Many people seem to believe that certain tools can't wear or change the dimensions of the bolt because the tools people used may be softer than the bolt material or the coating. Fouling is abrasive. As fouling is removed, it will lap the bolt material when used between the bolt and a tool. Fouling can wear the tail when a bronze brush or piece of brass is used to "clean". Fouling can wear the inside of the carrier when a tool is used. Ever look at a crowning lap? They are brass. An abrasive with the crowning lap will remove barrel material. A cleaning rod with fouling can remove barrel material as it moves. A bore snake used the wrong way can remove crown material. The difference between efficient and non efficient of most bolt tails is .0006. Thank about how little that is before changing the dimensions by "cleaning".

I wish this video was mandatory for all Marine NCO’s and Officers.

“Being abusive to you bolt carrier is not the conduct of a gentleman” is my new favorite quote for the month

One of the things I couldn't stand about the army was that in garrison weapons had to be turned in 100% clean. As a result guys gouged the hell out of their weapons trying to get that last grain of dust.

Reminded me of a day in basic training after the rifle range many decades ago with M16. Drill Sergeant told us that when the armorer accepted our rifles individually we could go to the PX. Well, we scrubbed those rifle clean enough to eat off of. Of course the armorer was in on the ruse, so no rifles were being accepted. A couple of buddies and myself found a good place to sleep after being rejected. Some of the others scrubbed, submitted, rejected, scrubbed, and resubmitted for 4 hours. When we heard the armorer was accepting rifles at the end of the day we dutifully turned in our once cleaned rifles. All those poor rifles had the finishes scrubbed off them over the non-sense.

*Drill instructors begin to froth and convulse with fury* 😂😂😂

I served for 5 years, and I could go on about how the arms room wanted the pew pews spotless...But instead, I will tell a story from the end of my basic training cycle. For roughly two weeks we spent countless hours cleaning our weapons. Even after they were clean if a drill sgt walked in and we weren't cleaning them we were wrong. So, these weapons were beyond spotless about two days in...We didnt stop going at them for at least another 10 days. Found out after weapon turn in all of those weapons had to be deadlined. A little carbon isn't a bad thing guys

I learned those exact practices at a young age (guess where?) and with your help here and by following a rigorous 12 step program I am overcoming my addiction to over cleaning or incorrectly cleaning my weapons. Thank you again sir!

As a young private in the Army, you were smoked if you had any carbon on the rifle. We probably ruined more rifles by scrubbing and chucking chamber brushes in drills than god knows what. You could eat off our rifles in the Army lol.

Man I love that cutaway bcg

I was in the Marines and we always cleaned them "white glove inspection ready" always after a range day. Then I went on to shoot competition and using my same rifle, didn't clean it but lubed the hell out of it. This was in 29 palms so its a desert environment, my rifle was gunky af but I never had any malfunctions for almost a whole month straight of shooting and if I did it was some magazines from old green followers on GI mags. I always hated cleaning my personal guns so thank you very much for this!

Man, the Army had us absolutely thrash our M16's.

An old guy taught me that sometime in a pinch, you can use wood like an ice cream stick and other appropriately shaped little pieces of wood without harm after soaking parts. Also taught me I could use hot soapy water for cleaning as well which I've done countless times with zero rust issues. Just got to make sure you rinse clean with hot water and make sure the metal is hot when you shake it off so any residual moisture evaporates quickly and completely and then just oil her up.

Found your channel about a year ago and I've been impressed with every video I've ever seen you put up. There's nobody else out there sharing this much detail and help with the community. Incredible work, thank you!

I received the SOTAR patch and sticker I ordered today. The texture of the gears and skull is awesome. By far the best patch I own. Super cool. Thank you!

Thanks Chad! I do have one of those multi-scraper-doohickies, but I've never used it. Usually some Clenzoil on a patch or two gets everything off. I do like to hit the lugs with a brass brush though, and my Dewey cleaning kit comes with a chamber brush and mop that works really well. Used gently of course. That cut in half BCG demo makes it perfectly clear why you don't want to go grinding on the bolt tail or inside diameter of the BCG.

