Build a SHTF Gun Cleaning Kit

Preppers do not always have to buy everything already packaged in a retail consumer kit. Sometimes it can not only be cheaper to buy just the items you really need but it can be half the fun to assemble a bug out gun cleaning kit of your own.

Years ago as part of prepping out practice trips to my bug out location, I decided to fashion an easy and light to pack gun cleaning kit of my own. Those hard plastic or wood gun cleaning kits are okay, but I wanted something different customized to my own needs and easy to pack.

When I bug out the two types of firearms I pack most often are an AR rifle and 9mm or 45 ACP pistols. So, I gather just the cleaning supplies I need to keep those weapons in tip top condition out in field situations. Sometimes I add a 12-gauge shotgun. Create your kit accordingly.

Start with a heavy duty gallon zip lock freezer bag–the kind with the slide locking feature not the press together grooves in the top of the bag. First get small plastic bottles of gun cleaning solvent and a good gun oil or lubricant. Put in a good quality, soft, absorbent gun cleaning cloth, the type that does not leave lint behind every time you wipe gun metal with it.

Then buy one of the coated cable or cloth snake pull through bore cleaners. Obtain a correct cleaning patch slotted pull tip and proper sized brass cleaning brushes. Get a couple cotton bore mops if you like to use those. Pick out a selection of cotton bore cleaning patches to match your respective gun bore sizes (and save the used ones for your fire starting kit).

Add in a couple of the military style plastic bristle gun cleaning brushes with both the larger brush on one end and the smaller one on the opposite end. A brass scrub brush is good, too, as is an old toothbrush. If there is extra space in the kit bag, then a really nice tool to have along is a flashlight style bore light with a plastic optical bore illuminator or a lighted flex tip.

When you bug out either to hunt or escape during a SHTF scenario, you are going to want to keep your guns clean, so assemble your own kit.

Dr. John Woods

Award winning outdoor writer/photographer since 1978. Over 3000 articles and columns published nationally. Field & Stream Hero of Conservation in 2007. Fields of writing includes hunting most game in American, Canada, and Europe, fishing fresh and saltwater, destination travel, product reviews, industry consulting, and conservation issues. Currently VP at largest community college in Mississippi in economic development and workforce training with 40 years of experience in Higher Education. BS-MS in wildlife sciences from MO. University, and then a PhD in Industrial Psychology. Married with two children and Molly the Schnoodle.