How often do you clean your guns?

I am sure it isn't necessary but I clean all my guns after every range session. I don't pull the FP or extractor out of a 1911 every session but I do the "basic" field strip and clean. I enjoy doing so.

My comp and carry handguns I clean maybe about every 500-750 rounds.

Anything that sees corrosive ammo gets cleaned right away.

Yeah, I used to be meticulous about cleaning everything right after it was used and really that's just overkill. If you're going to put it up for sometime, Id recommend cleaning it. But I dont bother much anymore. Maybe one every 4 or 5 trips out. I just always bring some lube with me, because usually whatever is stopping a gun due to filth is fixable with some lube. At least until we can get it home and clean it up.

"Never let the sun set on a dirty gun." "A clean gun is a happy gun." I've been going by these aphorisms since I started shooting in 1956 and haven't had a problem yet.

I clean and lube them every time I fire them.

Part of the reason is to get the crud out. After a while you've got gunk similar to lapping paste that's going to accelerate wear, or at least gum up the works. Leaving it in the gun for a long time makes it just that much harder to remove when you finally get around to it.

Another part is to inspect the gun after firing to make sure all is as it should be.

Carry guns get cleaned after a shooting session. I want no doubt that it has not been shot if I did not shoot.

Guns that i shoot once in a blue moon, i try to clean after the session before they get put up.

Guns that gets shot alot, I clean after a few range sessions.

On the rare occasions I shoot corrosive ammunition, the guns get cleaned right after the shooting session. But, as i said, its rare that i shoot corrosive ammunition.

Anything I fire with a silencer, which is mostly going to be AR-15's is going to get cleaned every time. I dont shoot a lot of .22 but when I do it gets cleaned every time. Revolvers don't get cleaned ever time and really only get a good cleaning every few months. Black powder stuff gets cleaned the minute I walk in the door.

I clean some whenever I get bored and have nothing else to do. Normally a wipe down before they are put up will suffice.

mesinge2 said:

... So, how often do you clean your guns?

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For many years I always cleaned them following a shooting session.

Now, unless I have been firing ammo with chlorate primers, I clean them when it is convenient, often in like-caliber groups.

I shoot on the weekends and the gun gets cleaned Sunday night before I go back to work. If I'm on vacation and shoot the gun all week I'll clean it Sunday night before I go back to work. I'm cleaning it right now. I do wipe the outside down after each shooting session.

When they stop functioning.

Stu

if I get lazy--I clean the barrel and relube the slide and reshoot the guns each week until I swap them out for others

If I am not going to shoot a gun again that week, then it is thoroughly cleaned and put away

moxie said:

"Never let the sun set on a dirty gun." "A clean gun is a happy gun." I've been going by these aphorisms since I started shooting in 1956 and haven't had a problem yet.

I clean and lube them every time I fire them.

Part of the reason is to get the crud out. After a while you've got gunk similar to lapping paste that's going to accelerate wear, or at least gum up the works. Leaving it in the gun for a long time makes it just that much harder to remove when you finally get around to it.

Another part is to inspect the gun after firing to make sure all is as it should be.

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this is why I keep my weapons clean a nd lubed. I want them to last and do not want issues when used

great post!

I have always been religious about cleaning after each shooting session. But as this new range opened 2 miles away and I shoot about once a week I have grown quite lazy. It has been some thousands of rounds since I have cleaned my ROBAR Kimber, Beretta 92fs Inox, or Glock, and several hundred rounds since I have cleaned my S&W 627 PC, and my favorite 4" Sec Six.

Not a jam or malfunction yet.

I may wait until they malfunction.

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Well let us know when you start having problems. Having lived north of Orlando, and south of Orlando, I would expect the first thing to happen to dirty firearms in Florida is that they rust shut.

I remember going to a Pawn Shop in southern Florida and on the rack was a mint looking Swiss M1911 carbine. I was handed the thing by one of the twenty something sons of the owner. While I was looking at the rifle, he mentioned how he and his buds had taken the rifle out and shot it. I pulled the bolt back and looked down the bore. It was completely rust red from chamber to muzzle. The morons had not cleaned the thing. This is typical of what happens to guns in Florida, if not cleaned up quickly, the hot humid, salt saturated air rusts them.

