Gun Cleaning 101

If the gun fails to fire in that situation, you probably won't live to regret it anyway. Neither will your family. (Of course, you can hide in your room and wait for your local, overworked, understaffed police force to come to your rescue. But that's another subject.) Clean Your Gun!

Cleaning Tips

Use a bronze wire brush for regular bore cleaning. When removing copper, heavy lead fouling, or plastic shotgun wad fouling, use a nylon brush with Shooters Choice or a similar bore cleaner. (Shooters Choice is a powerful bore cleaner that will eat bronze brushes.)
Run the bronze brush through the bore once for every round fired. (I prefer Hoppes #9 solvent for light cleaning.)
Invest in a coated steel or brass cleaning rod if you are serious about caring for your gun. Aluminum rods are soft. They collect grit and particles that can scratch the bore.
Wipe the rod off after every pass through the bore.
Use a brass jag to push patches through the bore. Dragging a dirty patch in a slotted tip back through the bore is not what I call cleaning.
Use a bore guide or brass "bumper" to protect the chamber or muzzle crown from damage.
Clean the action with a blast of a pressurized solvent such as Gun Scrubber by Birchwood Casey. It cleans without leaving a residue.
Oil Lightly! Oil attracts dirt! If you can see fat, you probably oiled too much!

If you're concerned that you've oiled too much, try storing your gun with the barrel down. This will prevent oil or solvent from seeping into the wooden stock.
Strip clean about every 800 rounds or so. If you don't know how and don't have an owner's manual, take the gun to a Gunsmith. It doesn't cost that much. (It's cheaper than having him replace that spring flying into the recesses of your oh-so-clean garage or basement work room.)

There's much more to gun care, but this info should put you ahead of the game. If you want to learn more, check out a hobby gunsmith course such as one offered here at The Fish Creek House and Gun Club in Southwest Montana. We offer Firearms training repair, rebluing, nickel, chrome plating, Teflon, and custom work from recoil pad installation to complete custom rifles and handguns built to your specs.