Henry Rifle Forums

Had a relaxing time giving my .357 Big Boy a thorough cleaning this afternoon. Shot 70 rounds yesterday, and took care of that clean first.

I've had this rifle three years now, but haven't really worked on the metal cleaning as much as I have the bore cleaning. So I decided to really go after the bronze on the rifle today. I've only used Flitz Polish on my brass since it works so well. Thought I'd share some pictures of the finished, mega-clean rifle. It was close to sunset, but I think the pics turned out okay under that late lighting. I especially liked the pictures where the polished brass reflects the uprights on my patio fence.

So these are just for the fun of it! Hope you'll enjoy them.

Excellent job. Looks like it just came out of the box. She's a beauty! I'll have to pick up some of that polish.

Looks like you just took it out of the box, beautiful rifle.

I need to get me one. That is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks, Gentlemen. That almost-sunset time provided really good light for the pics -- I was surprised how clear they turned out!

RanchRoper,

You mentioned you might get some of the Flitz polish. It is good stuff, but Henry provided a caution on using it on the Big Boy. I chatted with one of the techs a few years ago, inquiring about how to care/clean the bronze. My hardcopy manual is different than the current online Big Boy manual. Under the maintenance/cleaning section, in mine Henry actually suggested to maintain the receiver we could use one of these three products:
Peek Metal Polish
Flitz
Nevr Dull

But that has been taken out of the newer web manual....wonder why

OK, here's Henry's caution, at least on the Flitz. You do NOT want to spread this stuff on any of the rifle screws...it will do the screw finish in. I always tried to use masking tape on the screws, until CT_Shooter gave me his helpful way of cleaning around the screws. He suggested to just use Q-tips around the screws --- very carefully! That works well, and fairly easy to do.

And follow the Flitz instructions, too. They say not to let the polish dry, or it will be difficult to clean off. So pretty darn quickly after you apply it (your rag should be filled up with black stuff that came off the bronze), just use another clean, soft cloth to wipe the Flitz off. That works, too. I have let it dry too much at times, and it is a pain to remove.

I think that's it on this cleaner. It works, as my pics show.

RanchRoper wrote:Excellent job. Looks like it just came out of the box. She's a beauty! I'll have to pick up some of that polish.

Looks great. better than out of the box!

Now use some Johnson's paste wax. The yellow can for furniture not car wax. Or some Renaissance wax. I put it on everything wood, blued metal, brass and buff. Does wonders for keeping the fingerprints down. Just like with the polish swabs are your friend for cleaning the nooks and cranny's.

I've been using a mag wheel polish on mine just because I had it. Flitz is great stuff and I intend to pick some up soon. The buffing process will take the finish off the screw heads eventually. There is fine grit in the polish.

I regularly use the Renaissance, but mainly on the wood and sometimes the brass. Once I used it on the blued barrel and seemed to have left some residue. Maybe I let it dry too long before buffing that time...not sure. But the Renaissance is really great stuff. And as long as I've been using it, the can is still almost full. It's a cleaning/polishing keeper for sure.

Thanks again!

Squatch wrote:Looks great. better than out of the box!

Now use some Johnson's paste wax. The yellow can for furniture not car wax. Or some Renaissance wax. I put it on everything wood, blued metal, brass and buff. Does wonders for keeping the fingerprints down. Just like with the polish swabs are your friend for cleaning the nooks and cranny's.

I've been using a mag wheel polish on mine just because I had it. Flitz is great stuff and I intend to pick some up soon. The buffing process will take the finish off the screw heads eventually. There is fine grit in the polish.

Great job.

Beautiful looking Rifle. I use Fitz to smooth down my feed ramps. I have recently purchased a Frontier, and it seemed to fit my body style for sholdering better than the Golden buy, I still want to get a Golden boy to have a complete set.