OK, this is an old 10/22 so no plastic to worry about.
I was leaning towards WD40, since it is a oil "water" and could wash/rinse it all out and maybe pick up all the particles of clay. But... brake cleaner/carb cleaner would blast it all away.
Will try two prong approach - first, WD40 and more aggressive work with tooth pick and q-tips. After that, blast it all down with brake cleaner and see what I have left.
Spoon in question - started as rusty $95 10/22 at a pawn shop, replaced barrel with a Tactical Solutions bull barrel (15 oz - aluminum w/ steel insert), cut stock back at an angel to get rid of thin part for barrel band, cut butt off to remove curve for butt plate, hogged barrel channel out for the .920 barrel, put in a brass pillar for bedding the take down screw/point, sanded, sanded some more, stained w/ MinWax "Ebony", made a butt pad out of a flip flop to get some LOP back. When all done with a 4x scope on it it was just 5lbs loaded - too light for off hand shooting, so I added the sling and bipod to bring it up to 6lbs. Only parts replaced were the barrel and the mag release - went for a lever style from KIDD very nice, my kids have no issue using it.
