Cleaning Lever action?

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Boriqua

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Jun 4, 2018
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East Mesa
I recently bought a Henry in 38/357. Grail gun and its a blast to own and shoot.
but
The only long gun I have owned is an 870 shotgun and the only long guns I had to maintain were in the army a thousand years ago.

After a range visit I have been running a couple of patches with solvent through the barrel followed by a pass or two of a brass brush and then I pull a snake two or three times from the chamber end through.

I reach in to the receiver and clean what I can reach with a q tip and wipe down the entire exterior.
The area in the receiver looks pretty clean except for the bolt face so .. Do you do anything special for the receiver short of pulling it apart. Has anyone sprayed in CLP? I have a can of Lucus CLP I use periodically on my revolvers but .... well I dont want to mess up my new nifty rifle. Will the CLP ruin the wood finish or ...
any advice appreciated!
 
I don't own a centerfire Henry, but I do have a couple of centerfire Marlin Lever guns.

I always take the bolt out and clean it off, clean off the interior of the receiver where the bolt goes and reassemble. If it's like the Marlins, make sure you don't lose the ejector.
 
Agree best to remove the bolt.
My magic cleaning tip is to use non-cholorinated brake cleaner, $2 at WalMart. Same stuff as GunScrubber but at 1/4 the price. Pissed off at WalMart? Me too. $4 at AutoZone.
Go out in the back yard over the gravel, spray the heck out of the gun and flush out all the gunk. Then spray in oil, wipe off the excess, and go shooting.
 
Be sure to do the spraying over the unwanted weeds in the yard. Two chores, one effort...
 
Ok so I have cleaned it .. had Carb cleaner around ... now its time for reassembly. Is it safe to just shoot it up with CLP or should I only apply a light oil film to ONLY the outside of the bolt and reassemble. Not sure if it is a good idea to get clp in the inner workings. It does dry eventually??

Edited to add
Well I was anxious to get it back together so I just put a light coat of oil on the entire bolt with my finger tip and put an extra drop in the extractor channel. I didnt get any oil in the firing pin area or any of the internals.

I cleaned all the gook that was on the lever and replaced the grease with oil and oiled where the lever interacts with the bolt. It was a lot less scary than I thought it might be. Its actually bone simple compared to other guns I have disassembled. All back together and it cycles like glass and feeds and ejects like magic. Still would like to know about the clp though.
 
CLP = Clean Lube Protect (against rust).

You have already cleaned. If you blew the brakecleaner into the inside of the bolt, you have already forcefully blown out the dirt. (Which is why you do that in the back yard, and not inside the house.) However, you have also blown out the lube. Once the brake cleaner dries (which is pretty much immediately), you have a bone-dry part. A little lube wouldn't hurt. I'd drop one little drop of oil into the openings. What about the Protect? Oil protects against rust pretty well on its own, so I wouldn't lose sleep over worrying whether your firing pin is rusting inside the bolt.
On the other hand, I can't imagine that the world would end if you dropped CLP in instead of plain oil.
Everything evaporates in the long run, including oil. Oil is a lot slower to evaporate, though. I have heard of the Protect chemical turning to lacquer and tying up moving parts, but I have not seen it, so can't say for sure.
Dirt is more of a problem than rust. Oil can collect dirt particles and turn to sludge. That's when you want to Clean, then re-Lubricate. As for Protect? Meh.
 
BTW, spend the $2-$4 and use brake cleaner, not carb cleaner. Carb cleaner can remove paint, including the finish on your lever rifle's wood.

https://oards.com/the-difference-between-brake-cleaner-vs-carb-cleaner/
 
smithers599 said:
BTW, spend the $2-$4 and use brake cleaner, not carb cleaner. Carb cleaner can remove paint, including the finish on your lever rifle's wood.

https://oards.com/the-difference-between-brake-cleaner-vs-carb-cleaner/
Click to expand...

Eeekkkk!! :shock:
Well I only sprayed the bolt while it was in my hand and in the backyard but .. I will certainly buy some brake cleaner for the future!! Being a past restorer of old Motorcycles I happened to have an abundance of carb cleaner still around.
 
smithers599 said:
BTW, spend the $2-$4 and use brake cleaner, not carb cleaner. Carb cleaner can remove paint, including the finish on your lever rifle's wood.
Click to expand...
Be careful with both brake cleaner and carb cleaner. Brake cleaner is worse, it'll strip all the oil, dirt, paint and anything else in it's path, and it will destroy ANY plastic parts and nitrile gloves! YMMV, JMHO
 
I would never clean the bolt of my pretty Henry while its still installed but .. it did work out great.
I had a bunch of light strikes with my reloads when I first got the rifle. It fired factory loads 100% but my reloads were a bust.

I then learned all about primer depths when installing and checked my ammo and realized I was MASHING in my primers. Changed my technique on my next batch of .357 and they worked 100%

However .. my revolvers always fired the old batch of .357 and when doing a pencil test with the henry it would just shoot out past the barrel.

After the cleaning. Pencil shot out about 10-12 feet. I think there was packing transport goo of some sort in the channel.

The shpritzing must have gotten it out. I am glad it gave me an opportunity to learn something new about reloading but now the gun is far more reliable with the channel cleaned out.
 
And since I mentioned it .. may as well show a quick pic. Brass 38/357 with 16.5" octagon barrel. man I wanted this thing forever. :dance:
http://www.boriqualeather.com/Henry/henry%20n%20686.JPG

henry%20n%20686.JPG
 
yeah Carb cleaner would def be bad. The cheap non-chlorinated Brake cleaner is right. Mobil 1 is a great choice for oil btw.
 
It looks great. I have one that I still have not shot. I also have the .22lr that I have shot and it is also fun. Great guns.
 
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