How Do I Clean a Shotgun?

Our expert guidelines for cleaning a shotgun will teach you step by step how to take care of your firearms, and which products to use. Read on to learn how to clean your prized shotguns and store them at the end of the season.

Gather Your Shotgun-Cleaning Supplies

The best basic gun care gear is found in most cleaning kits:

• A two- or three-piece cleaning rod threaded for brushes and other fittings
• A couple of wool mops to swab bores with powder solvent and oil
• A bronze bore brush for scrubbing the inside of the barrels
• A soft-bristled brush for cleaning grime and gunk from the action, chamber rims, and anywhere else you find it
• Gun oil and powder solvent
• A silicone-impregnated cloth

Follow These Five Steps To Quickly Clean Your Shotgun

A quick cleaning after a day of hunting is all your shotgun needs if it hasn’t gotten wet. Start by laying out all your supplies on a table or workbench, and then break down your shotgun into its main parts. Next, follow these steps: 

1. Look over your entire gun for blood spots, fingerprints, mud, and grime. If you see any, wipe them away.
2. Push the bronze brush down the barrel (or barrels) a few times to clear away fouling and residue.
3. Take a bore mop, add a few drops of powder solvent, and push it through the barrel several times.
4. Take a second bore mop, add a few drops of gun oil to it, and push it through the barrels.
5. Wipe down the entire gun with a silicone-impregnated cloth or a cloth moistened with a touch of gun oil.

Follow These Steps For An End-Of-Season Shotgun Cleaning

At the end of hunting season, give your shotgun a thorough cleaning. Start by laying out the supplies mentioned above. Then add a finger-high stack of round flannel gun-cleaning patches, some steel wool, an old toothbrush, some cotton swabs, and bore solvent. 

Note: A special bore-cleaning solvent (available at any gun shop) is required for removing wad fouling. Traditionally, a solvent called Hoppe’s No. 9 was used for cleaning shotgun bores. But while No. 9 is great on powder residue (and smells awesome), it doesn’t work well on wad fouling. Today’s one-piece wads leave behind traces of fouling every time you fire your shotgun. Moisture can get under this fouling and lead to rust.

Spread out your supplies on a table or workbench and follow these steps:

1. Break down your shotgun, and using your cleaning rod, work the bronze brush through the barrel a couple of times. Then pull it free, splash some solvent onto a cleaning patch, wrap it around the bronze brush, and run the entire thing through the barrel a couple more times. Pause to give the solvent time to work.
2. Next, tackle the heavy fouling and residue in the barrels. To do this, wrap some fine steel wool around the bronze brush and run the entire thing through the barrels several times. Then swap the steel wool for a clean flannel patch and repeat. Note: Your first patch will come out of the barrels black. Keep swapping and repeating until a flannel patch comes away almost clean.
3. Put a bit of gun oil on a bore mop, attach it to the rod, and run it down the barrel.
4. Now give the exterior of the shotgun a good cleaning. Blood, sweat, and fingerprints can lead to corrosion, while dust and dirt are abrasive, especially when they work their way into oil and form a kind of lapping paste. Remove these using the cotton swabs, the toothbrush, and a cotton rag. Note: Scrutinize the exterior of the barrel. On all types of shotguns, look over the action and the chamber rims. If you’re cleaning a side-by-side or over-under, pay close attention to the ribs, forend loop, bites on the lumps, and ejector rods. Wipe away anything suspect with a cotton swab or the cloth. If it’s stubborn, give it a gentle scrubbing with the toothbrush plus a teardrop of solvent. Wipe again.
5. Next, check the forend, stock, and checkering. All sorts of muck can end up on a stock and in the checkering, from pine sap to mud from a wet dog. While most won’t do much harm to the wood, they will harm the metal if they find their way onto it. Evict them with a few sweeps of the toothbrush.
6. Once your gun is clean, lubricate it. Do this wherever metal meets metal using a waterproof lubricant made to stay put in all kinds of weather. Note: Petroleum-based oils run off metal, especially if you apply too much, and can gum up your shotgun. These types of oils also work their way into the wood and will rot the forend and stock.
7. Finally, wipe down the entire gun to remove any remaining residue or fingerprints. A silicone-impregnated cloth is great for this. It will clean the metal and wood while leaving behind a protective, rust-inhibiting finish.

How To Store Your Shotgun Properly 

Even if you put away your shotgun when it’s clean, dust and humidity can lead to rust and corrosion over a period of months. To prevent rust and corrosion, always slip your cleaned shotgun into a specially treated sock before you put it away. This will keep dust and other particles from settling on it. Try to store your gun in an environment where you can control the temperature and humidity—for example, inside a safe in your basement. You can add moisture- and humidity-controlling devices to any safe, and if it’s in your basement, you can keep the entire thing at a constant temperature.

Parting Shots

Old-school shotgun shells came with black powder and corrosive primers. Fouling left behind by the powder attracted moisture, while the primers deposited corrosive salts. Both of these substances caused rust and required almost immediate attention. Failure to do so is why so many old side-by-sides are as pockmarked as country roads. But modern ammunition, with its smokeless powders and corrosion-free primers, solved the problems of fouling and rust. 

So after a day of hunting, do what you like to do: Get your boots off and sit down with a drink, or make dinner. Maybe relax and pet the dogs. Breaking down your shotgun every evening and cleaning it thoroughly isn’t necessary unless it has gotten wet during the day. For us, it’s enough to do a quick clean at day’s end before returning a gun to its case and moving on to more enjoyable things.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should you clean a shotgun before using it?

If you cleaned your shotgun after your last hunt, or at the season’s end prior to storing it, you should not need to clean it before using it. If you’ve purchased a used firearm, it’s advisable to clean it before you use it for the first time.

What happens if you don’t clean your shotgun?

Never cleaning a shotgun can result in damage to both the exterior and interior of a firearm, and can make it unsafe to use.