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Thread: Beretta PX4 Storm .45 High round count, long duration usage.

  1. #171

    My PX4 .45 ACP cleaning protocols



    Another characteristic of the .45, compared to the .40 or 9, is how dirty it gets. To address this and keep things working well and smoothly, while not spending all of my time and energy cleaning, I have made certain cleaning protocols for certain intervals.

    Range clean- This is designed to be done at the range. After shooting I wipe the outside of the pistol with barely damp paper towels, including the hammer face. Then, with the slide back, I use a wooden skewer to push a damp paper towel to clean the breech and feed ramp. Next, with the slide forward I clean the mag well and use a skewer to push a paper towel up to clean the center bar. Now it could be loaded with defense loads for the trip home without getting die-lube, carbons or transient grease on my defense ammo.

    Range clean and regrease- For this I remove the slide after range cleaning and add grease to the frame rails and cam.

    Field clean- This is the most frequent cleaning protocol. No solvents are used. It could be done in the field for survival for a very long time.
    I will use barely damp paper towels. This is done by squeezing the water fully out of the paper towels, then laying them out between flat, dry paper towels and pressing them almost dry. They are so dry that a body builder, ranch hand, trainer that flips tractor tires and dead lifts small buildings (like @Storm SD ) could not get them to drip.
    I use dry nylon brushes and skewers pushing damp paper towels. I especially get under the extractor claw and the breech. The bore is done with a dry bronze brush from the Beretta kit, then nylon brushes, finishing with a soft nylon brush from Storm SD’s SD box (don’t tell him). I then contort a paper towel into the chamber tightly and wring it out until it comes out spotless. Next, a dry patch.

    Full clean- Done every ~2,500 rounds. This incorporates the use of Hoppe’s #9 to remove carbon build-up and soot. I use nylon brushes and an air compressor to remove the solvent. I do not use wire bushes outside of the bore.
    When I was in Gunsmithing School, there was a sign over the bluing tanks, “Warning, if you don’t know what you’re doing, do nothing.”. Less dramatically, I advise caution in using an air compressor. You could push goop to where it was not and unseat little springs. If you do know how to manage this, it is effective. When cleaning the frame I use a thin skewer or toothpick to push a paper towel into the hole of the guide rod’s rear seat.

    Detail slide clean- Every 5,000 rounds. I totally disassemble the slide (except the sights) and clean the firing pin channel, all interior surfaces and all parts. In .45, despite all efforts, you can get hard carbon build up around the breech. I use a dental tool for plaque removal. (Another, warning) If you are heavy handed, impatient or not detail focused, don’t try it. I do this because a wire brush risks rounding or deforming surfaces and the .45 leaves lots of carbon build up. I use the air compressor repeatedly to dry interior surfaces.

    Detail frame clean- Every 10,000 rounds. I remove all parts, including the disassembly latch. I then solvent clean everything, including the inner frame. The air compressor is used here, too.



    A word about KG1 from KG industry. In dealing with frequent hard carbon build up, I’ve sought better solutions. The rear teeth on the cam block can get build up. I use a little KG1, let it sit, and víolá, clean. If little hard spots remain, a tooth pick will pick them off. We use KG1 on my mags, as you read.

    The limitations of KG1 use on Bruniton: I tried KG1 on the muzzle of my slide and wow! it removed all that carbon fast. However, it left behind a white film from its soap base that is supposed to rinse off, but doesn’t. It left a white cloud behind. Not even Hoppe’s #9 would budge it. I worked closely for a while with the owner of KG Industries to find a solution. Even KG3, which is supposed to remove KG1 did not get it all. He offered to refinish my pistol for free and was supportive, willing to stand behind his product, but I was not ready to lose this battle.
    Storm SD is a Nutritionist, scientist and clinical analysis major. He determined the fat based residue, so we did a poor boy solution. Dawn dishwashing liquid (the duck treatment). That got it, over time. However, I don’t recommend extended use as water is introduced to the front sight.
    Using KG1 on the slide was like having a mouse, so you got a cat to get rid of the mouse, then you get a dog to get rid of the cat, etc.. I just use the Hoppe’s #9 on the muzzle and it is slower, but way quicker. Bottom line- I advise against using KG1 on your slide.


