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I am wondering how and where do I clean my Garand gas system like one would open up and clean the M14 gas piston and dig out the baked on black junk in the gas system of the M14. Can anyone suggest a good manual or boo:cool:k or other instruction to see how to do this? thanks, dugaboy
Any of the current quality cleaners will remove the gas fouling and carbon from the system. With the OP rod out and the plug out you can use a large jag and patches with your solvent to clean the inside. Soak the plug in some solvent and work the valve a bit with a punch or chopstick. Dry all when finished. Do not shoot it with oil or cleaner in the gas cylinder It will cook on the crap. Special note: Do not scratch or brush off the outside finish of your gas cylinder. The cylinder is a type of stainless steel. The outside of it has been metalized so it will take the gray color. If you remove the metalized finish you cannot restore it as a home fix it guy you will have to paint it with a parkerized color paint or live with a silver gas cylinder.
I rarely remove the gas plug. I seldom dismount the op rod. If necessary, I will remove the op rod and clean the gas cylinder from the rear. I wil use a .45 brass bristle and cleaning patches. That is all that is needed.
Next time you tear down your rifle, put some plain old Hoppe's on the piston-face, let it soak for a few then, scrub it with a brass brush. For hard deposits, scrap it with a penny, works great and won't hurt the piston-face.
For the Gas-Cylinder, I use a 28ga. shotgun brush, fits better than a .45acp brush, use a toothpick to clean out the port in both the barrel and the Cylinder.
For the plug I had the machinists at work make a depressor for me, looks like a clamp. Opens up the plug. soak it for awhile and scrub it with an old toothbrush.
Make sure you dry all solvent and NO OIL OF ANY KIND! John C. designed the gas system to run dry!
I can't argue with any of this advice. I will say on the old board there was a lot of talk about how much corrosion/rust was found in M-1s that had not been cleaned. I read enough of that stuff so that it caused me to break down two of my M-1s that had not been cleaned in many years. One was a .308 match gun that had its last rebuild in 1976, shot a little back then, stored for 30 years. Another was my Heavy Barrel .308 NM conversion not fired since 1986, 20 years. Verdict: No corrosion, no rust on anything. Minor carbon, came off easily with a patch with Hoppe's on it. I started shooting high power in 1964. In the 1960's shooters used to put all kinds of stuff in their M-1's and M-14 gas systems. I well remember Army and Marine shooters turning their M-14s upside down and dropping Hoppes into that hole in the bottom of the gas cylinder with an eye dropper. The USAF shooters used to do the same thing with M-1s, usually with STP but sometimes with Hoppes. I did the same with both of these rifles back then (they were then both '06). I can't say it helped, but it did not gum-up or "cook" the gas system. When I do clean my rifles, I leave a thin layer of Hoppes on everything internally, including the gas system bits; I do NOT leave them bone dry.
The only rationale I can see for breaking down an M-1 for thorough cleaning is shooting known or suspected corrosive ammo. Otherwise I believe they can go thousands of rounds without coming out of the stock. And that's important if there is glass bedding involved.
I bought an 8mm Mauser BOLT brush from Brownells. They are around $10. This brush fits perfectly into the gas cylinder and will remove any carbon with ease.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=1...SAL_BOLT_BRUSH
MIke