How were guns cleaned in the Old West?
Ralph Bernklow
Stow, Massachusetts
During Marine Corps boot camp in the 1950s, I remember our drill instructors telling me and my fellow recruits to wash the carbon off our rifles with hot, soapy water, after we had just returned from spending three weeks on the rifle range. I thought they were pulling our legs to get us in trouble, but it really worked.
Folks on the frontier knew that secret too. Gunmen frequently ran hot, soapy water through the
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