I’ll always remember the age-old words from my father, “Take care of your gun and it’ll take care of you.” We were cleaning our side by sides after one particularly wet morning during the woodcock flights, when I was an early teenager and blessed with what today’s disgruntled modern hunters would consider to be the good old days. In simple terms, there were enough birds for even a lousy young shot to get a few. But post-hunt, I knew dry clothes and Nintendo would have to wait until after thoroughly cleaning my 20-gauge SKB, a hand-me-down from Dad that I’m still using over 40 years later.
Our shotguns and rifles are not only necessary for the acquisition of small game, birds, and deer, but in many instances, intrinsic to the hunt. I have one such beauty that causes me to tell the Good Wife, “Honey, I’m taking the gun for a walk!”
But regardless if said weapon is a meat gun or a revered icon passed down from grandfather to father to son, it requires proper care, maintenance, and storage, areas that we all could improve upon. If you hunt a lot, especially in harsh conditions, it’s easy to put comfort ahead of gun care. Or at least convince yourself that guns are built to last, forgetting the phrase “death by a thousand cuts” applies to firearms as well. A little rust isn’t terrible, but a lot, well, now …
Thankfully, there are professionals in the business of gun care and repair who can shed some light on what and what not do with our favorite tools of the trade. Carson Bachelder, of C.J. Bachelder Gunsmithing in Maple City, a full-time gunsmith for over 30 years, recently did some excellent work for me on the above-mentioned double, and was kind enough to provide a fraction of his years of experience to a handful of common questions/problems that gun owners encounter each year. But before we proceed further, it must be stated that ALL firearms should be cleaned UNLOADED. Yes, duh, but every year, several people are shot or killed because of cleaning a loaded gun.
Now, on to topic number one: moisture. Whether shooting clays on a warm, bluebird day or chasing mallards in a driving rain, you’ll deal with moisture on a gun, and according to Carson, the biggest mistake he sees is leaving a gun in its case. The latter is obvious, but moisture also occurs after “dry” hunts, as well. “During the summer, the gun acclimates to the temperature, but then you case it and bring it home and it goes into your cool house. With the gun inside the case, it sweats and the case traps moisture, causing rust. Same goes for cold-weather hunting and bringing it back into a warm house. The best solution is that every time you bring it back inside, wipe it down with a light oil and store it in a dry safe.”
In the event of a soaking, he added that “the only solution is to remove the action from the stock and thoroughly clean and oil it.” A good spray down with a light oil is fine temporarily, but you should really do — or have done — a complete cleaning. And while the average person can handle stripping down a rifle or shotgun, he added that “there are literally thousands of variables to that statement.” One type of rifle or shotgun is easy to take apart while others aren’t, plain and simple, using Parker shotguns as an example: “You definitely have to be trained to disassemble them.” What I take away from this is to do my absolute best to dry a soaked gun and then have it professionally cleaned at season’s end. Or, if you’re really concerned, have it done during the season and use a backup gun during the interim, if possible.
Some claim that it’s best to leave the gun locked in a truck each night to prevent the cooling and warming that causes condensation, but modern Michigan gun storage laws can cause a few honest hiccups, like having a rifle in the truck not during a firearm season, or when not going to the range, or not having the proper hunting licenses for the gun(s) that are in the vehicle. All things being equal, take each gun inside every day, remove from the case, and pat down/clean.
Until 2014, my hunting guns were all fixed choked, and I almost learned the hard way of the extra care that screw-in chokes require after not removing them the entire first season. Sounds like I’m not alone, as Carson admits that “people forget to clean their chokes, and far too often it’s too late. At the very least, the choke has to be destroyed to remove it to save the barrel.”
Proper care on the bore side includes “aggressive chemicals to cut through the plastic buildup (you can spend some money for these chemicals, but I’ve found using a solvent and scrubbing them with a toothbrush, then blowing them out with compressed air, works fine until I can have it professionally cleaned). The thread side needs to be kept clean and lubed with a heavy grease. When putting them back in, they are easy to overtighten, and should rather be “snug and frequently checked.”
Speaking of compressed air, Carson suggests that it both helps and hurts, stating that some types of guns respond better than others to the use of high-powered air. A water-logged, bolt-action rifle that can’t be removed from the stock will respond well to blowing it off with compressed air, followed by oil. But concerning a wet double barrel, “air isn’t going to help and could cause debris to travel to the internals.”
One of the biggest issues he deals with is oil, both in the types people use and where/how they’re applied. He prefers Birchwood Casey brand Barricade because it cleans well and doesn’t build up or “gum up” like most oils have a tendency of doing. (Non-gun oils and WD 40 should be avoided). And folks typically use too much oil and grease, especially on doubles. Grease applied in large amounts or in layers, and on “non-wear surfaces, does nothing but attract debris and slow down the ejectors and other components from functioning properly.”
Carson has a wealth of knowledge that’s much too extensive to cover in a short column, and this brief interview reminded me of the improvements I need to make in my own gun care, even after over 40 years of carrying them. A parting thought concerning the biggest but avoidable problem he sees — moisture and neglect — left me with hope. “A few minutes for a wipe down, or even to take it out of the case, can make all the difference. “In most instances, the only thing you should do is run an oiled patch down the barrel and wipe it down with a lightly oiled rag.” OK, I can handle that! But a good sporting resolution I’m adding right now to my list from last month’s column is to learn about — and take much better care of — my guns!