Clean your own guns?

There’s a very nice indoor $hooting range nearby that along with getting your morning latte & retrieving your guns out of your personal gun vault, shoot, & then drop of you dirty filthy guns for cleaning on the way out.
https://www.libertyrange.com/
https://www.coloradoguncleaners.com/gun-cleaning/

I'm very surprised that I'm the only one so far that has said that they don't need cleaning. Granted, I don't shoot nearly as much as many others, but I've never had a gun stop working due to being dirty. I'm not an expert shot, but I've also never noticed any degradation in accuracy from unclean bores.

I wipe them down after each use with a lightly oiled rag to ward off rust, and maybe a pull through with a lightly oiled bore snake if they'll be sitting for a good while. Otherwise they're left alone.

The last time I cleaned a gun was actually somewhat recently. I cleaned up the bolt, breech face, and receiver of my 10-22, simply because I wanted to see what it looked like clean. Didn't touch the bore.

My carry pistol gets cleaned every time I shoot it. My rifles get cleaned after about 500 to 600 rounds through them. My AKs get cleaned when I notice a problem.

I don't even want most people TOUCHING my guns. The guns that I truly depend on (for defensive purposes or hunting) that will really screw me over if they don't work are kept in the most ready state of cleanliness with proper lubrication- exactly how most people would want their gun to be if they were planning on a gunfight or hunt for a world record animal. The handful of guns that are designated "training" guns for range use only ( S&W M&P 22 rifle and pistol, a beater G17, AR, and SKS)- not so much. Not worth my time or the expenditure/price of cleaning items to maintain them the same.

Well, if I was a British laird and had a trusted servant to do the cleaning for me after a shoot, I guess I could play billiards or go wenching whilst knowing my firearms were in good hands. Since I'm not, they get cleaned by me after every firing, no exceptions.

I can't say that I particularly enjoy the chore, but I make sure the parts all go back together properly and the right amounts of solvents and lubricants are used as I believe they are supposed to be.

Does anyone have a local shop which is offering cleaning services? What’s the cost? I don’t think it’s common anywhere I have lived in the Midwest, but maybe somewhere there IS such a service?

Stores and shops offer basic optic mounting services because they sell optics, and often offer basic gunsmithing/repairs, but typically only on optics and/or firearms they sell. I’m not familiar with folks hanging flyers out for gun cleaning services.

Ive cleaned a couple guns for people. Ive also stain matched, stained, finished, and antiqued a repo buttstock for an 1855 Springfield pistol. Show me another paint store that will do that! If i buy a rifle and scope to go on it, I'll have them bore-sight it. But i can mount scopes too.

I clean some guns religiously and some not until they stop working. My nickel python or 1923 New Service get cleaned immediately after use. My sks has shot thousands of rounds of steel case with maybe one quick session with a bore snake in 20 years. The hunting rifles get cleaned well. 22s get cleaned more often due to the nasty powder buildup.

Now my trucks on the other hand, nobody touches but me!

Varminterror said:

Does anyone have a local shop which is offering cleaning services? What’s the cost? I don’t think it’s common anywhere I have lived in the Midwest, but maybe somewhere there IS such a service?

Stores and shops offer basic optic mounting services because they sell optics, and often offer basic gunsmithing/repairs, but typically only on optics and/or firearms they sell. I’m not familiar with folks hanging flyers out for gun cleaning services.

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I know my LGS does but I don't know what they charge. They don't advertise it but then they don't advertise scope mounting which they also do. They do not do gunsmithing.

I typically don't mess with mine all that much. If it's a long gun it'll get cleaned if it was used in the rain to prevent rust, or an interior cleaning if something starts not working right.

For handguns I'll clean them either when they start acting up or about ever 700-800 rounds (which is about when I've found they'll start acting up between cleanings).

I do know plenty of people though who have no idea how to clean a gun and don't do it unless something goes wrong then they'll pay to have someone else do it for them. I typically don't charge but I've cleaned guns for lots of family members who "didn't know how". Heck my dad recently said his Ruger M77 was hard to open after firing and I look my cell phone light and looked at it: rust in the chamber.

In general its something that needs to be done, but can also be overdone. A) costant scrubbing on the bore can wear the rifling a bit faster (not likely with cleaning patches, but some hard brushes with steel bristles and such can), and B) every time you take apart a gun for cleaning there's no 100% guarantee it's functioning right again until you shoot it a few times (which if you clean it every time its shot means you'd then lock yourself into an infinite cleaning cycle ).

I didn't have drill instructors. I had drill sergeants. But that is how my cleaning goes. I genuinely like doing it.

You left out “ I enjoy maintaining my firearms, and learning how they function and wear.”
I clean and inspect them after each firing.

What an amusing topic.

Ha ha ha.

I have cleaned a gun or two.

Dave DeLaurant said:

Well, if I was a British laird and had a trusted servant to do the cleaning for me after a shoot, I guess I could play billiards or go wenching whilst knowing my firearms were in good hands. Since I'm not, they get cleaned by me after every firing, no exceptions

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John "Pondoro" Taylor recommended cleaning one's own rifle on safari and not trusting a servant to do it and do it right. Greener leaned that way, too.

A late buddy, really bright guy, but a mechanical dunce, had me clean his guide rod equipped custom 1911, built on a Norinco frame. There was dirt in that thing in places Browning himself likely didn't know. I've helped other people with dry and dirty guns. It is a great mystery for new shooters. More of a mystery than we might realize.
Personal stuff; carry guns get cleaned, and/or delinted on a regular basis. Range toys, not so much...clean guns don't get shot.
Moon

I do it myself.
Not often mind you, but when it gets done, I do it.

theotherwaldo said:

I clean each of my guns on acquisition and after firing any questionable or black powder ammunition.
After that, I clean them after heavy use or in rotation.
I feel that more guns are damaged by improper disassembly and cleaning than by use.

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Get better screwdrivers

Bill Raby said:

Get better screwdrivers

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Actually, I rescue most of the guns that I get from folks that screw them up while cleaning or 'improving' them... .

It is possible to get a .22 auto TOO clean. When I first shot Steel Challenge, I dug out my SW Model 41 for the economical Rimfire Pistol division. Shot it some to check zero and then cleaned it REAL good before the match. It took about three magazines of wrestling with failures to eject before it got the chamber "conditioned" and started blowing them out properly. I have since taken to an old target shooter's trick of a drop of oil on the top round of the first several magazines into a freshly scrubbed barrel.

I don't get the "verify zero", hunt, "end of season clean" and lock in safe until next year, group.

I don't verify zero, I shoot monthly. Usually 40 rounds per sessions. Varying distances.

Clean rifle, reload brass, repeat.

Get those guns out there and SHOOT THEM.

Walkalong said:

Somewhere in between, so none of the above.

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I didn't vote as I am somewhere between the first two options. I don't let them go to the point that they quit working but I don't clean a gun every time it gets shot. If they get cleaned I am the one that does it.

Varminterror said:

Does anyone have a local shop which is offering cleaning services? What’s the cost? I don’t think it’s common anywhere I have lived in the Midwest, but maybe somewhere there IS such a service?

Stores and shops offer basic optic mounting services because they sell optics, and often offer basic gunsmithing/repairs, but typically only on optics and/or firearms they sell. I’m not familiar with folks hanging flyers out for gun cleaning services.

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Last time I asked, it was 150$ CAD per rifle. I bought some cleaning products instead.

I never disassembled my Browning BAR completely, but the bolt and pump guns I do regularly, as for the plastic fantastic Winchester Wildcat, because it's easy.