I just finished re-reading "No Surrender, My Thirty-Year War" by Lt. Hiroo Onoda, an In telligence Officer of the Imperial Japanesze Army, who held out as an evader on Lubang Island in the Phillipine Islands until February 20, 1974. He maintained his Type 99 rifle by wiping it with palm oil and hanging it out of each of rats, on vines strung over the fire. Ammunition was stored in glass food jars hidden in caves, covered with stones. He fashioned ammunition pouches from a pair of villagers discarded rubber sneakers, placing cartridges in cloth sacks tied with string and pulling the top of the rubber pouch over the opening, fastening with a metal hook to keep the contents dry. He normally carried five rounds in the rifle, 5 rounds in his shirt pocket, and 50 rounds in pouches in case he got into a firefight. His usual tactic was to fire one shot to scare the villagers and then retreat into the jungle and disappear.
He originally retreated into the jungle in 1945 with 300 regular 7.7mm rifle rounds and 600 rounds of rimmed 7.7 machinegun ammunition, equivalent to .303 British Mk8z. On these he filed the rims so that they could be loaded singly and fired in the Type 99 rifle for hunting purposes. Misfired rounds were pulled down and the powder used to start fires using a magnifying glass. When he came out of the jungle in 1974 he still had about 400 rounds cached or on his person. On average he fired only 16-20 rounds per year to shoot cows for meat, which he dried, or to scare away villagers who got too close. When he came out of the jungle in 1974 he estimated that he still had a 20-year supply of ammunition left. Phillipine Army armourers who inventoried and inspected his kit indicated that his rifle was well maintained and in serviceable condition.
Prior to WW2 the normal regime for cleaning was much the same as it had been during the blackpowder era, scrubbing with soap and water, preferably boiling, then wiping with plain mineral oil. Sperm (whale) oil was preferred, but today any food grade pure mineral oil will do, and is colorless, odorless, tasteless and nontoxic.
There is nothing miraculous or magic about modern gun cleaners and lubricants. The technology has existed for a long time. The hype is all about marketing. Any good grade of light machine oil used on fishing reels, sewing machines or watches is excellent. As for bore cleaner, an effective all-purpose cleaner-lubricant-preservative meeting the performance requirements of US military bore cleaner Mil-C-372B can be mixed at home from common hardware store ingredients, by mixing equal parts by liguid volume of deodorized, acid-free kerosene (US K1); Dexron automatic transmission fluid; aliphatic mineral spirits (aka Stoddard Solvent) and acetone. More info:
http://home.comcast.net/~dsmjd/tux/dsmjd...ds_red.htm
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