How often do you clean your EDC/CC Piece?

[zombienerd]

It has been a week or so since I cleaned my Bersa, and I was just looking at it closely, noticing little pieces of leather (new holster), some "dust", hair, etc in the nooks and crannies of the gun...

I can be a little anal about the cleanliness of my carry piece, I want it to always be clean so nothing inhibits function should the need arise, but I find that if I look close, I'd end up cleaning the thing probably daily, and that could grow to be a big time sink.

So, my question to you all: How often do you actually clean your daily carry gun? Are you worried that a few small pieces of leather in the barrel or wedged in between the slide and frame would inhibit proper operation? Should I just give in to my "OCD" and clean it every day, or should I just ignore the "daily dust" and let it go a few weeks between cleanings?

 

[middy]

I wouldn't carry a piece whose function would be inhibited by lint...

I clean my Glock when it makes my hands dirty to handle it.

I'm sure your Bersa would work just fine full of dust, hair, etc.

 

[saltydog452]

IWB and pocket carry is a lint magnet.

I field strip and blow out the lint kinda regular on the Cmdr and 38s. Miltec-1 seems to lessen the lint accumulation. No effect on reliability with my mags, ammo, and pistols so far. We'll see.

House guns get the same treatment, less the Miltec, but less often. My bride says that Miltec 'stinks' and makes her sneeze.

I like the smell. Kinda like Hoppes No. 9, or diesel fuel...nice boquet and travels well. (There oughta be a grin here...lame attempt at humor)

I forget stuff so it helps to string various 'to do' items together. Usually, the house guns get attention after use or whenever I change the oil in the bride's Granny Van.

This seems to work for me and mine.

salty

 

[22lr-shooter]

The local gun range (same place I did my ccw class) never does more than run a brush down the barrel, pull the slide back and a couple drops of oil that they let run down the slide rail and thats it. Maybe wipe off the feed ramp. They dont field strip them. The guns have many many thousands of rounds through them and work just fine.

I have been doing the same thing. My little Taurus PT22 rides in a pocket holster all the time and gets taken to the range frequently. I give it the quick brush and oil drops (takes about a minute or 2) and it has never failed. I do check it over for any obvious big chunks of stuff that could hamper its function.

I did take my Walther P22 down once, but what a pain to put back together (mainly getting the recoil spring back where it belongs) so I dont strip it anymore either...brush and oil...works like a champ every time.

Before we traded away my wifes Springfield XD it never got cleaned and always worked 100%.

 

[Eightball]

I clean it after I shoot it, and any time it looks like it needs cleaning when I eyeball it--and lint doesn't count, I just exhale and it goes away.

S&W 638, btw.

 

[kanook]

I cleaned my daily carry and found about an ounce of belly button lint in it. (just kidding)

 

[TheProf]

I field strip clean my CCW every time I shoot it. At the very least, it gets field strip clean once a month.... whether fired or not.

I don't do detail cleaning. (I'm afraid I can't put it back together.) (Some have said that you can take apart a gun too often...and do more harm than good. So...that's my excuse for not detail cleaning.)

 

[mljdeckard]

I agree with the above exactly. About once a month and after shooting. I don't reassemble and then re-fire. If I didn't trust my gun to function after a regular cleaning, I wouldn't carry it.

I also agree that it is many times more likely that you will damage your gun by detail stripping it than you are by not cleaning it to that level. If you want a gun to tinker with, explore, and accessorize, get a different one and don't carry it.

 

[zombienerd]

I've never "completely" disassembled any of my guns.

I just "field strip"... Remove the slide, recoil spring, and clean from that level. Honestly, I'd be afraid of what I'd see if I took the Bersa down to piece parts.

I think I'll stick with your guys' advice, and just clean it after shooting. It really doesn't make any sense to think that a bit of leather and dust in the barrel/action would cause any serious issues.

Oh, and I'll toss in a picture I took today, just for the heck of it

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I would clean my gun if I saw fur balls and dust bunnies in it, yes. I also - if I have not shot them for a considerable time - like to periodically relubricate them.

... and I was just looking at it closely, noticing little pieces of leather (new holster) ...