I always wondered if the scrapers were safe to use. I've watched other channels where they used the bone scraper and really screwed it in the bolt. Wasn't sure that that was the best way to clean a bolt carrier. And the guy doing it was from a big well known company. The way that i look at it is if i think that it may scratch the surface of what I'm cleaning , i won't use it. Some good cleaning chemicals will do the job. Thanks for the information. I don't want to go scraping on my $300 bolt carrier.

Sooo many people just don’t understand this. Thank you for this information & “as always” look forward to your videos! Very thankful you’re back & look forward to learning more,Thank you sir!

Excellent video, you hit home runs with all your videos. One of the best videos is a 1960 or 61 Army m-16 cleaning video, it just explains what parts need oiling and what parts do not. keep up your awesome educational channel. Thanks Les.

I agree with these comments. We all learned the “right” way to clean our weapon at a young g and impressionable age, and carry that with us for years and years. I have found myself cleaning my personal rifle well enough for rack ready inspection even after just 40 rounds for quals. It’s an extremely difficult mentality to get past, but with proper counseling and videos like yours we can get past this. Thank you for the great info!

Man I can't express this enough but the knowledge that you give to us is invaluable! Thanks again for another good one!!!!

Spot on, once you remove metal, it cannot be put back on! Always use the least aggressive measures first. Excellent suggestions with CLR and Berrymans carb cleaner.

Very helpful, I got a new BCG recently and have wondered about this. It wasn’t u till I started watching your videos that I understood & appreciated just how important BCG’s role in the gas system is to proper function. Thank you for all the info!

Great things to know! I recently got into the “hobby” and starred shooting my AR so of course after a couple trips to the range, did my cleaning so far. Great things to learn here as I was already starting with the abrasive cleaning I’ve seen in videos. Thank you!

Your videos are always a wealth of information. Thank you for making them!

I have had very good results by using MPRO 7 to lube after I clean. I notice you said a "wet lube" early in the video. Usually if it "looks" wet it is probably pretty good. The MPro makes cleaning easier for me. Slip 2000 is also good. The crud wipes off with a blue shop towel. My only issues with them are the containers they come in. I transfer the product to a bottle with a needle oiler. Partially for precision but mostly to save some money. Both products are expensive. I am sort of frugal (read cheap). Have a good day. Thanks for the great videos. So informative.

Thanks. Always great info from you. Thankful that you're out there!

Thank you! My son and I have learned so much from your videos! We've built two AR's and have diagnosed and repaired a new one that we bought that wasn't working properly. Much love from Arizona! ❤🇺🇲❤🇺🇲

Very helpful for a 'new' AR user. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you Chad for the educational videos. Good stuff to know. Save a guy some pain down the road.

Love your videos. Thank you for the tireless energy involved in sharing information with the rest of us. Your information is invaluable and helps potentially millions of people. Be proud of that.

Came across a doc on Armalite's website over 12 years ago explaining this. Took it to heart.

Great content as always 👏 Glad to see you posting again, Thanks

My old firearms instructor was a combat vet, Vietnam he was a Marine Corps colonel , super strict, but I learned a lot from him. In my training we used pistols,rifles,shotguns. Our weapons would be filthy after an intensive round of training. (1980s) he had us spray everything with gum-out carb. & choke cleaner and swab cotton nibs, and a nylon brush just like you show. Then we were to oil it up with CLR ( I used Ballistol-still do) but we were to wipe of excess. I never had one malfunction, even with over 1,000 rounds ( each class, with pistol,rifle required 1,000 rnds.) I rarely use the gum-out these days. Thank you for this excellent information. The only thing I'd like to add is on the bolt pin ( t shaped not the cotter pin) I add just a little bit of gun grease to those pins it helps keep them from getting gaulded. Thanks for the great information.

I stopped using the otis bone tool years ago thanks to you! You actually answered my post and told me that you preferred chemically removed carbon over picks or tools and I have been following that ever since. Thanks again!

Eight years in the infantry, including 2nd ITB. Issued many scraping tools without this information. Thanks!

