Gloves recommend when cleaning guns?
- Thread starter Venom1956
- Start date
10Ringmagic
New member
I don't, but know that I should. Anything that gets on your skin can be absorbed into your body, think nicotine patch's and the like.
bigalshootmupper
New member
If I am cleaning 3+ guns at a time, I use those cheap blue gloves. I don't like the chemicals smelling up my hands for the rest of the day. Plus, you don't have to spend 2-3 minutes washing all those chemicals off your hand, and still smelling it later.
LockedBreech
New member
Honestly I've never even thought of it. Might start, better safe than sorry.
Same here, even if I'm only cleaning one gun I've started wearing cheap, disposable Nitrile gloves primarily so I don't have to smell like Hoppe's the rest of the day. There's a lot of discussion about lead being absorbed through the skin, but the dermal absorption factor for elemental lead is quite low - ingestion of lead that happens to get on your hands and isn't washed off before eating is [potentially] more of a problem. There are those who argue that cleaning solvents can pass through the skin taking the lead with them, but I've never seen any research supporting that claim. As for the other chemicals, I don't think there's much of a problem there.
Your hands can get pretty dirty cleaning guns. The fluids are oily and stick to the skin and are somewhat difficult to wash off. It is easier to just wear those cheap examination gloves ("one size fits no one"), available from places like WalMart to keep the chemicals and lead off your hands in the first place.
It never used to bother me as a kid cleaning rifles, but in the past few years my hands have gotten more sensitive to oils. I've now mounted a spot for a box of Nitrile gloves on the pegboard of my gun bench. Typically I'll keep at least one hand, if not both, gloved.
I probably have always had some predisposition to this kind of thing. In college, I had no issues with petting my ferret for two years, but then they started breaking out in a rash from the oils in the fur.
I probably have always had some predisposition to this kind of thing. In college, I had no issues with petting my ferret for two years, but then they started breaking out in a rash from the oils in the fur.
Technosavant
New member
I use those cheap nitrile gloves... get them by the box at Harbor Freight. I see a few advantages to wearing them:
1) Potential health effects from having the cleaners and lubricants on my skin are eliminated.
2) My hands are easier to clean when finished- nothing getting worked into my skin or under my fingernails.
3) Fewer small cuts from sharp edges- the gloves take the hit and tear, protecting my fingers.
Now, these may be pretty minor, but the gloves don't hamper my working and they are cheap, so I find it a worthwhile tradeoff.
1) Potential health effects from having the cleaners and lubricants on my skin are eliminated.
2) My hands are easier to clean when finished- nothing getting worked into my skin or under my fingernails.
3) Fewer small cuts from sharp edges- the gloves take the hit and tear, protecting my fingers.
Now, these may be pretty minor, but the gloves don't hamper my working and they are cheap, so I find it a worthwhile tradeoff.
Tactical Jackalope
New member
Never used gloves. Don't think I ever thought of doing so either. Why would one need to?
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I think everyone is missing the point. I wear gloves when ever I handle guns to keem MY body oils off the gun... not to protect me from the solovents! Though most of my cleaning is done with boiling water and dish soap, then dry thourally and apply a thin coat of oil, and put up. Using solvents can damage a painted finish, which a lot of guns are getting now. I just finished a shotgun that was not worth bluing with a deep emerald green (similar to what I have seen on some Browning 50 cal sniper rifles) Rustoleum. Its beautiful...but solvents will damage the finish.
I have seen guns with rusty fingerprints on them where they were handled.
I may be a bit obsessive about it, but unless I am USING the gun I wear gloves or at least very quickly wipe down the areas I touch with an oily rag.
Actually with the painted surfaces the body oils are less of a worry than with a blued or browned gun.
I have seen guns with rusty fingerprints on them where they were handled.
I may be a bit obsessive about it, but unless I am USING the gun I wear gloves or at least very quickly wipe down the areas I touch with an oily rag.
Actually with the painted surfaces the body oils are less of a worry than with a blued or browned gun.
Tactical Jackalope
New member
You seriously clean your guns with water and dishwashing soap?
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LockedBreech
New member
I was curious about that too.
I soak 30 minutes with Breakfree, scrub it off with cotton cloths and the filth comes with it, spot-treat with Breakfree for remaining soil, bore brush and run Breakfree-soaked patches until clean, then mostly dry off any standing Breakfree and oil the rails with Hoppes Elite.
The nice part about using Breakfree for all the cleaning is that it imparts a great deal of lubricity. Never had a gun jam on me with this method.
Yes. My father was a competition shooter (small bore champion of CA in 1936) and he taught me to do it that way. I have always done it that way for most of my 75 years (started shooting at 5 years) As long as you dry it throrally, it is the best way to clean a gun.....unless you are using corrosive primers. If it is dried completely and oiled (bore, external, and any other place where it got wet), that is all you need. Solvents are not needed with modern ammo and can dammage the finish on a gun or on the wood.
plateshooter
New member
Solvents will penetrate your skin. I use Kroil as part of my cleaning procedure and if I touch it without gloves, I can taste it, and feel the effect in my body. Disposable gloves are cheap, and worth the investment to me.
Of late, I always say I'm gonna start wearing gloves when I clean- but it hasn't happened yet. I do wear them when handling tung or teak oil, stains, etc. After reading this post, I went and took a peek on amazon for nitrile gloves... Folks, don't do that! There's so many out there it'll make your head spin! Shoulda just went to Harbor Freight like that other guy!
It's a perfectly viable way to clean a gun, but you must be sure that it is completely dry afterwards. Hot water and soap (basically sodium hydroxide aka lye) will clean a lot of crud out of your gun that you might miss or otherwise can't see.
Think about it; Common sense dictates that you are handling potentially toxic chemicals with no protection. That's why one would need to. Your liver can only take so much abuse.
I have a pack of disposable nytrile gloves and I do wear them sometimes when I clean. I've worn them less since I've started using Hoppes Elite Guncleaner because my hands don't get nearly as dirty when I clean using it and what dirt does get on them comes off very easily with soap and water.
I started wearing gloves back when I was using primarily petroleum based cleaners because after I finished cleaning, I would wash my hands several times and they would still smell like chemicals and it was extremely difficult to get the black gunk out of the cracks in my skin and out from under my nails.
That makes it sound like I'm worried about the cleaning chemicals, but frankly I'm less concerned about the cleaning chemicals than I am about the residue that's coming off the gun and getting stuck under my fingernails/etc. Some of that is primer residue that contains lead compounds from the lead azides/lead styphnate in the primers.
I started wearing gloves back when I was using primarily petroleum based cleaners because after I finished cleaning, I would wash my hands several times and they would still smell like chemicals and it was extremely difficult to get the black gunk out of the cracks in my skin and out from under my nails.
That makes it sound like I'm worried about the cleaning chemicals, but frankly I'm less concerned about the cleaning chemicals than I am about the residue that's coming off the gun and getting stuck under my fingernails/etc. Some of that is primer residue that contains lead compounds from the lead azides/lead styphnate in the primers.
I discovered a bore cleaner a number of years back, that is completely biodegradable, non-toxic and water soluble called RB-17. It is very effective in dissolving copper and lead fouling, and smells like pine. If you get some on you, it rinses off with water and has no residual smell.