Video: Cleaning a Semi-Automatic Shotgun

Transcript for Semi-Automatic Shotgun Cleaning

On screen: Cleaning Your Semi-Automatic Shotgun

Always follow the manufacturer's instructions for cleaning your firearm provided in your instruction manual. This content is a general guideline for this style of firearm.

Now, you may be wondering how often should I clean my shotgun? And that depends on a lot of different variables like how often you're shooting, how many rounds you're putting through it, what type of ammo you're using. Also, it may depend on things like the weather—humidity, dust, whether or not you're in the rain or the snow. All of these things plus more are variables to get the right answer for how often should I clean my gun. So, at the end of the day, I always tell people check with the manufacturer's recommendations for your particular firearm.

Now before we get started, we need to make sure that our firearm is clear and safe. Very easy to do. We're going to both visually and physically check it. Make sure that we have no ammo in here. If we do, we want to set that somewhere far away from where we're working on our firearm.

Guys, this is the most important step. Make sure you don't skip it.

Speaker places a shotgun on a desk for cleaning.

To disassemble the 1187, we will first unscrew the magazine cap and then pull the forearm off. At this point, we can pull the barrel from the receiver.

Now, let's remove the barrel seal carefully from the magazine tube. Following this is the piston and the piston seal, both sliding off as well.

Now, let's pull the operating handle off. It just pulls straight out.

Next, we're going to remove the trigger plate assembly by punching the two pins out of the side.

Now, we can remove the bolt by pressing the feed latch, which will allow the action bar assembly to be removed from the receiver, along with the bolt. Now, you can just take the bolt off of the top. And last, we'll remove the link by pulling it forward and then rotating it up.

Now that we have all the components taken apart, we're going to use a foaming bore cleaner in our barrel, and then set it to the side and let it soak.

Now, we're going to use some bore snake CLP. Even though we're not using a bore snake, this product works great on getting the internal pieces all cleaned up.

As far as cleaning the components go, you want to find all the dirt, build-up, and grime that you can and get it looking as nice as possible, using a variety of patches, brushes, and picks.

Now that the barrel has had time to soak, we're going to go ahead and run a brush through the barrel several times to help break up any build-up inside the barrel.

Now, we're going to use a swab and run it through the barrel several times, doing a good job of scrubbing it clean.

Once we're done, we'll go ahead and send a dry patch through the barrel. Once we do, we will add lubricating oil to a patch and run it through.

Now, we will add lubricating oil to all high-friction areas and moving parts, making sure it's all lubricated and protected.

Lastly, we will reverse the disassembly steps and reassemble the shotgun, finishing it off with a wipe down.

Now that we have the 1187 back together, we're going to do a quick functions test, making sure it operates exactly as it should, as always, making sure you're pointing it in a safe direction.

Excellent.

We're going to check our safety.

Great.

Excellent, works exactly as it should.