archosman Posted August 14, 2009 Report Share Posted August 14, 2009 Trying to get a definitive answer to settle an argument. When I strip down my guns for cleaning the last thing I usually do is take a clean patch, put a little oil on it and run it down the bore. Have done this all of my life. A friend of mine said (and he's only gotten into shooting in the last year) that having a coat of oil in the barrel is a bad idea. Anyone have an opinion on this? I would find it hard to believe it would be an issue... let alone I imagine after the first shot quite a bit of it is burned off. Is there some newfangled thought process I haven't heard of? Probably a good question for Old Pa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swt61 Posted August 14, 2009 Report Share Posted August 14, 2009 My Dad and Brothers always did the same, and as far as I know my Brothers still do. They're the great White hunters of the North, so they should be well versed on gun maintenance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morphsci Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 Yep, been doing the same thing for almost 40 years and no problems that can be traced to that procedure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grawk Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 ditto, per my army training Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n_maher Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 The theory I was taught was that a slightly oily barrel was better than a slightly rusty one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naamanf Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 ditto, per my army training Same. Mil-Tec FTW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aimless1 Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 A friend of mine said (and he's only gotten into shooting in the last year) that having a coat of oil in the barrel is a bad idea. I'm wondering what the "bad idea" is? I can't see how a light coating of oil hurts anything. At worst it's a waste of money and resources. I was taught it protects the bore and have been doing so for 35+ years with no ill effects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archosman Posted August 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 I'm wondering what the "bad idea" is? I can't see how a light coating of oil hurts anything. At worst it's a waste of money and resources. I was taught it protects the bore and have been doing so for 35+ years with no ill effects. Me too. Never heard such a thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randerson3024 Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 I have done this since I was a kid and my father taught me to do so. I have lots of nice guns, and I have never had a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Chalk Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 Maybe he's put too much thought into it -- oil vapors/fire/etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iron_Dreamer Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 I don't even own a gun, but I know that is a standard procedure. Don't know what he was thinking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Pa Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 Trying to get a definitive answer to settle an argument. When I strip down my guns for cleaning the last thing I usually do is take a clean patch, put a little oil on it and run it down the bore. Have done this all of my life. A friend of mine said (and he's only gotten into shooting in the last year) that having a coat of oil in the barrel is a bad idea. Anyone have an opinion on this? I would find it hard to believe it would be an issue... let alone I imagine after the first shot quite a bit of it is burned off. Is there some newfangled thought process I haven't heard of? Can't see how it would hurt, especially if you regularly ran a dry patch back through the barrel before you shot the gun again. Never hurts to look for barrel obstructions. Oil does attract dust and dirt and tends to thicken and get stickier with time, but nothing that should stop a "lead patch" moving down the barrel at the speed of sound. That said, I rarely use oil in the barrels of firearms using smokeless powder and noncorrosive primers. My barrel cleaning procedure is to work a solution of four parts Shooters Choice solvent and one part Kroil into the barrel with a stiff nylon brush sized to the bore. I put the solvent on the brush with a dropper bottle to avoid cross contaminating the rest of the solvent. Five strokes each way and then remove the brush and wipe it off. Wait a few minutes and then push a clean dry tight patch through. Repeat with the solvent mix on the brush if the clean patch comes up with powder or metal fouling. After the powder fouling is out (dark black), then increase the soak times between brushing and dry patching until the rest of the metal fouling is out (copper shows blue in the dry patch). Once there's no more fouling, I'm done. I think there is still enough solvent left in the metal after the last dry patch to have a preservative anti-rust effect. Heavy fouling and corrosion require a different bag of tricks, but that's my basic barrel cleaning procedure for whatever it's worth. Probably a good question for Old Pa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krrm Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 Oil in barrel while in storage, dry clean before shooting is standard procedure in my part of the old world as well. If you skip the dry clean part, I have read that someone thinks that oil in barrel *may* increase the pressure and that this might be bad for your karma or something. Ok, I made up the last part because a modern firearm should handle a little increased pressure just fine and after the first shot most of the oil should be gone anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceClass Posted August 15, 2009 Report Share Posted August 15, 2009 I always finish every gun cleaning by running an very lightly oiled patch over the whole thing, barrel included. I could understand that it "may" be a bad idea to fire a gun that's still dripping in packing grease as that can be pretty thick stuff but I've never yet seen a civilian gun thus shipped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boomana Posted August 16, 2009 Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 I was taught same as others here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Pa Posted August 16, 2009 Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 And clean from the breech whenever possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archosman Posted August 16, 2009 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 When I got my SKS it took forever to get all of the cosmoline off of the rifle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IceClass Posted August 16, 2009 Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 When I got my SKS it took forever to get all of the cosmoline off of the rifle. Cosmoline! That's what that %$#@ing stuff is called! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Pa Posted August 16, 2009 Report Share Posted August 16, 2009 When I got my SKS it took forever to get all of the cosmoline off of the rifle. That's because it was applied by the Red Star Brigade of the People's Cosmoline Division. After fifteen years my SKS still bleeds a little more cosmo after a rapid fire string. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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