How to Clean Your Shotgun After a Wet Day

A little rain never stopped a good day’s shooting, but it can certainly take its toll on your gun. Between wet pegs, muddy stubbles and a sudden downpour on the drive, moisture can find its way into places you might not always check. And the last thing you want to discover before your next outing is rust on your favourite gun.

Fortunately, maintenance doesn’t have to be complicated. It starts with a quick wipe-down before you leave the shoot and a proper clean once you’re home. Here’s how to do both, with field-tested tips from ShotKam, the camera that fits under your barrel and films every shot.

What You’ll Need

You don’t need an elaborate cleaning kit, but having the right supplies to hand will make the job much easier. We’ll link some of our favourites throughout this article.

Cleaning essentials:

• Cleaning rod or bore snake
• Phosphor bronze brush and cleaning patches for your bore size
• Gun cleaning solvent
• Gun oil
• Soft, lint-free cloths or a silicone-treated gun cloth
• Small nylon brush or old toothbrush
• Cotton buds
• Choke key and the manufacturer’s recommended choke grease

Helpful extras:

• Wool mop for applying a light protective coating
• Cleaning mat to protect your work surface
• Corrosion protectant for wet-weather conditions
• Nitrile gloves for handling cleaning solvents

How to Clean Your Shotgun Step by Step

1. Unload and check twice.

Always point your gun in a safe direction and open it. Check the chambers (and the magazine on a semi-auto), then move all cartridges away from your cleaning area. Visually and physically confirm that the gun is completely unloaded.

2. Take off your ShotKam.

If you film your shooting with a ShotKam, take it off before cleaning. This protects the camera from cleaning solvents and lets you check the barrel beneath the mount for trapped moisture. We’ll cover how to remove it, and how to refit it, below.

3. Take your gun down.

If you're unfamiliar with the process, don't force anything apart. Your owner's manual is always the best place to start. If you bought your shotgun secondhand and don't have one, search YouTube for your make and model, where you'll likely find helpful videos. This is especially useful for guns that are trickier to take apart, like the Browning BPS.

Pump-action and semi-automatic: With the gun unloaded and the action open, unscrew the magazine cap at the front of the forend, then slide the barrel forward and off the receiver. On most semi-autos the forend comes off too; on many pumps it stays attached to the action.

Over-and-under and side-by-side: With the gun closed, release the forend latch (usually a lever underneath the forend or a push button near its tip) and lift the forend away. Then open the action fully and lift the barrels off the hinge pin.

Once disassembled, use a clean, dry cloth to wipe away any visible moisture, especially beneath the forend and around metal components.

4. Clean the barrels.

Put a little gun cleaner, like Napier Gun Cleaner & Lubricant, on the bronze brush and push it through from the breech end several times. Follow with clean patches or a wool mop until they come out mostly clean. This clears out powder fouling, plastic wad residue and trapped moisture, all of which can lead to rust and pitting.

Don’t forget the chokes! Check your manual before removing them, then clean away any build-up around the chokes and threads. Apply the recommended choke grease, like Birchwood Casey Choke Tube Lube, before refitting, but be careful not to overtighten.

Steel and other non-toxic shot (already required for wildfowling, and for most shooting in Great Britain from April 2029) won’t leave lead residue in the barrels, but plastic wads can leave build-up, especially around the chokes. Give the barrels and chokes an extra pass with the brush, and always check that your gun and chokes are suitable for steel shot before using it.

5. Clean the action.

Use an old, soft-bristled toothbrush and cotton buds to gently clean around the action face, hinge pin and other accessible moving parts.

If you have a gas-operated semi-auto, check the gas system for build-up, which can interfere with how the gun loads and ejects cartridges. Follow your manual for cleaning instructions, as each model is different. Inertia-driven models, like the Benelli M2, don’t have a gas system, so you can skip this step.

On a break-action gun, pay extra attention to the hinge, ejectors and metal parts beneath the fore-end. Check these areas for trapped dirt and moisture, which can cause rust or make the gun harder to open and close.

6. Oil your gun.

Run a lightly oiled mop through the barrels, apply a small amount of oil to the moving parts (as the manufacturer recommends), and wipe the outside metal with a lightly oiled or silicone-treated gun cloth.

Remember, less is more! Excess oil can attract dirt and grit, thicken in cold weather and even soak into the stock.

