Cleaning and maintaining the M14/M1A rifle

Cleaning and maintaining the M14/M1A rifle
Part 1, simple maintenance after a day at the range
Always clean your rifle when you get home from the range, if you don’t it will affect the rifle
and you’ll develop bad habits. When prepping your M1A for cleaning, always remove the
magazine, clear the rifle and check the chamber to make sure it’s safe.
There is one thing you do not want to use when maintaining your rifle: the M14 cleaning kit. It’s
nice for collectors, but not good for cleaning and maintaining the rifle. The segmented cleaning
rod is abusive to the bore and the combination tool is a loose fit and tends to wear the finish off
the gas plug if you’re not careful. Replacing a barrel on an M1A is not cheap; so take care of it.
If you want a portable cleaning kit, Brownells has several compact kits that work well.
It helps to have a cleaning vise like the one I use, but mine’s old and it’s currently made by
Tipton. It’s inexpensive, Brownells Part Number 100-012-230.
Place the rifle in the vise and secure it with the bolt locked back. Place a M1 Buddy Part Number
100-007-592 in the chamber. This is to prevent the bolt from getting bumped and closing. This
also keeps bore cleaner or solvents from getting on the wood and bedding compound. This M1
Buddy is courtesy Champion’s Choice Shooting Supplies (champchoice.com).
If you have a scope mounted you will have to trim it to fit. I could be specific, but there’s a lot of
different mounts on the market these days. In general it’s about ¼ inch off the side with the
scope mount.
Take the Dewey cleaning rod guide, Brownells part number 234-014-014 (it fits over the standard
and National Match M14/M1A flash suppressors) and slide it onto the flash suppressor. I
originally got both this one and the M1 guide from Champion’s Choice. Be sure to wipe any bore
cleaner off the guide when done.
Best choice for a cleaning rod is the 24” coated Dewey cleaning rod Part Number 234-230-024.
This one works well with M14s and M1As. You will want to get the brass adaptor (Male to
female) to use with a Brownells standard 8-32 threaded bore brush Part Number 084-401-030.
Once you’ve got the cleaning rod set up with adaptor and brush, you’re ready to go. For bore
cleaner, I started in 73 with genuine USGI M14 bore cleaner (which I still have). Of all the
things I’ve tried, I strongly suggest Accubore, Brownells Part Number 745-001-100. It’s fairly
quick and easy to use, but you should be aware that it doesn’t smell good, it’s harsh on sensitive
skin and you don’t want to get it on wood or bedding compound. I’ve been doing a lot of ammo
testing over the past year for a project I’m working on and Accubore cuts the time spent
scrubbing the bore. Dip your bore brush 1/3 to ½ way into the cleaner for one reason, excessive
bore cleaner can seep down into the gas cylinder especially if you’re cleaning the rifle
horizontally and I’ve seen badly fouled gas systems from this, and people that wet patch M1As.
Make sure to hold the cleaning rod by the handle so the rod swivels properly on the ball
bearings, if you don’t you’ll have the bore brush unscrewing unless you tighten it every 2
strokes. If you have a problem with this, you can carefully pinch the female end of the adaptor a
little at a time until the brush screws in a tighter. Take care doing this, if you don’t you’ll ruin the
adaptor. The number of strokes is something you’ll determine with experience, because it
depends on what ammo you’re using.
I specifically use the Brownells patch loop Part Number 084-000-216 because I will not use jags
and it helps swabbing out the chamber after cleaning it.
After scrubbing the bore, you can take the normal .30 caliber rifle patches, Brownells Part
Number 546-100-030. I normally buy the big bags since I do go through them fairly quickly. The
main reason you want to use these, is because they’re exceptionally well made, not cheap and
they have one course side and one soft side. I do initially use the course side when running
patches through the bore and then switch to the soft side as it gets clean.
When you’re finished with the bore, it’s time to clean the chamber. Use bore cleaner sparingly
and I suggest you get the commercial M14 chamber brush, Brownells Part Number 084-140-486,
because you can use anything as simple as a screw driver to ratchet the brush instead of the
threaded cleaning rod segment from the M14 cleaning kit with the USGI chamber bursh.
I’ve had and lost so many I simply use a Brownells brass 410 cleaning rod bent to shape.
When you’re done, take your cleaning rod with the patch loop on it and run it through the bore
out to the open bolt. I normally use Brownells 3x3’ shotgun patches to swab the chamber Part
Number 084-368-005, since they’re handy for a lot of things. If you want to use the normal
patches, take one, fold it and run it through the loop. Then take another folded patch and put one
end into the fold of the first, and draw it back through until it’s centered. Swab out the chamber
until there’s no fouling left.
Be sure to take Q-tips with bore cleaner on it and clean out the flash suppressor. You do not want
fouling to build up one it or in the slots
Now that the tube is done, it’s time to clean the bolt face, the recessed areas the bolt travels in
and the mag well area. I use the classic M16 tooth brush, Brownells Part Number 676-450-006.
Next you want Q-tips. You could use the commercial kind, but I use Brownells Part Number
100-004-005 because they’re longer, don’t bend and can get to areas you need to where the
commercial ones won’t.
First use the toothbrush to go over the bolt face, the areas where the bolt travels and mag well to
clear off any excess grim, dust, dirt and so on. Worst case, put a small amount of bore cleaner on
the toothbrush if needed then wipe clean. Then go back with the long Q-tips because you not
only clean the normal areas, you can do a tentative cleaning of the op rod where it you can get to,
under the barrel with the bolt locked back. This is another reasons I use the professional Q-tips.
With the bolt locked back you can use a Q-tip against the inside of the charging handle area
where it passes the recess in the receiver where the bolt locks into battery on the right side of the
receiver by moving the charging handle back and forth without closing it on the Q-tip.
Make sure to clean and maintain the front of the receiver, the rear of the chamber/barrel and the
rear end of the op rod spring guide since it also keeps the magazine in the rifle.
When the rifle is clean, it’s time to lube. I stopped using Lubraplate in the 70’s for one simple
reason. No matter how lightly you put Lubraplate on, it always tends to collect dust, dirt and
sand. All of this debris will wick moisture out of the air better than a dehumidifier and that can
be trouble. Read this carefully, I try to keep the lube amounts to what’s needed and no more.
When Special Ops went into Desert Storm with M21s, they were shot fairly dry.
For years I used Break Free CLP, but I’ve switched to FP10, Brownells Part Number 934-110004. You don’t need to use a lot of it since it spreads itself where you want it.
When I apply lube to the bolt recess and the area where the op rod/charging handle is up against
the receiver as shown; I use a drop or two of lube and work the action to distribute it. For the op
rod under the barrel, I put a drop of lube on a Q-tip and carefully spread it where I can.
With the bolt closed, put a drop of lube in the recessed areas for the charging handle and use a Qtip with lube to distribute the lube on the flat areas. Put a very small drop on the extractor
periodically since it doesn’t need to be lubed constantly and one more on the bolt roller if you
chose not to grease it. With the Q-tip, spread some lube on the back of the bolt where it moves
back into the receiver as shown. If you use any lubricant with Teflon in it, but sure to keep it
away from the breech face, chamber and bore. Teflon breaks down if it gets into the
bore and it does affect accuracy.
Work the action several times, wipe off any excess lube so it won’t splatter in your face when
you shoot it. When I’m done, I normally put a very fine coat of Break Free collectors over the
exposed areas of the rifle including the flash suppressor. Brownells Part Number 100-003-225.
You’re done.