    Pistol round count: 35,500
    Last edited by PX4 Storm Tracker; 04-19-2018 at 02:09 PM.

  2. #172
    My lubrication method for my PX4 .45 Gs


    I use 2 kinds of lubes. I use Beretta CLP oil when assembling the slide. I put a very thin coat on the outer shaft of the firing pin block plunger and the main shaft of the left side decocker lever. Not much on the firing pin block plunger, it could drip down onto your ammo. That’s it. On my EDC the interior slide is all dry. It is newer and as smooth as silk, so I don’t want a lint or dust magnet in there.

    Inside the frame I use grease (described below) on the frame side of the trigger bar, sear contacts, hammer to sear, hammer to trigger bar contacts, trigger bar to hammer and sear contacts, hammer pivot pin, sides of the hammer pivot, strut to hammer pivot and a light film on the disassembly latch.


    In normal use I use Shooter’s Choice All Weather, High Tech grease. It is good from -65° to 350° F. I use grease because it stays where I put it. I have found that oil will follow gravity and can be pushed off more easily. If one is going to lube up and go right to the range and shoot, that factor probably won’t matter.
    I clean and regrease my EDC every 5 weeks, unless it is very dry out, then 4. The grease is always right where I left it. That includes being holstered most of the time, or placed down on its side.



    From field stripped: I first put grease generously on the sides of the barrel’s cam slot. Next, thinly on the drag marks of the front teeth of the center block. I put a light film of grease around the barrel’s forward shaft that interacts with the hole for it in the front of the slide. On my EDC I then wipe off the grease from the forward shaft, leaving a trace only, or it collects lint.
    I do not put grease on the barrel rearward of the lug. This could cause grease to be pushed back toward the loading ramp and get on my ammo. I put the barrel in the slide. No grease is directly applied to the slide and certainly none on the center rail, which sits on your loaded, inserted magazine’s top round.

    I then put a very thin film of grease on the inner flats of the center block from the front of the rear teeth and forward. None back as far as the rear teeth. I insert the guide rod assembly. I then put a generous amount of grease around the cam sides. I do not put lube on the outer flats, it only has resistance during assembly, then does not move. I do not put any on the bottom flat, as it does not move and will only come out on your trigger. I insert the block and spring.

    I then put a generous amount of grease on the frame rails and the vertical flats below them, less on the rear rails. I do not put grease on the slide’s rails because assembly will just push it off the front. I put a light film on the trigger bar top contact point on my range gun.

    I assemble and only whack it back to half cock (that’s all that is needed to lock it in place) I then, function test, lock the slide back and inspect the ejection port. Slide then guided forward by hand with even pressure on both sides, clean the back of the slide from excess grease pushed out... done.


    I can go many hundreds of rounds without regreasing. I have never had a lubrication problem in any Storm I’ve used this method with. When grease gets dirty with carbons and goop, it still remains slippery and works.
    Last edited by PX4 Storm Tracker; 04-21-2018 at 12:37 PM.

  3. #173
    I have been trying something with my cleaning on my barrel. I have a plastic tube, (it was originally a single serving tube of liquid protein) that I have filled with Hoppe's 9. When I take the slide off, I will take the barrel and put it in the tube for about an hour before using the wire brush on it. It seems to loosen some of the carbons up so that they are removed more easily with the first few passes of the brush. After the first initial passes, it seems that the advantage is lost and the rest will just take time using the brush as usual.

    Name:  Hoppe's and tube.jpg
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  4. #174
    @Storm SD , Cleaning a bore that has shot hundreds or thousands of .45 ACP loads can be difficult.

    In determining if this is a good idea worth trying, it leaves me with questions about specifics.


    You wrote, “After the first initial passes, it seems that the advantage is lost and the rest will just take time using the brush as usual.”

    How much (what percentage, perhaps) does the hour of soaking eliminate from the scrubbing to follow?

    How much time does “the rest” of the brushing take?

    Without counting the hour of soaking, how long do the barrel and bore take you to clean?

    How clean does it get when you’re done? All mirror bright and shiny?
    Last edited by PX4 Storm Tracker; 04-23-2018 at 01:06 PM.

