Gear Review: Liberty Lubricants Cleaning Kits

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The author takes a look at the cleaning kit offered by Liberty Lubricants, perfectly sized to throw in a range bag.

Liberty Lubricants has a slick cleaning kit (see what I did there?). The firm-sided zippered case holds the essentials for cleaning: solvent, oil and grease, patches, brushes and pull cables, as well as a handle and rod segments. Firm-sided? You know, formed textured nylon cases with a zipper around three sides that opens and lies flat. It’s firm enough to offer protection to its contents, but not so firm that it can’t be forced into a range bag. With it, you can do the cleaning you need at the range.

Using the Liberty cleaning kit, you can clean all of your various pistols and your AR-15, which covers pretty much any day at the range but that “special” one. Which one? There’s no knowing, but that’s one aspect of the Liberty cleaning kit that I like. The zippered case has enough extra room in it to fit in a few extra tools or supplies, depending on what you most-often shoot.

If you’re focused on AR-15s, a carbon-scraping tool would be a good addition, along with a few spares like some gas rings or a Viton O-ring taped to a business card.

If you shoot mostly a 9mm pistol, adding in a section or two for a larger-diameter cleaning rod to knock out a stuck bullet would be a once every few years lifesaver.

I can even see shotgunners adding in an extra bore brush to scrub the plastic from wads out of the bore to clean the muzzle if you get it jammed into the mud out hunting.

Why do this? Because while the zippered case is good, the solvent, lube and grease are excellent. The set makes the Liberty cleaning kit a package worth stuffing into your range bag to rest until it’s needed.

I know some of you are thinking “Sweeney is OCD when it comes to cleaning; we’ve read columns like this before.” Actually, no. People who know me would laugh out loud if you said that. But what I do know is that things happen at the range.

I’m there a lot, and I’ve lost count of the “oops” and “oh nos” that happen. Like setting up a cool photograph of a pistol and the small-group target it just produced, on the shooting bench, only to have the pistol lemming-like dive off into the sandy mud. Just wiping it off for the photo is fine, but it has to have the bore swabbed out before the next round of shooting.

No cleaning kit? Then, you’re done for the day.

You only have to have that happen once to start packing cleaning supplies in the range bag. With the Liberty kit, you’re set up with a good basic cleaning kit and can customize it as you need or wish. Getting excellent cleaning solutions and tools to use them with is a bonus … a big bonus.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of Gun Digest the Magazine.

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