GuardTech Plus Universal gun cleaning kit.
This report covers:
- The start
- Cleaning kits?
- Swedish kit
- US Army cleaning kits
- Dewey rods
- |Impressed
- What’s different?
- The jags
- Second opinion
- Everything fits
- The rods swivel
- We don’t clean airguns
- Firearms
- Price?
- Summary
Today we being to look at the GuardTech Plus Universal gun cleaning kit. Believe me, friends, this is a product you need to be aware of.
The start
I was contacted by Jim Toshack, the owner of GuardTech Plus, at the end of June. He asked me if I would care to review his cleaning kit. I responded by telling him that I don’t normally recommend cleaning airgun barrels, and I thought that would be the end of it. Let me share his reply.
“Tom,
I appreciate the insight – and I see you addressed this issue way back in 2005 with an entry on your site!
You’re the FIRST person I’ve communicated with, who has given me specific detailed info on airguns… I very much appreciate that…Lifelong learner, right? Never can know everything and I’m a bit surprised that nobody has mentioned this in the past to anyone here… which now leads me to believe there’s a set of air gun owners happily cleaning away month after month…!
I think there may be something we can do…
First – as an air gun professional, if your recommendation to folks is ‘don’t clean unless necessary’….then I would LOVE to have GuardTech Plus in that spot that says “If you have to, then here’s a great kit from a great company…etc…”
I would first want you to know (test/etc) our kit and get behind it before ever recommending it.
Second – do you think your reader base, if they own air guns, would possibly own firearms as well? I ask because most of the folks I know use this for air guns, use this for their firearms as well.”
Okay, folks — first of all, he took the time and energy to read the blog! That’s impressive by itself. I hear from a lot of manufacturers who want to be reviewed on this blog, but most of them never take the time to find out what we’re all about. Jim did. And second, this guy thinks like me! Not that those who don’t think the way I do are bad or anything — they’re just wrong!
Kidding aside, Jim Toshack is the sort of guy we like doing business with, because he thinks about what he’s doing. He thinks about his products. He thinks about the end user, which is you and me.
After some pondering I agreed to review his kit and he sent me one. I purposely did not open it until this morning, just to have a genuine first reaction to what I saw. And now, before we get to that reaction you need to know something about BB Pelletier and gun cleaning kits. I have been in the shooting sports for about 65 years, man and boy. In that time I have shot and cleaned many airguns and firearms. You know that very well because in the 4,800+ blogs I’ve written since 2005, I’ve talked about cleaning — a LOT!
Cleaning kits?
Let me tell you — I have gun cleaning kits galore! They are everywhere! You know those plastic one-step-up-from-a-clamshell-cases filled with aluminum jointed rods, plastic patch holders and jags and a bottle or two of some nondescript gun cleaner that you will never use? I have them scattered all around my house. I have lost some of the rods, the plastic and aluminum rod-to-tool adaptors, the jags and the plastic patch holders — that is except for the rods I have bent and thrown away and the patch holders and jags whose plastic threads I have cross-threaded until they are useless. And Lord forbid that any parts from one kit will ever fit parts from another kit!
What about those bottles of nondescript gun cleaners? I have some that are older than many of you readers, I haven’t even taken some of those bottles out of the cardboard boxes they came in! I don’t use that stuff. I use Hoppes Number 9, or Butch’s Bore Shine or some other product that real shooters have heard of. In fact, my late wife, Edith, use to say she liked to dab a little Hoppe’s behind each ear — it worked better than perfume!
Swedish kit
Allow me to share my gun cleaning kit experience with you. About 20 years ago I bought a surplus Swedish military gun cleaning kit to carry in my range bag. I don’t use it for cleaning. I use the jointed steel rods to poke out cartridge cases when somebody’s extractor either fails, or tears out the rim of a cartridge.
0
I bought this Swedish military gun cleaning kit just for the steel rods. I use them to poke out cartridge cases that get stuck in the chamber.
This kit seldom gets used, but when it’s needed nothing else will do. I have gotten many a rifleman back in action with it! The one drawback is it’s too large to fit in the bore of a 5.56/.223 Rem barrel, and 75 percent of the guns that stop on the range are .22-calibers built on the AR platform. That’s not because that model is bad but because they comprise the majority of the rifles found on gun ranges.
