The end of the year is a few weeks away, and for most hunters, this draws to a close the final curtain on hunting seasons, save for those hunting small game mammals and varmints.
Seasons close, gear gets tucked away, and people start thinking about next year, the next season, ice fishing, or the holidays. But now is not the time to slack on taking care of your gun.
Gunsmith Mark Miller has practiced his trade for over 40 years in southern Minnesota. Miller has seen nearly everything when it comes to firearms and cannot emphasize enough the importance of caring for your gun and how a little prevention can go a long way.
“I see it every year,” Miller says of firearms owners negligent in care, “and it often can be traced to the end of the season. You’re tired, the holidays are coming, you set your gun aside, and you forget about it.”
That small and unintentional bout of neglect has huge consequences.
“If we got any rain during the hunting season, or it was a foggy morning, or you brought a warm gun into a cold environment and moisture condensed on and in the gun, you’re going to have rust problems,” Miller said. “That is one of the worst things you can do to a gun, especially in the chamber or on a semi-automatic or pump action because rust will create excess friction and you’ll have problems with shell extraction. Getting the gun dried down and oiled at the very least is a must. Field stripping and cleaning the gun is advised. And the best thing to do is a full take down.
“Clean and lubricate everything.”
Miller says a simple field stripping of the gun will take you about 20 minutes, but if you do it after each trip afield, you’ll enjoy a great deal more firearm reliability over time. Field stripping is any disassembly you can do without the aid of tools. Miller advises to take everything apart, run an old toothbrush along with some light gun oil over everything, use an air hose or canned air to blow off the excess gunk on everything you are cleaning, and finish by wiping everything down with a clean rag and some oil.
Miller also notes that when you oil your gun, you must use a Goldilocks approach. Not too little, not too much, and a medium amount that is just right.
“Keep your chamber in a semi-automatic oiled, as well as the outside of the gun,” Miller says. “The gases in a semi-auto will dry out the chamber and remove all that oil. If you don’t periodically reapply oil, you’ll have dry spots that are susceptible to rust. If you use too much, dust and debris will accumulate faster and impede function. You walk through a dry pheasant field and every little grass seed is going to get trapped in there. Pretty soon you have a bunch of gunk that makes the gun struggle to cycle shells.”
Screw in choke tubes on shotgun need special attention too.
“If you’re a waterfowl hunter and you’re out in a blind,” Miller notes, “you’re going to hold your shotgun vertically and water drops and rain are going to go down your barrel and get trapped in there. If you forget all about it, rust forms, and pretty soon you can’t get the choke out. That’s why it’s always a good idea to remove that choke, clean everything with oil and a toothbrush, and keep it lubed.”
Miller’s go-to lubricant for choke tubes is not anti-seize grease, which he says works fine but can leave behind some messy residue. Instead, Mille loves STP automotive oil treatment. It’s inexpensive, clear, and has the kind of viscosity to not be messy from leaking out.
“One syringe of that will last you a long time,” he says.
If you do manage to seize up a choke tube, Miller has a reliably successful at-home remedy.
“Try heating the choke and end of the barrel with a hair dryer or a heat gun,” Miller said. “You don’t want it to get too hot, particularly if you have a plastic or fiber optic bead up front. You just want it hot enough where it is uncomfortable to touch it. Then you use a penetrating oil to spray it down, heat it a little more, and then let it sit overnight. A lot of times, you do that, you can get that choke tube out the next morning.”
Once extracted, a deep cleaning and brushing to remove rust is a must.
As hunting seasons end, don’t get complacent and tuck away your gun for the year. Give it a thorough cleaning, wipe down everything with a cloth and oil, think about what aftermarket products you might want to add to the gun, and seek help from a professional gunsmith when you need it. You’ll be happy you did when you next pull that gun out to use it.
Mark Miller can be reached at millergunsmithing.com, by calling 507-364-5873, by texting questions to 612-708-9477, and he can be visited Monday-Saturday by appointment.