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Cleaning revolvers

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eggwelder

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To me, cleaning after shooting is part of the experience. However, i have been detail stripping and cleaning my revolvers after every outing, and some, especially the old army, take forever to clean and reassemble.
do you guys do this or only do a detail strip and cleaning every so often?
 
Me thinks that depends on what your poison is as far as to your primer and powder choice ...

And take this as NOT gospel cause I am back shooting muzzleloaders ..revolvers in particular ..after being out of muzzleloader shooting for 20+ years ..

Black Powder requires full clean up (from past long gun experience) ..for sure the day you fired the gun

Same with Pyrodex

Triple Seven which I have gravitated to because no holy black easily acquired can be wiped down day of use and then a through external + chamber & bore the following day ( don't have the guts to try cleaning a BP weapon even using Triple Seven like a smokeless weapon) ...but I suspect T7 is nearly a first cousin to current day smokeless (corrosive wise) as far as corrosive effects as it certainly cleans up like smokeless ..but I think allowing much time for the "stuff" in the barrel/chambers to set up and "harden" would be a mistake

FYI ..having solved my cap splitting and fragments migrating to my internals via a heavier hammer spring I do not expect to see my 1860's innards but every 90 days or so ..that's based on what the innards looked like after 2 months 100's of rounds w/ T7

BEAR
 
I will remove the cylinder and if it's a Colt style the barrel also - clean all the parts that are on the outside of the gun including the nipples, inside of barrel and put away IF I am going to shoot it next weekend. If I am going to put it away for a month or longer I will do a through disassembly and thoroughly clean, oil and reassembly before it is put away.
 
Assuming I have a clean and well oiled gun already, after shooting I frequently only clean and oil the barrel, cylinder, nipples, and external parts.

Eventually the gun will need to be taken apart piece by piece and have a detailed cleaning/oiling job on all its parts, but definitely not every time you shoot it. Only once every several cylinders or so. You'll know when it's ready. Also, it will be ready a lot sooner if you carry it on your hip when you walk the brushy riverbanks like I do.

It will also be ready for a re-bluing alot sooner if you do that...
 
Assuming I have a clean and well oiled gun already, after shooting I frequently only clean and oil the barrel, cylinder, nipples, and external parts.

Eventually the gun will need to be taken apart piece by piece and have a detailed cleaning/oiling job on all its parts, but definitely not every time you shoot it. Only once every several cylinders or so. You'll know when it's ready. Also, it will be ready a lot sooner if you carry it on your hip when you walk the brushy riverbanks like I do.

It will also be ready for a re-bluing alot sooner if you do that...
A revolver properly maintained really never needs a re-blue job. They will develop a patina that some folks pay to have put on their guns. If I were using mine each day as our for fathers often did than they only need the barrel and cylinder thoroughly cleaned and a general wipe down at each days end with a complete strip clean and relube probably once a month . The innards will accumulate fouling over a few sessions of use and do need to be cleaned periodically or they will pit.
 
I clean my 1858 after every outing, complete tear down and clean n oil. Doesn’t take very long.
 
the colts and repro colts i dont mind- its mostly the old army with it`s myriad of springs and other tiny parts. It needed a good cleaning after i got it, probably hadn`t been done in 10 years Or more. As i cleaned, i found more parts to remove, clean inspect and put back together. Some of the non removable moving parts still need a solvent soak to get the brown sludge out of them, project for another day. Just couldn`t see me cleaning that thing every outing- it would stay home a lot
 
A revolver properly maintained really never needs a re-blue job. (...)

Unless you plop it into an ultrasonic cleaner full of brass case cleaning solution that contains citric acid. It worked great for cleaning black powder residue from brass. Imagine my surprise when I pulled my revolver out of cleaning!

Anyway, it has been rust blued for a long time since. I also "lightly blued" the cylinders for a more authentic look. Overall the gun looks better than before.

On the subject of normal cleaning. My most often used revolver is a remington army.

