November, 1917 
STREAM 
541 
FOREST AND 
THE PRINCIPLES OF RIFLE SHOOTING 
A CLEAN RIFLE IS THE FOUNDATION OF ACCURATE SHOOTING AND THE 
LITTLE TWENTY-TWO IS THE MOST DIFFICULT OF ALL TO KEEP CLEAN 
By CAPTAIN ROY S. TINNEY 
O NE June afternoon, 25 years ago, 
I sought out a veteran rifleman 
and asked him what was required 
to properly clean a .22 caliber fifle. The 
old man cut off a fresh bit of Navy plug 
and replied in five words: “Patience, study 
and elbow grease.” Later he enlarged on 
the subject and gave me a practical dem¬ 
onstration of his methods, but to this day 
I have never been able to improve upon 
this basic formula, and have applied it to 
many guns under widely varying condi¬ 
tions, from the three pound “22” single 
shot to the .60 caliber Cordite “Express,” 
from muzzle loading derringers to punt 
guns, with results that were uniformly 
satisfactory. “Patience, study and elbow 
grease” will keep any breed of shootin’ 
iron in perfect condition for a life time, 
just as sure as “Indifference, carelessness 
and neglect” will ruin it in a few days. 
Every time I see some new cleaning 
“dope” advertised I invest “two bits” in a 
sample, read the circular very carefully 
and try the stuff out. All of it proved to 
be good, only some was better. My private 
arsenal is both varied and active so I have 
ample opportunity to verify the claims of 
the manufacturer and as a result have ac¬ 
quired much valuable information for a 
small outlay of time, cash and labor. Also 
I have kept my weapons in “gun crank 
condition” and learned some practical 
chemistry, an absolute necessity in these 
days of smokeless powders and excessive 
barrel pressures. 
B .ECAUSE of the smallness of the bore 
the “22” is unquestionably the worst 
gun of all to clean and keep clean, so 
it is well to start with this much abused 
and useful little weapon. 
In the old black powder days, my cus¬ 
tom was to adjourn to the well curb with a 
pan of boiling hot water, place the muzzle 
of the rifle in the pan, moisten a patch, in¬ 
sert it in the breech with the cleaning rod 
and pump a column of hot water up and 
down the barrel, thereby scrubbing out the 
bore with great thoroughness; being very 
careful not to get any of the water into 
the action. I still use this method and for 
removing free carbon, powder residue and 
surface rust it can not be improved upon. 
The next operation is to dry the barrel 
thoroughly, this must be done with care 
and dispatch, otherwise a bad case of rust¬ 
ing will result. Then I would oil up the 
barrel and action. So long as I used black 
powder this was all that was required to 
keep the bore of my pet squirrel rifle in 
perfect condition. 
I am taking it for granted that you al¬ 
ways clean a gun from the breech. If you 
own a rifle that must be cleaned from the 
muzzle, “take it back and change it for a 
boy.” Sooner or later you will either wear 
or injure the muzzle, ruining the accuracy 
of the barrel, and an inaccurate rifle is 
worse than no gun at all, it is simply a 
waster of time, ammunition and energy. 
Owing to the order suspending the 
free issue of rides and ammunition to 
civilian clubs, the National Ride Asso¬ 
ciation are permitting their members to 
shoot for the government qualidcations 
of Marksman, Sharpshooter and Ex¬ 
pert with .22 caliber rides. The man 
who can make creditable scores with 
the long ride cartridge has grasped the 
true values of the various elements of 
the game and is a rideman of no mean 
ability. Further data concerning mili¬ 
tary instruction with small-bore rides 
will appear in an early issue .— Editor. 
Also it upsets one’s shooting confidence, a 
rifleman’s chief asset. 
Should the fouling in the barrel be ex¬ 
cessive, from firing blank cartridges or 
from neglect, make a funnel of oiled paper, 
insert the small end in the chamber, com¬ 
mandeer the family tea kettle and send a 
stream of boiling water down the barrel. 
Then proceed with the pumping operation 
as described, using a very small patch to 
avoid getting the rag stuck in the barrel. 
