My First .22 LR Cleaning - What a Bitch!

[CUatTheEnd]

So we used to hunt a lot growning up, got my Hunter safety as early as possible (10?). Mostly small game (Rabbit) anyway went to my dad's tonight since I was bored and asked him if I could clean his guns. He gave me our Glenfield Model 75 .22LR, right handed (mine), J.C. Higgins Model 28 Sears Roebuck & Co, left handed (my brothers), yeah that's right, when Sears actually sold guns, and lastly my grandpa found a Topper Model 158 Harrington & Richardson Single Shot 20 gauge Full Choke. All rusted, the H&R Single Shot the worst, the Sears Roebuck a little better and the Glenfield was in the best shape, but still rusted. Did a little reasearch, got some 0000 fine wool and some gun oil and it worked liked a charm. I still need to run a second coat, and let the oil sit overnight, then it comes off even easier. The Single Shot I don't think is going to get looking much better unless I take it in to get all the rust removed and re-blued. The other two will survive.

So I took apart the Glenfield (with the help of youtube of course), cleaned, oiled and now just need to reassemble. Much more time consuming than my pistols, however, very educational (again my first disassemble, clean, and reassemble for a .22 LR) fun none-the-less (4 hrs later...one gun). Most of the time took was getting the rust off, but ran into a few other issues (thank god for the internet). Reassemble tomorrow and continue with the others.

Not sure how to disassemble the Sigle Shot? If anyone know please send me a PM or reply. There are no scews, only rivots? Google the Topper MOdel 158 by Harrington & Richardson.

[colocowboy01]

Post some pics of the guns.

[Pancho Villa]

I know the feeling. I've handled really old shotguns and I think the main advances sincethe 60s or 70s with single shot/pump shotguns and .22s is ease of disassembly.

Hard to materially improve either design as far as function goes, so the engineers have been hard at work making them easy and intuitive to disassemble. Which, if you clean your firearms, is a big deal.

[CUatTheEnd]

@ Colocowboy, I should have took before and after pictures. It's realther amazing. Still look a little beat up, but rather good now for their ages. My dad has some more 12 & 20 gauges, 30-06's 4-10's etc, that are all in the same boat, stored in the old cloth cases, in a crawl space. I'll work on them later this weekend or next week. I'll post before and after pictures for those and get these up hopefully today.

@Pancho - These older guns are tricky. Messing with the Bolt assembly spring right now, having issues keeping it compressed to hold the bolt in so I can put on the other parts.

[ChadAmberg]

I'm finally sure that using CLP to clean my guns definitely makes them easier to clean in the future. It's not just wishful thinking.
My wife shoots a S&W 317 revolver, 8 shot 22lr. When we first got it cleaning that took forever. 6 chambers are bad enough, but it seems those extra 2 makes it twice as bad.
But as time goes on, it looks like the teflon in the Breakfree CLP really makes a difference in how easy it is to clean. Before it'd take forever to get the lead out of the grooves in the barrel, now a single pass with a boresnake is enough to make it perfect. All the other crud you get from 22lr wipes right off instead of needing any scrubbing at all. Now it's a 5 minute job instead of an hour.

Of course that reminds me, I've got a stack of guns to clean from Friday night's shooting. It's finally nice enough we can do it outside instead of in the basement though...

[CUatTheEnd]

@ Chad - I use Slip 2000 EWL 30 & 50. Hopefully after this deep cleaning it only will get easier from here on out.

I had my first F^%$ up. I didn't want to put the strap on since it was old, put in the front screw all the way down, again with out the strap on so it went through the wood and actually poked through (a hair, enough to cause a headache) the long tubelur magazine so now it's a bitch to pull in and pull out. Need a pair of pliers to pull out tough to push in, hopfully it will get better in time (it's already old enough).

[Irving]

CUatTheEnd, can you use a small nail or pin to hold the spring together while you compress it?

[Daniel_187]

yeah I hear you man, I hate cleaning my wheel guns after shooting lead round nose ammo.

[CUatTheEnd]

I got it finally, just took some trail and error plus a little common sense. The good thing is this is a 1973 Glenfield Model 75, in mint condition their only $75.00 - $100.00 bucks. That one is good to go, here are some pictures that Cowboy wanted to see:

http://s1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee509/CUatTheEnd/Glenfield%20Model%2075%2022LR%201973/

Mind you, this one had the least rust and had been sitting in a closet for over 20 years. This gun was also used a lot for rabbit hunting back in the day. Kind of excited to get it back out, now that all the hard work was done (i.e. cleaning). Now on to the JC Higgins Model 28 .22LR

Here is the left handed JC Higgins Model 28 - A bit more rusty and pitting than the Glenfield

http://s1231.photobucket.com/albums/...l%2028%2022LR/

5/30 8:00pm just finished cleaning the JC Higgins Model 103.229 .22LR Bolt Action

[CUatTheEnd]

Wife might ask for a divorce after this weekend. I've been cleaning guns all weekend. (3 .22LR's, and one 20 gauge, two 12 gauge).