To clean I disassemble everything and put the whole lot minus wooden grips into the ultrasonic cleaner. Nipples and small parts go into a tiny basket made of stainless steel mesh. It takes less than two minutes to disassemble the revolver and 4 cylinders.I fill the ultrasonic cleaner with tap water and few drops of dishwashing liquid.

I clean for 30 minutes at 80 deg C, but my thermostat is a bit off to the point where I had rust convert to rust bluing occasionally before on this setting :)

Then everything is sprayed liberally with wd40 followed by air blast. The parts get oiled during assembly.

Funnily enough it takes less of my time to do this thorough cleaning than cleaning "only the frame, barrel and cylinder". I've done the latter few times after the gun was shot a little, but I prefer to clean in the ultrasonic cleaner.

The purchase of the ultrasonic cleaner was the biggest factor in me shooting my revolver a lot more. No need to mess with rags etc. Personally I enjoy cleaning a lot less than I enjoy shooting. Finding a cleaning routine that works for me is a huge factor in my enjoyment of the hobby.
 
Okay if you say so, but weekly day-hikes on the prairie in a leather holster HAS left my gun in need of a reblue, as the bluing has rubbed away from every point of contact with the holster.
Most of that is from an ill fitting holster and the revolver is continually moving and chafing against the leather. A form fitting holster will eliminate much of the blue removal except from the edges and high spots where it actually looks good to have some wear. If rust blued it will eventually turn brown over some years and use. I don't do hot tank blue any more for anything as Niedner slow rust blue is the best and most durable oxide finish I have ever seen or used. I use it on all long and short guns except for Laurel Mtn Forge browing for muzzle loaders but Nieder rust blue is more durable.
I much prefer the look of a well used and well cared for gun over a new look or fresh blue job. Most time new blue jobs show excess buffing with rounded off corner, screw heads and dished out areas that are supposed to be flat , which stands out like a sore thumb through a descent finish.
This is usually from poor buffing wheel use instead of hand work with sanding blocks and diamond files.
 
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Assuming I have a clean and well oiled gun already, after shooting I frequently only clean and oil the barrel, cylinder, nipples, and external parts.

Eventually the gun will need to be taken apart piece by piece and have a detailed cleaning/oiling job on all its parts, but definitely not every time you shoot it. Only once every several cylinders or so. You'll know when it's ready. Also, it will be ready a lot sooner if you carry it on your hip when you walk the brushy riverbanks like I do.

It will also be ready for a re-bluing alot sooner if you do that...

Some of that may depend on where you live, some may depend on what you mean by "ready for a re-blueing". If the wear bothers you, you may consider it "ready", but of the several revolvers Ive carried fairly extensively/daily for years, the places that wear the blue from the holster down to bare metal havent had any problems on the bare spots. The ongoing holster wear also likely keeps the metal from gathering rust, though I live in pretty dry country. At least one of my revolvers I carried daily for a couple years in all weather, riding motorcycles (carried openly, the days before concealed carry was legal), and I was nomadding around living in the hills camping about 10 months/yr for several years. That gun (not BP) was cleaned only with an occasional wipe down after rain or snow exposure and dusting of sights etc with toothbrush and shot a fair amount. It went a year or so between actual cleanings at least once that I recall. A couple small rust stains are the only casualties. The blue loss didnt seem to be much trouble.

Its not only the fit of the holster and what you are doing, (and holsters generally loosen up when used regularly) in dry country the constant dust gets in everything and is very abrasive to blue and anything else it touches. I quickly get to bare metal showing on the sides of the cylinders and whatever touches the bedside table where the gun lays at night. That fine powdery grit also gets in holster leather and wears any contact points pretty quickly, at least it has in Az and the northern rockies on the dry side where Ive lived.

I have a saddle carbine made by a well known maker in 1927 that hasnt has much finish on it in decades. I got it in the mid 80s, it was a ranch gun in Az, it looked and felt like it hadnt been cleaned in decades, if ever and was terribly abused and damaged. I detail stripped it and cleaned it, put it back together, and been carrying it a lot over the past 35 years, its my rainy and snowy weather gun besides also just being a general favorite. No rust on the silver metal of the frame and other well worn parts.

