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How do you guys clean the AK gas PISTON tube? (Page 2 of 2)
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Originally Posted By ArmedFerret:
So the chinese put holes in the piston tube so the piston has a nice windowed apartment? Or are they to vent off gas? Originally Posted By ArmedFerret:
Originally Posted By forker:
AKs do not have gas tubes. They have piston tubes. Or are they to vent off gas? |
As hard as it is to believe; President Trump is an even better businessman, executive and negotiator than some random guy in Canada who performs custodial duties for a living and trashes America on the internet for a hobby.
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Originally Posted By turfengineer:
Huh.... I guess I’m one of those assholes that doesn’t clean his AK. |
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I bought my first AK, a mak 90 at my first gun show in 1995. The guy slid the box to me, I slid him $400. He said “I don’t fill out Bill and Hillary’s paperwork”. It was covered in Cosmo, I’ll never forget the smell and cleaning. It was instant love for the AK.
I still have that mak. I’ve shot well over 10k through it of the cheapest ammo I can buy. I’ve camped with it dozens of times and have taken 4 deer with it. I love it. I’ve never cleaned the gas tube. I did not know people did that. I will continue to not clean the gas tube. You don’t need to do that. |
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Speaking of Hoppes, I have a nephew with whom I have never discussed guns in any way - I just figured he wasn't interested. I was wrong. His mom had everyone over during Christmas and at some point he asked if I wanted to take a look at his new pistol. I was surprised but of course went with him. I was impressed when he got the pistol out as he kept the muzzle in a safe direction and carefully made it safe before handing it to me. I saw it was a little 'wet' and took a sniff, turning to him and saying approvingly 'Hoppes #9'.
His eyes got big and it was obvious he was thinking 'My uncle knows gun stuff.' LOL |
| lol, wad up some patches or a torn of up shirt and punch it through with a rod... easy, fast, don't over think. the upper gas tube (more accurately a piston guide tube) doesn't need to be squeaky clean. just squirt some aerosol clp or hoppes in there and punch a wadded up paper towel or piece of cloth through it a few times. I clean my gas tube out every year or so... |
| On the kits I get, I sandblast the inside of the gas tube to remove any corrosion as well as the inside of the gas block. After that, a good coat of flat black Moly Kote & bake it @ 300 degrees. After assembly & a shooting session, the gas tube is removed & cleaned the a mop & Hoppe's #9 solvent. I never have any corrosion with this cleaning method on any of the AK series of rifles. My ammo stash include original corrosively primed ammo, so cleaning the entire rifle is a must. If I am over doing it, so be it, my time & my guns. |
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Originally Posted By ArmedFerret: So the chinese put holes in the piston tube so the piston has a nice windowed apartment? Or are they to vent off gas? |
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Originally Posted By America-first: I swab the tube with Hoppes on a few large patches and then roll up some paper towel that's a tight fit inside the tube and then push it through with a cleaning rod until I can grab the end and finish pulling it through. Nice and clean after a few passes with tight, clean, paper towels. I used to use 20 gauge bore mops but they got filthy real fast whereas the paper towels are single use. |
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You do not need to clean the gas tube. And as stated above, it's primarily a guide. Take it from Reid Henrichs on this video. 40K rounds fired in this rifle and never once cleaned the gas tube.  How and Why to Clean Your AK-47/74 Rifle |
I used hoppes #9 and a shotgun mop. If you are shooting ammo with corrosive primers then you need to flush with water to cut the salts down. I believe people are using Windex or other products as well but I have watch the AK Operators Union videos and he says that you just need to flush with water. Corrosive Ammo in AK |
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12 Guage mop, though they get nasty quick. I usually just do a quick spray with non chlorinated brake cleaner, then pull a rag through, then spray with oil. Not very involved, and not perfectly clean. Just making sure it's wet with oil so it doesn't rust. Even if it does, they are cheap to replace.... I wouldn't waste much time worrying about it. |
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I mostly shoot corrosive ammo in my AKs, and I mainly clean them with a garden hose. Get done shooting, field strip, blast everything with water, including a couple minutes worth down the gas tube. I then usually blow it out with compressed air, or push a couple wadded up blue shop paper towel pieces through with a cleaning rod, then hose it with CLP. I do not worry about getting every bit of carbon out. If I didn't shoot corrosive, I wouldn't even bother. |
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| After reading this thread,I just had to laugh at some of the responses. After going through many weapon inspections and later conducting a few, I can tell you that no matter how clean your weapon may be, there will be carbon there. On a M16 we could just just put a pinky finger into the area of the chamber our around the flash hider and get at least a little black on the finger to show the poor person he needed to be more careful. It was the military and a clean rifle was a operating rifle.I still clean my AR the way I was thaught too which is definitely not necessary for what I shoot now.I'm picking up a AK, which is the reason I came upon the thread. The only bad thing I have read has to do with the bore as far as over cleaning could affect accuracy. From what I am reading, if it's dirty, and cleaning has it has no affect on accuracy, why not? A clean AK is a happy AK. |
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Well in the 3 years since I posted in this thread, I discovered how great tampons are for cleaning shotguns and AK gas tubes. It used to be that you had to steal some from your SO, or actually pay money to buy some cheap generic tampons. However, one of the unintentional side benefits of our era of wokeness is that you'll occasionally see a tampon dispenser in a men's room. Load up your pockets, and you'll be cleaning AK gas tubes for free. |
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Originally Posted By formermarine63: After reading this thread,I just had to laugh at some of the responses. After going through many weapon inspections and later conducting a few, I can tell you that no matter how clean your weapon may be, there will be carbon there. On a M16 we could just just put a pinky finger into the area of the chamber our around the flash hider and get at least a little black on the finger to show the poor person he needed to be more careful. It was the military and a clean rifle was a operating rifle.I still clean my AR the way I was thaught too which is definitely not necessary for what I shoot now.I'm picking up a AK, which is the reason I came upon the thread. The only bad thing I have read has to do with the bore as far as over cleaning could affect accuracy. From what I am reading, if it's dirty, and cleaning has it has no affect on accuracy, why not? A clean AK is a happy AK. Amen. I'm in the same camp, before my rifles head back to the safe they get cleaned carefully and properly lubed. I sold a used rifle to a guy 10 years ago or so, this guy showed up to meet me with a seriously impressive borelight/scope, he took the rifle apart and minutely inspected every inch of it. When he got done, he handed me the money for it, and asked me if I would e-mail him my cleaning regimen, as he had never seen a used rifle as spotless as the one I sold him. |
Smaug:"I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today". 1 dedicated marksman who held his ground and kept shooting:"Haha bow go twang!"
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So many folks who are super positive that they don’t need to clean the gas tube… True- it shoves the crud into the grooves, and the contact points scrape it off…. So it can still work fine when real dirty. False- if you run ammo that turns out to be corrosive primed. I have seen a gas tube trashed from only a couple of corrosive rounds and no cleaning…. Gas block rusted, piston frozen, inside of the tube rusted up… At least no AK ammo manufacturer has ever been wrong when they claimed “non-corrosive” right? Yeah- that is why you should clean it…. Especially if shooting surplus ammo like 5.45 7N6… I use a variety of methods- plastic brush, shotgun brush, wad of shop towels, whatever. Usually MPro7, followed up with ballistol/water if running known corrosive ammo. |
a loaded gun won’t set you free, so you say…
How do you guys clean the AK gas PISTON tube? (Page 2 of 2)
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