AR-15 Hacks: How to Make clean Your Rifle Like a Boss

   09.18.14

AR-15 Hacks: How to Clean Your Rifle Like a Boss
The most tedious part of AR-15 cleaning is the bolt. Fortunately there are tools to help, like this OTIS B.O.N.E. tool.
The well-nigh tedious role of cleaning an AR-15 is the bolt. Fortunately there are tools to help, like this OTIS B.O.N.E. tool.

While no 1 actually knows for sure, industry sources estimate that at that place are more than than 10 million AR-type modern sporting rifles in the U.s.a.. That's a lot of rifles, a lot of ammo, and a lot of cleaning!

Inspired by the popularity of the modern sporting rifle and its many variants, and the fact that I only like them, information technology'due south time to embark on a series of AR-fifteen hacks. Over the side by side calendar month or so, we'll have a closer look at all sorts of tips and tricks that will help you lot with cleaning AR-15s , maintaining, using, and even customizing your AR-fifteen.

To start things off, let's take a closer expect at cleaning tips. If yous listen to the cyberspace forums, y'all might believe that cleaning an AR-fifteen is a tougher chore than scrubbing the boilers of the Titanic. According to some, the design is so bad that more grime collects in the action from each and every shot than that deposited by all the gas semiautomatic shotguns on South American pigeon hunts over a year's fourth dimension.

A lower receiver vise block, like this one from Brownells, makes cleaning and maintenance a lot easier.
A lower receiver vise block, like this one from Brownells, makes cleaning and maintenance a lot easier.

Aye, the AR-xv direct impingement design does vent hot, dirty gas into the receiver and smothers the commodities and carrier with each shot. Simply in the scope of things, it'south non nearly as bad as it sounds. If your day job is strolling through wadis in Afghanistan, where the airborne grit resembles talcum powder, then your results may vary and daily cleaning is probably a necessity. Here, I'm referring to recreational and home-defense AR utilise.

If you're using your burglarize for range fun, contest, or every bit a home-defence pick, you tin accept a more practical approach to your cleaning chores. If yous own a rifle of at least moderate quality, it'll run when it's dingy. Just for fun, I've been boycotting a cleaning job on a Smith & Wesson M&P15 OR rifle I picked upwardly final autumn. That's right, most a twelvemonth ago. Why? I'm deliberately letting information technology go without cleaning just to see how forgiving it is as information technology starts to get grimy. To appointment, the rifle has somewhere around i,500 rounds through it in all sorts of weather, yet information technology runs. Opposite to popular belief, your burglarize does not take to be babied to run reliably—within reason of course.

I'll assume y'all already know the basics on how to disassemble your AR-15 burglarize, so I won't go over that here. We'll focus on tips, AR-15 cleaning tools, and cleaning products that will make cleaning easier.

Setting up

If we're going to talk near doing things the like shooting fish in a barrel style, step one is to effigy out how you're going to agree rifle parts during cleaning. Dissimilar a traditional rifle, the AR-15 hinges open up, and even separates into multiple parts when you open one or both takedown pins. Holding on to a hinged-open AR that'southward flopping around with one hand while you're trying to scrub with the other is kind of like hitting a baseball game with a Slinky.

The respond (for me) is a lower receiver vise block. This is a dandy footling gun maintenance tool that inserts into your magazine well and locks into identify. The idea is to put the lesser of the vise block into a workbench vise so the rifle is supported. They're non as inexpensive every bit y'all'd expect, only good AR-15 cleaning tools rarely are. If you have more than one AR burglarize, or are planning to exercise more than tweaking of your rifle, it's a good investment—you'll use it forever once you have it.

The all-time office is, with the lower receiver solidly supported, when you open the rear takedown pin, the upper receiver will hinge downward towards the floor. This is important for cleaning the butt.

With the rifle in a vise block, it's easy to clean the bore from chamber to muzzle as gravity works in your favor.
With the rifle in a vise block, it'south easy to clean the bore from chamber to muzzle every bit gravity works in your favor.

