Reach for the Tico Tool - Shotgunner

Guns Magazine, June, 2003 by Holt Bodinson

After a busy day of upland bird or waterfowl hunting, when I know I'll be hunting again tomorrow and if perhaps I'm dragging a bit from a day in the field, I reach for the Tico Tool.

We'll to look at it you wouldn't think it's much. In fact, it resembles something like an oversized Q-Tip in a long plastic tube, but don't let its visual appearance fool you. This 42-inch piece of fluff is the greatest shotgun bore cleaner bar none when you're too bushed or too rushed to do a through cleaning job at the end of the day.

What's a Tico Tool?

I remember vividly the first time I ever reached for a Tico. We were hunting that great little import from the foothills of the Himalayas, the Chukar partridge, in Idaho's Snake River Canyon. Scrambling up and down those steep canyon sides all day chasing Chukars without a dog is about as rugged a form of bird hunting as exists.

By the end of the day, you are really dragging. The last thing you want to do is to strip down your shotgun, break out cleaning rods, solvents, and brushes, and go to work. We had one Tico Tool in camp and at the end of the week, it had cleaned and oiled four shotguns daily. That's 28 cleanings, and all we did at the end of the hunt was to wash it by hand in a pail of river water with a bit of laundry detergent thrown in.

What I like about the Tico Tool is that it is a totally self-contained cleaning system that can be carried in your gun case. It comes in its own storage tube. The Tico Tool itself consists of a long synthetic fiber mop that is inserted into the breech end of a barrel and is twisted back and forth as it is run up and down. No solvent is needed. It does its job dry, removing both powder and carbon residues.

To oil the bore after cleaning, you unscrew the top of the Tico Tool handle and pull out a little oiling bob. The bob has a hook on it that you hook onto the end of the rod and pull it back through the barrel after adding a bit of the recommended lubricant. And in a flash, you're done.

Made by Outers, the Tico Tool comes in two sizes, 12/16 or 20 gauge, and either as a one piece or two-piece rod. Retail prices normally range from $13 to $17. It's a very useful tool to have on hand.

The Consolidating Shotgun Market

Who owns who in the firearms market is always an intriguing question. Remington, for example, is owned by Clayton, Dubilier and Rice of New York City; Winchester, Browning and Fabrique Nationale by Belgium's Walloon business region.

Now, who owns the shotgun makers, Franchi and Benelli? Let's add to those two firms, the names of Tikka, Uberti, Sako, Burns and Stoeger Industries.

The answer is "Beretta." Beretta, the oldest, continuous, family owned firearms maker in the world, has been on a buying spree lately through the auspices of "Beretta Holding." The very positive side of Beretta's acquisition activity is that a trusted name and a family devoted to the arms industry since the 17th century is the acquirer. The future for Franchi and Benelli never looked better.

Curious Ahout Shotshell Ballistics?

Fellow scribe and occasional smoothbore hunting partner, John Taylor, has compiled and written what is the best published guide available to shotshell ballistics and performance.

This 365-page soft cover book, entitled Shotshells & Ballistics, charts 1,700 current commercial loadings from 23 different manufacturers for gauges .410 through 10. For each of the 1,700 loadings, downrange velocity and pellet energy values plus time of flight are computed out to 70 yards in 10-yard increments. Recoil energy and velocity values are offered based on an 8-pound shotgun. Even the safety limits for each load are expressed as the maximum distance that an individual pellet will pierce skin.

The alternative source for this data is Ed Lowry's excellent Shotshell Ballistics program for Windows. This simple and entertaining $50 software program is particularly useful when analyzing the ballistics of your handloads.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Tico Tool

[608] 781-5800

www.outers-guncare.com

"Shotshells & Ballistics"

[714] 894-9080

www.safaripress.com

Ed Lowry's

Shotshell Ballistics

Computer Program

[360] 676-9448

2100 Electric Ave., #236

Bellingham, Wash. 98226