US Army cleaning kits
When I left the Army a number of gun cleaning kits walked out with me. Imagine that! The steel jointed rods for the M14 and Garand (yes — I am THAT old!) are great, but the thin jointed rods for the M16 are as prone to bend and break as the aluminum jointed rods. I had a kit for the .50 cal. M2 and M85 machineguns, but those puppies belonged to the guns and had to remain in place. I have seen them for sale at gun shows but I never bought one.
And of course the M1 Garand and the M1903A3 battle rifles each have their own dedicated cleaning kits in their butts. I find those kits to be almost useless, except for the oilers that will keep the Garands running when you don’t have a dipstick handy.
Dewey rods
Then there are the Dewey cleaning rods. Yes, they cost too much and yes, I own several. I own them because, when a pellet gets stuck in a .177 barrel, who you gonna call?
Bottom line
The bottom line is — BB Pelletier knows gun cleaning kits. So, okay, GuardTech Plus — impress me!
Impressed
The remainder of this report will be about how impressed I am by the GuardTech Plus Universal kit.
The contents of the Guard Tech Plus Universal gun cleaning kit.
I thought I would just open the box, clean a couple guns for you and report on that. Then I opened the box! This is a gun cleaning KIT! To say anything less is like saying the Arc of the Covenant is a pretty box.
What’s different?
What’s different is that in the GuardTech Plus kit they don’t include any bottles of nondescript gun cleaning solvents that I won’t open for decades. Instead of plastic patch holders and jags they provide brass patch holders and jags. More on the jags in a moment.
The jointed rods are brass and have brass adaptors to connect the larger jags, patch holders, bore mops and brass brushes to the rods.
Everything snaps into the case with minimal effort. You know those plastic cases that come with kits these days? You know how hard it is to snap the tools back into their places, and even to get them out sometimes? I have drill bits in such a kit that I have to pry out with screwdrivers. And when they have to go back I’m afraid of breaking the smaller bits. These tools in the Guard Tech Plus kit ALL come out and go back into the case easily. And I do mean all!
The jags
Each brass jag has a sharp pointed tip to hold the patch. Okay, but other cleaning kits have brass jags with sharp tips, BB. What’s so special about these? Well, these tips are STRONG! I have bent the tiny brass jag tips on other cleaning kits, but I don’t think I’ll be bending these. Not easily anyhow.
Yes, this .177 jag is enlarged in this photo, but just look at that tip. This puppy won’t bend easily!
Second opinion
Denny was working in his garage this morning, so I asked him come over and look at the kit for a second opinion. When I opened the box and he looked inside the first time he said, and I quote, “Oh, WOW!”
Everything fits
I checked the fit of many of the tools into the rods and each other and everything fit perfectly. It was almost as though the pieces were made to go together! I’m joking, but not that much.
The rods swivel
One reason the Dewey rods cost so much is because of their ball bearing swivel handles. The brass brushes and cleaning patches can twist while following the rifling and leave the handles stable. Both the rods in the Guard Tech Plus cleaning kit also have rods that swivel, yet the entire kit costs less than two Dewey rods.
We don’t clean airguns
But BB you tell us airguns don’t need to be cleaned. That’s right, most of the time they don’t. However if you have a rough barrel it will scrape some lead off and eventually there will be a buildup that affects accuracy. Then we clean.
Or some new barrels — especially those in less expensive airguns and many that are made in China — will need to either be cleaned or about 500 pellets will need to be shot through the barrel to get rid of the metal bits left during manufacture. When I worked at AirForce Airguns one of my jobs was to clean all the barrels after they had been fully processed (ground to size on the outside, blued, location holes and screw holes drilled [and tapped] and bushings installed). There were hundreds of barrels at a time and each one was cleaned. Not all manufacturers do that, though, and it’s one more reason to clean your new barrel.
Firearms
Many of you shoot firearms, as well as airguns. I do. This kit was made to clean firearms. In fact, I plan on cleaning one for you to test the use of this kit. Of course I will also clean an airgun, just so we know. Hey, guys, brass brushes are brass brushes. I don’t expect these brushes to be any better than the rest. I will be evaluating the entire kit for you.
Price?