I used to keep a cheap brass frame Pietta Navy copy in 44 in my truck when I lived in Flagstaff, it lived there always, all year. It was loaded all the time, id shoot it once a year, clean it, then reload it and back in the tool box it went. Once when I went to give it its yearly shoot/clean,...and realized I had shot it the year before and forgot to clean it. It had some minor rust and discoloration, but no deep pits, it cleaned up pretty well, so I loaded it and put it back in the tool box. It was a loaner once to a single lady living alone in a tipi with her toddler son, she was bothered by aggressive dogs trying to get her food.
 
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I strip the wood from both open and closed tops. Then hold the gun and parts under a running hot water tap while scrubbing with an appropriate tool or brush. High pressure air blow down and a generous saturation with Ballistol aerosol followed by a lower pressure blow down. Seasons end and then I’ll strip the revolver down.
Some advocate packing the internal cavities with Mobile 1 synthetic grease. Works well but I don’t care for it.
 
Being a chemistry nurd I use windex and the vinegar type is even better. Both regular and vinegar test as a base, I got the pH papers to prove it. Anyway, bp fouling is acid base. The windex neutralizes the fouling and you don't get the rotten egg smell. I spray it down in the action until what comes out is clear. Dry with towels and hairdryer. What ever fouling that's left inside is inert, won't rust. I don't lube the insides of the cylinder so the first shots aren't poopers and never any rust. I have to admit I'm lazy but this really works. Oh, if you need to wipe after some shooting to continue, try huggies baby wipes.
Good Luck and have fun.
 
To me, cleaning after shooting is part of the experience. However, i have been detail stripping and cleaning my revolvers after every outing, and some, especially the old army, take forever to clean and reassemble.
do you guys do this or only do a detail strip and cleaning every so often?
I am obsessive about how my handguns look. However, I have come to understand a few things about cleaning them. I have found that complete disassembly is required only once or twice a year. Other than that, after a day of shooting, I just take off the barrel and cylinder, clean those, clean around the trigger and under the cylinder space, and back along the hammer. Basically any service area that black powder accumulates. I use nothing but water, dry thoroughly (sometimes with a hair dryer at first), and then live it to sit with a spray and wipe down of ballistol along the frame, inside the barrel, and in the cylinders. I usually remove the nipples, but have found that even that is not necessary every time. Like I said I am obsessive about keeping my revolvers pretty, and have never once had rust or anything else develop using this method. Thanks!

Another thought to add... I have found that running the barrel and cylinder through with water from a tub or sink to be extremely effective. Most of the gunk runs right out of the two with hot water, and the remnants are easily cleaned up with some swab throughs with moist patches
 
Being a chemistry nurd I use windex and the vinegar type is even better. Both regular and vinegar test as a base, I got the pH papers to prove it.

If your "vinegar" tests as base there is no vinegar in it! Perhaps some scent oil is added to the product to smell like vinegar. I'm assuming as a chemistry nurd you know vinegar is acetic acid. Even at the lowest concentration I ever saw used (3%) it still has pH 4. Acidic enough to strip bluing easily.

I realise you're talking about a specific product, but you should make it more clear or some reader will take straight vinegar to his guns and act surprised when it cleans them down to white steel.

Citric acid does the same thing.
 
If your "vinegar" tests as base there is no vinegar in it! Perhaps some scent oil is added to the product to smell like vinegar. I'm assuming as a chemistry nurd you know vinegar is acetic acid. Even at the lowest concentration I ever saw used (3%) it still has pH 4. Acidic enough to strip bluing easily.

I realise you're talking about a specific product, but you should make it more clear or some reader will take straight vinegar to his guns and act surprised when it cleans them down to white steel.

Citric acid does the same thing.
Well put. No cleaning agents other than Dawn dish soap and hot water. Ballistol water mix for range temporary cleaning or between shots.
 
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