How do you clean your handgun?

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I thought we has determined in the other thread that we don't clean our guns...

I am in the just add oil and keep going camp.

New walk behind lawn mower emgines are like that. Never change oil, just add when needed.:what:

It's only 22lr that don't get cleaned. They use magic self cleaning powder, lube and lead bullets!:eek:
 
I lube with ... 3in1 oil.

I like clp too, but don't have any other than a trial bottle I the original stuff.

Frog lube sucks.

Ballistol stinks to high heaven.
Remember, CLP is a category of product, not a brand. I'll assume your CLP comment is in regards to BreakFree CLP, but 3 in 1, Frog Lube, and Ballistol are all CLP's.
 
My take away from that article seems to be different than yours.

It's not that he went 6,000 rounds between cleanings, folks can choose to do whatever they want, the point I was making by linking to that article is if you use a CLP, as a CLP, to Clean, Lubricate, and Protect, the more you use it the easier it gets to keep your gun clean.

In this instance, he wiped off nearly all the "crud" with just a paper towel. He didn't soak his gun overnight, he didn't degrease it, he didn't use some harsh chemical, he didn't spend 30 minutes with a bore brush on his barrel. He wiped off the crud. If it was a little stubborn, he used a little more CLP.

The more you use a CLP, without stripping it all off with some kind of degreaser, the better it works. That's the takeaway I got from that article, and the procedure I use. I normally clean my guns after every time I shoot them, but it is little more than some patches through the barrel, and wipe the crud off the gun with a paper towel.


I remember Bill Wilson recommending dunking 1911's, (with the grips off) in dupont prep-sol. The formulation may have changed since then, the stuff used to be around $100 a gallon. Prep-sol will degrease to the point the pistol will rust if not immediately coated in oil! I am sure prep-sol removed all crud, oil, and plastic. I am not a proponent of aggressive degreasing, I think Bill was recommending Prep sol because it removed everything from all corners. As long as the crud is removed, I am not going to have to use GM engine top cleaner to remove baked on residue. My primary concern is removing crud. I am of the opinion that crud build up will cause function issues, whether or not the stuff is in solution or is moist. At some level of crud build up, function will be affected, but I don't know that level. Pouring oil over crud will keep the stuff solvated, until such point, it won't stay solvated.

So what the shooter did, firing 6000 rounds, every 1000 rounds oiling the pistol, but not wiping the crud out, will work fine in practice, until such time, it no longer works fine in practice. Some shooters go very long periods between cleaning, I have handled one Ruger MKIII and the owner purchased cases of 22lr, would shoot thousands of rounds at time at the range, could not remember when the last time he cleaned it. It had a lot of crud, but would function. And when it stopped going bang, that was the point at which the owner would clean the thing. Which is fine for practice. I do know that once the oil evaporates, carbon residue from gunpowder will attract moisture, and that will cause rust. I clean all my weapons before putting them away, because it may be a very long time till I pull that one out again. My match firearms are always cleaned, even though they get used several times in a month during the spring, summer, and fall, and I arrive at every match with a clean and lubricated firearm. Cleaning the mechanism though, is primarily wiping off, or blowing off, what ever is on the surface. Now that I have an air compressor I can blow out internal parts better than I could before, and I see dirty oil come out of the trigger mechanism. My S&W M41's get compressed air right through the firing pin channel, to remove any oil accumulation, which reduces the firing pin strike energy on the things. I had misfires directly attributable to having the firing pin and spring floating in oil. It is very hard to remove the firing pin and spring out of these match 22 LR's and wipe out the oil build up. Take a look at the slide strip procedure S&W never intended the owner to remove the firing pin or spring. I am so grateful that someone posted how to do it, because I had to. When I am done wiping, I re oil, or re grease, depending on the application.

Barrels always get patched with a solvent, a brush, be it brass or nylon, and then wiped, and reoiled. I want clean chambers, and I don't want copper build up. My RIA 1911 is pretty bad about copper build up, so I regularly use JB Bore paste on the thing. My good match 1911 barrels, I seldom see build up, so they get solvent, a couple of passes with a bristle brass, a clean patch, and re oil. None of these require aggressive degreasing, such as Prep-Sol.
 
The primary agent in Ballistol is medical grade mineral oil, which is commonly used in laxatives, baby lotions and vaginal lubricants.
I found the smell nauseating and the performance unimpressive.

There is something in there that smells like coconut oil. For the price, it was over priced.

Is not medical grade mineral oil the same as "Baby Oil"?
 
