Cleaning with soap and water?

[mikecollinge]

I took my R4 for many hot showers. One of the challenges was cleaning the gas piston. We normally kept them well covered with vaseline to ease that particular pain.

Yup. Spray the R4 with Preen, and then run it under HOT water. We also used to have the piston covered in Vaseline. Quite easy to keep it clean that way. Just don't get caught :)

[oafpatroll]

Preen was a bit of a superpower. I remember that if the rifle was warm and damp it seemed to work even better. The water I ran the rifles under was literally steaming hot and when I turned it off after 15 minutes or so they would be bone dry in minutes.

[Zuku]

Reading all the orgies in the shower with your Army's best friend remind me of this.

[Luker]

[oafpatroll]

Ugliest bunch of drummies I've ever seen.

[Welshman]

There goes maintaining a safe direction of your firearm out the window, with bayonets added for extra safety on those twirls, but yes brilliant.

Arrived in SA early 80s from UK, got auto nationalized within 2 years later. Did my 2 years in from Jan 86, 3 SAI... used M-7 degreaser on R4, also followed by hot shower. There were a lot of good times remembered amongst everything else. I was 20 years old.