Rimfire can cleaning

[Near miss]

Been an owner of Ase Utra Eco can for 2 years now.

I have noticed that cleaning the can has become quite easy after dropping around 5 drops of oil like motor oil into the can before shooting the last magazine. The shots will mix the oil everywhere in the can.

I do not do this every range session, just the one prior to cleaning (every 600-1k rounds or more)

If shooting SV ammo, I have not even smelled burnt motor oil so no, it does not carbonate there.

It keeps the powder from changing into concrete that must be scraped off. It also softens the powder remains that are underneath.

The motor oil is quite water resistant so the cleaning should be done in 2 stages:

1. Remove gunk thats extra. No work needed really, it is soft stuff. If it has tough angles, use wooden stick. Should be enough.
2. Brush it, or if it is not a single body, just wipe the parts with paper or cloth (do not use the curtains)
3. Do not go for perfection, it will be in vain.

 

[AirCapitalOutdoors]

This is exactly why I don't run a can. Way too much hassle for just a small amount of sound dampening.

 

[siscoe308]

This is exactly why I don't run a can. Way too much hassle for just a small amount of sound dampening.

Turning a Rimfire down to sound like air rifle is 100% worth it to me.

Cleaning isn’t so bad, but I think there is a lil USMC left in me.

 

[Near miss]

This is exactly why I don't run a can. Way too much hassle for just a small amount of sound dampening.

I agree with @siscoe308

The can makes SV shots sound like a whisper.

I like the improved groups also.

 

[HenryTheAce]

That’s part of the fun though.. getting home, cracking a beer, and cleaning some guns/silencers while jamming to some music.

 

[Near miss]

I have noticed that my ar15 bolts don't carbon up as bad when coated with synthetic motor oil.

I an going to try an experiment and next time my can here gunky, I'm going to submerse it in clean motor oil and soak the baffles a bit and see how easy they clean off

I get it that soaking gets it done but it is a lot less messier if you just shoot the oil into the can. It seems it does not need much of it, just an even layer and time to effect.

 

[Near miss]

Here is mine after disassembly, much of the gunk fell down on its own while pulling the body out of the main tube.

Tip: I use a 223 casing to push the body out until I can grip it from the other side and pull it out.

You can see it has oily coating all over and no stuff burnt into it.

I actually still have two very small spots where there is burnt powder thats been there from the first times I used it. Everywhere else it can be wiped clean

The spots will probably be gone over time with this method but man they are in there tough! Almost like epoxy.

Judging by date I clean it roughly every 3 months, thats approx 1500-2000 rounds.

But I did put in oil drops multiple times last time because I always pushed cleaning it.

 

[22fun]

I shoot a dead air mask. After I clean it I take a rag with oil on it and wipe all the baffles down inside and out with a thin coat. I don’t usually shoot more than about 500 rounds before cleaning just part of my cleaning but the crud usually comes off pretty easy oil first definitely helps.

 

[brian01tj]

I shoot a TacSol Axiom and find that if I wait longer than 500 rounds or so it's a nightmare to clean. Ill have to try the motor oil trick. Cant hurt

 

[B y r o n]

What about pre treating with a DOT 5 brake fluid coating first? Seems pre treating may be the secret.

 

[CountryShooter]

What about pre treating with a DOT 5 brake fluid coating first? Seems pre treating may be the secret.

Pretreating helps a lot. But I like something that stays put better. Try wiping on some pure silicone grease. It comes in a tube called Dielectric Grease, available in auto parts stores.

 

[nakoa01]

Pretreating helps a lot. But I like something that stays put better. Try wiping on some pure silicone grease. It comes in a tube called Dielectric Grease, available in auto parts stores.

PB blaster is a lithium penetrating grease and pretty heavy. Stays put it seems. Wonder how that would work

 

[Near miss]

Oils and greases seem to do well to prevent it also

Here is one paper abour it from RRD

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Here is a nice one. My Sparrow after IDK, maybe a 1,000?? I use the DIP method. Works for me.