7. Reassemble and check.

Put your gun back together by reversing the steps you took to take it down. Your manual has the details for your model, and you can find helpful videos on YouTube (like this Browning over-and-under cleaning video). Then, with the gun still unloaded, check that:

• The gun opens and closes smoothly and locks fully shut.
• The safety clicks firmly into each position, and the trigger won’t pull when it’s on.
• The barrels and fore-end sit tight, with no wobble or rattle.
• On a break-action, the top lever returns to centre when you close the gun.

If anything feels stiff or out of place, don’t force it. Take it down and reassemble it again, and if it still isn’t right, have a gunsmith look at it before you use the gun again.

8. Store it dry.

Your gun is clean and ready for its next outing, but proper storage is just as important as cleaning. Don’t put it back in a damp gunslip, since trapped moisture can quickly undo all that hard work. Lock it away unloaded in your gun cabinet, and add a cabinet dehumidifier rod or a rechargeable desiccant unit (like the Hornady Canister Dehumidifier) if the cabinet is in a damp room.

After a Wet or Muddy Day

Water can hide beneath the fore-end, between wood and metal, and inside the action. Before you leave the shoot, give your gun a quick wipe-down so water doesn’t have time to work its way under the fore-end and into the joints. Once home, remove the fore-end, towel off any remaining moisture and let the parts air-dry at room temperature, keeping the stock away from direct heat, which can dry the wood unevenly and cause cracks, warping or a lifted finish. Then clean away mud or grit with an old toothbrush and gun solvent.

Your gunslip needs drying too. Turn it inside out and hang it in the airing cupboard until it’s completely dry; a slip with a full-length zip makes this much easier. Rust can start faster than most people expect: light surface rust (often called flash rust) can appear on bare or blued steel within a few hours to overnight if a gun is put away wet. Salt, mud, blood and even sweaty fingerprints speed it up, so check your gun again the following day.

After a Day on the Foreshore

Salt causes rust to form much faster, so don’t wait until the next day to clean your gun after wildfowling.

Start by wiping salt residue from the outside metal with a cloth lightly dampened with fresh water, then dry it immediately. Follow your usual cleaning routine, paying extra attention to the action, screws and choke threads where salt can collect. If you shoot an older English gun, check with your gunsmith before using water-dispersant sprays. And don’t forget your cartridges: salt can corrode them too, so give them a wipe before they go back in the bag.

ShotKam Pro Tip: Keep choke threads thoroughly greased with the manufacturer’s recommended grease. This helps prevent corrosion and stops the chokes from seizing inside the barrel. Salt can also corrode the black screws on your ShotKam mount; if they start to rust, clean them with a wire brush, then lubricate them. There are also spares included with your ShotKam accessories.

Cleaning Around Your ShotKam

Your ShotKam’s mount is designed to come off and go back on quickly, so it’s easy to make it part of every clean.

To remove it: loosen the silver mounting screw with the Allen key supplied, open the mount fully and lift the camera away from the barrel. Wipe the camera, mount and the barrel underneath with a soft, dry cloth, and clear any water spots off the lens with a microfibre cloth. If your ShotKam got wet during the day, unscrew the back cap and let it air-dry for 24 hours before refitting the cap.

To refit it: once your gun is clean and dry, wipe any excess oil off the barrel where the mount will sit so the rubber pads can grip. Position your ShotKam directly under the barrel with the USB port facing up towards the barrel. Open the mount fully, fit it from underneath rather than sliding it on so the bracket pads don’t bend, and tighten the silver screw with up to 5 lb (about 2.3 kg) of pressure.

If you’re refitting it in the same position on the same gun, you won’t need to recalibrate the reticle. You’ll only need to realign it in the app if you move it more than 5 cm (2 inches), or switch to a different type of gun or bore. For step-by-step instructions, see our Mounting and Calibration Guide.

ShotKam Pro Tip: If you can see the barrel in your footage, slide the ShotKam a little closer to the muzzle, then check the live view in the app to make sure there’s no dark or blurry arc at the top of the frame.

Ready for Your Next Outing

A little maintenance after every outing goes a long way. Give your gun a quick clean after every day’s shooting, a full clean whenever it gets wet, muddy or salty, and a deep clean before it goes away at the end of the season. You’ll spend less time worrying about rust and more time enjoying your next day in the field.

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