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I bought an MIII Hunter as my first gun and went on my first trip yesterday. I went through about 250 rounds with my uncle, was taught a lot and had a great time. I was told that it was a heck of a gun for my first. On to my question. What is recommended as far as a cleaning "kit" goes. I think after my next time out, I should give it a once over.
Thanks in advance,

Welcome to the forum Matt!!

I use a relatively simple kit for Rugers. It consists of a solid cleaning rod for pistols, .22 nylon bristle bore brush, .22 cal brass jag, light lubrication oil, and a bottle of Hoppes #9. You'll need some cleaning patches, I prefer cotton cloth over the synthetic. I cut them to size for use in .22 cal pistols. You can use an old toothbrush for scrubbing out powder residue from the inside of the frame and receiver. I take old cotton T-shirts and wrap them around the toothbrush handle to get into the tight places to clean and the inner receiver tube.

Be sure to swab out all that Ruger shipping preservative from inside the pistol. I will appear reddish or rust colored and be much thicker than oil. This preservative will get thicker over time and gum up the action. Use some light weapons oil (very sparingly) to coat the components. I like to put a few drops of oil on a rag, and then wipe the components with the oil impregnated rag. The parts should feel slightly slick but not wet with oil. Wet surfaces will collect dirt and powder residue grit and cause failures.

When using the cleaning rod insert it from the receiver end - not the muzzle. This is a good habit to protect the crown of the barrel from being damaged by the metal rod. This means that your rod has to be long enough to pass through both the receiver and barrel, rod lengths will depend on the length of your pistol's barrel.

You can buy a basic cleaning kit that has most of these components in it. Then just pick up any of the other parts (like the .22 brass jag) separately.

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

Matt_S wrote:cleaning "kit"

there is no end to the cleaning/ lube/ care ideas...
just to insert a quick comment... you can do wonders
with Qtips, Toothpics and a bottle of Hoppie's #9 "PowderSolvent"
and their GunOil... with some of the blue-tough-shop-towels.
that's basically what I carry in my range-bag and a few tougher
jobs wait for home. I put some Solvent and Oil in a smaller
eye-dropper-type-bottle to carry in a ZipLock bag...

also, look around for some of the Nylon-Cable-tie thingies...
the right-size will serve well to catch onto the MainSpring-Latch
on the back of the grip... and pull it out... no scratches...

good luck, let us know how it shoots and what ammo...

Pay close attention to how you take it apart and put it back together!

There's a couple of threads here and at RimFireCentral that relate to problems people have had putting them back together.

Save yourself some trouble, and read those first! It's really simple, but if you don't follow the directions EXACTLY you'll be beating your head against the wall.

I used a spray can of WD-40 to clean that shipping oil out of the hand piece, and then use a can of compressed air to blow it all out and dry (take out the mag first)

Works pretty good for cleaning the gunk out the receiver too. You'll see lots of build up right there where the casing contacts the "round in chamber indicator".

Just spray some WD-40 on that to remove the gunk, and blow dry again. But like Bullseye said, you'll still need a brush for some of it.

(make sure you have some heavy absorbent material under you while you work)

That's about all I can add. I'm like you, I love this gun. It's just a "fun" gun.

Thanks for the kind words. I did not do a lite cleaning before shooting. It looked pretty good before hand. Should I be concerned? It still doesn't look all that dirty now, but I think I should get ready to clean it so that anything that could cause problem is avoided. I will study the disassembly/reassembly procedures before attempting a teardown though. The store owner from where I bought the gun owns one himself, so I'm sure that he can help me if I have any trouble. I shot 1 box of higher powered rounds before changing to cheaper rounds for the remaider of my "testing". I don't know the specs off hand, but they were all CCI ammo. I hope to go out tomorrow, as long as the weather holds out.

You don't have to be overly concerned, just keep it in mind, if you start having functioning problems that cleaning will go a long way toward solving them. A new pistol has not had sufficient time for the parts to wear-in so there's a little more friction internally when they operate.

R,
Bullseye

Mine gets a lot of build up in the receiver area, but since I use that "wash" out method I need to take it apart. (but I shoot several hundred rounds at a time too)

The biggest thing about re-assembly, is to make sure it's pointed up, and you pull the trigger. (and the strut isn't behind the cross pin)

Nice to have somebody around, I got stuck on one of those common problems, the strut stuck behind the cross pin I think, and Bullseye himself came to my rescue.

I found a kit at WalMart that had most of the items you listed for a little less than 9 bucks. It looked to have brass bristle brushes and I was hesitant about scratching. It came with a cleaner/lubricant combo, but I have never been a fan of all in one products. I'm new to this and don't know what a brass jag is, but I'll get there though. Thanks again,

You'll have to go to a gun store or order the cleaning jag from somewhere like Midway USA, or Brownells.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... mid=356987

Here's what one looks like:



The brass brushes are OK but I prefer the nylon ones for use in 22 Caliber pistols with mild steel barrels. You can use the brass brush to clean out the chamber - just don't dip the brush in your cleaning solvent. The solvent has chemicals to breakdown copper and brass, dipping the brush directly into the bottle ruins the brush and contaminates the solvent.

If you decide to order from Midway you may want a pack of these too.
http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.e ... t=11082005

Hope this helps.

R,
Bullseye

I have been a long time jag and patch fan. I bought the kit I think that you are talking about, and set most of the parts aside and use the rods and stuff for barrels, the brushes are nice for cleaning the bolt face, or like Bullseye said the receiver. Even after a long day at the range, even into the 2000 round days, a few passes of the jag and some wet patches usually gets out even the more stubborn deposits from my barrel. FWIW

Thanks for all of the suggestions and tips!