Firearms Maintenance When SHTF

by Road Warrior

shtfblog

I’ve seen a few comments and gotten a few emails concerning maintenance regimens with firearms, and since theoretically your survival SHTF firearms could take a real beating when things go downhill, it only makes sense that it be foremost in mind for the prepper. Whether the firearm you have is a single shot .22 or the snarliest AR-15 your wallet could build, sooner or later, it’s gonna need to be taken care of, sorry to tell ya. Most gun owners know how to pour oil an a gun and wipe it down, and run a brush down a bore, but, just like you don’t use vegetable oil in the crankcase of your car, there are specific materials you should have in your tricky bag to take care of this specific purpose, and certain areas of the gun that will need more attention than others. Let’s go into what the general prepper will need in a basic kit to head out the door and keep a gun supported and clean temporarily, as well as more intricate items that will allow detailed maintenance.

This here is my basic firearms maintenance kit. Yeah, basic for me…but with this one kit, I can clean and service pretty much any basic firearm, as well as detail strip and do armorer’s maintenance on SIG-Sauer P-series pistols, Glock handguns, and AR-15s. However, it’s all saddled up in a large tacklebox that really takes up a lot of space, and is more than most people will need for a basic maintenance kit. I’m sure you’ll notice several things that no prepper with a gun should be without:

-CLEANING ROD: - A MUST. Your firearm’s bore is the most important part of the firearm when it comes to maintaining accuracy. A segmented, QUALITY rod (not the cheapo Wal-Mart aluminum kit ones) made out of brass, (preferably) coated steel will last indefinitely if taken care of (and not used to pound stuck bullets out of the bore!). I keep a sturdy brass one in my kit, and a smaller segmented steel one with my Grab-n-Go AR. Warning: steel ones can damage the rifling, so care is needed.

From top to bottom: Chamber brush (for an AR-15), bronze .40 cal bore brush, stainless steel .40 cal bore brush, slotted jag, barbed jag.

-BORE BRUSHES/JAGS: To go on the cleaning rod, you need caliber-specific bore brushes. They can be bronze or stainless steel – I prefer to have a mix of both. Solvents can slowly melt copper brushes, so they are good for just scrubbing, where the stainless ones are a bit rougher on the bore, so I use them when I am using solvents to eradicate powder residue and copper jacket buildup. Jags are barbed or slotted tools that hold patches onto the cleaning rod, so you can run solvents and oil in the bore, or swab the crap out. I heartily recommend stocking up on these…they are less than a couple bucks apiece, store forever, but don’t last forever under use.

-CLEANING PATCHES: These can be either pre-made caliber-specific perfect squares, bought from a store, or knife-cut pieces of your old tighety whiteys. These have myriad uses; they can be used to wipe oil on a gun, clean out carbon, swab solvents down a bore, or….? It’s always good to have lots of these around, as well as an old t-shirt or three that can be used for everything as well.

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