I want to learn the current best ideas on proper care and feeding of a rifle and shotgun. Best products, supplies, and tools for cleaning and maintenance? Best cartridge choice for a .22 rifle properly matched to use? Best shotshell and choke choice for a 12 guage shotgun properly matched to use?

Suggested websites? Suggested reading?

Thanks.

The High Road

MILITEC-1 for cleaning and lubrication?

http://www.laniganperformance.com/Firearmapplicationdirections.html


Thanks, Russ!

http://www.rimfirecentral.com

You will not find "the one and only best" of anything. Just peoples opinions. In reality, most everything works just fine these days.

Learn how to take care of a rifle and shotgun, but don't obsess over which specific products you buy to do that "taking care of".

The things I use most are Hoppe's #9, RemOil, and Breakfree CLP. But your choices are wide these days and many many things will work just as well.

I've heard good things about MILITEC-1, but for most of my needs I use FP-10 FP-10 is a cleaner lubricant preservative (CLP) but unlike Breakfree, CLP is homogenous, it doesn't need to be shaken. Good stuff.

Not affiliated, I just use the stuff.

Nothing wrong with Militec. I've used it. Works well. Still have some in my cleaning kit. It's more expensive and harder to find locally than many things. I found it to be no better than (oil) RemOil or (grease) high temperature synthetic automotive bearing grease, which you can get cheap at WalMart. I couldn't tell one bit of difference in functionality, reliability, protection using Militec than with other non-exotic products. But Militec is as good as these other products. You won't go wrong with it. Just don't worship it as the Holy Grail.

Sentry Solutions?

http://www.sentrysolutions.com/sentry_solutions_category_list.php?category_Type=Firearms

Trial and Error, mixed with experience.

Much will depend on the target with the scattergun. The .22 will have it's preferred sustenance, and for sure it will not be the one any of us suggest.

For cleaning, the gun manuals explain everything you need to know. For ammo, take your pick and experiment. My advice below should take a back seat to whatever your manuals say.

A .22 lr rifle and a shotgun have different care. After every range session with a shotgun, I field strip it, clean the bore, spray CLP around, and rub stuff down. An 870 is not delicate. So, I don't have to keep everything flawless.

For a .22 lr rifle, I field strip it, but I hardly ever clean the bore. When I do, I don't try to get it looking like a mirror. I read somewhere that you're not supposed to clean the bore on a .22 lr rifle often. Apparently, it's easy to mess it up by cleaning it too much, or even by cleaning it a little.

For oil, I'm not picky. I'll use CLP, Rem Oil, motor oil or whatever. I haven't found much of a difference between oils. I've read threads where some people get worked up about which oil they use. I haven't used anything terrible yet and haven't had any rust. So, I don't have any reason to get worked up about any oil I've used.

Last but not least, if you have utilitarian guns like mine, then you hardly ever have to clean them if you just want them to work. I personally like my firearms to be clean when I put them away. I'm generally a clean person overall.

Well, I wouldn't advise anybody to follow this practice, but for some reason, I find myself in this situation, so at least you and perhaps some others can benefit from the outcome of this impromptu "experiment" resulting from laziness. Again, I wouldn't advise this under any circumstances. But here's the deal:

Many years ago I bought a Ruger .22/45 long barreled pistol--the one with the polymer stock but regular steel barrel and adjustable sights. I bought it maybe 12 or more years ago. In the interim, I've put probably 1200 rounds of various .22 rimfire ammo through it. I think maybe I've cleaned the barrel out with solvent and the area around the ejector once or twice. Since new, I've found the gun jams probably once or twice out of a box of 100 rounds of ammo, regardless whatever ammo I put through it--the cheap bargain bulk stuff or the nice expensive stuff. It hasn't gotten any worse over time. If anything, it's gotten better. It's very very accurate. It's never been completely disassembled for cleaning. It may be rusted together inside for all I know, however I always wipe it off on the outside with an oily rag and it looks brand new.

I also have a very nice but inexpensive Remington Express .28 guage pump shotgun. I've had it for at least 10 years and each year I probably put at least 500 or more rounds through it shooting skeet. It might get cleaned once or twice a year, if it's lucky. Every now and then, when the action feels a little stiff, I might spray a little Break Free in the action to slick it back up again. When I do clean it, I get a lot of crap out of the barrel, but the action has never been rusty and it's never frozen up on me. Shoots like a dream.

I treat my better guns better, of course, but the Ruger and the Remington just go to show you how generally reliable these particular guns are in spite of poor care. I would definitely not under any circumstances do this with a firearm that I counted on for personal protection, of course. Those guns get a good workout to establish 100% reliability and then get cleaned up and put to bed like a baby.

Like I say, if you're smart, you'll take excellent care of all your firearms. And I'm not the worst in this regard. My father-in-law in Iowa always kept his guns on an unlocked rack in the garage with the door wide open summer, winter, spring or fall, and I never knew him to clean them in 40 years. Nobody else ever touched them; and they always worked fine right up until the day he died (and beyond). So, treat your guns with the care they deserve, and with luck they'll do the same for you, but if you can't always do a stellar job, don't lose a lot of sleep over it. At least wipe them down regularly with an oily rag at a bare minimum, and better as soon as you can. And it goes without saying to keep them locked up safely, of course, and virtually every single time you pick up the gun, and I mean even if you just laid it down on the table after checking to see if it was empty, open the action to check again. It then becomes automatic, and you may surprise yourself sometime when you rack the action to check and a live round comes flying out. Then you'll be really glad you formed that invaluable habit. ;-)