Barrel cleaning

Ideally, you desire to make clean a rifle bore from the chamber to muzzle so all the pulverization residuum, chemicals, and miscellaneous grime dribbles out the cage rather than dorsum towards the action. That's why I'm in favor of the OTIS cleaning organisation. In the case of cleaning the AR-fifteen rifle, at that place's another, more specific, reason. The barrel extension is mayhap the hardest function to clean in an AR-xv. Buried deep within the upper receiver, information technology makes you work merely to get to it, and once you do, you're confounded by a 3-dimensional maze of commodities lug recesses and difficult-to-reach nooks and crannies. Information technology'south a pain. If you're dredging solvent and grime towards the bedroom, gunk will collect in those difficult-to-accomplish butt extension recesses.

The semi-rigid coated cables of the OTIS organization work sort of like a cleaning rod, although you pull patches and brushes through rather than pushing. With your rifle open and supported by a lower receiver vise block, only feed the OTIS cleaning cable through the bore with a wet patch, get the loose stuff out, so switch to a brush. Finish with a clean or lightly lubed patch co-ordinate to your preference. Couldn't be simpler, and no wet and nasty grime will stop up in the barrel extension or worse still, the activity. Merely call back to put an erstwhile towel or rag on the flooring to catch whatever excess cleaning solvent oozing out the muzzle.

Bolt cleaning

OTIS provides some other fourth dimension-saving tool for bolt and commodities carrier cleaning. Information technology's called the B.O.N.E. tool. Information technology's designed to scrape carbon deposit from the inside of the bolt carrier, the bolt tail, and the firing pivot. Y'all can purchase information technology separately or a part of the OTIS AR-15/M16 MSR/AR-xv cleaning kit system. One end of the tool is perfectly sized to the interior of the commodities carrier—just rotate the scraper and quickly remove carbon buildup. Inside the contrary end is an inverted, bolt-tail shaped scraper which removes the fouling from there. While we're talking nigh the bolt tail, don't get too worked up virtually getting every bit of carbon off of it. Some residue at that place has no bear upon on office and y'all probably won't every go information technology perfectly clean. A hole in the B.O.North.E. tool scrapes the exterior of the firing pivot. The B.O.N.Due east. is coin well spent, as it makes brusk work of cleaning the commodities components.

One end of the B.O.N.E. tool handles the inside of the bolt carrier.
One end of the B.O.N.E. tool handles the inside of the commodities carrier.

Buffer tube cleaning

Unless you're shooting in a dirty, nasty surround, you don't really need to make clean the inside of your buffer tube every fourth dimension you clean the diameter and bolt. Likewise, it's intended to be a "dry" part area. You're not really supposed to lubricate information technology either, and so traditional cleaning methods aren't appropriate. I use a shotgun bore mop to remove any clay and dust from the inside of the buffer tube. It'south quick and piece of cake, yet effective as the soft mop grabs and removes loose dirt. The leap and buffer assembly can but exist wiped off with a (relatively) clean rag.

Lazy? Yes, but effective for cleaning the inside of the buffer tube.
Lazy? Yes, but effective for cleaning the inside of the buffer tube.

Trigger group cleaning

I've saved the easiest for last. The trigger group, including trigger, hammer, sear, and associated springs, are no-lube parts! To clean that expanse, you don't really need to detach anything, just spray it out with a degreaser like brake cleaner or Birchwood Casey Gun Scrubber. Don't oil anything afterward you clean—that volition simply attract dust and powder. Later on in the series, we'll take a look at dry lubricant options that may or may not make sense for trigger parts.

These are some of the shortcuts I use. How well-nigh yous? Got any killer cleaning tips, other AR-15 cleaning tools or know of the all-time AR-15 cleaning kit and would like to share with the rest of us?

Tom McHale is the author of theInsanely Practical Guides book series that guides new and experienced shooters alike in a fun, outgoing, and practical manner. His books are available in impress and eBook format on Amazon.