Gun Cleaning Kit(s) and Maintenance | SHOT Show 2024

A selection of tools I use to build and maintain firearms.
April 23, 2024  
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Categories: Gear Curious

Cleanliness is next to godliness or something like that. In the end, a well-cleaned and maintained gun can at least help you not meet your god. We checked out some of the new and interesting cleaning and maintenance items from the SHOT Show floor and wanted to bring what we saw to you for your gun cleaning kit. Some of these are more geared toward an armorer, store, or someone who really takes cleaning to an extreme.

Gun Cleaning Kit

Break Free CLP

Break Free CLP, solid addition to your Gun Cleaning Kit

Anyone who was or is in the combat arms is likely familiar with Break Free CLP. I would guess it kept more firearms in the fight than other oils and lubricants around.

I got my first experience using CLP when I joined the artillery 20 years ago. We used it to clean and lubricate everything from pistols, rifles, and machine guns all the way up to our howitzers. It doesn’t smell like roses, but it certainly helps get the stuck-on carbon off, lubricate the bits that need to move, and keep the rust away. Safariland offers Break Free CLP in small sizes with needle oilers for the intricate hard-to-reach areas to jugs that you could bathe in (please don’t bathe in it and try to become one with the CLP).

Flitz Paste Metal Polish

Flitz Paste Metal Polish

For those who own stainless or shiny metal gear this polish really brings it back to new.

One of the best demonstrations of a product while walking around the show floor is when they ask you if you have a knife, ring, or pistol; they can show you something. In this case, Scott at the Flitz booth asked Tristin to see his silver ring. Tristin’s ring had a fair amount of patina on it, and with a little application of the Paste Metal Polish and a small amount of buffing, his ring was gleaming. So much so it made the one next to it look old. As you can see next to the polish, this works really well on shiny metal pistols, too. They offer all sorts of different cleaners and protectants like the Flitz Ceramic Sealant which helps to repel and protect surfaces. It might be a little too much to fit in a gun cleaning kit, but it’s great for a final coat once you get your gear all shined up.

Ultrasonic Power Corp Ultrasonic Gun Cleaners

Ultrasonic Power Corp Ultrasonic Gun Cleaners

The scrubbing bubbles do all the work for you.

If you have never used a good ultrasonic cleaner like this Ultrasonic Gun Cleaner, not the cheap ones you find on Amazon (although they do work well for some things), you will be amazed at what they can do with the right solutions and settings. This gun cleaner is not something your average user will buy although we do know a few who have ones like this in their shops. In super simple terms, it creates such a high frequency that bubbles form on the surface of the item and implode in what is called cavitation. This in turn rips all the nasty stuff built on the surface. The machine pictured has different settings to adjust the frequency as well as the temperature. It can clean a firearm in around 3-5 minutes, depending on how abused it was before going in.

Dry Vapor Cleaner DVC-169 Weapons Package

Dry Vapor Cleaner DVC-169 Weapons Package.

Like I said with the Flitz section of the article the best demonstration is seeing it actually being used.

The Dry Vapor Cleaner DVC-169 is another example of a product that the average person is likely not going to buy but for those who need it is awesome. It blasts super hot steam out of one of the several included nozzles to rip grease, carbon, and other stuck-on items out of the way. They have adapters to run down the barrel of pistols, rifles, and shotguns or you can use the tip that is being used in the picture above. This pistol had a decent amount of crud in it and the high-pressure steam made short work of pulling it off. Since it is so hot the vapor and water evaporate pretty much near instantly leaving you with a clean firearm that needs lube.

Maintenance Gear

AR Takedown Tool Spring Gun Smithing Set

AR Takedown Tool Spring Gun Smithing Set, solid addition to your maintenance and Gun Cleaning Kit

Did somebody combine the boing thing from behind your door with a punch?

Spring punches are not a new thing for working in the house. I use one for popping door hinge pins or setting nails in trim. They are new, as far as I know, to the firearms space, and the AR-Takedown Tool 5 Piece Gunsmithing Set looks to include a wide complement of punches and hammers. The great part about using spring punches is you can use them in tight areas, and you don’t need a hammer. The other thing I am happy to see included in the kit is brass punches so that you don’t destroy pins, definitely a solid addition to your maintenance and gun cleaning kit arsenal.

Fix It Sticks Field Pistol Sight Tool

Fix It Sticks Field Pistol Sight Tool

Fix It Sticks continues to release small, well-built and feature-rich tools for working on your firearms at the range or home. This year they are coming out with a tool designed to help adjust pistol sights in the field.

The Fix It Sticks Field Pistol Sight Tool is designed to adjust your stock Glock polymer rear sight in the field. If you need to adjust windage or your sights get knocked it allows the use of the T Tool in your kit to push or pull your sight. It’s not designed to do bench installs of sights and we are curious how well it will work with aftermarket sights since the first rule of Glock Club is getting rid of the sights for anything better. If you are not familiar with Fix It Sticks you should really check them out. All my shooting bags currently have a kit from them, and I often use them when building up rifles and pistols.

Real Avid Master Gun Vise

Real Avid Master Gun Vise

A good bench vise can be invaluable when working on firearms. The Real Avid Master Gun Vise has some pretty impressive features.

The winning feature for me on the Real Avid Master Gun Vise is the ability to rotate the vise in all sorts of directions. This allows you to easily position the rifle to punch pins, work on hard-to-reach bolts, and clean areas that are weird to prop the firearm up. You can get a variety of accessories for the vise like the Smart Jaws pictured on the vise above. I think I might pick one of these up for working on firearms as well as lock picking, as it looks substantially better than the $10 suction cup version I bought.

Teslong NTG200H Rifle Borescope

Teslong NTG200H Rifle Borescope

Much like a surgeon having a look inside your body the Teslong Digital Borescope can have a look down your barrel.

Being able to look down your barrel to diagnose issues can be useful. Things like carbon rings, copper fouling, or scratching can affect your bullet’s accuracy. The Teslong NTG200H Rilfe Borescope provides a folding borescope and a monitor for viewing what the borescope sees. The camera is designed to be able to manually focus up close on the inside of the barrel and has an LED ring to help illuminate the area. The Borescope itself uses USB to connect to the monitor and can be Adobted for standard USB, Micro USB, and USB C and can be used on your phone or computer.

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Ryan Houtekamer

Ryan Houtekamer

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