After searching the internet, and of course our favorite shotgun forum, I decided to tackle the final, and for some reason for me, most intimidating cleaning procedure for my new Silver Hunter. Forgive the post length, but I want to share what I have learned in case there are others with the same questions I had.
First let me acknowledge a few truths here upfront. I am a new shooter. This is my first shotgun and although I have put a number of cases of shells through it, it has not seen hard core hunting conditions or very heavy use. I am not a gunsmith and in fact this is the first gun I have ever owned or taken apart. As you will see, I'm not much of a writer or photographer either.
However, I can state that I LOVE this gun. The overall quality, fit, the ease of maintenance, the soft recoil and of course the walnut stock and forearm made this an easy purchase for me after learning the basics and asking many questions. It has not failed me or let me down whatsoever. I find this an important component for a new shooter. Hitting those clays should be the only thing I am worried about, and with the Silver Hunter that is just what I get. OK, enough of that. Let's get down to business.
The combination of my love of this gun plus the excitement of a new hobby made me do what many a red blooded American man does with a new piece of equipment: take it apart. (OK, I named it too, lol.)
![Image]()
I will leave the basics to your own style of cleaning. The Browning manual does an excellent job of describing how to disassemble the gun to get at and clean the magazine tube, the piston, the gas ports, the trigger group and bolt to do the more involved cleaning. I highly suggest any new owner of the Silver Hunter goes through it thoroughly. The advantage of being a new shooter is I actually NEED, let alone want to, read the thing from cover to cover.
No, basic cleaning to me is not running a bore snake through the barrel. I am guilty of being one of 'those' guys. The kind that takes the trigger group, the bolt and the magazine spring out for normal cleaning. Time will tell if I continue that practice, but that's how I roll now. I actually enjoy it.
So- you have mastered the basics of the Silver Hunter breakdown and want to take the recoil spring out.
![Image]()
You will need the following:
- socket wrench, socket extension and and 3/4" socket.
-long rag, old T shirt or paper towels to set the dirty spring on.
- pin punch
-Vaseline and Phillips head screwdriver. (the Vaseline goes on the screwdriver shaft to prevent the screwdriver from tearing the recoil pad. I read that soap works well too.)
- Gun cleaning supplies and gun oil.
- A small hammer to use on the pin punch
- A smaller caliber barrel brush for cleaning the inside of the recoil spring tube.
- Your cleaning rod. You will use this to clean the inside of the recoil spring tube and I used mine to push the spring back in when I was ready to re-install.
-Lastly, what I should have worn and did not was some safety glasses when removing or installing the spring. That sucker is under pressure and will do some real damage if it goes flying. Beware. Although I had no problems, I will be wearing them in the future for this type of job.
Step One: Break the gun down to the basics. Remove the forearm, barrel, gas piston, sleeve bar and sleeve bar spring. Take out the trigger group and the bolt. You will need these out of the gun for the recoil spring re-installation.
Step Two: Take your Phillips head screwdriver and lube it up lightly with the Vasaline. You will see two small holes in the recoil pad. These hide the screws that hold the recoil pad to the stock. Take these screws out and remove the recoil pad.
Step Three: Use your socket wrench to remove the nut. Put the extension on to avoid scratching your buttstock. I had no problems backing mine out.
![Image]()
3 pieces will come out: one is the nut, one is a spacer and the last is a flat metal plate that secures the stock to the receiver. Clean these, put them aside and remove the buttstock.
![Image]()
The 3 items at the bottom left of the pic are: the nut, the spacer and the plate.
If your gun is very dirty, be sure to clean the inside of the stock as well as the outside of the recoil spring tube.
Step Four: Now you are ready for the spring itself. Note the pin located near the nut thread at the bottom of the recoil spring tube. This pin is holding your spring in place. When you take this pin out, the compressed spring is going to want to go somewhere in a hurry. I took one of my wife's shoes (it was handy, nothing malicious on my end, lol) and put it over the end of the tube BEFORE I released the pin. Also, have your rag or prepared area ready to accept a potentially dirty spring. As you can see in the pics, it is a longer spring and could make a mess if you are not ready to put it somewhere.
