Field maintenance?

What do you take on hunting trips, for field maintenance of your rifle?

That was a real concern of mine last year in Alaska. I was going to be gone from home about 3 weeks, with 9 days of that in a remote arctic camp. My rifle was blued steel & walnut. Came home looking just fine. Here's my kit:

multi-piece cleaning rod with jag & brush
a couple dozen bore patches
CLP bottle
small rag
wrenches to fit the action screws and the scope mounts/rings
toothbrush
a few q-tips

Not many of my rifles require screwdrivers anymore, but I'll put them in the kit if I'm taking my lever action rifle, or some other rifle that needs screwdrivers for disassembly.

Although I like and use bore-snakes, they aren't so hot at pushing an obstruction out of the barrel. The cleaning rod will do that. I also take a roll of electrician's tape to seal the muzzle. Usually have a few wraps extra, wound around the rifle barrel.

Guy

Guy Miner":2eq6vq1b said:

What do you take on hunting trips, for field maintenance of your rifle?

That was a real concern of mine last year in Alaska. I was going to be gone from home about 3 weeks, with 9 days of that in a remote arctic camp. My rifle was blued steel & walnut. Came home looking just fine. Here's my kit:

multi-piece cleaning rod with jag & brush
a couple dozen bore patches
CLP bottle
small rag
wrenches to fit the action screws and the scope mounts/rings
toothbrush
a few q-tips

Although I like and use bore-snakes, they aren't so hot at pushing an obstruction out of the barrel. The cleaning rod will do that. I also take a roll of electrician's tape to seal the muzzle. Usually have a few wraps extra, wound around the rifle barrel.

Guy

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Same here Guy.. Couldn't have added anything to that. That's exactly what we have in our camp as well. The tape around the barrel is a lifesaver. I put a decent amount on mine, because I use it post shot to rewrap and to have for a buddies rifle just in case as well. The tape on the muzzle really keeps most of the other just there for back up...

Ya, I just went back and added screw drivers, since I take them when I hunt with a lever action, or some other rifle that needs screw drivers.

Guy

Scotty - I have to admit I really liked the little kit in the buttstock of the good ol' M-16. It had everything needed to keep the rifle cleaned, lubed and ready.

My personal rifle kit is much the same as that military kit.

Guy

Same kit, even the little CLP bottle


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Dewey pull through cable and nylon bore brush - it is rigid enough to deal with snow and other non-hard / bullet obstructions. Have it in a fanny-pack or pocket to deal with snow / ice when it happens rather than having to get back to camp.
Shotgun patches - can be trimmed as needed or used as a small rag
Q-tips
Toothpicks - swivel stud repair and debris removal
Ballistol & Hoppes #9 if traveling by car, if flying I'll usually try to mooch off of others on the trip or purchase something once I arrive... Have used Mobile 1 from the dip stick (or what ever automotive fluid is available), if things are really rough.
Allen wrenches along with a multi-tool that has; screw driver bits, knife (cutting the shotgun patches), shotgun choke wrench, pick, and some other stuff I can't recall...
Duct-tape or blue painters tape to have over the muzzle, and sling repair if I have good duct-tape.

For ML hunting in foul weather, I just go to the store and buy a bag of small balloons. They slip right over the end of the barrel (think "condom") and keep the weather out. They make specialty items for this purpose, but they charge you accordingly. Plain old balloons work just fine.

bdbrown66,

Good idea on the water balloons, I mean balloons. I stopped hunting with guys using them though, I never liked getting hit with water balloons once they filled their tags... Not sure if you've experienced this, but some cheaper balloons seem to rip / come apart in really cold weather. I've had cheap tape not hold as well.

I tend to use the "New York reload" method of rifle maintenance...I usually have a spare rifle in camp if one goes south-particularly when hunting on the road system. On a backcountry hunt my partner and I can always switch to shooting the same rifle if one of them acts up.

I do a good preseason checkout and use tape on the muzzle, but I tend to think that the most common failures in the field aren't generally repairable there. The only real issue I've had was a scope broken in a bad fall. Of course, I was worse for wear as well so it was moot regardless.

We generally hunt in pairs or trios for the most part, so there's always a rifle handy between the group of us.

I mainly use weatherproof type rifles that don't require any real care while hunting other than wiping water off.

hodgeman,

You are very blessed if you've only had one scope issue to deal with. I've really not had any issues with my personal guns while hunting, unless I took a tumble and snow / debris got into my barrel. However, I'm usually called on to rectify the issues of weekend hunters who might not shoot 5 let alone 20 rounds a year.

At camp I can recall off the top of my head, two sling studs pulling loose (1 in wood and 1 in tupperware stock - both repairable enough to hunt with using toothpicks), shotgun recoil pad falling off as buttstock rotted around the screws (father, and again repairable enough for the hunt), wood stock split due to temp / humidity difference leading to rifle not holding zero on trip out of the country (father's and I ended up using the rifle, but I limited my shot distance and he also burned through 20+ rounds re-sighting), sling lost a screw and rifle fell from shoulder (father and duct-tape fixable along with re-sighting in), weak firing pin and three failed shots on white-tail (friend and he had a backup-rifle) on two consecutive days, more snow and debris in barrels than I care to admit including a stuck bullet and powder in the action (uncle and his 10+ year old reload - same uncle lost his rear action screw on his Rem 700 which we don't talk about...).

Point being, pre-hunt examinations and practice are key to avoiding issues in the field; but when failures arise I like to be able to at-least try something to at least limp through a few days... Also, found that you can't have too much ammo...

As my pickup contains a "full" complement of tools, I don't worry about being able to dissemble most of my rifles or make repairs. The camper has a basket with various cleaning accessories including patches, jags, oil, cleaner, and spray lubricant. Somewhere in there is also a cleaning rod, 22 caliber so it goes in any caliber. A similar basket is for boots, laces, cleaning and waterproofing. Then another for knives, batteries, radios, super glue, tape, knife sharpener, fire starter and other miscellaneous trivia. In addition I carry an extra rifle along with me. Last year I had a water pump on the truck go bad and was able to fix it on my way home.

Never brought along a field maintenance kit until my first experience at Elk Hunting, 3rd season Colorado. it was snowing like crazy and I walked for a while and then tucked myself under a pine tree hoping the snow would abate. I checked the muzzle of my rifle and found that the tape had failed and the first 3-4 inches in from the muzzle was packed with snow. (that would have been an interesting shot!) Cleaned the snow out with a stick and upon returning to camp ran a rod/patch combination through. From that point forward I always made sure I had the implements to take care of a future issue.

I keep extra electricians tape behind my scope rings to act as a ‘tell’ if my scopes alignment is jarred. And after the shot I peel it off and replace the spent one. Underneath the tape, I use a .5 mm lead pencil and trace where the rings are on the scope and make an index mark to tell if it’s canted. Also helps align things if I have to take the scope off and on for any reason, I can be confident that it’s close to its zero.

Small pack of CA glue.




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Wyo7200":11xumfkh said:

I keep extra electricians tape behind my scope rings to act as a ‘tell’ if my scopes alignment is jarred. And after the shot I peel it off and replace the spent one. Underneath the tape, I use a .5 mm lead pencil and trace where the rings are on the scope and make an index mark to tell if it’s canted. Also helps align things if I have to take the scope off and on for any reason, I can be confident that it’s close to its zero.

Small pack of CA glue.




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Great technique there, very cool!