Full gun cleaning

[gim]

I'm wondering how many of you completely disassemble your shotguns and clean/lubricate the parts? I'm pretty good about cleaning my shotguns regularly but I can't disassemble the firing mechanism or small internal parts because I'm worried about putting it all back together properly. So about once every few years, I take them into a certified gunsmith to be done. Its 40 bucks/shotgun and 25 bucks/handgun.

 

[LC Smith]

I'm wondering how many of you completely disassemble your shotguns and clean/lubricate the parts? I'm pretty good about cleaning my shotguns regularly but I can't disassemble the firing mechanism or small internal parts because I'm worried about putting it all back together properly. So about once every few years, I take them into a certified gunsmith to be done. Its 40 bucks/shotgun and 25 bucks/handgun.

I do to a certain point. I shoot sidelock guns and I don’t take the locks apart unless absolutely necessary.

 

[Bob Peters]

I'm wondering how many of you completely disassemble your shotguns and clean/lubricate the parts? I'm pretty good about cleaning my shotguns regularly but I can't disassemble the firing mechanism or small internal parts because I'm worried about putting it all back together properly. So about once every few years, I take them into a certified gunsmith to be done. Its 40 bucks/shotgun and 25 bucks/handgun.

What do you mean by the firing mechanism? Benelli's are really easy to clean. The bolt face, firing pin and spring, inertia spring are super easy. Trigger assembly easy to remove with a pin punch and clean. The only thing I've never done on mine is the spring located in the butt stock. I've taken apart enough curados and stradics that a shotgun is really pretty simple.

 

[remy3424]

Not too much to worry about in breaking-down a Remington shotgun. The trigger group stays together and a shot with some gunscruber, blown out with compressed air covers that...might need a tweezers to pick-out debris. I give it a decent cleaning several times over the season, just depends on the weather (rain/snow), amount of shooting (my reloads are dirtier than factory loads), but the cover I hunt might contribute more to the need to clean, as seeds and grass stems always find their way into things.

 

[gim]

What do you mean by the firing mechanism? Benelli's are really easy to clean. The bolt face, firing pin and spring, inertia spring are super easy. Trigger assembly easy to remove with a pin punch and clean. The only thing I've never done on mine is the spring located in the butt stock. I've taken apart enough curados and stradics that a shotgun is really pretty simple.

I've never done it before. I've seen youtube videos of it. It does look relatively easy compared to a gas-operated shotgun and that's one of the primary reasons I use a Benelli, because of the simplicity.

Maybe I will try it next time. Its currently being done by a gunsmith.

I have a bunch of shimano curados and stradics. Ironic that I take those in to be cleaned every couple years too. Maybe I need to start doing this myself.

 

[A5 Sweet 16]

Benellis are super easy. If you're uncomfortable with it, by all means, spend the money. But my guess is even the least mechanically inclined person can disassemble/reassemble a Benelli for complete cleaning & enjoy doing it. Little Hoppe's #9 if anything's real dirty. Spray the trigger group with Gun Scrubber. Little RemOil on everything. And voila, you're good to go.
The only somewhat critical thing is to hold the firing pin into the bolt, pull its retaining pin out, & then ease the firing pin out, never losing a grip on the firing pin. If you let go of it, the firing pin will fly out, potentially never to be seen again. I've always known this, but was reminded once in the middle of a slough about 20 years ago. Had to do an emergency inspection/clean in the middle of a duck hunt. Luckily the pin flew straight up & straight down, & I saw where it entered the water. Found it relatively easily in the muck underwater. I'll never be that lucky again.

 

[BrdHntr]

agreed Remy3424; that's the beauty of pumps. They simply don't require the cleaning and upkeep gas semi autos requires. I only tear down my pumps after the season, and have never found the need to dis-assemble a trigger assembly on any shotgun; I do clean the trigger assms, mainly using Q tips and Hornady One Shot, and working the shell lifter back and forth. Lots of debris comes out by simply doing that. The L&R shell latches on our early 80's vintage LW 20's tend to pop out, making it a slight pain to re-assemble. It is amazing to see what accumulates in the receiver after a season of hunting, plus there is always unburned powder and fouling to be removed. I have come to really appreciate less recoil of semi autos, particularly on Alberta waterfowl hunts and turkey hunting. I mainly use gas operated semis, so fouling is always an issue. I tear them down after my hunting trip is over, vs once a year with the pumps. We wipe our guns down after every hunt, and disassemble and wipe down in the hotel if hunting in snow that day. I tear down my guns so I know how to dis & re-assemble them in the field, if there's a jam - plus I'm a tinkerer. Some of those first time tear downs required a time out when re-assembling, because I couldn't get it back together on the first try
I clean every part of the gun when performing a tear down, including the bolt assembly, but never found the need to tear this down to its smaller components either. Guess I'm a gun nut P.S. Lots of great You Tube videos to help, with a few exceptions, like this '59 Beretta Golden Pigeon

 

[BrdHntr]

P.S. Shotgunworld is a great source of information, and has categories specific to the manufacturer and gun model....................also a good thread under eye dominance right now in the general section

 

[BrownDogsCan2]

Other than the occasional wipe down I’ll do my guns in December , as that’s when I’ve had the only trouble with them. Slow cycling or maybe a firing pin gumming up.
You want small parts try flipping a safety. I have to do my wife’s who shoots lefty , occasionally when I bring it along for a kid to shoot. I put the trigger group in a gallon zip lock bag. There’s a small spring loaded pin that you have to push in to pull the safety, when the safety slides out there is really good chance you’re going to lose that pin and spring without the bag. To get the safety out you to press that pin down with a thin knife or jewelers screwdriver. . To get it back in I’ve had the best luck using the tip of a click ball point pen

 

[birddude]

When I shot autos I tore them down completely twice a year and still had failures. Granted they're not the guns that the newer ones are. Pumps around every three or four years. I have box locks that I have shot thousands of rounds through that have never been apart more than the barrels off. I have one high end o/u that will start having inertia barrel switching troubles after about 500 rounds. (P.S. When I switched to doubles all my gun malfunctions practically ceased, my bird count never wavered, and my cripple count decreased by half.

