AR Cleaning

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miamivicedade

miamivicedade

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Hello!

Today I got back from the range and cleaned my AR-15. At first, after the bore brush and solvent, the first dry patch came out filthy. After a few more patches 95% of the fouling has been removed, but no matter what, a little fouling appears on the next patch, and the next. When I hold the barrel up to a light, it looks very clean with no fouling. Am I okay?
 
You don't need to worry about a perfectly clean patch in any rifle. You'll just wear out the barrel trying.

Don't forget to take the bolt/carrier apart and clean that too. Oil it up and you're good to go.
 
You really don't even need to clean it...maybe once every 10,000 rounds if you're bored or something.

Just keep it lubed, and run a patch or boresnake down the barrel if there's a lot of crap in there - there shouldn't be unless you're shoving the muzzle into dirt or something.
 
You should have seen my Mosin M44. I ran probably 25 patches through it.
 
You don't need to worry about a perfectly clean patch in any rifle. You'll just wear out the barrel trying.
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I have never served in the military but know 2 Marines that have. They would tell me stories about cleaning their rifles for 5+ hours. Taking them back for inspection, the superior officer would almost certinaly find more crud and send them back to reclean the weapon. I assume this is just basic training but if it would wear out the rifle why would they make the recruits do this?
 
I have never served in the military but know 2 Marines that have. They would tell me stories about cleaning their rifles for 5+ hours. Taking them back for inspection, the superior officer would almost certinaly find more crud and send them back to reclean the weapon. I assume this is just basic training but if it would wear out the rifle why would they make the recruits do this?
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Because that's the way it's done.

We don't care that scraping the crown with the end of a cleaning rod will the destroy the accuracy, we DO care that there be no carbon anywhere on the rifle.

The actual manuals are better about being realistic. http://www.box.net/shared/tlxri3l1ic

BSW
 
You need to at least inspect your weapon for fouling after EACH outing.

Dont over-clean the bore of your rifle.

A half dozen strokes with the brush
A half dozen patches with CLP

Wipe excess CLP from chamber and bore

...and you're done

Disassemble the bolt/carrier assembly, and wipe the carbon off with a rag soaked in CLP.
You do NOT have to get it completely clean.

Wipe the locking area of the barrel extension with a few Q-Tips or a rag with CLP to remove most of the carbon and brass shavings.

Make sure the buffer tube and buffer/spring assembly is cleaned of any debris or fouling.
A little CLP on the buffer spring is OK.

Keep an eye on the trigger assembly.
If there is loose crud in there, a little compressed air does wonders.

Keep your magazines reasonably clean.

It pains me to hear the wrong-headed stories about the idiotic OCD/Domination games played "in the military" when it comes to over-cleaning weapons.
 
I absolutely agree with briansmithwins. The military in general is much more concerned with how clean a gun is than how it actually works. They do much more damage to their weapons by constant stripping and cleaning than they do from actually using them.

The main thing I worry about is carbon building up in between the moving parts of the bolt, carrier, and locking lugs of the chamber. But constant lube and occasional cursory cleaning is enough to prevent any failures. Remember, AR like to run wet. Sloppy wet. Especially if you're somewhere as humid as Miami-Dade, think 'wet' with your AR.
 
If you want accuracy the most important thing is to clean it the same way each time. If you want reliability then just hose the sludge out of the upper about every 2000 to 3000 rnds
 
After being in the active military for 8yrs, I can say that we spent several hours cleaning the weapons. I agree that all of the cleaning and breaking down of a weapon will destroy it in the long run and the military wants a "clean" weapon for show and tell. Everyone has their own way of shooting and cleaning a weapon, so pick your way that you feel most comfortable with. If you want a shinny weapon, then clean the hell out of it; if you want a weapon that is reliable and accurate, then wipe all of the moving parts, give amble amount of lube, then run a couple of patches through the bore.
 
I'm with the group that says do not clean it often, however you couldn't possibly run enough cloth patches through a bore every minute of your life to get any negligible wear! Stay away from bore brushes though - if you must, use it sparingly.
 
I assume this is just basic training but if it would wear out the rifle why would they make the recruits do this?
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"busy work" and for discipline and inspection.

Don't ever assume that the government does the things they do because it is best.
 
Cleaning an AR15 is easy. I just wipe everything down and oil it up again. Takes me 5-10 minutes. AR15's really don't even need cleaning as long as they are properly lubed.
 
Within the military, there is a degree of accountability for firearms cleanliness that no one person could ever do on their own. There are situations coming to mind, such as, You are the armorer in a unit that is switching out M-16 A2s for new A4s. So you go to the depot to switch them out, and their guy looks your weapons over and says; "I can't accept these weapons, they're dirty." They weren't dirty enough to make them malfunction or harm them in any way, but this guy's policy says that all weapons he accepts for turn-in must be clean. Not mostly clean. Not 'clean enough'. CLEAN. Common sense has no authority over written policy. This means that the guy doing the turn in has to either clean them all RIGHT NOW, or take them back, set up the paperwork and appointment for the turn-in all over again, and get a ten-man detail from the first sergeant to clean them all. And when he goes back, you know the guy accepting them is going to give them even MORE scrutiny than he did the first time. This creates a culture where no armorer will ever let a non-pristine rifle back into the arms locker.

When your unit goes to the range, you will be spending a few hours cleaning. Period. (And blanks are dirtier than regular ammo.) You might be an expert in cleaning and get done first, but if you are the first guy to try to turn it in, they will dig with their pinky until the find some black and give it back to you. If you go in at the END of the night, everyone wants to go home, and they are much less careful. Don't be the first guy in line to turn it in.
 
wow i guess im just on the other side of this. i absolutely cannot stand for any weapons i have to be dirty. i break down and clean all of them each and every time they are fired. this includes my .22's as well.

i just dont think it can ever hurt to clean them. there is no such thing as over-cleaning imho. just dont use harsh chems and youll be fine. for me, cleaning is a bit of a zen exercise and i dont dread it one bit.
 
Overcleaning of ARs/M-16s causes things like dinged crowns and rifling which will kill accuracy, premature wearing of protective coatings, rattle and play between the pieces of the trigger group that control fire, bristles of cleaning implements lodged in various parts of the rifle, things like this. I THINK, that the army UNNECESSARILY strips and cleans weapons so much, (particularly in training units,) that they cause much more wear and breakage than just shooting them does.

You cleaning your guns every time your shoot them doesn't mean you are causing that kind of damage.
 
briansmithwins said:
Because that's the way it's done.

We don't care that scraping the crown with the end of a cleaning rod will the destroy the accuracy, we DO care that there be no carbon anywhere on the rifle.

The actual manuals are better about being realistic. http://www.box.net/shared/tlxri3l1ic

BSW
Click to expand...
Yeah, they used to make us use our firing pins to clean the crown. One recruit asked a Drill Instructor what the purpose was and also mentioned it killed accuracy. The DI asked him "How the -expicative- do you know?"-- the recruit responded back that he builds Match Grade M1A/M14s for his dad's company...
The DI ended up buying a match rifle from him-- never saw it in person, but we did get to see pictures of it, and the DI picked it up (we were told) graduation day outside of MCRD..
We were more worried about rust on deployment, because our armory on ship was literally a small conex box that leaked saltwater...
 
Wasn't lack of cleaning partially responsible for the problems that GI's were experiencing in Vietnam? That and non-lined bores? If so, I'd understand why they'd want to keep their weapon clean, to make sure it fires when they pull the trigger. If clean is good, extra clean is even better.
 
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