Due to all the time I lived in Florida, I always clean every gun after I get back from the range. After some rifle and pistol matches I am up till 11:00 cleaning guns. I don't know if I need to for function reasons, but I still remember things rusting overnight in Florida.

Everyone, keep in mind that there can be a BIG difference between returning fired/dirty firearms to a RH-controlled gunsafe or just leaving them out.

That is the primary reason behind the change in my lifelong always-clean-right-after-shooting approach.

I have 2 Eva-Drys, 1 "golden rod" heater and a small constantly-running desk fan in each safe.

In recent years I have only been recharging the Eva-Drys once per year in early summer since my gunsafes are sealed and I have, apparently, reversed the increasing humidity issue in my basement (Thanks Goodness! ).

I cannot recall seeing as much as 50% RH in my gunsafes in quite awhile, it stays in the 40s.

IIRC, the highest RH that I saw in the basement this (wet) summer was 55% and that was after I did not run-until-full the DH the night before.

It wasn't too many years ago, prior to buying the DH and making drainage changes outside, that basement RH numbers were approaching 70 during wet periods.

The DH provided immediate relief (after the 1st night, I could smell the difference) and the drainage plan was strategic.

EDIT:
Actually, since getting a handle on the basement RH issue, I don't really need the Eva-Drys as I once did (the once-a-year recharge certainly suggests as much) and I could unseal the doors now.

The only time I have ever had the sun set on a dirty gun was I was still using it. Well into the morning as well.

I have no set schedule or routine. But two things have to happen when it comes to my firearms maintenance: they have to be dirty and I have to have time. Dirty can be they have some pocket lint in the barrel and the time can be 15 minutes to strip, clean, and re lube it. Or it can be I just shot 2000 rounds and need a couple hours. I don't have every Saturday marked off to clean firearms or something like that.

I clean infrequently unless there is a compelling reason. The self defense ones I've shot enough to have a feel for how many rounds and it still remain reliable. Those I will keep a bit more clean. For something such as my trap league shotgun, once a year, unless I need to have a reason to take it apart.

Depends on what you mean by "clean." Every few hundred rounds, my semi-automatic pistols will get a q-tip with some CLP rubbed on the feed ramp, breach face, and under the extractor. Every few thousand rounds, I'll field strip and clean the inside of the chamber and the rails and other sliding surfaces on the slide. Once every jillion rounds, I'll detail strip a slide and/or frame, usually for purposes of replacing springs, and will generally clean things reasonably well at that point.

Unless I'm shooting lead bullets that are causing leading, I no longer clear handgun barrels... EVER. I've decided that it is probably true that cleaning poses more of a risk of actual barrel damage than anything that is contained in (non-corrosive) ammo.

I have (almost) always cleaned after every shooting session. I'm still that way. I actually feel a tad guilty if I let one sit over a day without cleaning it. I don't shoot corrosive ammo, so I know its an unjustified feeling. But, still ... As with others, I kind of enjoy cleaning them.

Our carry guns are always clean, except when we're in the process of shooting them.

Depends on the firearm.

In the case of target .22s, I try to go thousands of rounds before anything beyond a Bore Snake, a quick Q-Tip swab inside the chamber with Break Free, and PTFE grease for friction reduction on the contact areas where metal-to-metal wear is of greatest concern. This includes both semi auto hand guns and bolt action rifles. With bolt action rifles I also sometimes wipe down and grease the bolt.

On hand guns with nice cosmetic finishes, they get cleaned after each usage and they get a little more attention with both the fouling removal and protectant. With the one rifle I have that I consider to be cosmetically nice, I do the same. I use Corrosion-X as a protectant and it is outstanding.

While I do not like to let a dirty gun sit for an extended period, in the case of the USP I'm not as strict. I feel that the testing done establishes that firearm as being capable of going through thousands of rounds consecutively without misfires, and running it moderately dirty after a few hundred rounds will have absolutely zero impact on reliability. Quite a few other brands and models of "LE-grade semis" seem to be capable of doing the same. With the GP100, I feel the design of the gun keeps outstanding reliability even if I'm bad about cleaning it in a timely manner, and the stainless finish is cosmetically robust.

I clean my guns roughly every other trip to the range/woods. Carry guns are usually cleaned after every outing.

Every single time I shoot them. If I don't shoot them I oil them every few months, or every few weeks if it's a carry gun.