  5. #175
    My attempt is to get the bore mirror bright and shiny. It is hard to estimate the amount of time that I spend cleaning the barrel. I work on it while at work in between customers, phone calls, orders, paying bills, etc. I run the brush, the one in the picture below the tube, through the bore about 100 times while applying more Hoppe’s 9 to the brush after every 25 passes. I then run three or four dry patches through the barrel after the 100 passes. I repeat this process until the bore is shiny. By soaking the barrel, I think it probably reduces the number of passes by three to four hundred. I usually work at this for two days, so I would estimate 1200 to 1500 passes with the brush. I wipe the barrel down with damp paper towels before putting it into the tube of Hoppe’s 9. Even with most of the surface cleaned, the bottom of the tube has a black coat of grease and carbons that have come loose and settled to the bottom after soaking for an hour. So, the soaking probably only saves me 15% of time I would usually use to clean the barrel. That may not be much, but even a little bit of time spared is valuable.

    Also, to clarify my previous post in the thread… I use the wire brush only on the bore. I do not use a wire brush in cleaning of any other portion of the barrel.

  6. #176
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    NW Florida
    Quote Originally Posted by Storm SD View Post
    My attempt is to get the bore mirror bright and shiny. ...
    Just a data point, but from a barrel maker...

    http://www.schuemann.com/Portals/0/D...l_Cleaning.pdf

    My Personal Practice has become to never clean the bore of my barrels. I do use a brass rod to scrape the deposits out of the chamber. But, I've learned to leave the bore alone and it very slowly becomes shinier and cleaner all by itself. Years ago I occasionally scrubbed the bore with a brass bore brush. But, doing so always seemed to cause the bore to revert to a dirtier look with more shooting, so I eventually stopped ever putting anything down the bore except bullets...

  7. #177
    Quote Originally Posted by JTQ View Post
    Just a data point, but from a barrel maker...

    http://www.schuemann.com/Portals/0/D...l_Cleaning.pdf
    JTQ, I'm going to look into this more, thanks for the data. Some differences I noticed so far are that the PX4 Storm has a chromium lined bore and is hammer forged. That does not mean that there is a big difference, but I will certainly check into this more.

    I have consulted with a leading gunsmith, specializing in .45 ACP (and he shoots his 1911 a lot) on bore cleaning. I will study into this.

    My field cleaning takes me 3 minutes on the bore and the solvent cleaning every 2,500 rounds- 30 minutes.

  8. #178
    Quote Originally Posted by Storm SD View Post
    My attempt is to get the bore mirror bright and shiny. It is hard to estimate the amount of time that I spend cleaning the barrel. I work on it while at work in between customers, phone calls, orders, paying bills, etc. I run the brush, the one in the picture below the tube, through the bore about 100 times while applying more Hoppe’s 9 to the brush after every 25 passes. I then run three or four dry patches through the barrel after the 100 passes. I repeat this process until the bore is shiny. By soaking the barrel, I think it probably reduces the number of passes by three to four hundred. I usually work at this for two days, so I would estimate 1200 to 1500 passes with the brush. I wipe the barrel down with damp paper towels before putting it into the tube of Hoppe’s 9. Even with most of the surface cleaned, the bottom of the tube has a black coat of grease and carbons that have come loose and settled to the bottom after soaking for an hour. So, the soaking probably only saves me 15% of time I would usually use to clean the barrel. That may not be much, but even a little bit of time spared is valuable.

    Also, to clarify my previous post in the thread… I use the wire brush only on the bore. I do not use a wire brush in cleaning of any other portion of the barrel.
    That is a very long process for someone that shoots 2x week. How often do you do the cleaning you described?

  9. #179
    Dot Driver Kyle Reese's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Central Virginia
    My PX4 9mm just gets a steady diet of Wolf, Tula and Barnaul. Not concerned with cleaning it.

    Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

  10. #180
    Site Supporter PNWTO's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    E. WA
    Quote Originally Posted by K.Hungus View Post
    My PX4 9mm just gets a steady diet of Wolf, Tula and Barnaul. Not concerned with cleaning it.

    Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk
    Right? I have several pistols that haven't been cleaned for at least a case or two of ammo. One G19 hasn't been cleaned since 2016. No noticeable performance impact.
    "Do nothing which is of no use." -Musashi

    What would TR do? TRCP BHA

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