Hopefully the leather will "etch" itself and conform to the shape of the gun so it doesn't have strips peeled off it. The gun may also have unwanted sharp edges.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

How often do you clean your EDC/CC Piece?

Hmm. My toting-around gun gets cleaned once a week, which is as often as I shoot it. My other one gets cleaned when I feel like I should clean it, but sometimes that's a long time between cleanings (say many, many … many months), and sometimes it's every few weeks. I've detail stripped the latter a couple of times, but not the former. Interestingly enough, the latter, which I've had a lot longer, and which, until recently, had fired a jumbo-bunch more rounds, was surprisingly clean inside, perhaps even astonishingly clean, and this was a pistol I carried concealed for a bunch of years and shot the dickens out of. I suspect, though, that it was so clean because, when I carried it all those years, I cleaned it every time I shot it, which was regularly. Nothing more than a field strip cleaning, though.

 

[SHOTGUN PETE]

Canned air will blow the lint out but if your life ain't worth the time to completely clean your weapon once in a while that's your issue.

 

[SHOTGUN PETE]

The above is a general statement not addressed to anyone in particular.

 

[ChCx2744]

Either everytime i shoot it or maybe once every couple months or so, provided it hasn't seen any action.

 

[bigfatdave]

I cleaned my daily carry and found about an ounce of belly button lint in it. (just kidding)

You can load that lint into the empty space in your hollowpoints if you feel the need to save it.
(don't do that)

I clean my EDC after shooting, and whenever I have the cleaning kit out for something else, if it has been a while since a clean-out. I've been checking for lint, and even with the muzzle exposed, I'm not seeing much beyond a few linty bits here and there.

If you really feel the need to know how long you can go between cleanings, keep a log of days carried and rounds fired for an extended period of no cleanings or lube. Assuming you go to the range on a fairly regular schedule, you should get an idea of the kind of neglect your EDC can take before a malf. occurs, and then clean at about half that interval.

 

[outerlimit]

I fired some old ammo out of it and some new ammo to function test it a few weeks ago. I've been carrying it everyday and haven't cleaned it yet. I haven't lost any sleep over this.

 

[evan price]

I figure the dust bunnies and crud will give the mugger tetanus if he survives the initial shooting ...

 

[middy]

If you really feel the need to know how long you can go between cleanings, keep a log of days carried and rounds fired for an extended period of no cleanings or lube. Assuming you go to the range on a fairly regular schedule, you should get an idea of the kind of neglect your EDC can take before a malf. occurs, and then clean at about half that interval.

I don't know if I could afford that much ammo.

 

[outerlimit]

That and Wolf ammo is why I don't like to buy used guns.

 

[CoRoMo]

Someone here has a sig line that reads something like...

Always carry a dirty gun.

I might alter it a bit to say...

Never carry a freshly cleaned & unfired gun.

The idea here is that you don't just disassemble your EDC, clean and lube it, and then carry it that way. You ought to pop off a few rounds, a full mag, to make sure you reassembled everything properly. Now that you know it functions the way it should... carry the snot out of it.

 

[aji]

Rotate a number of carry guns on a weekly basis. Clean the carry piece at the end of the week whether it has been fired or not. Thank you

 

[Dr_2_B]

I prolly don't clean mine enough

 

[herkyguy]

When my CC gun starts looking 'dry', i like to wipe it down with a gun cloth to keep a light coat on the outside. If i take it to the range, it gets field stripped and cleaned. I only wipe it down because it is exposed to sweat quite a bit and i have seen anecdotal reports of rust developing.

 

[smallbore]

Regularly

 

[geronimo509]

My brother shot his carry gun in the winter sometime and cleaned it right after the range and barely touched it since and definetly didn't clean or lube it. It was a kimber ultra carry II. (He doesn't carry that often.) We went to the range today and he shot one round and JAM. Two more rounds and JAM.

I carry every day all day. I clean my guns(pocket and IWB) at least every 2-4 weeks. I had zero malfunctions.

BTW, I had him draw and fire like he would in a defensive situation(I did too), with SD rounds that were in the magazines already.

Please clean and lube your Carry guns regularly!