If you were raised like me, after you shot a rifle or even took it hunting, you cleaned it. Initially this made sense to me but it wasn’t until after I’d entered the military that I learned that this, clean every time you shoot, mindset was nothing but a carryover from training. You see, the military makes you clean your rifle or handgun every time you use it so that you learn how to clean it and take care of it. It is a training tool.
The notion that a rifle or handgun needs cleaned every time you take it to the woods or every time you shoot it is nonsense. Well, that is unless you are shooting black powder. Black powder is corrosive and if you leave it in your barrel – even the residue from one shot – it can ruin your barrel. This fact might also have something to do with the military’s obsessions with cleaning; at one time all military arms used ammunition loaded with black powder.
Sorry, I’m wandering.
The point of all this is that I recently received a new cleaning kit from Bushmaster called the “Tactical Field Cleaning System.” This is a compact, rod-less, kit built around the Bore Squeeg-E system. If you are unfamiliar with the Bore Squeeg-E it is a rubber stopper looking device that goes on the end of a cable. You pull it through your barrel and it takes the place of cloth patches.
I learned how to clean rifle barrels from guys like John Barsness and Melvin Forbes and those guys use a rod, brush, jags and a LOT of patches. When they clean a rifle barrel, they clean it down to bear metal. So, I was skeptical of the Bore Squeeg-E system. Primarily for two reasons. First, I did not think it would clean as good as patches and second, without a clean patch to run through the barrel, how would you know if it ever did in fact get clean?
Still, my job is to try stuff to see if it works and when the Bushmaster kit arrived I put it to work on my Marlin 1894 in .327 Federal which had never had the barrel cleaned. (More on that in a moment.) I followed the directions and in about 10 minutes I was done. With a bore light I could not see any fouling in the barrel. Clean patches soaked in Hoppe’s and Copper Killer served as verification. I was impressed.
However, to be sure, I needed to clean a rifle barrel with which I have a history in order to be able to compare this new cleaning system with one of conventional wisdom. My son’s .243 Winchester has a barrel that fouls something terrible. The fouling does not hinder accuracy but getting the copper out of that barrel is about as like trying to get facts or truths from the Obama administration.
I also had one of the Complete Remington Bore Squeeg-E systems on hand so again I followed the directions and cleaned the .243. In 10 minutes I was done. I checked the barrel and could still see minute traces of copper near the muzzle. However, I can assure you that it was less copper than is usually present after 10 minutes of cleaning using the traditional method. I then cleaned with the Bore Squeeg-E again and while there were still traces of copper they were minimal. Maybe the best way I can describe how the Bore Squeeg-E system works is that it is faster than traditional cleaning methods.
But, is it as good or better?
Good question. I do believe that 10 minutes of cleaning with the Bore-Squeeg-E system will yield a cleaner barrel than 10 minutes of cleaning with a rod, jag, and patches. However, If the goal is to clean to bear metal AND if you have a barrel that fouls very badly, I think you’ll need a rod, brush, bore paste and maybe even some steel wool to remove every last trace of copper. Oh, and yeah, you’ll probably need several hours and about 100 patches.
I think however there are some more important questions and considerations. If you have a bad fouling bore and clean it perfectly clean then you can expect the first several shots to have a different point of impact until that bore becomes partially fouled again. If you get that bore 90% to 95% clean like you can with the Bore Squeeg-E system AND do it in 10 minutes or in less than a tenth of the time, I ‘ll call that good enough.
Shooters often ask, “How do you know when a rifle barrel is clean?” The standard answer is when you can run a solvent soaked patch down the bore and it comes out with no fouling.
Maybe the more important question is, “How do you know if your rifle needs cleaned?”
- If accuracy starts to degrade due to fouling, clean it.
- After shooting or hunting in a moist environment, clean it.
- If your gun is full of grit and grime, clean it.
- If you are board and have absolutely nothing else to do, clean it.
Other than that, and a little bit of lubrication and corrosion protection, leave the damn thing alone. I own several guns and have never cleaned their bore. Heck, I own several that have been nothing more than wiped down with Ballistol. The beautiful aspect of the Bore Squeeg-E system is that it is compact and fast. And, it will provide a better level of bore cleaning in 10 minutes than the conventional, rod, brush and patch method. You’ll also find other tools in each kit to help you clean the rest of your firearm and AR specific kits have AR specific cleaning tools.
Bushmaster and Remington have a wide selection of these Bore Squeeg-E kits to work with specialized firearms and even a complete kit, which you can use to clean almost any firearm. Each box lists the contents right on the outside so you know up front what you are getting and based on my testing, you’ll have everything you need to get your gun in good shape and it will only take about 10 minutes. You can order direct from Remington or Bushmaster and probably find these kits at Walmart and Cabela’s too.
Will I quit using a rod, jags and patches? Nope. Sometimes it might take a rod, brush, bore paste and a little steel wool. But, I’ll be putting a Bore Squeeg-E system in my truck, my hunting pack and I’ll have another one I’ll leave at camp. With all three there will also be a small spray bottle of Ballistol (Because you cannot have too much Ballistol.) and on one of those rare occasions when I think my gun needs cleaned, I’ll only have to waste about 10 minutes doing it.
Now I know, I’m not likely to convince my rifle cleaning mentors and others who are overly anal about bore cleaning that the Squeeg-E system is viable and worth adapting. But, you know what, I don’t care. While there getting a pile of patches and gun rod elbow, I’ll be out shooting and hunting which is exactly what you are supposed to do with guns. Only in the military do you have to clean them every time you shoot them!
