cleaning SS handgun's with water

[facetious]

Hi I am new at this forum stuff , so thought I would try and post something and see if it works.
A guy at work got a new SS SP101. He wanted a blue one but no luck. I told him that SS was great for a handgun, because you could clean it with dish soap and hot water! Boy did I get a lesson on how water will wreck a gun, you HAVE TO USE OIL! I asked if he used water to clean his black powder gun? Yes he did . Did you wreck it? No, that is how you clean black powder gun,s. But it will wreck SS?
I found a long time a go that after shooting a lot of rounds if I take the grips off that a bore mop and a tooth brush under hot running water cleaned a lot of crud off. Dry off and blow it out with a air hose, spay it with your favorite lube let it sit for a day to drain or just blow it out again to get rid of any excess lube wipe it down and call it good. If you have any leading it is easy to see and your hands do not get all nasty trying to get it out. But what do I know. Should saw them when I said you could use past wax on blue guns to stop them from rusting! YOU HAVE TO USE OIL!

[Sasquatch-1]

When I bought my first SS S&W Mod 64, someone told me he would put his in the dishwasher(minus detergent) to get all the gunk out. Mind you, I never tried it and only cleaned mine the traditional way.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I will have to watch this thread. My black powder guns get the soap and hot water to clean them but I've never tried (or thought of) cleaning my SP or GP with water. It just don't seem right, but I've been wrong before. I would think that the water would get trapped in the small parts of the trigger assembly.......

[gray wolf]

I M H O-- Blued or SS can be cleaned with hot water and dish soap, just like a mold.
But-- yes-- there are some buts--
Brushes should be soft on visible surfaces, and no abrasives.
Use other than for bores and cylinders. Any damage from grit, dirt or scratchy material
Will not show ( soap and water ) will hide them and then it's a surprise when your done.
The trick is to remove all forms of moisture as fast as possible when done,
you got to get the metal dry, the hotter the water the better and then use some sort of rust preventative.
In the military we cleaned our weapons with hot soapy water, heated up with an immersion heater, Air dried and wiped down with a light oil.
But you can't sell any of the bazillion products we have now doing it like that.
Granted many of the new things we have now are great products and make our life a lot easier, I use many myself.
Take a piece of steel and wash it with soap and water, dry it right after, it will rust ( oxidation ) soon after depending on the environment it is in, less with SS but it can happen. do the same and apply a rust preventative after and chances are there will be no adverse effect from the hop soapy water.
I don't remember any rusted weapons in the military as long as a few simple things were done. (Jungle and neglect excluded)
Just my 2 1/2 cents.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

you can but do you want to , not all small parts in SS guns are SS

if you asked could i take the barrel off and scrub it with hot soapy water , yes absolutely, but your correct it needs to be oiled , but it can be oiled easier than many small moving parts can be

how about a funnel that is shaped to fit in a 303 SMLE chamber so you can pour boiling water down the barrel to remove the corrosive salts of old ammo , sure great idea

but i don't thing your going to want to encourage it on trigger groups and springs


your absolutely correct that if you baked all the water out each time it wouldn't be an issue , or if you fully disassembled the gun and cleaned every part then dried and oiled them sure

remember some of our water is so hard that just baking the water out of a small parts assembly could leave a calcium residue behind and that would not be good on small moving parts , if they were not disassembled and wiped down with a cloth then oiled

but people are lazy they want the path of least resistance with the least side affects

part of why so many don't properly clean their black powder guns , or avoid shooting them often because they don't like the clean up how many times have you heard about a gun with a charge in it that was years old, or a rusted in breach plug

my own cousin , a very competent auto and bike mechanic , master electrician and Navy vet had had his blued 1911 45 20 years without every having the slide off of it , he keeps his guns clean and oiled but doesn't break them down any further than necessary and he never found it necessary to field strip his 1911 , i showed him how to do it on his mothers kitchen table after we had been out it the rain. he was uneasy until i had it all back together also , even though he had just watched me do my brothers a minute earlier. we oiled it up well as it may be years before it ever gets field stripped again.


so might i do it myself maybe if it was the only available method , would i recommend it , no
when we think of what to recommend to others , we should be thinking of the steps that if followed the same every time even if they include an extra or redundant step will lead to a positive outcome every time.

some times a procedure includes an extra or redundant steps , some times these double check the alinement of a part , other times they are built in safeties so that even if you skipped a step being lazy the part is still adequately lubricated

like i tell my kids you must first fully understand the process and why something is done , and the risks you assume not doing it that way before creating a short cut to the procedure , then fully accept the risks

[MtGun44]

As long as you TOTALLY dry it and re-oil, it will be fine.
SS can rust, it is just more difficult.

Bill

[montana_charlie]

I would say to dip the assembled piece in WD40 to displace all water, then (after being allowed to drain well) blow away the remaining WD40 with compressed air. Then apply the lube of your choice.

CM

[firefly1957]

After experimenting with black powder loads in my SS security six I did wash it in HOT soap and water. Followed by proper oiling rust was not a issue now having it in my boat did cause some surface discoloration.

[Jailer]

The solution I use in the ultra sonic cleaner at work on the stainless mini 14's is a water based solution. When they're done I rinse them in hot water, blow out all the water trapped in any crevices and then coat thoroughly with oil.

Haven't had an issue with rust on any of them but you have to oil them. Stainless will rust.

[facetious]

I'm back. Wow my first try at a thread and I didn't get flamed or nothing! This all started when I was messing with a guy at work.(I think there is a law or something that if you work with some one for X number of year's you have to mess with them) any way I have a security six that I have shot a lot and found that if you take the grips off all you have to do is pull the pin for the hammer and push in the plunger thing in the frame and the trigger group pop's out and the crane slides out . You don't have to clean the trigger group much and there isn't any thing left on the frame to worry about, and it makes it easer to clean the chamber's . How do the guy's that load black powder for the cowboy matches clean there revolver's?

[facetious]

After experimenting with black powder loads in my SS security six I did wash it in HOT soap and water. Followed by proper oiling rust was not a issue now having it in my boat did cause some surface discoloration.

How did that go? I have thought of trying that some time. Oh and I have been using Brake free for a long time and it seams to prevent any rust

[Olevern]

How did that go? I have thought of trying that some time. Oh and I have been using Brake free for a long time and it seams to prevent any rust

if you use Brake free or carb cleaner, those products strip off any lube or protective oil so you need to re-oil after otherwise your metal has no protection.

[facetious]

if you use Brake free or carb cleaner, those products strip off any lube or protective oil so you need to re-oil after otherwise your metal has no protection.

Brake Free the spray lube, not brake cleaner.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I'm back. Wow my first try at a thread and I didn't get flamed or nothing!

You will find this isn't like many other forums where flaming is more common

I like to think that we have a more intelligent crew here that have realized there may be more than one way to a successful outcome

[ScottJ]

I don't know that SP-101s have ever been made in blue. I clean mine the traditional way but it has been wet many times. Most commonly I sweat on it while doing yard work. It was in my pocket on a rafting trip when I had to go over the side to tow us to shore. I've had in my pocket while surf fishing and gotten splashed.

I have used water to flush the whole works when it was exposed to sea water and then let it soak overnight in oil after.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[firefly1957]

facetious I did not get very good groups overall I tried several loads and loading methods bullets were soft 158 gr round nose. It has been a while I think I got up to 18 grs of fffg in the case.