Two Minute Shotgun Cleaning

After the thrill of wingshooting, comes the drudgery of cleaning the shotgun. For this purpose most shooters acquire a traditional cleaning kit.  Cleaning kits typically include a three section aluminum cleaning rod and brush of appropriate diameter for the caliber purchased, two tips to hold patches, cloth cleaning patches, a bottle of liquid powder solvent, and a bottle of gun oil. Some kits include a small tube of gun grease, and if it is a shotgun cleaning kit it usually includes a bore swab. To use one of these kits, merely follow the directions that come with the cleaning kit.  It takes about 20 minutes to clean a gun this way and the brush is useful a couple of times a year for deep cleaning.

Shotgun cleaning is not the onerous task it once was, as it can be reduced from 20 minutes to under 2 minutes.  For regular cleaning, you need only make a small kit of your own consisting of: a silicone cloth kept in a small plastic baggie, silicone spray from NAPA auto parts, spray Rem-Oil from Wal-Mart, and a Tico Tool for the bore of your gun.

The Tico Tool looks like a very long, very skinny feather duster. The Tico Tool is merely pushed back and forth through the shotgun’s bore, a few times, exactly like a cleaning rod.  After pushing back and forth a few times, leaving the rod in the barrel, remove the accessory tip (supplied with the Tico Tool) and spray it lightly with the Rem-Oil.  Hook the tip onto the end of the rod.  Pull back through the gun.  Now you have inside of the barrel cleaned and lightly oiled.

Spray all of the outside of the gun with the silicone spray and use the rag to wipe clean.  Particularly scrub the working parts and you can use a toothbrush as needed.  The rag is stored in the baggie, so as to remain wet enough to be used to wipe fingerprints off the gun after handling and replaces the traditional oily rag. Silicon cloths are excellent protection against “rust prints.”

“Propre” is an adjective in French that describes something that is clean, tidy, and free from dirt or pollution. It can refer to anything from personal hygiene to the cleanliness of a place or object. For example, “une chambre propre” means “a clean room.”

Alternative: “Nettoyé” (cleaned), which is the past participle of “nettoyer” (to clean). This could be used to describe something that has been actively cleaned.

trouver

“Trouver” is a verb in French that means to locate or discover something or someone either by searching or by chance. It’s also used to express an opinion, similar to the English “to find something funny/interesting.” For example, “trouver les clés” means “to find the keys.”

Alternative: “Découvrir” (to discover), which implies finding something that was not known before or was hidden.