How To Clean A Bolt Action Rifle

How To Clean A Bolt Action Rifle

All right. Here we go. I’m cleaning up some of my rifles and today I’m going to explain how to clean a bolt action rifle. First thing we’re gonna do is make sure that weapon is unloaded and safe to clean, and make sure there’s nothing up the barrel and the chamber is empty. So let’s go ahead and get it on the bench and get started. OK. We now have the weapon on the bench. This particular model is a .30-06 Savage. First thing you’re going to want to do is pull the bolt out. If you’re not sure how to pull the bolt out go ahead and look at the manufacturer’s Web site. There’s usually articles or refer to your book that the weapon came with. So I’ve got the bolt out. Go ahead and get started on it. One thing you need is a sturdy fixture for holding your gun during the cleaning process. For this I am using Hyskore’s www.hyskore.com 30022 Parallax Gun Cleaning and Sighting Rest https://hyskore.com/products/30022-cleaning-sighting-rest-2/. You can lock down the gun and not worry about things getting away from you.

This weapon’s fairly clean. I’m just gonna go ahead and take a patch. Put some solvent on it and go ahead and wipe this thing down. Didn’t shoot this rifle much this year. I mostly bow hunt so I only shot this gun one time and put a deer in the freezer with it but I will still go ahead and just lightly clean this bolt. This is not too dirty so you can soak it in solvent or spray it for a few seconds with spray solvent and let it set off to the side. Once you’ve done that so that’s fairly clean, we’re gonna go ahead and get started on the barrel.

There are many ways to clean this. I would recommend at least a decent kit which will come with a with brushes and pads and attachments and all that sort of good stuff. Me I like to use the Hoppe’s bore snake. To me these things are just fantastic. I love them. This one here is a .30-06 model. It’ll also do a 30 -30, .300 Winchester Magnum and a .303 caliber. So we’re gonna go ahead and put some solvent on it and run it down the barrel from the breech end. Ok I’ve got the bore snake with some Hoppe’s solvent on it and I’m going to run this down the barrel for five times at least. I would highly recommend if your rifle is dirty do it as many times as necessary. Sometimes I can be 8 or 10 times. I always run mine down the barrel the way the bullet travels always. They say that’s what you should do and that’s what I’ve always done. This way you prevent doing damage to the muzzle crown.

I’ve done it three times. Like I said the barrel is fairly clean on this gun. I think I’ve only fired at once this year but for the last round I’m going to go ahead and just dab a little oil on it and run it down the barrel one more time with a little bit of Hoppe’s gun oil. I’m just gonna use a few drops. Just oil that barrel and I’ll go ahead and rub just a little bit of oil on my bolt, and then I’m going to go ahead and put the bolt back in. Once you get it all done, go ahead and check for proper operation of the weapon. Once you get it all said and done. Work that oil in just a little bit and that is it. Weapon is clean. Ready to be reliable and accurate again. I highly recommend you take care of your weapons. The one I just cleaned is a Savage, but all rifles Mossbergs, Remingtons, Colts, Kimbers, and Winchesters all need good regular cleaning after they have been shot.