Using a hose to clean an AK-platform rifle?

[SurvivalistSong]

What are your opinions?

I've mostly since now cleaned my rifle meticulously by hand and a toothbrush, but I've recently experimented with hosing my rifle down with the garden hose after using corrosive ammo.
I let it dry afterwards, then spray the internals with CLP and clean/lube the bore.
This saves me a lot of time, and it seems to be so far to be even more effective at cleaning my rifles for storage than cleaning everything with a rag and a toothbrush.


Am I sacrificing the lifetime of my rifle for simplicity and time? Will rust eventually harm my AKs? Does anybody else do this? I can't be the only blasphemous and lazy culprit!




Ofcourse I'd never hose my AR-15s down, but I'm brainwashed with the logic that AK-platform rifles are tough, nitty gritty, don't-give-a-f*ck rifles

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[halmbarte]

Overkill IMO.

I've been shooting a lot of corrosive ammo over the past 3-4 years and I've never used a hose. I brush a little soapy water where ever there is powder fouling, dry, and then oil. No problems with rust.

If you're soaking the AK in water I'd be worried about water getting in between the trunnions and receiver, under the bolt guide rails, and under the rear sight base and barrel. Water will wick into pretty small cracks and is tough to remove 100%.

H

 

[wayoutwest]

Overkill IMO.

If you're soaking the AK in water I'd be worried about water getting in between the trunnions and receiver, under the bolt guide rails, and under the rear sight base and barrel. Water will wick into pretty small cracks and is tough to remove 100%.

Agree with this^^^^^^^

.....some windex down the barrel with patch or two while shooting, followed by a normal cleaning when your back home and call it good.

 

[Ligito]

Hose it down, stick it in the oven.
That'll dry the moisture out.
Or, saturate it with Kroil.

 

[supergenius]

You havent been banned over here yet eh? Let the countdown begin.

 

[billt]

I shoot a lot of corrosive ammunition, and purchased one of those big plastic storage tubs from Wal-Mart for the specific purpose of cleaning my AK-47's. If you ask the housewares department manager if they have any with the lids missing, they will practically give them to you. Get one that is large enough to set the whole rifle in.

I then fill it with hot, soapy water, field strip the gun, and place everything in it. I use "Dawn" dish washing liquid because it cuts grease, oil, and grime very well. I use a toothbrush to get at everything. After that I rinse in another similar sized tub filled with clear hot water, then final rinse with a hose with no nozzle. I just let the water flow over and through the entire gun. You won't hurt a thing. The beauty of this method is you can do it outside and not worry about making a mess.

After that I blow dry everything with compressed air. I then soak everything heavily with WD-40, and blow dry again. This is what WD-40 was meant for. It is a water displacing formula, and it will remove any water trapped in hard to get areas. After the WD-40 treatment I then reassemble, and relubricate everything and the gun is spotless inside and out. This is really the only way to be sure to remove all of the corrosive salts from the receiver, and gas system.

 

[Letric]

Water + metal = rust.

It might clean your gun a little better now, but years later you might regret it!

What wayoutwest said... a little windex, some Hoppe's #9, and CLP.


*Also... I don't think its environmentally friendly to be hosing off oils and cleaning products in your yard/driveway/whatever. : )

 

[deadshot2]

What about just leaving it in the bed of your pickup and going through the carwash. If you order the extra wax and paint protectant that should cover it, right?

I wonder how concerned about maintenance all the Taliban are with their AK's.

 

[yurik]

You can also put it into your dishwasher with a keyboard.. You, guys, are really into overdoing it. I will post the link to a Russian board, they may even sober up for a while over there.
If you want to overdo it in style, take a Chinese thermos filled with hot water to the range. If you want to use water, it really helps to use it when the barrel is still warm. Plain warm water is very effective in this scenario.
Russian rifle, Chinese thermos, American voter..

 

[deadshot2]

You can also put it into your dishwasher with a keyboard.. You, guys, are really into overdoing it. I will post the link to a Russian board, they may even sober up for a while over there.
If you want to overdo it in style, take a Chinese thermos filled with hot water to the range. If you want to use water, it really helps to use it when the barrel is still warm. Plain warm water is very effective in this scenario.
Russian rifle, Chinese thermos, American voter..

A bottle of Windex works great too. A few squirts down the bore followed with a patch. Then just run an oily patch through or spray everything with CLP.

 

[bnz43]

clean ak?

 

[halmbarte]

clean ak?

Corrosive ammo and my PDX area humidity make for a rusted out POS if you don't stay on top of it.

Hardchrome bores are all well and good but they all have cracks. Salts and water get under the cracks and rust out the steel from under the hardchrome, which pops loose, exposing more steel.

H

 

[Toxic6]

I was told once that the original Russian military manual recommended peeing down the barrel if you had no other way to clean the weapon on hand......lol.

 

[halmbarte]

The Sov manual I have calls for cleaning over the course of 3 days after firing and has pretty draconian restrictions on what's allowed to be used. Urine didn't figure into it from what I remember.

H

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B0...MDU3LTk0Y2ItYjBlZTNiNDc5NWE0&authkey=CLT79qIH

 

[Toxic6]

thanks for sharing

"it is strictly forbidden to.......strike the rounds with a hammer or other hard object, throw the rounds into a fire....." Now what are we going to do sitting around base camp lol.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

I always bring a thermos full of hot water and some hand dish detergent and a funnel to the range when shooting corrosive ammo.. three or four funnels full with a brush each time and then I spray the bore down with a penetrant spray. At home I always clean my guns in the sink with the same process, some heavy neoprene gloves and various brushes, then lube. The hot water plus compressed air dries the parts out fast

Field cleaning it's Windex and then oil. Never thought about the pee idea, funny lol

 

[unklekippy]

I have been shooting MAK90's and AK74's with corrosive ammo for years. The fact of the matter is that in the case of the Yugoslavian surplus 7.62x39 and the Russian 7N6 5.45x39(among others), you simply need to clean your gun after each use to prevent rust. This doesn't mean taking it to the Batcave to be re-engineered, but it does need to be thoroughly cleaned. In the summer I have been known to use a hose. In the winter, a sink or bathtub. It's an AK. Scrub where the gas goes and it will be fine. The afformentioned surplus ammunition is superior to Wolf or other non-corrosive ammo in consistency and in the case of the Yugo it is brass cased, theoretically lengthening bolt life. You can field strip an AK in 15 seconds. The scrubbng takes 10-15 minutes. The drying 5 minutes to an hour, depending on your technique. Re-assembly 1 minute. Corrosive ammo becomes painful in guns like AR's. Hoppe's 9, Remoil, dish soap, Windex, etc. It really doesn't matter what you use, as long as you use it every time you shoot corrosive. 5 important words: SCRUB WHERE THE GAS GOES. XOXO, Kip.

 

[Blitzkrieg]

It may increase bolt and extractor life but the AK and SKS were designed to shoot steel cased ammo so it's debatable. Maybe Mr Kalashnikov will chime in..

 

[unklekippy]

Hey, I said "theoretically". It is debatable and the abundance of steel cased ammo is why I keep a spare bolt for each AK(though I have never needed to replace one). What is not debatable is that brass is more pliable than steel. That is a fact.

 

[deadshot2]

It may increase bolt and extractor life but the AK and SKS were designed to shoot steel cased ammo so it's debatable. Maybe Mr Kalashnikov will chime in..

The steel used in ammo cases isn't much harder than brass. It's just not as flexible. Bolts and extractors are more likely to fail due to the metallurgy of those specific parts rather than the metal type of the ammo case.