Cleaning an M4

[New_Texan]

Forgive me if this has been discussed elsewhere...

I've never cleaned a gun... and I haven't cleaned my new M4 yet. (I shot it over the weekend, your suppose to clean after each use, correct?).

My wife has a 9mm Sig pistol that her dad bought for her to go to college with. She "kinda knows" how to clean a pistol, although she hasn't shot her pistol in a few years! She has a "rifle" cleaning kit with push rods, pads and a brass looking brush as well as 3 cleaning solutions (one of which is oil.. the others are detergents?). She apparently needed to clean her pistol, went to the local store, but all they had was this particular kit... they said it was basically the same kit that you'd buy for a pistol (other than the long push rods).

So... here's my question... can I use this stuff? The brass brush seems to narrow in diameter as it does not touch all surfaces of the barrel (if I were to push it through the barrel, which I have not done!). Do I need a new brass brush to "fit" my M4? Also, do I need to just lube with the Benelli oil that came with the gun or can I use this other stuff too?

[agm65ccip]

I'll be upfront and say that I dont have an M4, but an M2 seemed close enough for your general question.

Remember this is just me and you will get some people that will come on here and say that I'm doing it all wrong and others will come on here and say they have put 100's if not 1000's of rounds through their gun without cleaning and they still work great.

I think the rifle cleaning kit is better than nothing, but I will say that you should get a 12ga bore brush so at least you have the right size. I would think the other two things that you have besides the oil are copper/powder solvents. I wouldnt use those on the shotgun unless it was really dirty. As far as the benelli oil, I'm sure its decent oil so you can use it but by no means HAVE to use it.

What I usually end up doing after shooting is running a patch with some oil on it through the barrel unless its really dirty, in which case I move to the brass brush/solvent. And then I take apart the rest of the gun and wipe down all the parts with an oil filled rag. Now when I say oil filled rag I mean a rag that I put a little oil on each time I clean a gun so after a while it just is a rag that always has some oil on it. Put it all back together and put a little lube in critical places and we are good to go.

Doesnt take too long, and usually the gun isnt really that dirty so I'm not too worried about it.

Like I said before thats just me and my advice, and like a few others around here I will say "its worth exactly what you paid for it ".

[New_Texan]

Thanks! Your "practice" sounds very reasonable. I will get a 12 gauge brush and use the Benelli oil it came with.

[Duggan]

Get a 12 gauge boresnake, some type of solvent/oil or CLP, and do the basic stuff.

The m4 doesn't need to be babied ... a smoothbore shotgun has no rifling to clean that affects accuracy, so it isn't really important to clean the bore. Just use some solvent from time to time to clean up the fouling, most of the time a few passes with a boresnake and some CLP will be more than enough.

Cleaning the BCG is very easy, just wipe off wherever you see carbon/dirt.

I may be in the minority here, but I would say that keeping your M4 lubed is more important than keeping it super clean ... the gun will run just fine dirty, but if it is not oiled you will wear down your anodizing and parts much faster.

I have switched to using only Machine Gunners Lube, but there are plenty of oils on the market that will work.

Oh, and keep the barrel wet with some oil or clp from time to time, it's the only thing on the gun that is prone to rust, and it actually rusts pretty easily if you neglect it.

[HOGWILD]

http://www.militec.com/firearms/manual.html
cleaning instructions inside pdf!

[XCross]

Duggan,

How often do you break down the barrel and clean out the BCG & trigger pack?

TIA

Get a 12 gauge boresnake, some type of solvent/oil or CLP, and do the basic stuff.

The m4 doesn't need to be babied ... a smoothbore shotgun has no rifling to clean that affects accuracy, so it isn't really important to clean the bore. Just use some solvent from time to time to clean up the fouling, most of the time a few passes with a boresnake and some CLP will be more than enough.

Cleaning the BCG is very easy, just wipe off wherever you see carbon/dirt.

I may be in the minority here, but I would say that keeping your M4 lubed is more important than keeping it super clean ... the gun will run just fine dirty, but if it is not oiled you will wear down your anodizing and parts much faster.

I have switched to using only Machine Gunners Lube, but there are plenty of oils on the market that will work.

Oh, and keep the barrel wet with some oil or clp from time to time, it's the only thing on the gun that is prone to rust, and it actually rusts pretty easily if you neglect it.