Posted on August 22, 2017
Caring for a smooth-bore rifle
Successful hunting, directly depends on the state of your weapons, care on it, and regular cleaning. Negligent attitude with the rifle, can significantly shorten its service life. If you want your weapon to serve you for many years, you must take care of its quality care.
What can spoil a rifle
Before we start directly describing how to properly care for a hunting rifle, let’s look at what you do not need to do to make your rifle useless:
- When loading cartridges, do not use smoky and smokeless powder;
- Do not use gunpowder from unchecked manufacturers, and in non-standard packaging when loading cartridges. At best, such a powder can be unsuitable for use and lying;
- When loading ammunition, never in any way increase the weight of the powder or projectile, in order to add the power of the shot. Such actions may lead to a faster wear on the design of the weapon or to completely break it;
- Do not leave the rifle in the rain in the open.
Transportation of hunting rifles
When transporting the guns use a hard (holster) and soft (leather, tarpaulin) covers. Each of them has its own advantages. When driving long distances by car when transporting weapons, it is recommended to use hard covers, when walking, use their soft analogs. After all, they are much more convenient and lighter than hard cases.
When transporting in a soft case, the rifle must be packed in such a way that it does not knock while driving. If you have purchased a wide cover and it dangles, in this case, it should be tightened as tightly as possible with a short strap.
Operation of the rifle
During the hunt, if your weapon is in a discharged state, it is not recommended to click the hammers, since you can simply break the firing pin. In order to throw off the strikers, insert the shot sleeve into the rifle. If the rifle is in the unfolded state, press against it a wooden workpiece, so that the entire blow from the striker fell on it.
We must make sure that the trunks do not get water, snow, dirt, because when shooting a gun barrel can rupture or swell, which will lead to its rapid failure. After the shot, be sure to check whether a part of the liner or wigs remained accidentally in the barrel of the weapon. Do not forget to observe the safety when checking the rifle barrel!
Cleaning the rifle
The first thing you need to make sure that the rifle is discharged, be sure to pay attention to it! Even experienced hunters have often heard a story about how a shot was fired during the cleaning. They themselves then wondered how this could have happened, because they have long been in the habit of discharging their weapons after hunting. After the inspection, we perform visual inspection, clearing of dirt, dust and forest debris.
From cleaning the rifle directly depends on how many years it will serve you. After the end of the hunt, regardless of whether you used a weapon or not, you need to clean the rifle. To do this, take a dry rag and wind it on the ramrod and walk along the trunk.
After this, take a rag soaked with gun oil and repeat the procedure. Also, further wipe it, the lock mechanism and the barrel from the outside.
For cleaning weapons, each hunter must have a minimum cleaning set:
- bristle brush;
- metal brush;
- ramrod;
- wisher;
- gun oil;
- soft cloth.
After the rough cleaning of the hunting smooth-bore weapon was carried out, upon arrival home it is necessary to perform a repeated more thorough cleaning. At the first stage of cleaning it is necessary to use a metal brush, which must be additionally moistened with alkaline lubricant. This stage of cleaning should be done to remove the possible deposit from gunpowder formed during the shooting. After using the metal brush to remove all the carbon deposits and the traces of the “lead” fraction, take the wisher with a soft rag and dry the rifle barrels. If you do not have to use it, you can skip cleaning with the use of a metal brush.
In the second stage, take a bristle brush moistened with an alkaline lubricant and wipe the barrels of the gun several times.
At the last stage of cleaning, take a dry rag and wind it on the wisher, and rub the rifle barrels until the rag is completely clean.
If the trunks are very dirty and have not been cleaned for a long time, it is recommended that they be washed beforehand in hot soapy water (50-60 C), then wiping the ramrod with a rag wound around the wisher. Soap water softens the rust and carbon build up in the process of shooting.
Cleaning Tips
If in the process of wiping the trunks with a rag, you will find on it still a brilliant coating (lead), then it is recommended to wet the cloth with turpentine and wipe the trunks until there is a sparkle on the new rag. After all the lead is removed, continue to clean the trunks in the order shown above.
When the rifle is being preserved, it is recommended that it be processed with a nigrol. After all, as you know, nigrol does not flock to the surface and perfectly protects the metal from corrosion. It should be noted that the mechanisms of smooth-bore rifles to lubricate nigrol are not recommended, since it is very thick at low temperatures.
Taking advantage of these simple tips for cleaning and caring for weapons, you will extend the life of your weapons for many years. Finally we recommend you to watch a video about cleaning the rifle.