Take your pin punch and push the pin though. Use pliers to fully pull it out if needed.
![Image]()
*Sproying!* Your recoil spring is now free. Pull it out fully and you are ready to go. Note the location of the plastic "U" part. The pin fits in the U during re-assembly. The other end is where your bolt slide will slip into. Pretty easy to see & remember with the pictures.
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
"U" end at the back, round end at the receiver.
Step Five: Clean the inside of the recoil spring tube. I used the small caliber (.410?) bore cleaner brush I picked up for 3 bucks just for this job. It worked just fine but I would have gone with something slightly wider if I could do it again.
Clean your spring and I gave mine a very light coat oil. Perhaps a gunsmith could chime in here and verify or deny that was a good idea. I did not want to attract debris, but I did want some rust protection on the spring. Your call and hopefully others here on the board will make a comment or two.
Step Six: Feeling pretty good? Hopefully your spring is in good shape and is ready to go back in. I have read that many problems associated with semi autos are due to this spring being fouled. If you were having trouble before, I hope this will help your gun perform better. If not, you know you can rule it out as the cause if nothing else.
Now this next part is important: THIS WAS NOT EASY for me. To compress the spring and get the pin back in, at least for me on my first time doing this, required the help of my wife.
Put your safety glasses back on now.
I hand fed the spring back in as far as I could, again with the "U" piece at the back end where the pin will go. The round, tube like, end goes back into the receiver.
![Image]()
I used the bore cleaning rod (without the cleaning attachment of course) to push the spring back into the tube. You will need to play around a bit to get the "U" at the proper position to slip the pin back in. This was a minor pain and it really helped to have a helper slide the pin in when I had the U lined up.
Put your stock back on, place the flat plate in first, then the spacer nut (you will see the spacer nut has a rounded edge that fits into the plate) and then the bolt.
![Image]()
The bolt side goes into the round end (technical term :wink: ) of the spring.
That's it. Re-assemble the like new shotgun and go have some fun.
Big thanks to mountaindave for the posting pic instructions. I was going crazy trying to figure this out!
Feel free to add, comment or criticize. Hope this is helpful to someone looking to take this job on.
First let me acknowledge a few truths here upfront. I am a new shooter. This is my first shotgun and although I have put a number of cases of shells through it, it has not seen hard core hunting conditions or very heavy use. I am not a gunsmith and in fact this is the first gun I have ever owned or taken apart. As you will see, I'm not much of a writer or photographer either.
However, I can state that I LOVE this gun. The overall quality, fit, the ease of maintenance, the soft recoil and of course the walnut stock and forearm made this an easy purchase for me after learning the basics and asking many questions. It has not failed me or let me down whatsoever. I find this an important component for a new shooter. Hitting those clays should be the only thing I am worried about, and with the Silver Hunter that is just what I get. OK, enough of that. Let's get down to business.
The combination of my love of this gun plus the excitement of a new hobby made me do what many a red blooded American man does with a new piece of equipment: take it apart. (OK, I named it too, lol.)
I will leave the basics to your own style of cleaning. The Browning manual does an excellent job of describing how to disassemble the gun to get at and clean the magazine tube, the piston, the gas ports, the trigger group and bolt to do the more involved cleaning. I highly suggest any new owner of the Silver Hunter goes through it thoroughly. The advantage of being a new shooter is I actually NEED, let alone want to, read the thing from cover to cover.
No, basic cleaning to me is not running a bore snake through the barrel. I am guilty of being one of 'those' guys. The kind that takes the trigger group, the bolt and the magazine spring out for normal cleaning. Time will tell if I continue that practice, but that's how I roll now. I actually enjoy it.
So- you have mastered the basics of the Silver Hunter breakdown and want to take the recoil spring out.
You will need the following:
- socket wrench, socket extension and and 3/4" socket.
-long rag, old T shirt or paper towels to set the dirty spring on.
- pin punch
-Vaseline and Phillips head screwdriver. (the Vaseline goes on the screwdriver shaft to prevent the screwdriver from tearing the recoil pad. I read that soap works well too.)
