"thorough" gun cleaning question

I don't know what level of disassembly you're asking about, but I generally don't go further than a field strip when I clean my pistols.

I'm not sure there is an owners manual that recommends going further than a field strip, and it's unlikely they include instructions on how to do this. Some guns, such as a Glock or a 1911 are fairly easy to detail strip, and you can probably find instructions to do so on the internet or in a book available somewhere, but many guns are not designed for detail stripping by the user.

As far as the "OCD" part goes, the old saying of "a pistol functions just fine dirty and lubed, but not dirty and dry", is pretty accurate. Clean is generally better, but as long it is lubed you can go a long way between cleanings.

For a detail strip on most guns, the more times you pop pins in and out of a frame, the more wear you have on both items, and the looser they become. Generally, that is not to your advantage.

Is there a particular firearm that you are asking about?

It literally depends on the gun and your level of confidence.

As for me, I have no problem tearing any of my semiauto pistols all the way down for a detailed cleaning and I do this every few hundred rounds.
On my DA revolvers I do not do this. I with remove the cylinders and disassemble them and detail clean that area about once a year but in regards to the inner workings I will remove the side plate and spray the works down with Hornady One Shot, allow it to dry and reassemble.
On my SA revolvers I do normal cleaning and about once a year I tear them all the way down for a detailed cleaning.

If you want to learn how to fully disassemble and reassemble a particular firearm there are lots of resources online for that, but one warning. Do not just watch one YouTube video or take instructions from someone on a forum without looking at several different procedures or instructions. There are a lot of boneheads with video capabilities out there.
MidwayUSA, Brownells, American Gunsmithing Institute have videos and resources for this. Also, go to the Gun Parts Corp website, find your gun and pay the couple of bucks to buy a schematic of your particular gun so you can see how it is put together.

They usually only address items deemed worthy of attention due to the process of firing. That is, mostly componentry that is directly affected by; cartridge case, projectile and gases. After that it's an issue of component wear and in that case it's more inspect, clean & lubricate.

Later, issues of environmental concerns enter in. Again, inspect, clean and lubricate.

Have a care, as new-to-the gun (or guns - generally) owners single greatest mistake - usually - is to over-aggressively disassemble and also to use improper or too much of a gun-care product.


Todd.

I wipe fingerprints and soot off after every use, particularly blued guns. I keep all guns properly lubed with grease/oil as appropriate. I wipe fouling off and field strip and clean well when I notice any significant buildup of crud and feel guilty. I detail strip to the frame and inspect/clean/replace springs and worn parts when necessary or when I start having malfunctions. I hardly ever punch the bore other than to clean the chamber area, or if I use really dirty lubed lead bullets and feel guilty.

Field strip is generally all that is required. And, that usually gets all the places that get dirty, too.

Detail stripping is fraught with challenges.
Taking the sideplate off a revolver is easy--getting all the pins and bits and things to all line back up again can be complicated.
The striker & striker channel really are not exposed to powder, and are pretty protected--unless they fall in a river or the like, where there's a lot of particulates in the water. Ditto hammers and firing pins.

Now, some .lr pistols are absolutely filthy. Catch is, they generally work anyway, and don't really need aggressive cleaning (and anyone who has ever owned a Ruger Mark I, II, or III was certainly discouraged by even attempting the by-the-manual field strip []).

I learn how to pull the extractors and clean out the channels there. Only needed once in a blue moon, but there is always a lot of crud in there. My approach to other parts, that are not field stripped - maybe once a year, I hose down parts that might move or have springs, sear and hammer area, trigger bar, springs etc - spray them down with CLP/Ballstol is what I use, then I just let it drip for a while, and then spray out the excess with canned air, wipe any excess off and done. I do the same thing with say a rifle trigger group - or the internals of a revovler. I'm not taking it apart if I don't have to, but do want to give it a clean and have it with some lube and protectant on it.

I feel like this makes it a little less likely to pop a spring and slow wear etc, but I don't know if it makes a difference.

As an owner, I understand the desire to be able to perform the occasional - meaning as needed - "deeper clean" than field-stripping.

However, as someone who served many years as a LE armorer, for a variety of firearms designs, and who helped maintain, service and repair a few hundred issued weapons ... I've seen more "problems" caused by excessive, exuberant and untrained "cleaning and lubrication", than I've ever seen resulting from any actual problems with the guns.

Yes, it's not uncommon to hear even experienced trainers and armorers opine that a dirty/wet gun will generally run better and longer than a dirty/dry semiauto ... but (there's always a "but" ) ...

It depends on what someone means when they say "wet".

I've seen excessive amounts of solvents, CLP's and lubes introduced to pistols, and end up where they aren't intended to be introduced/use, and then the accumulation end up gathering fouling, grit and debris which eventually turns in sludge or heavy grunge that interferes with the normal operation of the guns.

