How to clean AR striker channel

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zaitcev

zaitcev

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At least in a typical 9mm bolt, there is a long section of the striker channel that is too thin for Q-tip to fit. It goes from the bolt face, under the extractor, and ends a shoulder where the striker return spring sits.

So, how do you guys clean that section of the channel?

Tried a web search, but people just say "use a medical q-tip". Sure a medical q-tip is much longer, but it is also too thick! Or other guys say "use a pipe cleaner". Heck, just the stem of a pipe cleaner is as thick as the striker's thin part.
 
You can unwind some of the cotton on a medical swab and make the diameter smaller. I’ll sometimes twist two or three pipe cleaners together tightly if it needs a swabbing. You can dip them in hoppes to help loosen stuff and another in oil afterwards if you so choose. And, as the poster before noted; brake cleaner also works to blast the crud that sometimes builds up.

Stay safe.
 
Are you talking about just the little hole where the firing pin tip extrudes? It's pretty short and that tip keeps the hole plenty clean. Otherwise, once the bolt is broken down, which I do EVERY time I fire them, then Qtips will fit most everywhere else, including up to the back of the hole in the bolt face. If you're willing to be seen in the women's makeup section of the supermarket, there are also "slim" Q-tips sold that fit without any extra effort to remove cotton.
 
Smaller pipe cleaners, toothpick, spray nozzle/tube tip for your lube spray, you name it.

I usually just blast it out with the tip of my spray can tube.
 
Pipe cleaner. I also found some longer wood stemmed Q-tips with smaller heads at the dollar store that I keep a few packs on my bench. Very handy.
 
Buzznrose said:
You clean your AR?
Click to expand...

It doubled on me yesterday, which added an imperative to the issue. It's a 9mm blowback. I checked that the disconnector worked properly and it did. So it's not hammer following the bolt into battery.
 
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