Chamber Maid

Guns Magazine, Oct, 2001 by Cameron Hopkins

When the going gets tough, the tough call a maid -- a Chamber Maid, that is. The Chamber Maid(tm) is a clever cleaning tool for scrubbing the chamber of a firearm that cannot be cleaned from the breech.

Proper cleaning of a firearm necessitates inserting a brush or patch in the breech. Poking things into the muzzle should be avoided because of the risk of damaging the crown. Also, cleaning from the breech allows you to scrub out the chamber with an oversize brush or patch. This is not a revelation to you; this is fundamental Gun Cleaning 101.

The problem comes with firearms that do not allow access to the breech, such as an Ml Garand or a pump shotgun. You then have two choices: remove the barrel and clean from the breech or break the rules and clean from the muzzle. While it is not a huge hassle to detach a Remington 1100 barrel, removing an M1A barrel is not really feasible.

So call the maid! The Chamber Maid consists of a flexible steel cable, stout enough to be twisted and turned, but pliant enough to contort into the chamber. On the end is a bronze cleaning brush, correctly sized for the caliber of firearm.

We tested the Chamber Maid on a Springfield Armory Ml Garand, a difficult firearm to properly clean. The Chamber Maid easily bent into the chamber and the cleaning was accomplished easily. We were pleased to see the amount of fouling that emerged on the Chamber Maid's patch-wrapped brush.

The Chamber Maid is available in .30-'06, .308, 7.62x39, .223 (AR-15) .45, 9mm, 12 ga. and 20 ga. Shotgun Maids retail for $16.75, the AR-15 version costs $13.25 and all others are $12.50. Replacement brushes are available at nominal cost.