How to Clean a Bolt-Action Rifle

Video Transcript

"We're going to talk a little bit, give you a quick overview on cleaning a rifle, long gun. Number one: safety. Point the muzzle in a safe direction. Keep your finger off the trigger, and open the action. This is a bolt action rifle, with pretty easy to open the action. That allows you to look down inside, make sure there's no cartridge in there. Once you're set with that, make sure you don't have any ammunition in the same room, go put it where ammunition usually goes. First thing you should do is remove the bolt. This one's pretty simple. Little lever on the side, the bolt comes out. You can set the bolt aside for now. You want to clean the bore of your gun. Generally we'll start to clean it, then let it soak because there's lots of copper or lead powder filing that's inside of there. So, what we do, we use a cleaning rod with a rotating handle that allows the jag, whatever you're using, to rotate as it goes through the bore, cleaning out the grooves that are in the bore that puts spin to the bullet, called 'riffling'. What I usually like to start with is the cleaning patch holder. Screw it on the end, put your cleaning patch in place on it. Gonna get some solvent on that patch, and then start with the breech end again, because you don't want to damage the very front end. Start that down the bore, hold onto the handle, slide it slowly all the way through, then pull it all the way back. Generally that's going to come out quite filthy, so you'll take it off and discard it. Once I've done that, I like to take this off, put the round brush of the proper caliber on to the end. I put a little more solvent on it at that point in time. That first patch just gets all of the loose powder, copper, everything out of there. Back from the breech end, again. Start that in. Again, push it all the way through. Don't stop in the middle and reverse directions. Once it's all the way through, pull it all the way back. It should be a little bit tight. And you want this brush to spread out into the grooves and the riffling, and help clean it out. Now once you've that, I like to set that aside, let that solvent stay in there and work. Let it soften all that copper, and or lead, and the powder filing. Pay attention to the bolt at this point. More solvent on your little hand brush. If you don't mind the taste, you can use your toothbrush. Brush this all over, on the end. You're going to see black powder filing, and sometimes even a little brass from the cartridge case. This entire thing, you want to brush it off. Be free with your solvent. As they say, if you have an allergy, if you have a little sensitivity, put some rubber gloves on. There's no shame in that. Clean this off as clean as you can. Sides, all over. There's no need to take this apart unless you really have some type of a problem, and you are, or want to become, a gunsmith. Other than that, leave it like it is. When you've finished, get yourself a cloth. You want to wipe everything that you've brushed loose off of here as good as possible. Get it as clean as you can, if you see something that's a little stubborn was still on there, take a little more solvent, go back after it again. Once you've done that, you've wiped it off, you can set that bolt aside, then take your hand brush into the receiver of the gun. Little more solvent. And, you know another thing that I do sometimes is, I like this gun scrubber to spray on my brush. It flushes all the things that have been attached to that brush that I've picked up from other areas, flush that off, start with a clean brush again. Tap it off, get some more solvent. And then we can go after the inside of the receiver. All the places that you're going to see powder filing. Up inside here. Back from the back end. Once you've done with that, you can use your cloth. You can push it through sometimes. Pull it through this way. Clean it out. Into there. You can also go back to your rod, put this patch holder on again. And use your regular cleaning patches to get inside these little areas that's difficult to get to. You got that all cleaned. It's been wiped off again. Take the brush off. And now it's your choice, you can use the patch holder, or you can use my favorite for the final cleaning, the jag. It's a little round device that's slightly smaller than your bore, has a pointed end on it. You can take a patch, find the approximate center, and actually pop that patch...oop, little too much on that one, stronger than I thought, or not as old as I thought...just pop it through like that so it stays on. Run it through the bore. Hold on to the handle, not the shaft. Push it all the way through the bore. And you can bring it all the way back. That's going to rotate right through there, and even on a clean gun, with just the little bit that I've sent through, it's dirty again. Just continue to do that, either with the jag or the patch holder, whichever you use. Just like that. Pop it through. Run it through the bore again. Once it comes out clean, you're in good shape. Sometimes you'll find if you've got a little bit longer rod than this, when you go to drag it back, that patch will just pop right off. You won't even have to clean it. So you keep going back and forth with that. Once it comes out clean, hold it up, take a good look down the bore. And even reverse it, look down the bore. Make sure you don't see any little bits that seem to be stuck in there. It should be a completely smooth, clean bore with the riffling going around, should look real good. Once you've done that, you've got it cleaned, take a little bit of lubrication, lubricate your bore. I like to wipe it on there with my hands, make sure it gets on there really well. Fit it back in. Sometimes you have to adjust it a little bit. Back into place. And finally, take your silicone cloth, or lightly oiled rag, go over all the metal parts of your gun with it. This helps prevent rust, puts a nice, thin coating on the outside. If you're going to store that gun for a long time, take one last patch with a little bit of oil, and run that down right through the bore of your gun. Then you can store it. There's a lot less chance of rust happening with it that way."