Cleaning a lever action

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PolarFBear

New member
I must confess ignorance. I've cleaned a lot of firearms; but never a "lever loader". Picked up a Rossi, s.s. 16 inch 45 Colt. Fired a few and now what is the proper cleaning procedure? I swabbed out the chamber area, cleaned the rails and lever and took a bore snake to the barrel. It all looked pretty good. But do you need to disassemble the action for general maintenance? The little gun shot real well, other than the funky safety knob, it is a real keeper.
 
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T. O'Heir

New member
No disassembly required. Best way to clean the barrel is with a pull through(that's what a bore snake is), but you can do it from the muzzle end using a regular rod as well.
Full instructions should be in the manual. There's a .pdf for a Rossi Puma here. Lever action's a lever action. http://stevespages.com/page7b.htm
 
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g.willikers

New member
Being rather lazy as of late, I mostly just spray the action and interior parts with brake cleaner or the equivalent and then again with a spray lubricant.
That's after opening the action and cleaning the barrel and chamber in the usual way.
Lever actions are an open design and this seems to work well.
 
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SJCbklyn

New member
Ez to disassemble one for a decent cleaning. Lots of good YouTube videos on the subject. I used Hickok45 video.
 
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Picher

New member
As a gun repair guy, I've cleaned more lever guns than I care to think about. Most probably hadn't been cleaned in decades, if ever!

One was so badly treated over the years, it had excessive headspace and when fired, the lever would kick out and hurt my hand. Hopefully that one isn't in service anymore.

Lever rifles can wear themselves out without firing a shot, just loading and unloading them, especially in dusty/dirty surroundings. They collect lots of fir spills and other debris also.

Marlins clean fairly easily and stay cleaner, but 94s are kind of a pain (to me).
 
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DPris

Member Emeritus
The 92 design can be a bugger to get back together again.
The first Rossi I worked with years ago took me 5 hours to re-assemble, before the Internet made videos available.

I blistered the paint on the kitchen walls with that thing.
Today you can find videos to walk you through it, along with hints like using an empty brass case in the gun during reassembly.

The 94's action is much easier, but it does require more toolage than the Marlin.

DO NOT REMOVE THE 94's CARTRIDSGE GUIDES if you break it down for thorough cleaning.

The Marlin only needs a screwdriver to remove one screw, the bolt, and the ejector. That gives you access to the biggest areas that need cleaning.
The rest are not hard to get at, and Gunscrubber spray is very handy for about a 90% cleanup in areas you don't want to break down completely.
Denis
 
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