 

[birddude]

When I shot autos I tore them down completely twice a year and still had failures. Granted they're not the guns that the newer ones are. Pumps around every three or four years. I have box locks that I have shot thousands of rounds through that have never been apart more than the barrels off. I have one high end o/u that will start having inertia barrel switching troubles after about 500 rounds. (P.S. When I switched to doubles all my gun malfunctions practically ceased, my bird count never wavered, and my cripple count decreased by half.

oh I forgot my Berreta 686 Ultralite is almost 25 years old and has never had a pin drove out!

 

[Golden Hour]

I have a lot of really good things to say about the Franchi Affinity that I purchased last year, but the simplicity in cleaning is right up near the top. Following not having to clean it regularly, like I did with my SX3.

I will do a deep clean after the season closes, but so far this year, I've taken the barrel off once and the bolt assembly out, just to make sure it wasn't super dirty (more of a self assurance thing than a cleaning), otherwise, I sprayed a bit of lube on it before headed out last weekend when it was cold (by my standards, anyway).

Regarding the full deep clean, I don't mess with small springs. It's a rule. For the trigger assembly, I do the same as Remy. Blow it out, pick out any debris with tweezer or q-tip. Otherwise, I take the rest of it apart and give it all a good wipe down and re-lubrication. Best of luck!

 

[BrownDogsCan2]

I have a lot of really good things to say about the Franchi Affinity that I purchased last year, but the simplicity in cleaning is right up near the top. Following not having to clean it regularly, like I did with my SX3.

I will do a deep clean after the season closes, but so far this year, I've taken the barrel off once and the bolt assembly out, just to make sure it wasn't super dirty (more of a self assurance thing than a cleaning), otherwise, I sprayed a bit of lube on it before headed out last weekend when it was cold (by my standards, anyway).

Regarding the full deep clean, I don't mess with small springs. It's a rule. For the trigger assembly, I do the same as Remy. Blow it out, pick out any debris with tweezer or q-tip. Otherwise, I take the rest of it apart and give it all a good wipe down and re-lubrication. Best of luck!

It’s funny you mention the franchi. I was just trying to figure out why mine has had a few failure to fire issues. It’s only happened 3 times since I bought it last year. It’s almost like it’s not cocking the hammer. But I don’t know how that’s even possible. I know there is a fresh shell in the chamber when I open the bolt and no primer dent. But it’s happened so infrequently and by surprise that I don’t know if the trigger moved and there was a hammer strike, or if maybe the bolt didn’t full rotate. I haven’t heard the benelli click but who knows?

 

[BrdHntr]

BrownDogsCan2, Found this on Shotgunworld, not sure if it will help................

My son bought a plastic stock Affinity 12 gauge as his first gun and even used it for his seventh grade trap season, before he bought himself one of the new SKB Century IIIs. It cycled everything from magnum loads to 7/8 oz Federals. Our trap practices start in January so, yeah, some cold weather. One particularly awful trap meet was indeed in the freezing rain and it worked fine. It was nice having a plastic stock auto-loader which we could totally disassemble down to the smallest pin, and dry and re-lube. A full disassembly on the Affinity is very easy.

He did have some problems with the "Benelli click" with the bolt head not seating properly. I did some buffing and polishing with a dremel attachment on the barrel, where the bolt head lugs lock in, And then I started running it more "wet" with quite a bit of CLP in that spot. No problems after that.

 

[matto]

I have box locks that I have shot thousands of rounds through that have never been apart more than the barrels off.

^^This. Half an hour at the end of the season cleaning out the barrels, digging around the locking mechanism to get out all the debris that I can reach, as small a drop of oil as I can manage into the firing pin holes. Done.

 

[UplandHntr]

I dropped my O/U in sand a while back while breaking up a scrap between dogs. I need to get it torn down. The gun shop near me say they do an ultra sonic deep clean. It cleans, vibrates and uses voodoo too or something.

 

[AKSkeeter]

I use my Citori for everything including waterfowl hunting.
Each winter after hunting season ends I clean the firing pin channels as they tend to
accumulate gunk and eventually could lead to not firing on the primer.

Easy to do...take stock off, then punch out 2 pins on the receiver, take out firing pins and
clean the channels and firing pins.
(Bluing rubbed off this receiver years ago....)

 

[Bob Peters]

I've never done it before. I've seen youtube videos of it. It does look relatively easy compared to a gas-operated shotgun and that's one of the primary reasons I use a Benelli, because of the simplicity.

Maybe I will try it next time. Its currently being done by a gunsmith.

I have a bunch of shimano curados and stradics. Ironic that I take those in to be cleaned every couple years too. Maybe I need to start doing this myself.

The benelli is definitely much easier to clean than the fishing reels. The curados aren't very difficult. The stradics, those I'd just keep dropping off for someone else to clean

 

[AtTheMurph]

My Beretta 686 gets a good cleaning every 20 years. I've had it for 27 so in 2035 I'm taking it apart and cleaning it again. Whatever is inside is making it work real good.

 

[Winchester30]

Boresnake through the barrel 2-3x and an exterior wipe down after shooting.
I waterfowl hunt also so the guns get disassembled and oiled as needed (typically 3-5x a year). Benellis / Franchis.