Tom D. is in his 80’s. He’s a farmer in rural Ohio, but he owns rental property in Cleveland that he regularly visits.
One evening, Tom was fixing up the rental home to list it for sale, and fell asleep on the couch.
He heard a person trying to break in and saw a beam of a flashlight through a crack in the door.
The intruder had a screwdriver and popped out the lock…
When the intruder pushed open the door, Tom fired one shot from his revolver and the 17-year-old armed intruder slumped against the door.
The teen intruder was taken to the hospital where he was fighting to live. He had a long criminal record and had been shot before.
Tom told local media, “Police told me if I hadn’t dropped him with that first one, he would have got me.”
Now, revolvers are popular among folks who prefer the easiness of manipulating them.
You pull the trigger on a revolver and it goes bang. There is no hassling with racking the slide or disengaging a safety like on a semi-auto.
But one factor about revolvers that is often overlooked is that they need to be cleaned and cared for like a semi-automatic.
And even though revolvers are basic there are some things to keep in mind when cleaning them.
Clean cylinder:
First, with an unloaded firearm clean the cylinder face with a bronze brush. This is the side of the cylinder that is closest to the end of the barrel.
It’s often blackened because of the carbon fouling after firing a round.
Using a cleaning solution, such as Hoppes #9, you want to clean the outside of the cylinder with a brush.
After cleaning the outside, use cloth pads with Hoppes #9 to clean the cylinder’s charge holes.
After cleaning each charge hole with a wet cloth, run dry cloth pads through each one until they are clean.
Forcing cone and frame face:
An often-forgotten part to clean is the forcing cone.
The forcing cone is the rear entrance of the barrel where the bullet transitions from the cylinder to the barrel, and it’s the place most susceptible to breaking on revolvers.
Clean the forcing cone with a bronze brush and cleaner.
The frame face is where the firing pin comes through. This is another place where you want to use the brush.
The barrel:
Push an appropriately sized cleaning brush through the barrel with a cleaning solution.
This will loosen build-up in the barrel.
After using the brush, run multiple cloth patches through the barrel. First with a wet patch, then dry ones.
Run the patches through until they come out clean.
Always clean the barrel from the chamber end towards the muzzle end.
As for how often you clean your revolver, it depends on how and where you use your gun.
If you spend the day shooting outside in dust and dirt you should clean your revolver.
Or if you spend your day at an indoor range, you could clean it after about 300 rounds.
Just remember to clean your revolver so it’s always in great operating shape.