Be very careful not to cut the patch too 
large, find the proper size and never ex¬ 
ceed it, otherwise the chances are you will 
get into serious difficulties requiring the 
services of an expert gunsmith. The size 
of the patch will vary according to the 
thickness of the cloth used and the size 
of the cleaning rod; a “doll’s head” tip 
will need a smaller patch than a “slotted” 
tip. The first tip is designed for cleaning 
and polishing, the second is best for dop¬ 
ing the bore with nitro solvent and rust 
preventive both are highly important. 
W HEN the smokeless .22 cartridges 
came out I was one of the first to 
call for the lurid advertising matter. 
I bought a thousand rounds, packed up my 
pet rifle and went off on a squirrel hunt. 
Brother Jinx went along and I soon be¬ 
came convinced that smokeless .22 ammu¬ 
nition was invented by the Boss Jinx him¬ 
self to try men’s souls and ruin good rifles. 
The ammunition was made to sell, not to 
shoot. It claimed to be smokeless and 
clean; it was both, but its virtues ended 
right there. After several unaccountable 
misses I improvised a rest and some tar¬ 
gets and got busy, whereat the truth be¬ 
came known. The velocity of the bullet 
was lower than that given by black pow¬ 
der, also the results were not uniform. 
Wild shots soon became frequent and I 
discovered a nicely leaded barrel. I 
cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, but to no 
purpose, rust and leading pursued me like 
a nemesis. Finally I gave up in disgust, 
came home and sought out my gunsmith. 
When I had exhausted my supply of cuss 
words the old chap who for so many years 
has been god-father and physician to my 
pets, took a long look at the rag he had 
just pushed through the rifle’s bore and re¬ 
marked, “Veil, dot is pad, leds see vot iss 
der matter yet.” Then we adjourned to 
his testing range and went into executive 
session. Any time you are looking for ex¬ 
citement, just drop into the shop kept by 
that transplanted Teuton and ask for 
“smokeless twenty-twos.” The old boy be¬ 
comes positively violent. I know the 
shooting galleries use ’em, Oscar, that’s 
why they can safely offer cigars for 3 
“bells” out of 5 shots. 
In shotguns and heavy rifles smokeless 
powder is an unqualified success, but when 
buying .22 ammunition get anything except 
smokeless. Recently the well meaning, but 
misguided Treasurer of the Verona Rifle 
Club supplied us with 2,000 rounds of this 
ammunition and I, like an idiot, permitted 
the men to use it, but how I did pay for 
my folly. Thanks to a liberal supply of 
an excellent nitro solvent, certain recent 
improvements on the part of the manufac¬ 
turer of the cartridges, and many hours of 
hard labor, we managed to save our be¬ 
loved muskets from utter destruction. But 
“every cloud has a silver lining,” the ex¬ 
perience taught all concerned the vicious 
habits of this particular breed of ammuni¬ 
tion. The lesson struck home and the 
unanimous verdict was “Never again!” 
One night I used “Pop” Youhg’s steel 
cleaning rod and when I was putting in 
the mercuric ointment, he ran a swab 
through his venerable Ballard, Eliza Anne, 
on “general principles” although the old 
girl had not been fired. Some of the acid 
from the smokeless twenty-twos fired in 
our Winchester Muskets adhered to the 
rod, infected Eliza Anne and brought on 
an attack of rust requiring a dose of “rot¬ 
ten stone.” “Pop” was peeved and justly 
so. I do not intend to give any directions 
for cleaning a .22 after using smokeless 
powder; if you insist upon feeding your 
pet this inferior and ruinous stuff, your 
sins be on your own head. I wash my 
hands of the whole matter. 
Any standard make of .22 ammunition 
loaded with either “Lesmoke’ ’ or “Semi- 
Smokeless” powder is “good medicine.” 
These powders give you a clean, accurate 
cartridge and render cleaning reasonably 
easy. Also the ammunition comes so close 
to being “smokeless” the human eye can 
not detect the difference. 
» 
T TNDER no circumstances permit a gun 
J to remain dirty over night. This 
gives the powder acids time to eat 
into the bore and permits pits and rust 
spots to get nicely started. The result is 
an injured barrel and to repeat the of¬ 
fence, even a few times, will ruin the 
bore, which is the heart of the weapon. 
If the cleaning is done at home where 
hot water is available, first wash out the 
bore and dry the piece as described in the 
first part of this article. Then run a rag 
through the barrel saturated with some 
good nitro solvent, and wipe out with dry 
patches until the rag comes out clean. Then 
(continued on page 564) 
