CLEANING GUNS. 487 



can be washed when necessary. To clean out 

 gun-barrels quickly inside have a single rod, also 

 covered with flannel ; bind collars of string tightly 

 round it an inch apart. This will cause little 

 ridges to rise if the stick is thin and the covering 

 thick. The stick may have a handle-knob at one 

 end. Though the flannel get quite black from dirt 

 and oil it will polish a gun well nevertheless, and 

 can be washed when necessary. 



If a gun is in a very bad state of rust, pour boiling 

 water over the affected parts, arid afterwards rub in 

 and off paraffine. Paraffine will in time remove the 

 browning from the barrels of a gun, it is true, but 

 that will come off, sooner or later, whatever method 

 of cleaning is resorted to, though perhaps not so 

 soon as with paraffine. 



To remove the bulk of the dirt in foul barrels, 

 the scratch and wool brushes, screw- rods, etc., that 

 gunmakers sell are of little use, as they don't fit 

 the barrel tight enough to drive the accumulation 

 quickly out ; they merely smear it down flat and 

 pass over it, so giving a great deal more trouble 

 than necessary, and the amount of brass they are 

 usually furnished with is detrimental to a barrel, 

 save in most careful hands. 



A keeper will find something to fit a barrel tight 

 soon enough, as he knows the gun will else take a 

 long time to clean. But how does he set to work ? 

 Nine cases out of ten he puts in a cloth, passes it 

 half-way through the barrel with a sharp-pointed 

 brass-ended rod, such as are sold in gunmakers' 

 shops. This naturally very often jams, as it wedges 

 into the cloth more and more. Then, why, it's a 



