If you own the "Apex" suppressor from Innovative Arms for your .22 long rifle, you've probably
seen the video from them on how to clean & maintain this. I'm gonna give you a couple more tricks
so that you can maintain it even better and have a great shooting time. And that's coming
up next on Mostly22LR.
Hey everybody, Rob Rosenberger here for Mostly22LR. I happen to be the proud owner of an "Apex"
suppressor from Innovative Arms. We're not gonna do a review of this. What we're really
gonna do is we're just gonna show you a couple of tricks that you can use as an "Apex" owner
to make your experience a little bit better.
The first one is a trick that they don't show in the video when they teach you how to clean
& maintain it here on YouTube. Innovative Arms now tells a different story: instead
of tightening this down and putting it away when it's clean, or tightening it down between
sessions, what you really want to do before you put it away is give it one full turn back
out. Don't make it hand tight; one full turn. And then that way, if it seizes up-- if the
copper, the lead, the carbon, and all of that, begins to bond the core to the-- if it solders
the core to the can, you can use your takedown tool, bring it on, and now you can go in both
directions to begin the breaking process. It works out really, really fantastic. You're
gonna really like that a lot. I've already discovered that that is a godsend having backed
it out just one full turn. That's the first thing you can do to make your life a little
bit easier with the "Apex" suppressor.
Okay, now let's talk about the threads on the inside here. It's kind of difficult to
clean these threads unless you've got like a 20-gauge little cleaning thing and-- I forget
what these are called but they're easy to work with. And then all you have to do is
just back it out or go forward, whichever way you want, and you can really clean these
threads up really nicely, they really work out well. So, these things right here, they're
cheap. You just pick 'em up at any gun store and go to town on it. I've got a whole bunch
of these. I've got like five or six that I use just for this purpose.
Okay. So you've got the core away from the can and you want to clean the can out, and
they tell you "go ahead and use a brush, use a toothbrush, use whatever you want." Here's
a simple little brush that you might want to use: it's a glass cleaning brush and it
fits very well inside the can. Just go ahead and get that started. I'm not sure if you
can see it but there's a little bit of dust coming out-- keep it away from you! And, it's--
this is the beginning of the process that I use to keep it nice & clean. I just keep
this in my in my cleaning kit and it works out very well. That really gets it started.
And this right here is a very fast way on the range (as we are right now) after 90 shots--
it's already starting to work up a little bit of a of a seizure to it and I've already
cleaned this out. Now we just have to get to the core.
Okay. So now we want to clean the core. The core, between cleanings, is really easy to
work with. You can just simply rub it with any cotton rag that you've got. Now, I buy
the cotton rags up at the at the gun store. They're easy, they're disposable. I just do
a quick cleaning after 80 rounds. I also want to make sure that I clean the threads right
here-- they get a little bit of dirt on them. (We're gonna take away a little bit of the
grease but we'll talk about the grease later.) And I check and I see nothing really coming
out so I know that I cleaned that well. And that's basically all you have to do. You're
really just getting that gunk between major cleanings off of here. And that's all you
want. Now, when I'm finished, and I put this back together, I'm gonna use this rag and
I'll clean the internal threads on the can to make sure that everything's all clean.
Okay. So we've got the can cleaned out. We've got the core, the outside of the core cleaned.
And then that way, when they go together now, it should feel pretty smooth. There's no longer
that, that squishy, cement-like feel to it. That's nice & dry and that's actually pretty
good. Now, remember: if you were gonna put this away between sessions, between cleanings,
remember: don't crank it all the way down and leave it. Crank it all the way down hand
tight and then back it off one full turn.
Okay. So now we're at the range. I'm not really worried about using grease between major cleanings.
But at the major cleanings the question is, "what type of axle grease should you use?"
Actually, I don't use axle grease. I use lithium grease. I've already talked with Phillip about
it, it's okay to use lithium grease. The reason I use lithium grease is because it washes
off faster and easier than the other greases. It still does its job, and it does it very
well, but when I dunk it in my Hoppes 9, I can clean it off and it's just, it washes
so easily compared to the axle grease. I can't recommend lithium grease enough.
Okay. Now for a trick that Phillip didn't know until I told him. I have learned from
using this that when you are finished cleaning this, especially if you've used Hoppes number
9 or any of the solvents, you need to let this dry out overnight. Leave both of them
out somewhere where they can dry off. Don't just put it all back together again and shove
it back into your, into your case like I used to do. I've learned that when these dry out,
you actually get a lot more use out of this than the 300 rounds. You can probably get
400 rounds of use before you have to go with your major cleaning. So, I'll be using my
brush to go in between the baffles here, get everything off, and no matter how hard I try,
no matter what Q-tips and cotton cloths and whatnot, there's always a little bit of dampness
here. And what's happened is, is that there's just a little bit of carbon & lead buildup
in here, and that gets damp from the solvents. So when the solvents dry out, this becomes
easier to work with over the long haul. It's not anything important that you'd have to
worry about for 90 rounds, but when you want to go 400 rounds between cleaning, that's
the way to do it. Let it dry out overnight between major cleanings.
So what have we learned today? Well, we've learned a few tips & tricks on how to clean
& maintain your "Apex" suppressor so that you get more life out of it between major
cleanings. Now, when Innovative Arms did their initial cleaning & maintenance video, they
didn't think of some of these things, and some of these things I've come up with on
my own. That's not a slight to Innovative Arms. It's just, I shoot thousands of rounds
through this.
And I want to brag a little bit and show you this here. Only 300 to 400 rounds do I bother
to clean the inside of this and yet you can-- I mean, there's nothing blocking the baffles
at all. It's all nice & clean. Just a little bit of maintenance is all it takes; it's not
anything special. And then you can just keep going to the range, shoot hundreds of rounds
at a time, and then take it home and clean it after 300 or 400 rounds.
I'm Rob Rosenberger for Mostly22LR. And remember: .22LR is real ammunition. Treat it as such.