I remember one user managed to cause his fairly new (2 years old?) issued 4566TSW to start having the hammer to fail to hold in single action while he was shooting. It followed the slide, but without firing a subsequent shot. Just kept returning to DA. They brought it to me, and I stripped it down and inspected everything. The area in the frame housing the trigger bar, hammer, disconnector and sear - which was supposed to be dry - was coated in a thick wet, blackened "goo". When i cleaned it all off, I saw that the parts and assemblies didn't appear visibly damaged or worn, or otherwise out-of-spec, but as good as you'd expect for such a lightly used gun in good condition. I reassembled the gun and performed the usual bench checks for functioning, which were all good.

I gave the gun back to the issued user, and the instructor who had brought the problem to me, and had witnessed the hammer-follow, and told them to back downrange and re-shoot the same course-of-fire, using the same ammo, and tell me the results. The gun now worked exactly as designed, without any further problem. That confirmed, I asked the issued user to describe his usual cleaning regimen. I believe I told him something to the effect that cleaning the gun was NOT supposed to be like cleaning and washing off his car, and explained a practical cleaning and lubing practice. (Less is more when it comes to most applications of solvents, CLP's cleaners and lubes.)

Okay, now when I went through the SIG pistol armorer class (think Classic P-series pistols), they did repeatedly tell us that SIG's were "wet" guns, but they also clearly described what they meant by "wet". It didn't mean so wet that oil-type liquid lubes ran off the lubricated surfaces by force of gravity, or ran out and were wicked away by holsters or clothing. They told us the lubed surfaces ought to be able to be confirmed by sight and touch, meaning we could see a shiny surface and/or touch them and see they were just wet enough for normal functioning. Not so wet that the oil would run and migrate into places it ought not to be.

Now, some of the newer plastic guns can run just fine with as few as 5-8 small drops of lube judiciously placed in the appropriate spots. (Read the manuals.) Some may run dry, but don't overlook any spots a manufacturer may warn needs to be lubed (like the connector/trigger bar surfaces of a Glock, for example). Also, don't be surprised if a lack of lube between sliding/impacting surfaces may result in accelerated wear and tear. Especially if it involves steel on aluminum. When in doubt, follow the gun manufacturer's recommendations. Some manufacturers may devise different recommendations based upon a specific end-user's (think agency) expected operating environment, or any special (harsh) environments. Ditto recommendations for periodic inspections and service intervals, and when it comes to recommended intervals for replacement of "wearable parts".

I've also seen my fair share of folks who thought they needed to have their issued guns cleaned better than normal field-stripping made possible, and they ended up damaging the guns by their earnest, but uninformed and untrained efforts. Sigh.

One guy, who really fancied himself a "gun guy", ended up dropping off a freezer bag filled with most of the parts for his issued duty pistol. He said he'd not been able to get any farther in his complete disassembly, but was then unable to reassemble it.

He dropped it off when I wasn't at the range armory, so I didn't get to express the joy I felt when putting the gun back together (filling in the missing parts), after carefully inspecting everything to make sure he hadn't damaged the gun beyond repair.


Some enthusiastic gun owners seem to think that being able to "work on guns" is something contained within men's DNA.

If that were the case, I'd probably not have seen so many factory-provided class guns accumulate so much damage in armorer classes.

Not an expert. Not by any means. Not even a gunsmith. Just a factory-trained LE armorer. Just someone who was interested enough in guns and shooting to get my former agency to foot the bill in sending me to so many armorer classes, and who was thereafter tasked with helping support and maintain a fair number of working guns. I was just one of a number of our guys and gals trained as armorers for various firearms used in LE. Granted, I eventually lasted long enough to have become the senior armorer before I retired. (A significant part of the motivation for me was to become trained to support and repair my own guns when I eventually retired, too. )

I'd suggest watching a couple of YouTube videos on disassembling and cleaning your gun. When I was a noobie I got into trouble on a couple occasions just trying to follow the instructions in the operator's manual for the gun.

In general with newer guns, I may not ever detail strip. But if I pick up some old C&R gun, yeah it gets reduced to a discrete pile of parts once for inspection.

A lot of cleaning/lubricating can be accomplished without even having to field strip a pistol. Much of the innards can be accessed with Q-tips, a toothbrush and a rag. You can clean the barrel from the muzzle if you employ the cleaning rod judiciously-much like you have to do with a revolver. This isn't to say that a more thorough cleaning won't eventually be necessary, depending on how much lead is expended downrange, but it is to say that it's not necessary to tear down a pistol for cleaning each and every time you shoot it.

Cliff6 said:

Thanks. I am assuming that you spray enough that at least a little runs out carrying most of the dirt with it?