When I looked at a list of what comes in the kit I said to myself, “This can’t cost less than $20 and I hope it doesn’t retail for too much above $50. Then I opened the box and said, “Okay, $50 may be a little light. I hope it costs under $80.
The price? $48.95 on Amazon. Not Pyramyd Air? Not at present. It seems GuardTech Plus has decided to sell direct to the public. I wish they would sell to distributors because this is a product you guys should really consider.
Summary
That’s our look after opening the box. Next time we get serious and clean some guns.
Thanks in advance for costing me money, B.B.!
OhioPlinker,
Enable, enable… 🙂
BB
AND you may have enabled me to go to The Dark Side soon! Crosman is going to try to sell the new 362-based PCP for $130! Haven’t asked if they’re sending the first two to you and Dennis Quackenbush yet, though.;)
OhioPlinker,
A 362-based PCP? That’s news to me.
I went on Crosman’s website looking for info but found nothing. Help, please.
BB
Hi B.B. , it’s in their 2023 catalog.
B.B., I think OhioPlinker is referring to the 3622 and 3677. See page 16 of the newest Crosman catalog. They are the spitting image of the 362 but in pcp form. If you go the Crosman website main page and scroll all the way down you will find a link to the catalog.
Roamin,
Thanks. I’ll look for it.
BB
Page 9, I believe.
B.B.
Needs and wants?
Failed on both issues. Limited space for my 4 air rifles and 2 air pistols.
Some people live in McMansions(more room that they know what to do with), I’m not one of them!
-Y
PS Gamo(of ll people) makes a cleaning kit that takes about 1/8th the space and probable even less in price. All I need!
Yogi, Yogi, Yogi: My wife, 2 parrots and I live in a 420 square. ft. bus. Just enough room. We’ve been living full-time like this since 2008 without a problem. However . . . another few airgun rifles and there won’t be enough for my dear wife. I’ll miss her too! Orv.
Hoppalong Doc,
Your bus is 420 square feet? 420? That’s a Hippie Van!
Michael
I hope that wasn’t the only one laughing….. At the happy coincidence!
Well Michael, our “hippie van” is 41 ft long, has 4 large slide-outs and is powered by a 360 hp Cummins diesel. Instead of going the way of the hippies, I served in the military instead. Just my choice. Orv.
Orv,
You probably did get my reference of it being a hippie van at 420 sq. ft., but in case you did not, look up “420.” :^)
Michael
Hoppalong Doc,
Do you Snowbird?
Do you have a “Land base” at least at one physical location or are you completely bus bound?!?! If that; do you have a utility trailer for warehouse use?
We have toyed with the idea of mobile land or water based living arrangements but always pull back to just our home in a house and the mountain SkiShed. Everything else is hotel or leasing real estate or boats.
Of course if we win the lottery we will become Gulfstream G700 Vagabonds…Lol!
shootski
Please put me on the guest list to visit air force One!
I would love to see a private jet well stocked with airguns!
Frank Balistreri,
Frosty1, Ace-Duce, Wings O’ Gold, or perhaps Lady Luck…but NEVER air force one for this Naval Aviator!
Would make getting to airgun shows or shoots easy…. Maybe a few extra riders could come along.
But first got to win a really Big Jackpot!
not holding my breath,
shootski
SHOOTSKI: We tend to travel for around 5-6 months of the year. We spend the rest of our time in a RV Resort in Aguanga, California where we have a nice lot and all the amenities right nearby. We even built an airgun range a couple of years ago. My idea of heaven. To answer your question we have a good storage shed for all our
collective “stuff”. All my guns are well stored in air cooled comfort in the belly of the bus. Orv.
Orv,
Sounds like you and your spouse have got it down COLD! My in-laws sold their dream home on Puget Sound and dabbled at RVing; it was one disaster after another. They never “figured it out” as they went through four different types and never picked the correct mode, for them, like you two did. They ende up in Condo in some landlocked place North of Seattle.
Stay safe you two and keep it FUN!
shootski
Hoppalong Doc, you are my hero! My wife and I have watched a bunch of those “Tiny Home” shows. I keep looking at the 180-square-footers, and thinking, “…a bit too snug.” But some of the 400-square-foot homes look quite doable to me. Bravo, Sir, that you have actually done it, and for quite some time…kudos! 🙂
BB,
You are correct; the most impressive thing about this report is the time and effort Jim Troshack spent reading this blog, thinking about airguns, and sending you such a detailed reply.
