Chamber care

[old_heli_logger]

How do you keep your chamber from rusting? We don't want lube in there or the brass won't stick to it and we'll get a bunch of bolt thrust. We also don't want it to rust, so....?

 

[hpshooter]

After cleaning the bore I wipe the chamber out with a snug fitting bore mop lightly coated with Kroil or Starrett instrument oil before storing the firearm. When getting the firearm ready to head to the range or field I will use a mop that is wet with denatured alcohol to remove the light oil coating from the chamber.

Has worked for me for 65+ years.

 

[SSL]

After cleaning the bore I wipe the chamber out with a snug fitting bore mop lightly coated with Kroil or Starrett instrument oil before storing the firearm. When getting the firearm ready to head to the range or field I will use a mop that is wet with denatured alcohol to remove the light oil coating from the chamber.

Has worked for me for 65+ years.

THIS ^^^

 

[swd]

RIG grease. Once you get it coated you can wipe it dry with clean patches and it will still protect the metal.

 

[FarmallSM]

How do you keep your chamber from rusting? We don't want lube in there or the brass won't stick to it and we'll get a bunch of bolt thrust. We also don't want it to rust, so....?

Oil it! Lightly oil a patch, just a couple drops. This whole bolt thrust thing , super polished chambers vs honed with a cross hatch, vs too much oil vs rusty chambers etc. It’s just not that critical.

 

[Syncrowave]

I've always just oiled the chamber just like the rest of the bore, and have never cleaned it out before shooting.
It always just seemed like a largely unnecessary hassle to me. But I've been wrong about a lot of stuff, so

Maybe the reason you want a dry chamber is so that a larger percentage of the recoil thrust gets transferred through the walls of the case to the walls of the chamber, thereby taking some of the force off the breech face and therefore the lugs...? Hmmm...maybe it's time for me to start drying those chambers!
It'd be interesting to compare how fast headspace increases on a gun always fired with an oiled chamber vs the same gun always fired with a dry chamber...I bet it takes a bajillion rounds to make a measurable difference.