|
t2 - It's not recommended or necessary to field strip your rifle for every cleaning. It will loosen the tolerances between the components over time, especially the trigger group/stock interface (if the stock is wood).
The only way to clean the M1A barrel is from the muzzle. True, you can push the cleaning rod through from the muzzle end and attach a brush or jag at the breach and pull through. However, if you use a rod guide you can safely clean from the muzzle and avoid damaging the barrel crown.
With a chrome lined barrel, all you need is a bronze brush, a good one-piece coated or polished stainless steel cleaning rod, a bore guide, lots of patches, powder/lead solvent and copper remover. Sound familiar? They clean up just like a carbon steel barrel. No special care is needed.
I would recommend cleaning the gas system only after every 500 rounds. For this you will have to remove the gas plug. Never do this without using a gas system wrench while turning the plug out with either your combo tool or a 3/8" wrench. Otherwise you may torque the gas system out of line and make your rifle inoperable.
Once you have the plug off, dump out the gas piston. You will need to scrape the carbon out of the gas plug and the hole on the gas piston on the slimmer, "D" shaped end. There are special tools for this purpose that look like drill bits. You can actually use drill bits of the correct diameter.
Clean out the gas system with Hoppe's #9 or CLP and dry thoroughly. DO NOT lubricate the gas system, as it will quickly gum up and cause malfunctions.
I don't use any oil on my M1A, only Tetra grease. You want to apply grease to any friction surface, like the bolt rollers, op rod raceway, trigger group, bolt channels, etc. Your manual should guide you on this.
Hope this helps.
Noban
|