(Note: It would be nice if more manufacturers followed suit! =>)
That spoke well of his product before you even started your review of it. 😉
Blessings to you,
dave
Dave,
That is exactly how I see it!
BB
🙂
BB: I’ve been cleaning my firearms with a Hoppes cleaning kit as long as I’ve been shooting. I’ve still got about half a pint of Hoppes #9 as well. All that I’ve used on my airguns is Balistrol, mostly to keep them shining. I did clean the barrel of my Seneca Dragonfly when I recieved it, fearing that because it originated in China, the barrel would be dirty. A couple of swipes through it on an old flannel patch and Hoppes #9 showed me that I needn’t have been concerned. I’m a cleaner, my shooting friends consider me strange as I wipe everything down with Ballistrol following every shooting. Something I’ve added to my shooting kit are Q-tips. They’re helpful for those tight spots where dirt likes to hide. Now, a quick question: are swaths cut from an old flannel shirt alright for cleaning? I certainly hope so, they’re what I’ve been using for a long time now. I suppose that I’m just too cheap to buy the little ones sold in sporting goods departments. GREAT topic today! Orv.
Doc,
Why wouldn’t flannel work for cleaning? Remember, muzzleloaders used hornet’s nest paper to patch their lead balls. I still do! 😉
BB
Orv,
Flannel? Awesome! I have used almost every cloth you can think of to clean with. Some work better than others. One of my favorites are old dish towels. Mrs. RR uses them around here for all kinds of cleaning.
P.S. Mrs. RR and I have been seriously discussing downsizing to a bus / camper and making RRHFWA mobile.
RR
Can you find a bus/camper with a fireplace mantle suitable for mounting oldies?
Deck
Deck,
I could make it.
Yep, we’ve been “full-time” RVers for o ver 15 years now. The life-style suites us and allows us to visit with the kids and grandkids and still be at home. And yes, fire places are common nowadays, just the electric ones though. We passed on that to have a nice sewing table for my wife instead. We’d love to have any of our fellow ” BB’s Marauders” come over for a visit. Our airgun range is great fun. Orv.
It is indeed very tempting.
BB & RR: I’m sure glad that flannel is OK. When our dog was just a puppy, he chewed a big rip into my good Pendleton jacket . . . grrrr, but what’s one to do? Wonderful gun cleaning swaths is the result. Lifetime supply I do believe. My wife’s old dishcloths are Ballistrol impregnated and used for the daily wipe downs.Orv.
LOL! I have not bought a swath or a gun rag for many years now. I have an endless supply whenever I need one.
BB,
When I was but a wee bairn, my father made a cleaning “rod” for my .22LR using a good quality nylon string and a small lead sinker. With a loop in one end of the string to pull a patch and the lead sinker hammered around the other end of the string to pull the string through the bore, I have used it to clean many a bore, including airguns. I do have a .177 Dewey rod, a US Army M16 cleaning kit and numerous other nondescript, cheap cleaning kits also.
P.S. I still have that string cleaner that my father made and it is still my go to almost sixty years later.
P.S.S. Nice looking kit.
Something I have been wanting to try is one of those bore snakes made for .177 airguns. They make/made one with no brush in it.
RR, they do make .17 caliber firearm bore snakes with the bristles.
BUT the bristles are removable, the bore snake material is basically a small diameter woven cloth tube.
You can remove the bristles for a non scuffing snake.
Now this next part wouldn’t apply to you much as your are mostly a springer guy (there’s still hope for you yet.)
The weight is normally about an inch long, too long to fit in the restrictive area of a magazine fed pcp.
But the weight can be shortened.
OOPS! I just wrote most my next guest blog didn’t I?
IAN..
Ian,
Right now I have four PCPs. I do have more sproingers, but I have others. I have a pumper and believe it or not, I even have one that uses CO2.
FM’s Dumb of The Day question: if you are going to use a cleaning rod with an airgun – “softer” barrel lining after all, no? – wouldn’t the rods need to be made of wood or plastic? RR’s pull-thru may be the safest solution for that potential problem.
