Cleaning a rifle

A safe, simple clean after the range or the hunt, and keeping a rifle working through wet and cold.

What you need

Unload. Take out the magazine, open the action, and look and feel that the chamber is empty.
Keep ammunition in another room while you clean.
Clean from the breech end when the rifle allows it, with the rod guide in place, so you do not wear the muzzle.
Push a solvent wet patch through and let it soak for the time on the bottle.
Run the brush through a few times, all the way out before you pull it back.
Push dry patches through until they come out clean.
Wipe the bolt, action and outside metal with a lightly oiled rag.
Before the next shoot, run a dry patch through so the bore is not oily.
Lock it away the way the law requires. See Storing and moving firearms.

Don't

Do not reverse a brush inside the bore.
Do not leave the bore wet with oil when you shoot. The first shot can go somewhere else.
Do not over oil in winter. Heavy oil stiffens and can slow the firing pin.

Danger

Snow, mud or a patch left in the barrel can burst it. Check the bore every time you have fallen or put the muzzle down.
Bringing a cold rifle into a warm cabin fogs it with water inside and out. Leave it in its case to warm slowly, then dry it.
Solvents give off fumes. Clean in a place with fresh air.

A hunting rifle does not need a full scrub after a few shots. It needs to be dry and free of rust.

If accuracy changes after cleaning, shoot a few rounds to foul the bore and check your zero. See Sighting in a rifle.

Updated 2026-09-22