Field strip, Q-tips, and toothpicks. Add your favorite solvents. I prefer Hoppes, Clenzoil, and Mobil1, depending upon the situation.
Every 10 cleanings or so, disassemble and clean the mags.
Every 100 cleanings or so, pull and clean the firing pin and spring.
Final lube sparingly. Less is more. (More or less... : )
 
Field strip, Q-tips, and toothpicks. Add your favorite solvents. I prefer Hoppes, Clenzoil, and Mobil1, depending upon the situation.
Every 10 cleanings or so, disassemble and clean the mags.
Every 100 cleanings or so, pull and clean the firing pin and spring.
Final lube sparingly. Less is more. (More or less... : )
this. and the only thing I do different than the OP, is I run wet patches through until they basically come out clean, before going for a few passes with a brush. If the first patch after brushing is not very dirty, I am done brushing and run dry patches until clean and and oily patch.

The other night I was watching a few videos on instructions on cleaning and I was not impressed. People dumping solvent and scrubbing it all around with a brush and just spreading the fouling everywhere, to each their own, but - you can just wipe that off with a patch with a little sovlent on it and then it is not on your firearm any more which is the idea, instead of sloshing it and spreading it everywhere, made no sense to me and I saw the same routine in several "instructional videos".

If your mindful IMHO about where fouling collects on your firearm, it makes cleaning it in future passes much faster.
 
Mine get lubed up if it looks like they’re getting dry, but I don’t clean my pistols all that often really.

But when I do clean them, it’s a field strip, everything gets a spray of M Pro 7 cleaner, wiped off, and lightly coated with M Pro 7 oil.

The bore might get a spray too, followed by one or two passes of a brush and then followed with light oil.

I’d bet my cleanings take less than 10 minutes.
 
There are so many products that you can lubricate your guns with and have them work, it gives rise to a lot of people who swear by this that or the other because it has "never failed".

I use a tiny bit of Lubriplate on the linkage or locking lugs and a tiny bit of light weight motor oil - like 0W10 on the rails and its never failed me.

For cleaning I use equal parts ATF, kerosene and heavy mineral oil - a variation on Ed's Red. I don't buy the tiny bottles of mineral oil from the drugstore, which is expensive, and usually that is light mineral oil, I purchase it by the gallon at Farm & Fleet.
 
With tons of ammo, but consuming just 30 or so 9mm rounds per club visit (- I enjoy my AKMs/VZ-58 much more -), my 9mm handguns don't get very dirty.

When home I wipe the outside with Ballistol, but wipe everything I can reach on the inside after approx. 100-200 rds. Poke Q-tips into recesses of frames, and inside slides, otherwise patches.
Then smear a very thin bit of Mobil One on rails.

No failures yet in my proofed Sig P225 (* Not a P6), CZ PCR, Walther P99 AS or S&W 908....except due to the truly crappy, o_O bizarre American ammo known as "Forged", by Winchester.
 
Three levels of cleaning.

1. Wipe/brush off loose fouling. Run a few oiled, then clean patches down the bore. Lubricate as needed, including a thorough wipedown of the exterior with a very lightly oiled rag. This level doesn't have to involve field strip, but it can. Usually there's no dedicated cleaner involved at this level. Often just some gun oil or maybe a little CLP. This takes a few minutes.

2. Field strip. Clean everything accessible so loose fouling and hard fouling is removed. Clean the bore to remove carbon fouling. Metal fouling may remain. Lubricate as needed including a wipedown of the exterior once everything is clean. Perform a basic function check. This level of cleaning will involve something like a CLP or maybe a nitro solvent cleaner. This takes maybe half an hour or so but can be done a bit faster if there's a rush, or may take awhile longer if there's no hurry at all.

3. Detail strip. Clean every part completely. Clean the bore completely removing all fouling including metal fouling. Lubricate everything as needed, reassemble. Perform a full function check. This level of cleaning will involve at least two cleaners, a nitro solvent or CLP and at least one kind of bore solvent that is effective on metal fouling. This takes a while. How long depends a lot on the gun--some I can detail strip & reassemble in just a few minutes--some take a lot longer.
 
Three levels of cleaning.

1. Wipe/brush off loose fouling. Run a few oiled, then clean patches down the bore. Lubricate as needed, including a thorough wipedown of the exterior with a very lightly oiled rag. This level doesn't have to involve field strip, but it can. Usually there's no dedicated cleaner involved at this level. Often just some gun oil or maybe a little CLP. This takes a few minutes.

2. Field strip. Clean everything accessible so loose fouling and hard fouling is removed. Clean the bore to remove carbon fouling. Metal fouling may remain. Lubricate as needed including a wipedown of the exterior once everything is clean. Perform a basic function check. This level of cleaning will involve something like a CLP or maybe a nitro solvent cleaner. This takes maybe half an hour or so but can be done a bit faster if there's a rush, or may take awhile longer if there's no hurry at all.