FM-
Not a dumb question at all. Wood and plastic is indeed softer than barrel steel. The problem is dirt and grit can get imbedded in these softer materials and then act like sandpaper on your barrels. The joints in a jointed rod can also capture barrel eroding ‘schmutz’. While handy for a traveling cleaning kit, I usually stick with one piece rods for 95% of my cleaning duties. Jointed rods can be helped. I stick one joint in a power drill, thread the next joint into it and then sand the connection perfectly flush to each other. No place for ‘schmutz’ to collect. Only takes a few minutes to do.
Maybe BB can comment on joint fit on this kit. It looks pretty good for an all in one kit and is well worth the money for all that is included.
That’s a great tip. Thanks! I will try to remember to smooth out the joints on my powder burner cleaning rods. I don’t have one piece rods yet for all my guns. Yet.
Makes sense – one supposes the wood/plastic rod should at a very minimum be wiped carefully – with a clean, lint-free cloth or patch – every time you make a pass thru the barrel. Boils down to: who shall clean the cleaning tools? Look in the mirror, FM. Nice cleaning kit featured today…FM may have to enable himself to one. Thank you to all enablers who could be responsible for that.
Nice kit Jim. Thanks for contacting Tom. Maybe some of Tom or the rest of us will rub off on you and you will become an avid Airgunner.
What has happened to me over the years is that I only use one or two of the brushes, jags, or other parts of a kit in some particular caliber. Those parts eventually were out. I usually buy replacement brushes at a sporting goods store and they may or may not fit the threads on my cleaning rod and almost never fit into the slot in the case made for that part.
What seems to me to be a better way to do things is to offer caliber specific kits and include 10 brushes, 10 mops, etc. so that you will have what you need to keep this one gun or group of guns running for a few years.
David Enoch
That makes sense to me to, David. When I rediscovered this sport, I bought the Embark and the stuff I needed to clean it and keep it functioning after reading several reports in the blog. I decided on:
1) Dewey one piece cleaning rod;
2) A jag with a point for pushing felt patches through, basically one way only, breech to muzzle;
3) A supply of patches, which I have replenished with scraps of old, cut up t-shirts;
4) A 3-pack of bronze brushes;
5) A container of JB Non-embedding bore paste;
6) a container of moly grease;
7) A can of Ballistol;
8) A tube of Tune In A Tube;
9) A bottle of silicone chamber oil;
8) An old toothbrush; and
9) A set of gunsmithing screwdrivers.
Later I bought an air pistol, and I got another, shorter one-piece Dewey cleaning rod. And when I got a .22 airgun, I bought an adapter to use the larger jags and brushes with the smaller cleaning rod. As my involvement and experience grew, I added what I needed along the way.
If I recall correctly, I’ve only ever once cleaned an airgun, a Baikal MP61, and that was just was to clear the barrel of the Russian equivalent of Cosmoline.
I bought a compact Umarex airgun cleaning kit a few years ago, but got an allergic reaction to whatever dodgy hydrocarbons they use in the solvent, so it has been sitting on a shelf in the shed ever since.
I clean my powder-burners when they need it, but have never really seen the need for cleaning airgun barrels.
As far as I can tell, Bob, that’s right, with a few exceptions. Again, from what I have read (mostly here), rather than fire 1000 shots to break in a barrel, sometimes 20 strokes with JB paste will polish away a lot of crud or rough spots left from the manufacturing process, especially with less expensive airguns. That can drastically shorten a breaking period. I can attest to that with my own guns. Next, shooting hardened pellets at high velocity can leave streaks of lead alloy material inside a barrel eventually degrading accuracy. Cleaning restores the accuracy. Not a big deal for slower-shooting guns. Finally, cleaning up a used gun that may have been neglected or not stored properly.
I think it bears reminding everyone about B.B.’s advice on those monofilament, pull-through bore cleaners. You have to be careful not to let them rub against the muzzle crown. The particles that can get embedded in the nylon can score the crown, destroying your accuracy.
Roamin Greco,
Maybe…
https://www.ssusa.org/content/will-damage-to-a-rifle-s-crown-hamper-accuracy/#:~:text=In%20all%20barrels%20tested%2C%20those,be%20magnified%20as%20range%20increases.