 

[Near miss]

I stopped using DIP (well I had just figured to use vinegar but does the same trick) because it makes poison out of lead. Pure lead being just heavy metal, that lead acid is no good.

If I ever need to clean it that way, I can just submerge it into the bottle and it should be pretty done. But it looks like this oil trick is maybe even faster with it's "active operating time", and does not raise health concerns.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

I know, now I can use the oil trick and the DIP trick together for a dual trick clean job. I love this place! ?

 

[carbonbased]

The DIP makes lead acetate, which if touched, goes right through your skin https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2016/07/05/the-dip-a-toxic-mixture-used-to-clean-silencer-parts/. This is very bad.

If you use Dot 5 silicone to pretreat, you’ll most likely create a silicone mist when you shoot. This is bad for your lungs. Here’s a link: https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5471635&postcount=9

Whatever you do, don’t be a doof and use a pot that you also use for cooking. Pots are cheap.

I’ve just gotten my first suppressor and haven’t cleaned it yet. I’m thinking of the rock tumbler/SS pins/soap method.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Well, I do wear rubber gloves. I use a throw away glass olive or pickle jar. It's the best method, by far, for cleaning my suppressors. Put in at night wipe it off the next day. Saves so much time for me. I'll continue doing it but it's not for everyone.

 

[carbonbased]

Some chemicals (acetone) go right through nitrile gloves. I know you said rubber, but it would be smart to research the crap out of that topic. For example, I discovered that basically only real rubber (edit: I meant butyl! Not rubber for acetone!) gloves stop acetone, and then for only about sub-1hr total cumulative exposure. The gloves are $65 or so, and are a disposable item after a short while.

If one only handles acetone a little bit, then no huge deal. When I’m lazy, I use tin foil to hold an acetone dipped cloth.

My point is research what glove stops lead acetate, and for how long cumulatively. Gloves wear out, and I don’t mean by developing holes.

You’re fine. Until you’re not. And then, it’s too late.

(and I really hope you’re not poisoning the larger community by pouring that stuff down a sewer, drain, or tossing in the garbage. Take it to a hazardous disposal center.)

 

[Near miss]

Be careful guys. Stay away from poisons. Shooting is in itself poisonous hobby and lead levels in range officers prove it. Keep gun range air conditioned.
I did not want to make my hazard center more work just because I wanted it easy for me. Turned out better.

IMO cleaning it with oil has been a lot more simple. I have once used ballistol which is skin-friendly and it seemed to work also. It always penetrates way better but not sure how well it 'soaks' the dirt in there to make it actually loose. If ballistol was as cheap as motor oil I would use it only.

 

[carbonbased]

1. Remove gunk thats extra. No work needed really, it is soft stuff. If it has tough angles, use wooden stick. Should be enough.
2. Brush it, or if it is not a single body, just wipe the parts with paper or cloth (do not use the curtains)
3. Do not go for perfection, it will be in vain.

Basically, this is how I clean the inside of my house.

 

[sharpdoug]

Here is a nice one. My Sparrow after IDK, maybe a 1,000?? I use the DIP method. Works for me.

View attachment 7266880View attachment 7266881View attachment 7266882

I think I finally figured it out. I dissemble my sparrow surppressor completely. I put all the part in my extreme tumbler with water Dawn detergent. The stainless medium is fairly aggressive on the softer lead and crap. The titanium baffle and stainless sleeves are unaffected by the process. After a couple of hours about 95% of the bad stuff is gone. The water is now hazardous waste deal with appropriately.

