Oxy Clean For Firearms?

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mZnthebend

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So everyone here knows that Oxy Clean will clean just about anything. I was cleaning a gas piston on a beretta autoloading shotgun last night and thought about how much I'd love to drop that piston in some concentrated oxy clean for at an hour or so and then clean, dry, and oil it.

Does this sound like a terrible idea?

Has anyone tried something like this?

Maybe I should try it with some regular steel from around the house first before precision machined steel parts?
 
Once you get the parts nice and clean, look into Gun Butter. It's best used on guns like ARs where carbon gets baked on like nobody's business. It works awesome.
 
Yeah, My gut tells me it's a bad idea.

I was hoping someone might pop up and say that they have had great experiences with it.
 
We use to take our M16 (AR 15) into the shower or even boil the parts in water. It never hurt them a lick, so I don't see what Oxy Clean is going to do to the piston that will hurt it any. It isn't like you are dropping it in a corrosive liquid like Coke Cola which will eat rust off of a bolt and nut so I would be leery of putting a gun part in it.
 
Guns DO go out in the rain and rather often. I don't know that Oxy would do the job better than something else tho. Once it's clean, oil it like normal and it won't be any different than being outside in the rain.
 
I clean my black powder rifle with soap and water. As long as the steel is dried and oiled, I don't see an issue.
 
I'd stick to gun specific chems. Anybody have suggestions on how to clean a suppressor? I've got a 45osprey that will need a cleaning eventually.
 
I doubt OXI would be of any real benefit, considering it's not going to get through the grease/oil and probably wont' affect the carbon buildup either.

They make stuff that really works. Maybe check out a gun forum or a magazine for more info.
 
I'd stick to gun specific chems. Anybody have suggestions on how to clean a suppressor? I've got a 45osprey that will need a cleaning eventually.
Here is the real irony about what you just said...

Many things we have available to clean our guns with that are pushed as for GUN SPECIFIC cleaning is no different than NON GUN SPECIFIC cleaning chemicals. When it come to metal all you need to be aware of is if it will ruin a finish or be corrosive if left on it for to long. Heck windex is the best thing to use to stop the reaction of the corrosive powder after shooting MIL surplus ammo and it isn't a GUN SPECIFIC cleaner.

Now if there is any types of plastics involved then you need to be more careful and concerned.
 
Put all your parts (except the wooden ones) in the bathtub with hot water and dawn dish soap. Let them soak for 20 minutes, brush them down really good, and rinse with hot water. Dry them really good, using an air compressor is best, and oil well with rem oil or hoppes. I have done this on 240 bravo machine guns that have had a thousand rounds through them and they will pass a white glove test.
 
Put all your parts (except the wooden ones) in the bathtub with hot water and dawn dish soap. Let them soak for 20 minutes, brush them down really good, and rinse with hot water. Dry them really good, using an air compressor is best, and oil well with rem oil or hoppes. I have done this on 240 bravo machine guns that have had a thousand rounds through them and they will pass a white glove test.

Sounds like the military way to me and it works....
 
We use to take our M16 (AR 15) into the shower or even boil the parts in water. It never hurt them a lick, so I don't see what Oxy Clean is going to do to the piston that will hurt it any. It isn't like you are dropping it in a corrosive liquid like Coke Cola which will eat rust off of a bolt and nut so I would be leery of putting a gun part in it.

So you are the one that did that :mad:. We always told our classes not to shower with or put them in the Dish Washer it never worked the guys did it all the time. I actually loved using carb cleaner on the 60, 249, and the 50 just have to lube them up real well. It usually ended up taking about the same amount of time as cleaning it right though in the long run. :tank:
You can do just about what ever you want as long as it is lubed up well after and then re-lube it a few days later. The metal will soak it up real fast.
USAF Combat Arms Instructor, merged to become a AF Cop for a total of 15.5 years before being medically retired.
 
We use to take our M16 (AR 15) into the shower or even boil the parts in water. It never hurt them a lick, so I don't see what Oxy Clean is going to do to the piston that will hurt it any. It isn't like you are dropping it in a corrosive liquid like Coke Cola which will eat rust off of a bolt and nut so I would be leery of putting a gun part in it.

Ditto about the M16 and a shower. A shower didn't do a complete enough job though. So after a shower we would use carb cleaner down the barrel and all over the gun. Don't ever let an armorer see you do it though. We would have to do it quick, then let it sit for a bit then clean it up. Shaved about half a day on the clean up.
 
Showers are hell on weapons, but I've done it too. The best is to put it in that chem. bath and then take q-tips and pipe cleaners to em.

Something most people don't know, though: the weapon needs a bit of carbon built up to fire properly. A perfectly cleaned weapon won't be ready to rock when you need it, so go easy and leave 5/10% carbon build up on the rails and in the nooks and crannies if you want it combat reeeeaaaaady.
 
You might be right but try to tell that to the armorers and they will laugh.

After a week qualifying on the range you have to clean your rifle. Takes about 10 times of submitting it for inspection for them to finally accept it. Turn it in, they find dirt/carbon...go back to cleaning it and turn it back in...they find another problem area. After they finally accept it then it's easy to maintain. Just go in once a month and do a 30 minute clean up and your good for another month....til next year when you have to qualify again. I felt sorry for the grunts that trained in the field all year around. They spent so much time on weapons clean up. I was fortunate to be in the legal field. One week a year in the field and one week a year qualifying with the M16.

The Marine Corps is super anal about the cleanliness of their guns.

I also spent some time detached to the State Department. They used the Remington 870P and .357 magnum. After qualifying with those weapons, the State Department armorers were much more lax in what they would accept as clean.
 
Diaperload said:
You might be right but try to tell that to the armorers and they will laugh.

After a week qualifying on the range you have to clean your rifle. Takes about 10 times of submitting it for inspection for them to finally accept it. Turn it in, they find dirt/carbon...go back to cleaning it and turn it back in...they find another problem area. After they finally accept it then it's easy to maintain. Just go in once a month and do a 30 minute clean up and your good for another month....til next year when you have to qualify again. I felt sorry for the grunts that trained in the field all year around. They spent so much time on weapons clean up. I was fortunate to be in the legal field. One week a year in the field and one week a year qualifying with the M16.

The Marine Corps is super anal about the cleanliness of their guns.

I also spent some time detached to the State Department. They used the Remington 870P and .357 magnum. After qualifying with those weapons, the State Department armorers were much more lax in what they would accept as clean.

I was a straight leg ground pounder in the Army, a master gunner, and am a veteran of OIF. The reason they send you back from cleaning your weapon is because the weapons aren't on their way to combat, but instead on their way to the rack for long term storage. Rust is the enemy, and carbon is the harbinger :mug:

Besides, cleaning weapons in the military is a game of time. Every weapon that gets racked has a cleaning flaw, they just want everyone to finish around the same time. Any NCOIC worth his salt wouldn't want half the soldiers done and idle before the other half.

EDIT: Didn't mean to hijack the thread, OP, use whatever you want to clean you weapon, it can always be re-blued. Just don't overconcern yourself with getting all the gunk off unless you're ready to put it up for a while; if that's the case, once its clean, oil it to hell and back and put it away where it won't be exposed to dust.
 
The long term storage thing makes complete sense. I never thought of it that way. Also, I'll be the first to admit I didn't have a combat type job so maintaining weapons was a minimal part of my service career.

We used to joke about armorers. Like they used a q-tip and swiped an area of the rifle, then they would switch out the q-tip with one they had stashed under the counter that was all dirty just to mess with us.
 
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