Brake cleaner then car wash
I have a high-tech apparatus built for said project. It's a section of PVC (6" dia I think) with a cap glued on one end. Put the action in the tube (no pun intended) and fill it up with cheap mineral spirits. You can put a cap on the other end if you'd like and let it sit in there for a day or so. When it comes out it will be pretty much clean. You can reuse the mineral spirits for other cleaning tasks.
Ditto for mineral spirits. I start with a small tub or paint roller pan of it....as I disassemble the weapon part by part, I drop said part into the tub. Take the parts out in order of reassembly, scrub, oil and put it all back together.
First time I cleaned off cosmoline I took all the metal parts off, washed the small parts in hot water, cleaned as much of the barrel as I could, and wrapped the stock in paper towels, stuffed it into a black trash bag, and left it in my car for a few days in the sun.
The second time I just took the gun to work and ran extremely hot water over it (yay for industrial restaurant water heaters!). Then I took it home, disassembled and oiled/lubed, and reassembled.
The second time I just took the gun to work and ran extremely hot water over it (yay for industrial restaurant water heaters!). Then I took it home, disassembled and oiled/lubed, and reassembled.
I use mineral spirits or that orange blast degreaser. Those yugo mauser bolts are usually so caked up with cosmo it wont set off a round.
Another suggestion I'll throw out. Lighter Fluid works great as well.
The Army loves to put grunts on detail. One detail I was on was cleaning cosmoline off M1 rifles and 1911 pistols. We took the wood off the rifles and grips off the pistols and put the rifles in a large bucket and the pistols in a pan that would let boiling water cover them. Poured the boiling water over them and let them set for a couple of minutes then poured the water out. They were dry before they were cool enough to pick up. We then put a light coat of oil on them.Similar threads
