How do you clean your M1A?

[raindog]

I have a Springfield Armory M1A National Match.

The manual says in at least two places not to fields strip it unless "absolutely necessary". "Disassembly should be kept to a minimum," "etc.

OK, fine. But I want to clean the barrel at least after I've shot it a bunch. How am I suppose to put patches down the barrel if I don't field strip?

I could go from the muzzle end, but I've always read that you should never feed patches from the muzzle end because the crown is comparatively fragile. It's impossible to feed a rod down the bore from the chamber end without disassembly.

Clearly, Springfield intended people to clean their bores after use...but they don't intend people to disassemble the rifle. So...how to...?

 

[LoneStarWings]

Buy one of these, place it in the flash suppressor, run your cleaning rod through it, attach your jags/brushes from the action, and pull through them through from back to front.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=81/Product/M14_M1A_BORE_GUIDE

 

[Wes Janson]

And remove the gas piston for a soaking in Hoppe's. That's all that's really important, to keep the piston clean, barrel unfouled, and make sure the action has some good thick grease in it.

 

[P-32]

Use a good one piece rod. Take a 12 ga shot shell, fired of course, cut the part off at fold for the crimp and then take a drill bit just a hair bigger than the cleaning rod. Drill through the primer all the way through and you have a bore guide that fits over the flash hider. Costs it little to nothing and last for a long time. I liked the high brass red plastic ones. High brass seemed to last longer than the short brass.

I would use a Parker Hale type jag and GI patches which are avilable from Brownells. Using a Parker Hale type jag, you wrap the patch around the jag starting with a pointed corner end on the patch in the middle of the jag. I just turned the rod and jag and wrapped the patch ended with a pointed corner end in the middle of the now wrapped patch. This gives you a good tight patch fit in the bore. No need to pull the patch from the chamber. The patch would get pulled when the end of the jag hit the bolt.

You can also get GI chamber brushes for the chamber.

There are drill rod kits with handles available from Creedmore Sports and Champions Choice for cleaning the gas sysytem with ease.

I would not take the rifle apart more than once a year for deep cleaning. Use good grease on the moving parts. Extreme dirt or getting soaking wet is another reason to do a deep clean.

The part that hurts a rifle like yours is taking the action out of the bedded stock. It takes about 60 rounds to get back shooting like it was before taking the action out of the stock FYI.

This was the way we did it when I shot M-14's for the Navy team at China Lake. Some of those match rifles shot like they had radar guided bullets.

 

[Slamfire]

I clean the barrel, as mentioned, and I also remove the gas piston each and every time and swab out the gas cylinder.

I use Permatex anti seize on the threads of the gas cylinder lock screw. Buy it at an Auto Store.

One thing that I do, that is a little tricky, is taking the bolt out without removing the operating rod. You have to hold the bolt back against the spring tension of the operating rod spring, while aligning the operating rod tab with the dismount notch in the receiver. When the tab is in the dismount notch you can lift up and out and the tab will come out of the receiver track. With the bolt still to the rear, you can work the operating rod around the bolt roller. The operating rod has to be at the rear of the track as the operating rod is very stiff.

Once the operating rod is free of the bolt you can clean the bolt and the recesses in the receiver.

Don't forget the chamber brushes, keep that chamber clean!

On the bottom of the barrel, where the operating rod rubs against the bottom of the barrel, I use an I use an artist’s brush to paint grease. You can also wipe part of the operating rod shaft.

I only take the action out of the stock at the end of the shooting season.

 

[herkyguy]

I clean the bore and soak the piston every time. Scrub out the chamber. that's about all the gun needs. With that being said, I stripped mine for the first time two weeks ago. Mine is not bedded, so it was an easy process. I greased moving parts and put it back together. it's a relatively easy process, just follow the guide that came with the gun.

 

[Z-Michigan]

I use a "Patchworm" which doesn't require any disassembly. An Otis kit with the flexible "rod" would accomplish the same thing. I highly recommend both.

 

[jbech123]

Otis +1

 

[briansmithwins]

There are 2 basic methods for cleaning the M14.

1)The gravelbelly- You take the rifle down at the end of the shooting season and knock all the accumulated crud of of it. Lube it before the next shooting season starts.

2)The service rifle- The rifle gets field stripped and cleaned each time it's fired or at the end of each day in the field.

I prefer #2 but I like to clean all my firearms after shooting. Please note that #1 will wreck your rifle if you're using corrosive ammo. BSW

 

[longdayjake]

Here is an easy way to get crud out. Spray some gun scrubber or foaming cleaner down the chamber. Let it sit for a few minutes. Run a bore snake down the barrel a few times and it should be good. If you feel you need to get some copper fouling out you can pull some copper solvent down the barrel with a shoelace that has little knots tied in it and dipped in the solvent. A bore snake will get the solvent out much much quicker than the patches will. I wash my bore snakes in dish soap after and leave them hanging on the top of my door to dry.

 

[GunTech]

The manual says in at least two places not to fields strip it unless "absolutely necessary". "Disassembly should be kept to a minimum," "etc.

OK, fine. But I want to clean the barrel at least after I've shot it a bunch. How am I suppose to put patches down the barrel if I don't field strip?

Get a solvent port, open the bolt and install. It keeps the action open while you run the rid down to barrel, and also keeps solvent out of the action.

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=958472

 

[nbkky71]

raindog: the reason you want to avoid disassembling the NM models is because the action is bedded to the stock. Constantly removing/reinserting the action can cause accelerated wear on the bedding, leading to accuracy issues.

Yes, you can clean the M1A without completely disassembling it. I clean my Supermatch each time I fire it, but I only clean the bore and the bolt face. I will clean the gas system about every 500 rounds and I will detail strip the rifle once per year for a thorough cleaning and re-greasing.

A few tips...

• When cleaning the bore, flip the rifle upside down so the gas system faces up. That keeps solvent & crud out of the gas cylinder.
• Foaming cleaners are great, but they'll get into the gas cylinder and leave a nice goo, which needs to be cleaned out.
• One-piece cleaning rods with a bush & jag clean the best, but be sure to use a muzzle guide.
• An "M1 buddy" (http://www.m1buddy.com) is a handy little gadget that will reliably keep the action open while cleaning.
• A set of cleaning drills comes in handy for cleaning out the gas piston (http://www.mwgco.com/ar-15_accessories/product/SIL-140200.html).

 

[swiftak]

Boresnake