Good cleaning and maintenance of your shotgun will help prolong the life of your shotgun and make sure it is in good working condition. It is good practice to get in the habit of cleaning and oiling your gun after every time you have been shooting.

How to Oil and Clean your Shotgun

1.The first thing to do when you return home from shooting is to strip the gun down in to its main parts. These are the  shotgun Action, Barrels and Forend. At this point use some barrel cleaner down the barrels and leave to one side to let it soak in. We have a wide selection of different barrel cleaners, with the most popular being either the Phillips Barrel Cleaner or the Parker Hale Youngs 303 Cleaner.

2. The next step in cleaning your shotgun is to spray some of your gun cleaner onto a clean cloth and thoroughly wipe the action, making sure to remove any grease and dirt. There is a wide selection of different gun oils available. We found that some of our best sellers include the Ballistol Universal Oil, the Browning Legia Spray and the Napier Gun Oil.

3. Once your action has been wiped over put a small amount of grease on the trunnion pins, also know as the Hinge Pins.

4. Now we move on to the forend. Spray some gun cleaner on to your cloth and wipe over the forend. You can also apply some of your gun grease on to the steel where the forend pivots on the action.

5. Now we can return back to the shotgun barrels. The gun cleaner should have now had the chance to work in to the fouling down the barrels. You now need to scrub and clean out your barrels with a bronze brush on a cleaning rod. All of these shotgun cleaning accessories can be found on our website.

6. When the barrels have been scrubbed clean and all the fouling has been removed you now need to fit the shotgun cleaning jag to your cleaning rod. The majority of our customers will use a piece of 4×2 cleaning cloth, which will wrap around the jag and you can push it through the barrel to remove dirty oil and excess cleaner.

7. If your shotgun is a multi choke, now is the time to clean your shotgun chokes. Remove your chokes from the barrels and spray with barrel cleaner. Give your chokes a good clean and wipe off with your cleaning cloth. You can then apply a small amount of either grease or oil and re-fit the chokes back to your barrels. There are specific greases available such as the Birchwood Casey Choke Lube.

8. Attention now turns to the barrels. Spray some cleaner on to your cloth and wipe over your barrels. Ensure that your have wiped off any old oil, grease, fingerprints etc. Once the outside of the barrel has been cleaned you can now apply a small amount of grease to the hinge pin faces on your barrels.

9. You have now finished cleaning your shotgun. Reassemble the gun and inspect it all over to check everything has been properly cleaned. You can then wipe over the entire gun with a good gun oil

10. Finally, you are more then likely to have a shotgun with a beautiful walnut stock. The stock and forend can be treated with walnut oil and polishes to help protect and nourish the walnut. Our best selling oil is the Phillips Walnut Oil. There are also a Birchwood Casey Stock Finishing kit if your shotgun requires a bit more work.