Maybe Tom will do a test on airguns to see if it makes a difference compared to the powder arms results!
I have taped muzzles with 100 MPH Tape and no bad things happened!
shootski
Thanks, Shootski. Due to the lower pressures (relatively) of airguns, the tape may have a bigger effect. A barrel obstruction is also a lot less dangerous in an airgun, I would guess. If the gun can handle the pressure of the compressed air, then a barrel obstruction would probably not have a catastrophic effect like it would with a powder burner.
I like to clean barrels whenever I get a new gun to remove factory gunk, shipping lubricant, etc. After that, only when needed. Also, I don’t like cleaning barrels from the muzzle, just an old habit from PB guns. For many years using only break barrel springers I didn’t have a problem but when I bought the Avenger in .177 it changed the equation. I shot a couple of cleaning pellets to check it and sure enough, those came up so dirty that I had to do something.
Not in the mood to disassemble the rifle to just clean the barrel, I looked around on the PA website and I found a solution: the PatchWorm. At first it was not easy to use – it fits nicely through the magazine opening but I struggled to thread the filament past the suppressor baffles. Eventually, a drinking straw inserted through the muzzle did the trick. The straw prevents rubbing against the crown, a plus. (BTW, I saw this in a video some time ago but I cannot remember the author to give proper credit. Sorry.)
It took several passes, and some Ballistol until the patches came out clean. I was careful to clean the filament frequently to avoid dragging grit. A tiny light and a mirror showed a clean barrel. Since then I haven’t had the opportunity to check if the accuracy improved, but I don’t think how it would hurt it.
Henry
Henry_TX,
NO need to give credit to the video producer.
When i got my first Crosman Marauder it was one of the 500. Cleaning the bore caused a bit of concern with the baffles so i used a plastic straw. The idea was not original since i had been using the solvent port in the broken open upper from Sinclair on my Stoner rifles for years. https://shop.saternbarrels.net/products/solvent-port-ar-15-223-remington-bore-guide
Not a big leap to a McDonalds straw for the .22caliber.
Shared it on the Green and Yellow forums…for FREE!
shootski
Yeah, I didn’t think that it was an original idea, but that is where I learned about the straw. In hindsight it is so obvious that it hurts along the lines of ‘why didn’t I think about it on my own”. LOL. Oh well, such is life.
My idea – not original either – is that as long as we enjoy learning new things we delay getting old, in spite of what the calendar says. Seventy plus of them under the bridge in my case.
Thanks shootski!
Henry
Henry_TX,
Although your idea isn’t “ORIGINAL” it is a GREAT one!
Under bridges is for flying stunts and paddling not for measuring the passage of time.
I will be paddling my 1949 model year body under lots of bridges this Winter…i never believed i would survive to 3/4 of a Century; my wife didn’t either…Lol!
This Blog of Tom’s is certainly a great place to keep learning,
shootski
RG,
Are hardened pellets common? Could you give some examples thereof?
How can one distinguish a hardened pellets from a regular pellet? Does the latter leave darker streaks when rubbed on paper?
I need to get me some of that JB bore paste asap.
Crosman Premiers are harder than “pure” lead pellets. I’m not sure how you can tell, for sure, but we could set up a test.
Search for J-B Non-embedding bore cleaning compound. That’s a mouthful, but it’s the stuff you want.
Hey B.B., it looks like P.A. no longer carries J-B. I was going to provide a link, but I can’t find it.
Roamin,
I’ll be darned! Well, it’s available on Amazon.
BB
There’s quite a few new products available at P.A. these days, but this staple should be stocked even if it might be a slow-moving item. To me, at least, P.A. is like shopping locally. Plus I love re-reading Val’s story.
Roamin Greco,
See my reply to Bob Ryan below.
shootski
Shootski, you are right. One can learn a lot from this blog….Thanks for all your contributions to our mutual knowledge base.
Bob Ryan,
There are simple and very elaborate ways to test the hardness (Brinnell Hardness Number) of alloys of Lead (Pb) some are inexpensive and some are very expensive. Just search for: Brinnell hardness tester
to see the price range available. Link below is to one example that works and is not all that expensive.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010214285
In the early days folks could tell hardness by pressing a finger nail into their Lead shot and get close.
shootski