 

[Darkside-Six]

The dip is easy and it’s not dangerous if you follow some basic safety.

take an old jar with a lid, fill with dip and drop in your core/baffles, whatever your internals are.

let sit for 3-5 hours. (Do this in your garage or outside)

get a cheap pair of metal tongs from the dollar store and a pair of disposable gloves.

pull out the items from the dip and wipe clean with paper towels.

put lid back on jar and take to your local hazard waste disposal place (they usually dispose of it for free)

you’re done. ?‍

 

[Kisssofdeath]

The dip is easy and it’s not dangerous if you follow some basic safety. CHECK

take an old jar with a lid, fill with dip and drop in your core/baffles, whatever your internals are. CHECK

let sit for 3-5 hours. (Do this in your garage or outside) CHECK, I LET MINE SIT OVERNIGHT

get a cheap pair of metal tongs from the dollar store and a pair of disposable gloves. CHECK, I USE LATEX GLOVES AND LONG NEEDLE NOSE PLIERS.

pull out the items from the dip and wipe clean with paper towels. CHECK, I TAKE MY 3 PIECES TO THE AUXILIARY SINK AND RINSE OFF THEN I WIPE CLEAN WITH AN OLD PAIR OF CLEAN UNDERWEAR AND DISCARD AFTER USE

put lid back on jar and take to your local hazard waste disposal place (they usually dispose of it for free) CHECK, I LET MINE EVAPORATE

you’re done. ?‍ CHECK, IT'S JUST THAT SIMPLE

.

 

[carbonbased]

.

I like it, especially the evaporate part. But again, do some research on gloves. It’s eye opening.

 

[carbonbased]

How to find the right glove: one method is to search for “breakthrough time glove [chemical]”.

Here is some quick research. Info on gloves and lead acetate is a bit challenging to find. Here they suggest double nitrile gloves for incidental contact, and no suggestion for extended contact (I take that to mean, “don’t do that”):

http://amo-csd.lbl.gov/downloads/Chemical Resistance of Gloves.pdf

Here they list their latex gloves being better than their nitrile gloves (but no mention of breakthrough time):

https://beta-static.fishersci.com/c...uides/microflex-chemical-resistance-guide.pdf

A nitrile glove chart on breakthrough time (unfortunately doesn’t list lead acetate):

http://www.dartmouth.edu/ehs/chemical/nitrile_gloves_chemical_resistance_guide.pdf

Here is a better chart that lists breakthrough time and other measures for a wide variety of glove materials (also no lead acetate mentioned):

https://www.honeywellsafety.com/Supplementary/Documents_and_Downloads/Gloves/19327356486/1033.aspx

So, I am leaving it to you, dear reader, to do some due diligence. Most men think, “Pshaw, I touched/inhaled (insert substance) and I’m fine!”

To this, I ask, “Do you remember asbestos? Or even the humble lead, which the Romans used for things like drinking goblets? Or how about using the wrong kind of brake cleaner for welding prep?” (https://www.brewracingframes.com/safety-alert-brake-cleaner--phosgene-gas.html)

They don’t realize that some things kill slowly, building poison inside of you cumulatively. And some things wipe you out really fast, but the dude has always done it that way and they don’t know how lucky they’ve been.

It’s almost like some people, again usually men, only think about the here and now, and ignore the science (because scientists were, you know, wrong on this or that, ignoring the fact they were right a billion times).

?‍

Full disclosure, I modified my post above. I misremembered the glove that stops acetone: it is BUTYL and NOT rubber. I bought mine off amazon, Showa brand.

I had also misremembered that butyl had about an hour of extended contact before one should change it out. The info out there seems to indicate a much longer time frame. My butyl glove was starting to get really tacky (degrading), so that’s when I bought a new pair.

The moral here is do your research and don’t trust your memory too much. Must be all the gas I used to wash paint off my hands as a kid…thanks Dad, for that stupid advice. Ha!

Edit: my only guess on why there’s not much info that I could find on lead acetate is that, in the chem world, it’s called something else. I’m not a scientist. I noticed the word “acetate” popping up a lot, just not with “lead”.

Below, I found these synonyms here: http://datasheets.scbt.com/sc-207823.pdf

SYNONYMS
C4-H6-O4-Pb.3H2O, (CH3COO)2Pb.3H2O, "lead acetate (II), trihydrate", "acetic acid, lead (+2) salt trihydrate", "sugar of Lead", "lead acetate trihydrate", "lead diacetate trihydrate", "plumbous acetate"

 

[Near miss]

Thanks. I definitely needed that. Too often I find myself playing with chemicals with poor safety equipment.