There are a number of products on the market designed to emulsify carbon in two-strokes and small engines. A couple are made by outboard engine manufacturers (I use Engine Tuner, which is from BRP) and work well to soften even heavy buildups of carbon.

My cleaning setup includes a bamboo skewer, as well as a nylon brush, q-tip, and a rag. The bamboo skewer usually does good work on built up carbon and won’t scratch the metal. Also, having a chrome DD bolt carrier group helps (wish they still made them, I’d buy more). Just wipe with a CLP soaked rag and you’re done. 😁 Sadly I only have one, so the others get the bamboo/nylon brush treatment.

What! You’re supposed to clean an AR15? As an experiment, I went over 6000 rounds without cleaning, just putting some motor oil on the bolt. Zero malfunctions until I wore the barrel out.

Thanks for posting this. Haven't put enough rounds through mine yet to worry about fouling, but I did buy into the "gotta keep that BCG surgically clean" line. Nice to get an education *before* damaging something. Refreshing...

I was taught this way and only recently learned how the scraping tool (like the one on your worktable) was lathing away the inside of the bcg. That having been said, would you do a video on gas rings (replacement, tolerances, etc) for those of us that damaged them with that pesky wire brush?

I've waiting for you to do a video on this for a long time. Thank you.

I have been an AR15 Shooter for over 10 years, and wish I would have found this School Of The American Rifle back then. I have been doing some of the things mentioned in this video as far as cleaning fouling off my bolt tail and generally it I has been with a bronze brush. I will no longer use that for cleaning, and stick with the nylon Brush and Lube. I do lube the bolt tail and gas rings well, but will stop cleaning the bolt tail with a bronze brush. Love this channel and keep posting your great educational content. Thanks a bunch!!!

Have been binge watching your videos. Thank you so much for the information you share. Really appreciate the knowledge and expertise and those awesome tools/gauges. Very clear, accurate info. I’ve learned a lot thanks.

I pretty much exclusively use Q-tips, shop towels, and a toothbrush to clean my BCG and FCG. On the rare chance I have had to scrape something I use a wooden dowel. Really the most cleaning I do is usually just a boresnake and some CLP.

Thank you for this video! I'm sometimes OCD about cleaning my guns and I hated trying to scrape this area on my bolt tail, I'd go at it with a brass brush like crazy trying to get it all off. Never knew that the fouling is important for the continued operation of the gun. Very very helpful video to me and I really appreciate it

Love your videos!! Very helpful and informative! Keep them coming! 😁👍

So much great knowledge, thank you for sharing yet again 👍

A couple questions. 1. Would carbon build-up on the bolt tail not improve the seal between the tail and the carrier? 2. Is it bad to drop lube down into the gas key, instead of removing the bolt and lubing it directly? It would seem to me that the residual lubricant would absorb carbon, burn off, and make the interior of the gas key cake up at a faster rate than a dry one

"If the conduct of your officers is regarded as the conduct of a gentleman, I'll take that as a compliment"

Your knowledge is always much appreciated.

I always put a patch between the tool and the bolt tail when using my various cleaning tools, q-tip dowels work well along with other wooden implemnts to get off some of that stuborn carbon.

As an old machinist but a new AR shooter, this was excellent! And terrific visual aids to show what's going on in there. Thanks for stopping a bad habit before it starts. BTW, what are the diameters ***and tolerances*** you think we should stay within for those critical surfaces? I've got the tools to measure them (although I don't have your cool Go/NO-GO gauges I might invest in some), so of course I'm curious what they should measure. Again thanks -- and looking forward to the next vid!

I learned the hard way. Purchasing gauges and being real with what I was seeing definitely turn me around great video

The amount of info you have is amazing

CLR is somewhat controversial. It does remove baked on carbon fouling, but it is very aggressive, and needs to be removed with alcohol, brake cleaner or lacquer thinner when you're finished with it. Probably best to not use it on any blued guns.

I pretty much stopped using abrasives. The only thing I use that's abrasive is the little bit of bristles built into a bore snake and that's very rare. I remember it mentioned in a video of yours from way back and made so much sense that it really stuck with me

I'm learning so much from your videos! Thank you!

