What's the average cleaning time on a .357 Revolver, .45 & 9mm automatic pistol

1911 .45

1. I run a Bore-Snake through two or three times on occasion between matches: 2 minutes

2. Sometimes when I am running late before matches I do a quick clean: Pop out the slide stop and remove the barrel and blast with carburetor cleaner and run a brass .45 brush through 20-30 times and rinse with Gunzilla and re-assemble with a little oil on top of barrel and down the slide rails. 10 minutes

3. Take all apart to clean down to the itty bitty pieces. 30 minutes

Do the hyper velocity rounds in .22 LR or regular velocity lead points mean you will have a harder longer time cleaning gun?

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.22lr seldom need cleaning. I clean them when they start to malfunction. Ammo shouldn't matter either. You specifically asked about lead, so I assume you're asking about leading. Never seen it in a .22lr.

As far as other guns, average is prolly around 10 minutes. If some sort of problem comes up, maybe more. Actually, it takes me a bit longer to do a .357 wheel-gun than any of the others you mentioned. I clean each chamber real good cuz I don't want to have to fight to load .357 when I've been shooting mostly 38spl for a while.

I cleaned my Ruger GP100 earlier this week inside and out and it probably took me about 15-20 minutes.

I can clean my Mini 14 in about 20 minutes.

Bolt actions are the easiest to clean, there's not a whole lot of moving parts to worry about and all the gasses and soot get blown out through the bore.

Are you shooting a lot of lead? I could see trying to get a bunch of lead off taking a lot longer?

I clean my guns maybe once a year. In between then I may fire off perhaps 5-10 high power rifle rounds, perhaps 50 pistol rounds just to make sure I am still on target, or to shoot some nuisance animal around my place.

When I finally do clean my guns I thing the AR takes the longest because you should get all that gunky stuff out of the locking lugs. That would take perhaps an hour.

A bolt action rifle, perhaps an hour or less.

A revolver, perhaps 20-40 minutes - depending on detail, removing all carbon from the front of the cylinder, etc.

A semi-auto pistol, perhaps 40 to 60 minutes, again, depending on amount of detail.

If I just want the gun clean and lubed, I can usually do that easily within 20 minutes. However, if I detail it with Q-Tips, tooth brushes, plenty of soaking parts in Hoppes 9 and good thorough lubrication and wiping it down, an hour would go by pretty quickly.

Fornately, my house is always very dry, so the guns seldom get rusty.

Wow, 2 hours for the bore alone on the Mini? It took me 2 hours to clean an AR 15 for the first time (the whole thing). I think you might be going after cleanliness a bit too much.

I think for my Mini 14 I usually run a solvent dipped brush through the bore 5-10 times and let it soak a bit and then run patches until it they come clean (5+/- patches).

I've never shot PMC .223 before so maybe it's just extra dirty? I've been shooting Wolf through mine for a while and, while it's dirty ammo, it doesn't seem to take a whole lot of extra time to clean it up.

This is very much a question that falls into the category of "it depends".

I often take longer to clean my guns than I should, mostly because I'm a perfectionist, and like to keep them looking new. However, that said, I'll provide the following figures:

1) Simple "functional" cleaning of a Glock pistol: 5-15 minutes. Detailed cleaning of the same pistol might take me 30-45 minutes, depending on how dirty it is.

2) I don't bother cleaning my .22 rifles until they've had a LOT of ammunition through them, or they start malfunctioning.

3) My bolt action rifles are easy to clean when I've used modern (non-corrosive) ammo in them. It is easy to access the bore on these rifles, and they don't have as many places for crud to hide as you might find in more complex designs. When cleaning after firing corrosive ammo I spend much more time. Lets say 30 minutes on a normal cleaning, or 1 hour for corrosive cleaning.

4) AR-15's. These guns kind of fall into their own category in my mind. I love shooting these rifles, but HATE cleaning them. Bolt lugs, carbon on the bolt tail, carbon on everything else, and plenty of tiny little places for gunk to build up. I'd say that I spend between 45 minutes and 2 hours when I clean one of these guns, depending on how detailed I want to be in the cleaning, and how dirty the gun was to start with.

