Keeping your firearms clean is more than just about upkeeping appearances, it’s a fundamental part of maintenance to ensure that your firearms stay in working condition. With mid-tier grade components, leaving the grime to build up after running through several thousands of rounds can be asking for trouble.

How Often Should I Clean My Firearms?

Ideally, users should upkeep their firearms after every shooting session. Although quality parts can power through thousands of rounds with no serious maintenance, it is still good to take care of your equipment. For guns that you depend your life on, check your concealed carry’s condition and upkeep bimonthly.

Firearms kept in long term storage should have their cleaning sessions every 6 months.

What Parts of the Gun Do I Need to Clean?

Not every part of your firearm needs to remain spotless for smooth operation. Allowing the moving parts to keep moving with the least friction as possible is key. Although your usual barrel isn’t supposed to move during cycling, the bullet certainly moves through it so no doubt the bore and breech should be kept clean. Typically, the user wants to inspect the areas where it can be expected to accumulate filth the easiest.

Such areas are usually…

• Bolt Carrier Group
• Barrel bore
• Breech
• Slide
• Buffer Assembly

What is the Best Product To Clean A Gun With?

A proper gun cleaning kit should at the very least include a caliber appropriate bore brush and gun cleaning solvents, some cleaning kits however, make do with cotton gun cleaning patches and cleaning rod. A typical 9mm gun cleaning kit looks just like that of a standard rifle’s albeit with a smaller brush. For longer barrels, many types of bore snakes are popular options today. Some are thicker strands of rope while others are a wire coated in plastic or nylon. There are also metal rods that screw onto each other to form an extended rod for taking gun cleaning patches or wire brushes through the bore.

As far as gun cleaner solvents go, they come in options of a foam pump bottle or an aerosol spray can. These are useful in getting a good coating of gun cleaning solvent into small moving parts that would be otherwise difficult to reach for a saturated cotton swab. Foam solvents are great for barrel cleaning jobs as they expand inside your bore to thoroughly coat and break down debris caked on your rifling.

Gun cleaning mats can be a good investment if you plan on doing the work over a workbench as some of these cleaning solvents can be caustic.

As you shoot your guns, the action and components that come into contact with the hot gas become layered with the precipitates. This fouling is what you want to primarily target in your cleaning process, and they are a combination of…

• Dirt
• Copper
• Lead
• Carbon

The solvent you use may not remove all of these particles. What is good at clearing out carbon and lead may not break down copper with the same efficiency. So don’t be afraid of using more than just one type of solvent in your gun cleaning kit. If the solvent you use contains chemicals that break down copper, make sure to not apply it with your copper brushes.

We’ve gathered a list of some honorable mentions to add to your solvent collections to make the best gun cleaning kit for you.

Hoppes No.9

To start off our list of solvents we begin with the industry standard for carbon, dirt, and lead. Hoppes gun cleaner solvents have been a staple name with about 120 years of history and experience to stand on. Although it does market the ability to break down copper, the solution works painstakingly slow for copper fouling. The Hoppes No.9 solvent comes with a distinctive smell that can come off as either pleasant or otherwise according to personal preference. This is a good and proven solvent to start off with for cleaning the major offenders in your bore and action.

KG-12 Big Bore Cleaner/ Copper Remover

Where Hoppes does not shine, KG-12 is here to compensate for it. KG-12 is a copper remover that works very fast and does not need to be let rest in your bore for too long. 4 to 6 gun cleaning patches run through your barrel will be sufficient. If you’d prefer to use a brush for your bore, KG-12 does not eat away at metal brushes as much as other copper removing solvents.

Additionally, KG-12 does not have a strong ammonia stench compared to its counterparts.

Sage and Brake CLP

Breakfree CLP has been used extensively by the US Army like cosmoline was to the Red Army as a one in all purpose solvent for cleaning, lubricating, and preserving. Like shampoo and conditioner in one bottle products, they tend to only be okay in trying to do everything. But for quick cleanings and lubrications, Sage and Brake CLP gets the job done.

Sage and Brake CLP is an improved reiteration of the CLP we’re familiar with. Our beloved common dirt remover and field lubricant now comes with no unpleasant smell and in a non-toxic form should a marine decide to consume CLP as a condiment for their crayons. Sage and Brake CLP lacks the methyl soyate, a methanol and soy oil compound, common in most CLP that turns into a sticky mess when left to oxidize on steel parts over time. Furthermore, the improved formula of CLP lasts longer than most CLP even in the face of contaminants like dust and soil while doing a better job of dissipating heat in your action and bore.

Breakthrough Military-Grade Solvent

If the Sage and Brake CLP is too rich for your blood and you’d still like a quality non-toxic all in one purpose cleaner for quick field maintenance and lubrication, the Breakthrough Military-Grade Solvent is for you. It is an odorless solvent that is guaranteed to not stain your wood furniture, plastic, finishes, and of course your teeth for anyone wondering about its taste.

Made in the USA, the Breakthrough Military-Grade Solvent comes in 2 oz bottles all the way up to 5 gallon drums with a certification of toxicity clearance by the USACHPPM (U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine).

Is WD40 Okay For Guns?

WD-40 may work on creaky cabinet hinges and stuck screws, but it is by no means an effective gun lubricant or cleaner. Are you looking for a way to dry out your firearm? WD-40 evaporates rapidly and will have your action bone dry by the time you’ve shot your first or second round. This is why WD-40 will not make a suitable gun lubricant. Moreover, as you spray the WD-40 into the gun’s crevices, it’ll leave the grime in place as soon as it dries up.

Also, WD-40 contains solvents that are harmful to polymer furniture and frames.

Build With Modulus Arms Today!

Do you have the burden of having no guns to clean yet? Modulus Arms is here to alleviate you of that burden by guiding you on the path to building your own firearm today! Take a look at our Router Jig Extreme and 80 lowers to mill out a lower receiver for your firearm build.