Thank you. I just had this discussion with a friend of mine who was suggesting these scraping tools. Just his assertion about scraping these components that have such close tolerances sounded wrong to me. I’m gonna show him your video. Thanks again!

Also-- Bronze brushes generally can't hurt steel in the HRC 36-40 range when used by hand, they are softer than steel by quite a bit. That said, even water can wear down rock, so any abrasive (regardless how soft) with enough cycles will wear parts.

Maybe I’m lazy, but after a trip to the range I just disassemble the BCG, wipe the BCG and internals with a clean cloth, add a layer of oil and reassemble. It’s not a hardcore cleaning, but enough to remove most of the fine abrasive dirt and to freshen the lube with synthetic motor oil. (I’m sure someone will lambaste me for using motor oil, but it’s what Dad used and I still have and use his 90-year old guns). Once in a while, I will run the disassembled BCG and parts through an ultrasonic cleaner with RCBS Weapons Cleaner and distilled water, hit parts with a toothbrush or, at worst case, a brass brush. Relube, reassemble. I keep a can of Ballistol in my range bag and if anything looks dry, I’ll give it a quick spray. Other than that, it’s clean enough.

Great advice and pointing out the facts will help me counter my OCD.

Always bringing that knowledge. Thanks as always!

I'll let you guys in on a bit of a not-so-well-known secret: soot/soft carbon is an effective dry film lubricant at high temperatures. When you "clean" the bolt tail, you are not only likely to wear a critical sealing surface, but you are increasing the overall wear rate of the gun while in service. Instead, just put a few drops if you favorite CLP down the gas key, hold the carrier boltface up and cycle the bolt within the carrier fore and aft. When you fire the gun, any excess lube will blow out the carrier ports. I recommend using only lubes that comply with MIL-PRF-63460F TY: A

So good to see Critical Chad (and I mean that as a compliment, "Critical") back on camera. Thank you Chad! I wonder if the obsessive carbon-chasers think they should take apart their car's engine, and make the combustion chamber, piston crown, valve heads, and intake & exhaust ports "hospital clean." How do they think their car engine runs without obsessive carbon removal?

Great information. Nobody had ever mentioned this to me. Thank you for sharing this.

Thank you sir, great video with exactly the right amount of detail and specificity.

For context, the tolerance for the width of the bolt tail according to an old military blueprint I found, is 0.0002 inches. That's about the width of a human red blood cell. It doesn't take much polishing or scraping to take that dimension out of spec, so absolutely be careful!

I have a friend who used Break Cleaner on his bolt and it literally left a pool of carbon on the floor and the BCG looked brand new. Not sure if break cleaner is good for a BCG

I just found your channel...mind blown. I'm about to binge watch all of your content, thanks

Just seen your video for the first time today. Love the name of your channel. Got my sub! 👍

What about non chlorinated brake parts cleaner?

First.

Recent subscriber, Gald I found your channel, wish I'd found this channel earlier. P.S. your BCG Physicals prompted me to buy some gauge pins and get my hands on dimensional drawings. My BCG choices have been Aero Prescion and Daniel Defense. Thanks for your posts.

That cut away was super helpful 👌

Nice to see you Back !!

Very valuable video!! I typically get all the extra shit out of my BCG every time we go to the range (my family doesn’t shoot often, but we shoot a ton of rounds every time we go). I used to use this metal brushes, however with oiled cleaning patches on the end of them. All I ever use now is a pencil eraser for the deposits that have built up, and a pencil for getting down in the crooks that my fingers can’t reach. Thanks for beneficial wisdom!

Thank you! You have me as a new subscriber for this!

Great video with great info. I personally have not done a thorough cleaning of my bcg. I've only wipe clean and lube. Been shooting the same ar for years now no issue.

Thanks for the great tips Chad , great video , as always , thanks !!! 👌😎

I used to use the bone tool and thought my colts, bcm needed to squeaky clean. Until I started training and running well over a thousand rounds in couple days. Nowadays I just lube and after 2500 rounds I’ll break it down but definitely not scraping and getting it squeaky clean like I once did. Thanks bud I feel a lot of folks needed to hear this.