Wouldn't have a clue...I'm usually doing other things while I'm cleaning guns of any caliber. Like preping cases for reloading.

I usually spend about 40 minutes to an hour per gun.

Wow! To field strip and clean virtually any semi-automatic I own ... maybe 15 minutes. Of course, I clean after each outing so there isn't a bunch of built-up gunk.

My Vepr probably takes the longest to clean, but I run a lot of cheap rounds through it.

I just did a mini "restoration" on a friend's 1950-ish 16 gauge shotgun in about an hour. That involved removing surface rust from the barrel and receiver, cleaning years of gunk out of the action and spiffing up the wood with OrangeGlo. I still need to replace the butt plate but that would have only been another minute or so.

If I am watching TV I figure on 3 handguns an hour, my .22 rifle is a 2 comercial gun; spray in crud cutter, let sit, wipe clean, lube, lightly oiled patch though bore, wipe down exterior, put away.

Wow! To field strip and clean virtually any semi-automatic I own ... maybe 15 minutes. Of course, I clean after each outing so there isn't a bunch of built-up gunk.


15 minutes is about right AFAIC. So is cleaning after every use. I'm usually cleaning a couple of guns at a time. If I swab a bore down with solvent it sits while I do the others. This gives the solvent some time to work.

My .357s take around 40 minutes. A bit more if I'm detail cleaning. That includes setting up the cleaning station, getting the tools out, cleaning, polishing, and putting everything away. This is an estimate because normally I just start the job and stay at it until it's done.

This is an enjoyable activity and I'd rather be cleaning my guns than doing most other things, so I don't pay much attention to the time.

I don't clean much, neither can afford to shoot much anyhow.

I think many people wear their guns out more by excessively cleaning them than shooting them.
This is especially true with guns in the military, which get cleaned so much that the bore looks like it has shot 10x more ammunition than it has, and has seriously worn rifling beyond it's years.
Sticking things down the bore a lot causes wear. Sticking hard things down the bore causes more wear (like many cleaning rods), but sticking anything down the bore still causes friction with particles of material and causes wear.

You don't want rust or heavy buildup rust can grow under, and you don't want salts from corrosive ammo or black powder. You want to remove salts from body contact, and other acid forming things. A light coating of oil keeps the oxygen away.
But all of that just takes a moderate cleaning.


A lot of scrubbing, chemical solvents, and lots of polishing all the time will wear your gun quickly.
So if you are cleaning your gun excessively to take care of it and preserve it, you may wish to rethink what is being accomplished.


There is both too little as well as too much cleaning.

I clean my guns only when they need it. Contrary to popular belief, they won't corrode into dust if they are not thoroughly cleaned after every range session. After shooting they merely get a wipedown. They get a thorough cleaning when it begins to affect function. Bores get cleaned when accuracy deteriorates. Obviously some will make the generalization that my guns are a disgusting cesspool of rust and filth and that is fine. Most folks have the "clean every time" ingrained in their brain and are unwiling to try anything different. Truth is, unless you're using corrosive primers or blackpowder, it is simply unnecessary. I shoot on my own property and shoot near about every day. If I thoroughly cleaned every gun every time it got shot, I would have time for little else and my guns would be worn out. Not from shooting but from cleaning.

Another popular misconception is that shooting cast or swaged lead bullets means leaded bores. I shoot lead almost exclusively and can't remember the last time I scrubbed lead out of a gun's bore.

.22LR's almost never need their bores cleaned. In fact, a dirty rimfire bore will almost always shoot more accurately than a squeaky clean one. In my over two dozen rimfires I have only ever had one lead the bore. That was my little Walther P22 and it only did it one time with Federal bulk.

I'm sure that one can "over clean" your firearms.

My Pop taught me to clean the little 22 single shot rifle he gave me when I was about 10. In his opinion, every shooting session was immediately followed by a cleaning session. (I think the DI drilled that attitude into him when he was in basic training.) My collection has expanded a good bit in the intervening decade, but I've continue that practice. I may be wearing out the bore, action, and whatever, but they all still shoot well and cleaning is an enjoyable experience for me.

I guess I could clean most of my firearms in about 10-15 minutes each, but I don't usually keep track.

I spend 20 to 30 minutes per handgun.