- Gun cleaning supplies and gun oil.
- A small hammer to use on the pin punch
- A smaller caliber barrel brush for cleaning the inside of the recoil spring tube.
- Your cleaning rod. You will use this to clean the inside of the recoil spring tube and I used mine to push the spring back in when I was ready to re-install.
-Lastly, what I should have worn and did not was some safety glasses when removing or installing the spring. That sucker is under pressure and will do some real damage if it goes flying. Beware. Although I had no problems, I will be wearing them in the future for this type of job.
Step One: Break the gun down to the basics. Remove the forearm, barrel, gas piston, sleeve bar and sleeve bar spring. Take out the trigger group and the bolt. You will need these out of the gun for the recoil spring re-installation.
Step Two: Take your Phillips head screwdriver and lube it up lightly with the Vasaline. You will see two small holes in the recoil pad. These hide the screws that hold the recoil pad to the stock. Take these screws out and remove the recoil pad.
Step Three: Use your socket wrench to remove the nut. Put the extension on to avoid scratching your buttstock. I had no problems backing mine out.
3 pieces will come out: one is the nut, one is a spacer and the last is a flat metal plate that secures the stock to the receiver. Clean these, put them aside and remove the buttstock.
The 3 items at the bottom left of the pic are: the nut, the spacer and the plate.
If your gun is very dirty, be sure to clean the inside of the stock as well as the outside of the recoil spring tube.
Step Four: Now you are ready for the spring itself. Note the pin located near the nut thread at the bottom of the recoil spring tube. This pin is holding your spring in place. When you take this pin out, the compressed spring is going to want to go somewhere in a hurry. I took one of my wife's shoes (it was handy, nothing malicious on my end, lol) and put it over the end of the tube BEFORE I released the pin. Also, have your rag or prepared area ready to accept a potentially dirty spring. As you can see in the pics, it is a longer spring and could make a mess if you are not ready to put it somewhere.
Take your pin punch and push the pin though. Use pliers to fully pull it out if needed.
*Sproying!* Your recoil spring is now free. Pull it out fully and you are ready to go. Note the location of the plastic "U" part. The pin fits in the U during re-assembly. The other end is where your bolt slide will slip into. Pretty easy to see & remember with the pictures.
"U" end at the back, round end at the receiver.
Step Five: Clean the inside of the recoil spring tube. I used the small caliber (.410?) bore cleaner brush I picked up for 3 bucks just for this job. It worked just fine but I would have gone with something slightly wider if I could do it again.
Clean your spring and I gave mine a very light coat oil. Perhaps a gunsmith could chime in here and verify or deny that was a good idea. I did not want to attract debris, but I did want some rust protection on the spring. Your call and hopefully others here on the board will make a comment or two.
Step Six: Feeling pretty good? Hopefully your spring is in good shape and is ready to go back in. I have read that many problems associated with semi autos are due to this spring being fouled. If you were having trouble before, I hope this will help your gun perform better. If not, you know you can rule it out as the cause if nothing else.
Now this next part is important: THIS WAS NOT EASY for me. To compress the spring and get the pin back in, at least for me on my first time doing this, required the help of my wife.
Put your safety glasses back on now.
I hand fed the spring back in as far as I could, again with the "U" piece at the back end where the pin will go. The round, tube like, end goes back into the receiver.
I used the bore cleaning rod (without the cleaning attachment of course) to push the spring back into the tube. You will need to play around a bit to get the "U" at the proper position to slip the pin back in. This was a minor pain and it really helped to have a helper slide the pin in when I had the U lined up.
Put your stock back on, place the flat plate in first, then the spacer nut (you will see the spacer nut has a rounded edge that fits into the plate) and then the bolt.
The bolt side goes into the round end (technical term :wink: ) of the spring.
That's it. Re-assemble the like new shotgun and go have some fun.
Big thanks to mountaindave for the posting pic instructions. I was going crazy trying to figure this out!
Feel free to add, comment or criticize. Hope this is helpful to someone looking to take this job on.