I was taught to just use some solvent and patches on the bolt and BCG. Really appreciate the content, as someone still fairly new to firearms and the AR platform

I would love to buy a cut away bolt from you for teaching! It is brilliant!

Excellent video. Love the visual aids. In gun cleaning B12 Chemtool and an air compressor with a moisture filter are your friends.

This is a phenomenal video and everyone with AR's and any other weapons who do their own cleaning should watch. I teach this exact same thing in my AR Diagnostics and Maintenance Course. I was taught this 30+ years ago becoming a Colt Advanced Armorer. Use a nylon brush, what goes goes, what stays stays. Been doing that forever on AR's with ultra high round counts. Never have had to replace a carrier or bolt, none have unnecessary wear other than parts that will wear due to use like rings, springs, etc. Never had failures, malfunctions, etc due to it not being white glove inspection cleaned either (Lol United States Marine Corps). I have a friend who regardless how much I tell him, cleans his BCG Assembly using a bench grinder with a wire wheel lol. Man his bolt is beer can shiny around the tail and rings. Sometimes, you have to let a self correcting problem self correct. I use brake cleaner and Ed's Red to break them down if it is heavy carbon. No scrapers, no knives, seen guys scrape using a box cutter, etc and definitely no Dremel or wire wheels. Common sense, common chemicals and elbow grease. I make my own lube and the Ed's Red, all I really pay for continuously is the carb/brake cleaner. Walmart Super Tech is cheap and effective.

Ty good to know I recently purchased one of these tools I’ll be more cautious when doing my normal maintenance

Never thought about this. Thanks for the info

Thank you, Sir. I have those scraping tools. Never used them. Didn't know they could damage. I just have always preferred chemical cleaning. Keep up the vids Sir, love them.

This should be a mandatory for all young joes.

Love the cutaway. Those tolerances are mind-boggling in accuracy. Nothing but nylon or cotton used in cleaning for me. Stroke Hold (Marine) is an amazing lubricant! Thanks for the warnings!

Will you ever release a gauge kit or something resembling all the tools you use? Apologies if you already have but I remember a video you did where you implied one was in the works and I've been waiting anxiously. Appreciate all you do.

Excellent knowledge transfer! Great video for every owner. Just wish more would open their minds to this information

Thank you for this info! Had no idea… this type of thing is part of why I prefer my AK. Just harder to screw up

Very well explained. Thanks for doing this!

Great information, I run Nickel Boron BCG in all my ArmaLite Style rifles and 2 stage Nickle Boron Trigger groups and i wipe and lube with CLP and I know now i am doing what's best. Thanks for putting this out very educational...

I submerge all the bcg parts in kerosene for about an hour then use a soft brush to remove what's left. I finally give a Hoppes light coat and I have been getting good results. In my experience, I have seen some shooters at the range with malfunctions and most of the time is because their bcgs are bone dry. Good comments and suggestion on this video as I continue to hear from some other AR shooters that they should be on the dry side. What they don't really is the friction the bolt endures is devastating without proper lubrication. Thanks you!

I learned all my AR cleaning and care from SOTAR. I WISH I LIVED NEAR BY TO GO TO HIS SCHOOL. BUT IVE WATCHED ALL HIS VIDEOS AND IMO HES BEST AT BOTH WORLDS FIXING TO SPECS AND FINDING A SOLUTION TO MAKE IT FUNCTION. Lol I made my own paper clip tool like him. Little skills like that make a huge difference.

Very insightful... Thank you so much for the heads up.

Wow! Thank you. I wish someone had put this video out eight years ago when I first started shooting ARs privately. Between my active duty time and civil service time, I spent more than 43 years with the Army and from my first days as a recruit back in 1975 I was taught the dogma that “all” carbon had to be removed. I have all of those tools and more. This is the second video I have watched that taught me I was doing something wrong in the maintenance of my guns. Again, thank you.

Appreciate the advice! Seems u have first hand knowledge of this and u seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to this. U saved me from scraping the bolt end with a wire brush to remove the fouling carbon that builds up. You beat my OCD with a hammer and won! Thank u! Now i know not to do it and that it's not a big deal