lubricant. Once the pistols have finished their cleaning bath and you have dried them, place them in the oil bath for another five minutes. Compressed air from either a can or a compressor greatly speeds up the drying process. Twenty minutes later, two revolvers were deep cleaned and ready for another week’s service. For every shotgun, pull the screw-in choke (modified), remove the barrel, and put as many metal pieces in the ultrasonic cleaner as can fit.

After a short time, take the parts out, inspect them, blow dry, and put them in a heated oil bath to make sure all water is displaced. If you look closely at the basket of chokes just coming out of the ultrasonic bath, you can see two different styles of choke. The shorter chokes are for the Remington 870 shotguns and the longer chokes are from Benelli M2s. I’ve already mentioned how choke fouling was a problem every week.

Fifteen minutes in the bath and the Remington chokes were good to go but the Benelli chokes always took more work to get clean. While parts are in the bath, scrub out the barrel and make sure the receiver and magazine tube are clean. After the bath, wipe excess oil off the parts, reassemble the shotgun, carefully lubricating parts where they should be. Function fire the shotgun, give it a final once over, and place it in the armory for the next class. If you have time, pattern the shotgun for performance.

The Infante system gave us more time to evaluate that parameter of shotgun performance for our classes. I’ve already shown the problems we had with fouled bolts. Taking them apart to clean the recesses for the firing pin, extractor, and ejectors took time—not to mention chasing the spring clips when they made a break for it. Time was a problem so we usually only tore down the worst offenders—six or eight on a good week. Sadly, that was a spotty service policy at best.

Here was where the Infante system made the biggest difference. In the time it normally took to tear down and clean four bolts, we could clean all 32 rifles. This gave us more time to spend on real gunsmithing issues like sights coming loose, stocks loosening, or trigger pulls shifting. We observed in hot weather the screw-in-spring adjustment in the Savage 22 LR Accu Trigger was very sensitive to heavy use and temperature.

It was easy to adjust after you removed the action from the stock, but that was still time consuming. Scouting USA’s camp manuals are very specific about maintaining trigger pulls above three pounds and we were required to keep a weekly log of trigger pulls for each rifle. Using the Ultrasonic

I roughed it up with a pocket knife to show the accuracy-robbing deposit more clearly. cleaning system to clean the bolts gave us more time to maintain the triggers. Observations Okay, so you are probably not a Scouting volunteer serving on a summer camp shooting sports set of ranges. I get how you might wonder how all this applies to you. If you work at a range where equipment is rented, the association is a no-brainer as everything I have said applies.

The Infante industrial strength cleaning system will allow you to engage in a solid program of preventative maintenance. Not only that, but customers who bring their own firearms might have problems that could be solved with a ten-min- Larger calibers would have to be arranged differently, but in 15 minutes these eight were clean and ready to go. Our only problem was keeping the serial numbers straight during reassembly. ute dunk in the soup.

Considering how long a single bath lasts, it makes sense to keep it handy in the corner for just such an opportunity. If you don’t have a shop where a lot of the parts are the same, the Infante system can still be a blessing. Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to work on clean parts? How much easier it is to inspect parts that are clean? How much easier it is to disassemble a firearm not covered in grease and grime? I certainly noticed that working on the firearms at camp.

These days, it makes sense to throw as much of the firearm as will fit in the tank in before working on it. The cleaner will remove most of the debris for me and I can focus on design-function-repair instead of scrubbing, possibly breaking or losing parts in the process. In the course of a week, it isn’t hard for a busy shop to line up six or seven firearms for cleaning. They can all be done at once while the gunsmith attends to other projects. Just watch the timer, especially where finishes are concerned.

The instructions are very clear that too long in the tank will actually remove many finishes. While this can be useful, it can also lead to problems. Space is always an issue around a shop so it’s good this cleaner does not take up a lot of space. I found an inexpensive tote at Home Depot that holds the cleaner, hot oil bath tank, both baskets, and the solutions. While I was at it, I decided to throw in a bunch of the random cleaning supplies anyone manages to accumulate in the course of your gunsmithing.

The tote pulls everything together neatly. While I tend to keep the cleaner itself out, the tote organizes the rest. As an added benefit, when I am going to a shooting sports event for the weekend, I can just load the tote in the car and have everything. It stacks well with my archery tote, my range box, and other paraphernalia. Frankly, when I host a shoot or a class, I end up cleaning a lot of firearms by myself. The Infante makes the task easier. Time is money.

If you can save time cleaning parts, you can spend more time diagnosing or repairing. This provides more time to attend to more opportunities, and can maybe allow charging the customer less than the ‘smith down the street who insists on doing it the hard way. Figuring to pass the cost on to the customer is not a valid strategy in this economy. That time adds up. Let me give you a final example from the summer camp experi-

Of course, many problems area function of the firearm just needing to be cleaned. The Colt Targetsman these parts came from had been put away dirty, left to sit unprotected, and was a mess. Cleaning made parts inspection easier. ence. The biggest task of the shooting sports team in shutting down the range for the summer was making certain everything was cleaned and lubricated—ready for the next events held between summer camps.

Thoroughly tearing down, cleaning, and lubricating everything usually took three or four of usa couple of days. On Saturday morning, as the last campers were leaving, I tore down the shotguns and started throwing parts in the cleaner. While parts were cleaning or lubricating, I worked on wrapping up my inventory. At noon, I moved operations down to the rifle range. While one person was pulling rifles and placing them in the cradles for cleaning, I dropped the revolvers in the soup.

A few minutes later we moved them to the oil bath and dropped in the first batch of bolts. While the bolts were cleaning, we swabbed the barrels, ran a patch of Break Free down the barrel as a preservative, reinserted the Cleaning firearms quickly and economically is a large part of the picture. Modern methods, such as ultrasonic cleaners, let us spend more time shooting and instructing. Far newly cleaned and lubed bolts, and started on the next batch. We were finished before dinner.

Basically two people cleaned and lubricated 32 rifles, 14 shotguns, and two Ruger Single Six revolvers in less than eight hours. For the animal rights folks: No boresnakes were harmed or abused in this activity. Conclusion One thing I haven’t talked about is what you use in the cleaning bath. The shipment I received from the Kellys included the Infante Ultrasonic Cleaning Concentrate.

Gene said, "If you are going to use the man’s equipment it just makes sense to use the solutions designed for it." I used those solutions. A little of the cleaning concentrate goes along way. Following the mix instructions, one mix batch lasted through three weeks of cleaning with no apparent degrading of effectiveness.

We kept it handy with the lid on the bath in case we had need to do a quick clean on some part—usually a Benelli chamber and locking lug recesses as those tended to fill up pretty quickly and cause misfires or their chokes which were prone to excessive fouling. If you follow the storage instructions, the Infante Ultrasonic Lube is reusable. A little is lost each cycle, but I keep the rest stored in the original container.

All told with the firearms listed and a few miscellaneous that came into camp with parents with permission of the camp commissioners, we cleaned 50 per week for five weeks. I consider 250 firearms cleaned in just over a month a pretty good system workout, and I still have solution and lubricant left. The AGI course and its Infante Ultrasonic Cleaning system allowed us to move from a reactive to a preventive posture. Our level of service to our shooting customers improved dramatically.

Our customers’ perceptions of our product and the shooting sport improved and that improvement was clearly stated in our customer satisfaction surveys. More importantly, we were able to introduce young men and women to shooting without the frustration of the equipment causing them to struggle or worse yet, fail. We enabled their success. AG