11-26-2022, 03:56 PM
Klem Wrote:Montana,
I understand where you are coming from from your previous contributions. My thoughts are is that one can get a bit too persnickety about this. I come from a different mentality of challenging dogma. Having done this for years without issue I am comfortable with what works for me. These guns are more likely overgassed from the start, leaking gas throughout the system and in some cases requiring AGB's and heavier buffers to function. Over the years if you wear down a tail, and it will take years, there is still gas to spare.
One scraping tool I do like is the Botach (photo). Give it a couple of spins on the tail and it takes the majority of caked crud off. Then if you want it completely clean use the wet-n-dry. I use P1200 grit which is super-fine and with WD40. The WD40 helps remove the crud and cuts back (pardon the pun) on the abrasive nature of dry paper. Like I say, it works and has worked for as long as I have been shooting these things. It's like the military dogma of cleaning barrels after every shoot - I don't do this; it shifts zero, wastes time, and potentially wears out barrels.
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By comparison, the Otis tool at the bottom of the photo is not much use at all.
Each to their own.
No problem Klem, I always enjoy yours and others perspectives.
The picture of the shiny bolt tail is a perfect example of what I was talking about..Olympic Arms used a straight cut, undersized gas tube, over sized gas ports and a haywire approach to their rifles too..The real dogma is the need to keep the bolt and carrier carbon free, which I think came from the early days of Vietnam when the ball powder of the time had a high content of calcium carbonate, which was suspected to clog up gas tubes and carriers. Then the white glove maintenance appeared...Just like long gas tube pipe cleaners, carbon scraping tools are completely unnecessary and can actually be detrimental..
Like you said, each to their own..