Gun Cleaning: Tampons

Try different sizes and find the ones that are the snuggest in the barrel and buy a box. Yes men, we CAN buy tampons if we’re self-assured males. Keep a couple with your guns just in case, as I did, you forget your gun cleaning kit on a weekend getaway.

We shot skeet all day and that night I wanted to clean my gun…no kit. The only thing in the cabin long enough to go the length of the barrel were my arrows. Now I needed a cleaning pad. I looked through some drawers and found some tampons. I slid the tampon out about 1 inch and applied some solvent. These things really expand quickly and that is why you should only expose about an inch. Now insert it into the barrel holding onto the applicator and push the string side with the arrow. Don’t push it all the way through because you won’t get it back in. Work it back and forth a few times then push string side out, grab the string and discard. Your hands shouldn’t even get solvent on them.

For semi-automatics, same applies but you need to extend the string in order to pull it out the end of the barrel. I use large, heavy days on my 12 gauge Weatherby over/under.