Suppressor Cleaning Techniques

[Trung Si Ma]

How do you clean your .22LR suppressor?

My baffles seem to collect carbon in places I can't get to at all. I'm thinking of getting a heated vibration cleaner and filling it with Bore-Tech's carbon cleaner to see if that works.

I thought about using my brass polisher but worry about it being too abrasive.

Sure could use some advice because I really like to shoot the Vudoo suppressed.

 

[Cowpokey]

My suppressor is still in jail, but I use this method to clean the comps for our race guns, should work for suppressors.

 

[gkgeiger]

When I was shooting suppressed I used an ultrasonic cleaner I bought on Amazon. Worked great, I put all my gun parts in there. Since I’m shooting only BR I don’t use it anymore.

 

[Doctorwho1138]

Bore Tech makes a suppressor cleaning system. I have heard great things about it.

Decimator Suppressor Cleaning System - Bore Tech

Order Decimator Suppressor Cleaning System for only 249.99 online at Bore Tech for the best in firearm cleaning and care!

www.boretech.com

You can buy the chemicals separately if you wish.

https://www.boretech.com/products/decimator-suppressor-cleaner

I have heard that CLR works great as well. I have a thunder beast so I just send mine to them for cleaning.

 

[45cal4life]

Soda blasting. Lematec gun from amazon and a bag of soda from harbor freight. Careful where you use it, soda will kill the lawn

 

[Longshot231]

My suppressor is still in jail, but I use this method to clean the comps for our race guns, should work for suppressors.

What bothers me about this method is handling and disposing of the peroxide/vinegar solution (AKA the dip). What is left behind after soaking the muzzlebrake or baffles is lead acetate. Just reading about that stuff scares the heck out of me.

I use to clean the rimfire baffles in a tumbler with steel chips or pins with Dawn dishwashing soap and citric acid / Lemishine. That got them really clean except the caked on lead residue was a PTIA to get off.

Instead of using the dip, I boiled the baffles after tumbling, in cleaning vinegar outside for about 30 minutes. Then I let everything cool.

The lead was turned into a light gray powder residue that I could scrape off with a pick. I suspect that was lead acetate in powdered form. Nevertheless, I would rather handle that stuff with proper PPE in powdered form rather than liquid form.

The above is what I use to do. I found something even better. Watch this video. He will tell you a lot of what you already know but skip to about the 9 minute mark to learn about the treating the baffles with silicone oil.



Hopefully, you have had a chance to watch the video. I gave all of my rimfire baffles and handgun suppressor baffles the silicone treatment. Before that, however, I made sure that every speck of lead was gone from the metal surfaces.

Instead of DOT 5 brake fluid, I used pure silicone oil.

After about 300 rounds of use, there will still be a lot of carbon deposit and residue on the treated rimfire baffles. I could wipe everything off with paper towels, cleaning patches and q-tips for the tight spots. If there was any carbon deposits remaining that the cloth and q-tips could not wipe away, I used a metal pick to flick them away.

Keep in mind that there is none, absolutely none of the caked on lead as before.

After each cleaning session as described above, I would put liberal amount of CLP on the baffles and inside the can itself. Some people may disagree with how much I put on the rimfire baffles but running these things really wet, combined with the silicone treatment, seems to help with cleaning afterwards.

 

[beetroot]

I like to dry tumble my suppressor core in rice if the build up isn't too bad or wet stumble with stainless pins.

Best method is to not let the suppressor get too dirty to begin with, I try clean at a max of 500 rounds and even that is pretty damn filthy.
More frequent rice tumbling is the way to go IMO .

Mechanical removal is the quickest method to deal with the hard lead build up but its very messy. Found WD40 seems to work well on carbon and aids in lead removal.

 

[scotty2hotty]

What bothers me about this method is handling and disposing of the peroxide/vinegar solution (AKA the dip). What is left behind after soaking the muzzlebrake or baffles is lead acetate. Just reading about that stuff scares the heck out of me.

I use to clean the rimfire baffles in a tumbler with steel chips or pins with Dawn dishwashing soap and citric acid / Lemishine. That got them really clean except the caked on lead residue was a PTIA to get off.

Instead of using the dip, I boiled the baffles after tumbling, in cleaning vinegar outside for about 30 minutes. Then I let everything cool.

The lead was turned into a light gray powder residue that I could scrape off with a pick. I suspect that was lead acetate in powdered form. Nevertheless, I would rather handle that stuff with proper PPE in powdered form rather than liquid form.

The above is what I use to do. I found something even better. Watch this video. He will tell you a lot of what you already know but skip to about the 9 minute mark to learn about the treating the baffles with silicone oil.



Hopefully, you have had a chance to watch the video. I gave all of my rimfire baffles and handgun suppressor baffles the silicone treatment. Before that, however, I made sure that every speck of lead was gone from the metal surfaces.

Instead of DOT 5 brake fluid, I used pure silicone oil.

After about 300 rounds of use, there will still be a lot of carbon deposit and residue on the treated rimfire baffles. I could wipe everything off with paper towels, cleaning patches and q-tips for the tight spots. If there was any carbon deposits remaining that the cloth and q-tips could not wipe away, I used a metal pick to flick them away.

Keep in mind that there is none, absolutely none of the caked on lead as before.

After each cleaning session as described above, I would put liberal amount of CLP on the baffles and inside the can itself. Some people may disagree with how much I put on the rimfire baffles but running these things really wet, combined with the silicone treatment, seems to help with cleaning afterwards.

I use Welder Spatter Spray, I guess it is similar to silicone spray.