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Oh yeah. One Shot costs a few bucks. Revolvers cost hundreds of bucks. Don’t be cheap with the cheap stuff.

Cliff6 said:

Not sure this is where to post this, but here is my question.

The manuals for all my pistols show how to disassemble for cleaning. That's good, BUT, there are still a lot of moving parts that are not cleaned in this process. How often should a gun be completely cleaned? Any recommendations on what to use? ....or am I just being OCD and I should just use small brushes, Q-tips or whatever without any further disassembly?

Thanks
Cliff

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On Mine, Glocks and an Uberti..I field strip and clean and lube where Glock says to. Every once in a while I'll take the striker out of the Glocks, clean and re-install(likes to be dry)..
For Uberti..cylinder out, clean, barrel, etc..cylinder back in.

In many rounds fired, have had maybe 3-4 minor malfunctions in all 3 Glocks I own. Never had one in my Glock 17/4...or my Glock 48...few in Glock 42 that was ammo related.

Depends on the pistol.

Glock and 1911 slides can be stripped completely without doing any harm or wear to any of the parts involved. Cleaning the extractor thoroughly makes a huge difference in reliability to both of these platforms. So I detail strip the slide after every single session that requires a field strip.

But I rarely detail strip a Glock frame. Knocking the pins out seems to be a wear issue IMO. And the frame really doesn't need it as much as the slide. It'll get stripped for trigger spring replacements. That seems often enough.

The 1911 frame is pretty easy to get apart, just the MSH pin is a pita. Try not to shoot the detent across the room. I only do the frame of my 1911 yearly, unless it's been through a 3000 round class or something.

I don't think I've ever detail stripped my Kahr or J Frame. Both have low round counts, and appear to be a pain.

FFGColorado said:

On Mine, Glocks and an Uberti..I field strip and clean and lube where Glock says to. Every once in a while I'll take the striker out of the Glocks, clean and re-install(likes to be dry)..

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I mostly shoot a Sig P320 and I basically do the same. I'll also pull out the FCU now and then and wipe it down, but I don't disassemble any further. There are Youtube videos where folks completely break down the FCU for detailed cleaning, but they make it look easier than it is.

I have seen Glocks rendered inoperable from too much lubrication and poor cleaning technique; the firing pin channel was so clogged with gunk the weapon would have light primer strikes and not fire consistently or at all.

Fact: 99% of gun owners shoot only modern, smokeless ammo with non-corrosive primers, from guns of modern (20th century and newer) design. What this means is that in practice, cleaning of any kind is really unnecessary at the round counts of the average shooter.

A friend of mine told me he has never cleaned his Glock once, aside from wiping it off every so often with an oily rag. He has shot at least 8k rounds through it. Not even a field strip.

Do I field strip and clean my guns anyway? Yes, every so often. But unless there’s a problem, I’d never go further. They’re just not designed for it.

All of the above does not apply to black powder antiques, which were designed to be taken apart completely or almost completely, and cleaned after every use. This is because black powder leaves residue on almost all parts of the gun between the initial ignition and the smoke, and that residue is hygroscopic, meaning that if it is not cleaned off in a timely manner it will cause all the metal to rust.

It also doesn’t apply to old ammunition (1950s and earlier) or military surplus ammo, which is often primed with corrosive primers. These deposit salts in the barrel which will rust the bore, chamber, and breech face if not dissolved with hot water or solvent in a timely manner.

So basically, cleaning your gun fairly thoroughly was necessary until relatively recently in firearms history, but nowadays it’s not -and designers exploit this to make better guns -but which are a royal pain to detail strip, since such is almost never necessary.

My signature line “A man’s got to know his limitations” is there for a reason.

Educate yourself on the guns you own or plan to own. Acquire books and schematics on disassembly and reassembly. Videos are great, but can be a pain in the rear when you end up spending more time replaying the video to see how something is done than if you had a book or detailed description.

Listen and learn from those with experience and always get more than one opinion. That’s not being rude, it’s being diligent.

You will want the proper tools. Gunsmithing screwdrivers, brass punches, light weight hammers, tweezers, Armorer’s blocks, soft jawed vices, etc. The tools you use on your vehicles and around the house are definitely not the right tools for working on guns.

Also, just a side note because I am thinking about it, they call the Dremel Tool “The Gunsmith’s Friend” for a reason. That reason is because new gun owners use them and damage parts and have to take their gun and parts to a gunsmith to fix whatever damage was caused by the owner using a Dremel Tool.
Guess how I know.

Guns cost a lot of money. They are an investment of sorts. Protect your investments by taking care of them and taking the time to learn about them.

The few times I've had to go beyond field stripping, I'll just remove the wood parts and dunk the rest in an ultrasonic cleaner bath. Don't know if that's safe for poly pistols, but I'm a blued steel and walnut kinda guy.