Rifling Question??

[Rick W.]

A friend sent me a couple of rods, cleaning materials from Germany some 10 years ago. No real idea about these things but was interesting about the type of patch material he sent along with the rods. I noted a type of appliance with the rods, but again; no real information about them. Was mightly glad to get a gift from a dear friend; never will be sold. Some discussions have taken place on this forum about appliances over the rod etc, but will leave such to the reader.



We tend to think collectors are fairly fussy about their care of their Lugers. In the shooting world there are those that are just as fussy about what goes down the bore of their firearms, hence the heavy care during cleaning.

Environment/final requirement is really everything. The Luger was a war time weapon, and was treated as such. Clean for function was about it I think during the conflicts. Today the collectors of such and heavy shooters of such treat the same weapons with kid gloves. Kinda interesting really, but passes the time huh?

There are two piece bore guides on the market today that really attempt to hold the rod in line in the bore precisely as possible. I really suspect that Luger guides that do any good are home brew; doubt if there are any oem ones around.

There are brass inserts that go over the rod that are intended to save the crown. A bit of common sense should really come into play when brushing the bore, try to keep the rod centered in the bore and off the bore as much as possible. A guide in a Luger environment to most is overkill, to others; may not. Everyone has to figure what they want to do in a lot of things on their own.

One might note that some bore cleaners will remove blue. Others are more friendly to surfaces. I am sure that the collector side of the group will use the mildest cleaners fore and aft that are available.

A typical chamber for an ots firearm is probably reamed in less than 5 seconds. Some benchresters will take perhaps a half a day just to line up the bore to the axis of the lathe, but they deal in ten thousanths, and realize that no barrel or bore is straight. They feel that such are really necessary when the different between 1th and 50th is such a small dimension.

Some carry their taught requirements to all of their weapons across the board, some think it is nuts really. Just boils down to what you think is appropriate for ..........you and let the others banter all they want.

Common sense and a little care will go a long ways in retaining accuracy and beauty of a firearm.