All good gun owners clean their firearms often. I usually clean mine after a long day at the range or after a hunt, and when the season is over before I put my guns away. If it’s a waterfowl hunt on the water or in a marsh, I clean them that evening. Shooters and hunters spend hundreds of dollars buying cleaning supplies. There are so many brands of firearm cleaners on the market today that it is hard to distinguish one from the others. Most gun cleaning solutions smell terrible and usually give me a headache and I know others that experience the same. I end up freezing my butt off in the winter having to clean guns in the garage or on the porch because of the odor. Plus, it takes forever to clean a shotgun because you have to use 15 to 30 patches just to get the barrel clean.
What if I told you that you weren’t actually cleaning your guns? Would you challenge me? “But Kat, I just spent 2 hours cleaning my shotgun and the patches were coming out dry and clean. How can my gun not be clean?” I’m telling you right now, it is NOT as clean as you think. A couple years ago, I met David Dentico, the owner of Accuracy Performance, & Function, Inc. at the NRA Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I had emailed them before the show trying to drum up some business. After a quick email exchange, we decided we would meet them at their booth to take a closer look at the products. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we met with them anyway.
After talking to David, he sent us home with a cleaning kit. The kit was made up of a bottle of their cleaning solution, a bottle of lubricant, a .50 caliber cleaning jag, a 12 gauge cleaning jag, a syringe of bore paste, a bottle of muzzleloader cleaner, a set of moisture wicks, and cleaning patches. We had just gone hunting the day before the show with some friends and had cleaned our shotguns when we got home. After getting home from the show, we decided to break out our new cleaning supplies and try it out. You would not BELIEVE the amount of crap and gunk we pulled out of a brand new shotgun that we had just cleaned the day before. The secret is the cleaning jags. Each jag has 2 or 3 O-rings that allow the patch to be run up and down the barrel, essentially scrubbing the inside and making sure the cleaning solution gets into all the rifling and completely clean the inside of the barrel.
We ended up recleaning every 12 gauge we had, even if it hadn’t been shot in a while. We couldn’t wait to get back to the show to tell them about the guns we had cleaned. The cleaning solution was odorless, and you only needed a little amount to clean an entire gun. It was safe to use on the outside of the gun and on the synthetic stocks. The next night we decided to try something else. Wes has a .50 caliber muzzleloader that isn’t accurate at all. We tried everything. We sat down with our new cleaning set and got to work pulling the gun apart. I started with cleaning the barrel while Wes cleaned the other parts.
First I used the cleaning solution on a normal bore brush to knock the dirt and crud loose. The more I scrubbed, the more that came out. Then I took the cleaning jag and ran patches soaked with solution through the barrel. I couldn’t even describe the stuff coming out. Next was the bore paste. The company claimed it would get out all the old residue, burnt powder, and copper residue out of the barrel. I didn’t have a clue just how much residue was in that gun. By the time I was done cleaning the barrel, it was 100 times cleaner than it had ever been. We reassembled it, took it to the range, and it was actually hitting the paper for the first time.
When I started using APF’s cleaning solutions, I was a bit skeptical about how well they would work. I had been using other cleaning oils for some time and really thought my guns were cleaned and being taken care of. Now the ONLY cleaning solutions I use are from Accuracy, Performance & Function, Inc. Make sure you check them out on the web at www.accuracypfinc.com. If you ever attend the NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show, make sure you check out their booth!
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