How to clean Rifle

basically, you can use any oil on the outside to preserve the wood and protect the metal, especially from fingerprint oils which will quickly eat off the bluing

After you fire it, you need to clean the lead and burnt powder fowling from the barrel, that requires a general purpose gun solvent

You can buy a kit that contains special gun oil, general gun solvent, patches, rods, and ends. Ill find one and link it, be right back!

http://www.productwizard.com/hoppes-u22b...
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.ex...

Now remember, you don't need to clean the inside of a gun except for after you fire it...any more than you need to take clean dishes out of the cupboard to wash them. It's not like moping the kitchen floor or vaccumming the living room, you don't need to clean it unless you get it dirty. Now, whenever you touch the outside you should either just hold it by the stock, or make sure to wipe it down with a few drops of gunoil on a rag.

Now, for actually cleaning after shooting....the other poster is right it is best to clean from the breech to the muzzle, however I have found that boresnakes don't work that great. I am also a bit of a cleaning minimalist. Remember, many .22LR rifles ahve been used for years and fired thousands of shells and no one ever cleaned them. I clean my ruger 10/22 from the muzzle, just try not to bang the handle into the muzzle crown, and try to hold the rod centered in the barrel. I do that by holding the tip of the barrel with my right hand in a fist, but have my pointer finger and thumb out and using them to guide the rod as the left hand pushes.

To start...

MAKE SURE THE GUN IS UNLOADED.

Drop the magazine out, work the bolt a few times to be sure, and then lock the bolt back in the open position

Assemble the rod. Look for the tip that has a point on it. (if your kit doesn't have one, just put the slotted end on, but don't use the slot) Grab an empty soda bottle or other disposable container for putting your trash into. I use the lid of an old jar to hold the solvent. Pour a little bit of solvent onto the jar lid (some people dip into the solvent bottle, but that can contaminate and weaken the potency of the whole thing).

Grab a wad of tissue paper or an old rag, and with the bolt locked open, put it in the chamber, so that any gunk and dirty fluid from the barrel is caught by that. A sock rag up from the empty magazine well works wonderful.

Grab a patch, dip the middle of the patch into the solvent. You want it wet, but not dripping. Hold the patch open at the muzzle and push it into the barrel using the assembled rod. I hold onto the rod itself, it is easy to break a rod where it screws together when pushing it in the first few inches. After that grab the handle and push it through the barrel, slowly, until you pop it out the other end. Then grab that dirty patch and shove it in the pop bottle you used for trash. (This is why i don't use the slot, don't want to drag a dirty patch back up)

Now wait about 5 minutes for the solvent to work.

Push a dry patch through, or two dry patches. They should come out covered in gunk. Run another wet patch through.

At this point you can either let it sit for 5 minutes and run some more dry patches, or you can screw on the wire brush attachment and make a few passes. Note, with the bursh, go ALL the way down and out, and then pull it back up. Don't change directions when in the barrel.

Repeat the wet patch then 2 dry patches. Eventually if you do that long enough the first dry patch will come out spotless, but that is too much work, and really every pass of the rod through the barrel does some wear. I do 1 wet 2 dry, 1 wet 2 passes with the brush then 2 dry, and then 1 wet 2 dryx3 (so a total of 5 wet 10 dry.

Pull out the rag, grab a patch and put just a little solvent on it, and wipe down the action area of the gun. You don't want it dripping or even close to dripping, then wipe out the area with a dry one or two. Put a drop of oil on the slide of the bolt, and work it a few times.

Now wipe down all the metal and wood with some drops of oil on a rag, pick the gun up only by the stock, and return it to storage.

Now as you are new, memorize these 4 rules, and you will be safe. Forget them and you may well end up accidentally shooting yourself or someone else

"The Four Rules"
1.Treat all guns as if the are loaded, with absolute care and respect. (if anyone hands you an unloaded gun, check for yourself, or have htem show you how)
2. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you are ready to fire.
3. Never let the muzzle of the gun point at any person or anything you aren't willing to see destroyed. (this includes 'unloaded guns', be especially careful when picking up a gun, it is easy to forget and point it at people just as you pick it up)
4. Be sure of your target AND what is behind it before you shoot.