 

[Kisssofdeath]

Carbonbased, I'm curious as to why you keep talking about acetone. I use 3% hydrogen peroxide it doesn't contain acetone. But I appreciate you taking the time to research and post the safety issues regarding the dip solution.

 

[carbonbased]

I’m using acetone as an example because, at one point, I was using a bunch of the stuff to refurb cast iron topped woodworking equipment. Like, a bunch of acetone. And my trick with aluminum foil was a frigging pain at that volume of effort. And I noticed that with nitrile gloves, I was darn near instantly feeling that cold evaporative feeling with acetone, and I realized the stuff was going through nitrile like neutrinos through the earth.

And since acetone is used by women all the time to remove nail polish, I didn’t think much of it. And then I casually did a little research. And now I use a gas mask and butyl gloves if I use it in quantity.

So, acetone to me is like lead acetate to you. That’s why I talk about acetone. I love acetone!

 

[carbonbased]

And don’t forget lead acetate/acetone etc get into you via your lungs too. And the fancy gas mask filters last about a year after opened, even if you don’t use them. That is all, Mr Safety shutting down, zzzzz boop de booo zzzup

edit: I made this text bigger, as I made it really small as a joke.

 

[jsjac]

Sorry for my ignorance.
What is the DIP method of cleaning a rim fire can?

 

[broncoaz]

You guys clean your rim fire cans? I have a Liberty Kodiak TL (stainless core with titanium tube) that I run primarily on a 4.5” barrel AR-22 SBR. I run mag after mag on that rifle and pull the can off maybe every 1000 rounds to break the outer tube free from the core. After >10K rounds there was enough lead buildup that I had to knock some larger chunks off. As some point I’ll soda blast it to get it clean, but until then it’s fine. There isn’t significant volume being taken up by the gunk, so it‘s still as quiet as ever. I clean my 9mm and .45 cans with baffles frequently, but my Liberty Mystic on the 9mm AR is the same as my rim fire can for cleaning or lack thereof.

i have an ultrasonic cleaner I was thinking of using on the suppressors, but I haven’t tried it yet.

 

[Near miss]

You guys clean your rim fire cans? I have a Liberty Kodiak TL (stainless core with titanium tube) that I run primarily on a 4.5” barrel AR-22 SBR. I run mag after mag on that rifle and pull the can off maybe every 1000 rounds to break the outer tube free from the core. After >10K rounds there was enough lead buildup that I had to knock some larger chunks off. As some point I’ll soda blast it to get it clean, but until then it’s fine. There isn’t significant volume being taken up by the gunk, so it‘s still as quiet as ever. I clean my 9mm and .45 cans with baffles frequently, but my Liberty Mystic on the 9mm AR is the same as my rim fire can for cleaning or lack thereof.

i have an ultrasonic cleaner I was thinking of using on the suppressors, but I haven’t tried it yet.

Those chunks that you knock off can also end in the bullets way before that.

That said, I have just the habit of cleaning the can every few months. I am afraid the added dirt causes accuracy problems.

I do have one can loctited to a semi .22 which is loctited down and has few thousand through it by now. No plans to take it off either.

 

[Near miss]

Funny news..

Few days ago at the range there was a 22 case and bullet in my suppressor.

It caused wild (2mil) fliers which were surprisingly consistent. I was testing of a bad lot was as bad I remember, and so was expecting lousy grouping.
(What are the odds?)

It seems like somehow a live round had ended up in there, even I keep my suppressor in a separate pocket just for it, muzzle end down so nothing can drop in there easily.
And somehow it did not make noise when I attached it in to the muzzle.

Here is what the suppressor and the cartridge looked like. There is a small tear on it but it does not seem to affect silencing performance.

The good news is, the gunk fell off on its own this time too. Even I had not put any oil in there for quite a while, the residue was quite moist.