I asked Massad Ayoob what he uses to clean guns. He frowned and spat, “Armorers! I shoot ’em, they clean ’em. I hate cleaning guns!” John Taffin fouls a lot of big-bores, some of ’em charcoal-burners. For them, he has a secret process involving a large plastic bucket, a common household chemical, and several miles of bumpy washboard road between his favorite shootin’ place and his homestead.

My pal Robert Boatman, author of Living with Glocks and other gun books, told me he uses a toothbrush, a rag, a can of Break-Free CLP and a clothespin. The clothespin is for his nose. He said it’s not so much to block the odor of it, but the pain takes his mind off the chore, which he hates with a passion.

“When my ship comes in,” he told me, turning purple with suppressed rage, “even a rowboat! A dinghy! I’ll hire some college kid, tell him he’s an intern, and have him do nothing but clean my guns!”

I honestly don’t know why they feel that way. I love to clean guns — with a coupla caveats: I love it when I have time to do it right; to linger over and enjoy everything from the pungent smells to the smooth, slick sliding of freshly, lightly lubed steel-over-steel, to the final function-checking and soul-soothing assurance that all is well with my sidearms. And today we have an absolutely amazing array of implements, incredibly effective solvents and crud-blasters, preservatives which actually penetrate steel to prevent rust, and lubricants carrying their own static dust-repelling charge. What’s not to like? The answer: very little. And here’s some to like a lot.

Doreen Garrett PresCEO Otis Gun 2

Did you know Otis Gun got started when a teenage girl on a deer hunt in upstate New York fell into a muddy bog clutching a rifle borrowed from her grandpa? Yup; and that’s Doreen, above, cleaning her rifle with the kit she named for her granddad Otis. She promised herself that day she would never go afield again without a compact yet capable gun cleaning kit. She had to make her own, sewing it herself and then having to actually make some of the equipment from hardware-store materials so everything would fit. Now millions of warriors and hunters worldwide depend on Doreen’s little garage workbench design. Not bad, huh?

Otis Life Liner 2

Most of you handgunners also own a long gun or two, and if you’ve got a “problem barrel” – pitted and rough – you should check out their LifeLiner. It is a nano-ceramic coating which, after being squirted down your bore, bonds to your barrel by firing rounds through it. The three-step process results in a surface harder than chrome and just about as smooth as glass. Increased velocities, decreased fouling, and less cleaning are the immediate results.

Cleen-Bore SACS

If you haven’t seen it or played with it, it’s hard to imagine how SACS works. The “handle” houses a CO2 cartridge with a trigger and a 90-degree turn in the “launcher” barrel. Load with a scrubbing or finishing wad, insert the “barrel” into the breech, hit the trigger and pop! – it’s propelled down and out of the barrel, work accomplished in a flash.

Cleen-Bore SACS And KG Chemicals

The makers of Cleen-Bore SACS recommend the use of KG chemicals, a highly effective family of products.

Gunslick

The secret of Gunslick’s quick-change rod tip – the Snap`n’Pull – is in the angled-recess tips. They snap together firmly to hold jags, patch holders and bore mops. Quite possibly the best solvent in the Gunslick lineup is their Foaming Bore Cleaner, which specifically attacks copper fouling, but is harmless to most other materials. And how do you know when you’ve got all the copper fouling out? Foaming Bore Cleaner turns blue so long as copper is present.

Hoppes

If Hoppe’s Number 9 brings back pleasant memories for you too, you can multiply the effect by hunting down a Hoppe’s cleaning kit in their Commemorative Tin. Don’t forget, Hoppe’s also makes BoreSnake, a superquick way to scrub and condition your bore after shooting, especially when you won’t be able to clean it for some time.

Pro-Shot

As a company, Pro-Shot is all about precision shooting, and that precision standard applies to their cleaning rods and accessories too. I’ve just begun testing Pro-Shot’s 1 Step Gun Cleaner & Lubricant, but so far I’m impressed. Judging from their recent sales, that puts me in a very big and growing group.

Versatile Gun Rack (4 gun)

Versatile Gun Rack is a heavy-duty welded steel handgun rack originally designed just to hold your uncased pistols neatly in a gunsafe. Then some shooter took a long look at it – then another long look – and noticed how perfect it would be for drying just-sprayed or “exuberantly-lubed” handguns. Yeah; seems to me it would sit really nice on the kitchen counter. That would last upwards of four seconds, I think, then my least-favorite movie, The Wrath of the Raging Redhead, would begin… In fact, let me go right now and check to see if I left my oil-dripping old newspapers there with a big Roscoe.

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