Thread: Chamber/action cleaning

Hey team

Am getting some surface rust appearing in the bolt lug channels and recesses and I'm guessing the chamber itself as well.
Was wondering what others are doing to clean this area of the rifle? I haven't been using a bore guide for cleaning the the barrel and I wonder if it's a result of residual boretech eliminator?? Google search comes up with a Tipton kit for this exact job but the International shipping kills it. It's a Sako A7 7mm08 if that matters.

Cheers

well you cant just assume either that your chamber has surface rust

to clean the raceways and stuff i use a loop end jag with a big patch and some oil on it and rub it all up in that. You could probably have a look down the chamber with a torch or something, but you can buy white swabs which i think are for shotguns but work well for swabbing the chamber.

and um... dont use steel wool on a stainless steel rifle.

Don't leave boretech in the chamber and barrel. It leaves a red residue. I always flush it out with meths.
I only leave Hoppes or Battisol as a oil layer in the barrel/chamber.

Try Eezox

Search Trademe for a local reseller

Cheers for the tips, have got it pretty clean but not perfect.

Use a chamber brush...

Military Style .308 Chamber Brush

Get the crap out, then make sure you flush all the solvents etc. Lightly oil, and use a bore guide for future cleaning.

You can buy the Tipton chamber and lug cleaning kit here in NZ. I bought one from Reloaders Supplies a couple of years ago, who look like they may be out of stock at the moment. Not as nicely made as the aluminium Jones Custom Products set I owned many years ago but does the same job. Workshop Innovation has them in stock.

From what I've seen, most shooters don't seem to clean the bolt lug recesses and re-grease them. The Tipton set makes the job easy to do. You'll also need to use a light smear of some good quality grease for the bolt lugs. Talk to Julian at Workshop Innovation or the boys at Reloaders Supplies.

Gunsmithing &Reloading Tools - Tipton Action/Chamber Tool Cleaning Set, Cleaning +

Gunsmithing &Reloading Tools - Tipton Action Cleaning Replacement Swabs, Cleaning +

Yes i finally come across this yesterday. I had already placed an order with Midway USA using You Post for the same kit and a bore guide but now after searching the forum it seems You Post may let me down on this. Time will tell.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

Why? They used carbon HSS steel tooling to machine it...

Most small parts aren't stainless as SS don't tend to have the strength of steel fasteners. Springs etc are also carbon steel.

If you use oil on the rust, the oil acts as a lubricant and floats the rust particles so that they don't scratch the steel underneath which won't show on the metal finish. If stainless is rusting, it's already contaminated and you need to get the rust off, and the easiest way is to use oil and steel wool and then subsequently clean the oil/rust slurry off and re-oil.

There really isn't any other way that is as easy and as successful as using the steel wool/oil to clean rust spots that I know of. Possibly careful scraping with brass scrapers, but you still need to remove the remaining spots.

You've been a long time out of the game if you think machining is done with carbon HSS much anymore.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

I wouldn't use grease. A light persistant oil is better as the grease can pick up grit and become a grinding paste. Not ideal...

Not if you do regular maintenance on your bolt lugs and only apply a light coating to the lugs or bolt cams only. There are special anti-galling type greases that are sold for the purpose such as Pro-Shot Gold. Have used that for 28 years and never had a problem with grit.

Use a very light oil to sparingly coat the main bolt body of course.

so... this topic is relevant enough for me to post here. My AR15 is having some ... odd issues. I tried taking it out tonight only to find the bcg became jammed at about 90% of the way closed. Had to leverage it open with the upper taken off. Seemed weird so I took it home and had a fiddle round and couldn't see any obvious issues. I took the bcg right out and tried putting a bullet into the chamber to see if the problem was there and behold... the bullet becomes jammed in the chamber when it's about 50% of the way in. The barrel has had ~20 rounds through it and isn't particularly dirty... it's like the bullets have grown or the barrel has shrunk! Any ideas? This just seems weird. Happens across two different brands of ammo both of which have worked fine in the past. Nothing has changed on the gun since I last fired it... has just been in the safe

This should help the situation.

Originally Posted by clavulanate

so... this topic is relevant enough for me to post here. My AR15 is having some ... odd issues. I tried taking it out tonight only to find the bcg became jammed at about 90% of the way closed. Had to leverage it open with the upper taken off. Seemed weird so I took it home and had a fiddle round and couldn't see any obvious issues. I took the bcg right out and tried putting a bullet into the chamber to see if the problem was there and behold... the bullet becomes jammed in the chamber when it's about 50% of the way in. The barrel has had ~20 rounds through it and isn't particularly dirty... it's like the bullets have grown or the barrel has shrunk! Any ideas? This just seems weird. Happens across two different brands of ammo both of which have worked fine in the past. Nothing has changed on the gun since I last fired it... has just been in the safe

So to confirm, gun worked fine previously, but only recently has the issue?

That's weird... I thought I replied..

Anyway yep, last time I used it was about 1/1.5 months ago and I put a couple of mags through it with zero trouble. So far as I can tell the bore/chamber is clean but I'm wondering if there might be some sort of build up in there that I can't see? Seems weird... the tolerances must be extremely tight for such a small build up to cause bullets to become completely jammed in the chamber.

What ammo brands?
Is it a .223 Rem or 5.56x45 chamber?
I'm assuming its factory ammo and .223, rather than 5.56mm milsurp.