22 LR Cleaning Recommendations

In last week's article, we covered some general guidelines about how to clean and maintain your firearm. This week, we will dive deeper into cleaning the 22 LR.

What stands out most about cleaning our 22 LR rifles and pistols is that most shooters over-clean them. This really isn't necessary, and not spending all your time cleaning is actually one of the things that makes shooting 22 LR so much fun!

So how often should you clean? Well, not as often as you might think. At an event last weekend, we ran over 7,000 rounds of bulk ammo through a Scorpion and a VM-22 and only cleaned each firearm once. This might sound like a lot of shooting, but we routinely go 2,000-2,500 rounds between cleanings of our 22 LRs.

Once they are in need of cleaning, it's a pretty straightforward process.

First, lock the action back and pull a Ripcord with RandCLP on it through the bore 2-3 times. Next, using a cotton swab or similar we will clean as much of the bolt and action as we can without having to field strip it. We will also wipe down the bolt at this time and then apply a couple drops of RandCLP to the bolt. In my experience, most shooters apply way too much lubrication to our bolts which can adversely affect functioning. All of our 22 LR bolts are DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) coated and will run fine with even less, or no, oil. This finish is expensive but well worth it as the less lubrication you need, the less residue build up you will have. Side note, this makes our 22 LR firearms perfect for shooting suppressed as the increased blowback has less lubrication to "stick to."

Cleaning the compensator may require a little more work depending on the type of ammo being used. The easiest way to clean the compensator is to remove it from the barrel and clean as much of the build up as you can, then soak it in a 50-50 mixture of hyrodgen peroxide and vinegar for 15-30 minutes. For those that were asking after last week's email, we typically use 3% peroxide in our mixture.

If you made it this far, most of your cleaning needs are covered. Periodically, you will still need to field strip your pistol or rifle for a thorough cleaning, but doing this every 5,000 rounds is more than enough. Once disassembled, we simply take a cotton swab and clean as many areas as possible without removing any internal parts. In fact, we don't ever recommend removing any of the trigger components. It may, however, be necessary every 10,000 rounds or so to remove the firing pin assembly from the bolt and clean the area in the bolt where the firing pin rides.

Have additional questions in regard to cleaning, send me an email.

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