What do you guys use to clean the chamber and barrel??

[alamo5000]

It's been flooding down rain here so I am watching football cleaning guns.

As the title says, what (if anything) do you guys use to clean the chamber on your ARs?

Same question but lesser so for the barrel...

I mean that in terms of chemical/non chemical products, but especially mechanical means to get down into those grooves and down into the chamber.

My go to gun lube stuff has been Seal 1 which overall has been fine. It's been working really well overall, but I got to looking and the chamber (particularly where the bolt seats in there) was absolutely filthy (at least by my standards).

What I decided to do was try some foaming bore stuff on it and that seems to be pretty good. It seems to have cleaned out a lot of the stuff.

I have those little thread on copper brushes for the chamber and barrel both, as well as the cotton swab things that go on a rod. I also have a bore snake. I usually use a rod with those brushes and every now and again maybe the snake... all that said the barrel is looking good, but it doesn't seem sufficient for the chamber...

Who knows... maybe I might use that foaming stuff more often but I want to get second and third opinions about options.

[Joelski]

Get a Dewey cleaning rod and chamber brush and hit it with virtually any decent cleaning solution. A little twistin' turnin', pushin' pulllin' should have that nasty beast cleaned up in no time. Just add elbow grease. IMO, those expensive star swabs are great for removing cash from wallets, but meh for scrubbing chamber lugs.

[alamo5000]

Get a Dewey cleaning rod and chamber brush and hit it with virtually any decent cleaning solution. A little twistin' turnin', pushin' pulllin' should have that nasty beast cleaned up in no time. Just add elbow grease. IMO, those expensive star swabs are great for removing cash from wallets, but meh for scrubbing chamber lugs.

I have a rod like that but it's not a Dewey. It's a Tipton.

Like I said, with that foaming bore stuff that gunk is pretty much gone. I guess if it works...

[Slippers]

I use break free foaming bore cleaner occasionally on my barrels, maybe every thousand rounds. Otherwise just CLP and patches.

For the chamber I use a nylon chamber brush on a pistol rod, then wrap a shotgun patch around it and run it in again to absorb all the crud. I use Q tips to clean out the lug area. You can cut off the tip and hold them with some forceps to get in there properly, and they're dirt cheap compared to the chamber stars.

[alamo5000]

I use break free foaming bore cleaner occasionally on my barrels, maybe every thousand rounds. Otherwise just CLP and patches.

For the chamber I use a nylon chamber brush on a pistol rod, then wrap a shotgun patch around it and run it in again to absorb all the crud. I use Q tips to clean out the lug area. You can cut off the tip and hold them with some forceps to get in there properly, and they're dirt cheap compared to the chamber stars.

Thanks for the tips!!! I will definitely try the Q tip thing.

I am gonna look around and see if I can find something that might make it easier to get down in the chamber...it might not even be worth it as long as it's relatively clean.

I could always pull a Uwone and not clean anything [BD]

[Slippers]

Get down in the chamber? Seriously, nylon chamber brush like I described above. The reason I don't use a metal brush is that Noveske doesn't recommend it on their stainless barrels.

[toolboxluis00200]

Remington spray oil and a snake bore.

[alamo5000]

Get down in the chamber? Seriously, nylon chamber brush like I described above. The reason I don't use a metal brush is that Noveske doesn't recommend it on their stainless barrels.

I have a copper brush that I picked up somewhere but I haven't used it that much. I have used the chamber mops more than the brush. I will look for a nylon one and maybe a shorter rod. My big rod is I think 26" long...kind of a pain in the ass to work with in small spaces. That's what I meant by 'get down in there'... as in easier...

[Slippers]

Oh OK, makes sense. I use a Dewey brass 9" loop pistol rod. Brownells has it for $10. The loop gives you leverage to spin the chamber brush on the opposite end when it's in the chamber. It's short enough to fit in a tool box. Works very well. Brownells part # 234-400-009MB.

[MoxyDave]

Toothbrush, boresnake and a bit of solvent. If you're spending more than 5 minutes in there you're wasting your time.

[alamo5000]

Oh OK, makes sense. I use a Dewey brass 9" loop pistol rod. Brownells has it for $10. The loop gives you leverage to spin the chamber brush on the opposite end when it's in the chamber. It's short enough to fit in a tool box. Works very well. Brownells part # 234-400-009MB.

I have an old box full of stuff with some old cleaning supplies. I am going to look in there and see if there are some shorter rods.


Toothbrush, boresnake and a bit of solvent. If you're spending more than 5 minutes in there you're wasting your time.

I just went and tried Slipper's Q-Tip method and around the feed ramps and lugs it's actually very clean right now. That foaming bore cleaner worked quite well so every now and again I will use that. Those chamber mops are black and nasty now. I will probably need to buy more of those. That foaming stuff seems to be the easiest method.

I am somewhat of a clean gun guy, but I don't really go overboard with it for the most part. I just like my weapons clean for some reason and now that I am shooting suppressed my mags, my brass, and all that is obviously getting a lot dirtier. I am not even a heavy shooter so realistically I generally just wipe down my rifle after I shoot and kind of 'get down in there' every other or every three outings or so depending on where and what I am doing. Around those lugs though I don't think I've ever gotten down in there until today. I don't know the actual round count but it's probably around 2000 rounds. That foaming bore cleaner definitely did the trick without much hassle.

[Slippers]

I don't use the chamber mops because they get saturated and become useless, and are too expensive. Hence the chamber brush with a shotgun patch. Accomplishes the same thing, no risk to your chamber, and cheap.

I don't spend more than 10 minutes cleaning normally. CLP down the chamber/bore. As soon as it drips out the muzzle I push a patch through. Then chamber brush for a few turns, pull it out, wrap the shotgun patch, back in for a couple turns, back out. Q tip the lugs. Then one or two more patches down the bore depending on how dirty they look coming out. If I'm going to store the gun upright I like to run a Q tip around the inside of the muzzle device to absorb any extra CLP so it doesn't run back down into the barrel.

Cleaning the bcg is also brief. I just wipe off the lugs and face, inspect the ejector and extractor. Reapply some oil, and done. Occasionally I wipe off the insides of the receivers since there's so much carbon from suppressed shooting.

[Joelski]

If you're spending more than 5 minutes in there you're wasting your time.

That's what she said! :D

[velocity2006]

Been using one of these kits, the chamber brush:
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/557520/iosso-eliminator-brush-kit-rifle-thread-nylon

Pretty much perfect for getting the major gunk out of the extension, then I just run a snake after.

[Former11B]

My mom is a nurse so she gives me a wide assortment of big, long stemmed Q-Tips meant for swabbin' Lady Chambers if ya catch my drift. Swirl a couple around, doesn't have to be spotless, done. I use a couple patches down the barrel and that's it.

I put way more effort into the BCG, the inside of the upper, and mainly where the carbon builds up. Despite the Army wanting me to clean my rifle from Dawn til dusk until the anodizing was gone, in reality all I needed to remove was dirt and carbon!

[mustangfreek]

Qtips for chamber and hard to reach upper places, but don't clean the barrel nearly as much as say the chamber and bcg. Then some patches and clp/frog lube..