3. Detail strip. Clean every part completely. Clean the bore completely removing all fouling including metal fouling. Lubricate everything as needed, reassemble. Perform a full function check. This level of cleaning will involve at least two cleaners, a nitro solvent or CLP and at least one kind of bore solvent that is effective on metal fouling. This takes a while. How long depends a lot on the gun--some I can detail strip & reassemble in just a few minutes--some take a lot longer.

This is pretty much me.

#1 for when I'm going to shoot again in the near future. Just make sure the internals and bore are wet. Bore will get wiped before shooting again.
#2 for when I'm not intending to shoot that gun in the near future, or the accumulated sludge from #1 is excessive.
#3 I would typically do about once a year or every ~1000 rounds. I'm probably going to break out the ultrasonicator and since everything is very clean and broken down, check headspace.

I'm not shooting precision matches so I don't get wrapped up too much in barrel cleaning. I want the carbon fouling gone and I always wipe the bore before shooting to get any grit out.

If I'm shooting corrosive ammo it's #3 at the range with soapy water followed by oiling. Then another detail strip a couple of days later to check for corrosion caused by salt I may have missed. Then another detail strip about a week later to check again.

BSW
 
I have used many things, from Hoppe's to Mobil 1 synthetic, to whatever new tech lube a gun friend of mine was trying to market as a startup. What I keep coming back to is Break Free CLP. A lot of that is because I keep overlapping my cleaning tools with army cleaning duties. But it works. I find it does just fine for all three jobs. There might be combinations that do the individual jobs better, but I haven't noticed a big enough difference to justify the extra items and steps. In particular, I found when I use motor oil, it doesn't stay in place as long.

I wet a toothbrush, clean all the moving surfaces, wet a brush and repeatedly run it out the muzzle-end of the barrel, dry everything as thoroughly as possible, and then put a minimal amount, like, wet the tip of my pinky and scrape it off onto moving parts surfaces, locking lugs, link, hammer, safety, etc. I reassemble, function check, and wipe off the excess. I live in a very dry climate, I don't really worry much about rust.

I have seen some guys go nuts. I think this culture of obsessive cleaning come from a generation of military guys who were required to keep guns surgically clean because of problems like corrosive primers, which really haven't been a thing for decades. I SAY, if it has to be surgically clean to trust it....how good is it really? I have seen guys do stuff like squirt shaving gel into frames and receivers and wipe until it's all gone, or throw all the stripped parts into the dishwasher. Give it a rest Zippy, it's clean enough already.
 
I field strip the pistol, then I do a first brief cleaning with clean pieces of old cotton t-shirts that I no longer use. Then I spray Sonax MoS2 Oil inside the barrel and on the breech face in the slide to dissolve the toughest gunpowder residues, leaving the oil to act for a few hours if necessary. Then I clean the barrel with a bronze brush, rinsing the brush in Avio petrol after each brush. I clean the rest of the gun with old toothbrushes, ear sticks and Avio gasoline. Avio petrol is recovered and reused until it is completely dirty. Finally, I completely degrease all the parts with a spray brake cleaner (recovering that liquid as well), dry well with a microfibre cloth, lubricate, reassemble everything and clean the gun externally with the microfibre cloth so as not to leave acid fingerprints and lint of any kind. When doing all this, it is best to wear powder-free nitrile gloves and operate in a well-ventilated room or use a protective mask.
 
I SAY, if it has to be surgically clean to trust it....how good is it really? I have seen guys do stuff like squirt shaving gel into frames and receivers and wipe until it's all gone, or throw all the stripped parts into the dishwasher. Give it a rest Zippy, it's clean enough already.
My one buddy used to field strip his UZI and MAC and threw everything (gun and parts) into the dishwasher after shooting corrosive surplus. Seemed a little extreme to me, but he said it worked great. I just rinsed mine out in the sink with hot soapy water and then clear, then shook it out, and then cleaned and lubed it as usual.

My MAC was "cheap" ($225 new) and the only squirt gun I had I would "knowingly" shoot corrosive out of. There were times you just never could be sure it was all non corrosive, so the gun was treated like it was and cleaned accordingly.

No way of knowing how much corrosive had been through my MP40 in the past prior to me getting it, and while it was a bit worn on the outside, at least it was properly cared for and didnt appear to have been abused. I normally did my best to try and make sure it and my MP5 only got non corrosive, but again, you just never knew for sure, especially when a lot of people brought ammo and you cant read the writing marked on the box. :)

The gun is clean enough when its clean. Unless of course, you just want to keep scrubbing. No one is saying to over clean, just suggesting you actually clean it.

Patches are like toilet paper. It all depends on whats left on them and what youre willing to accept as "clean" at the end. Sounds like everyone is different in that respect. :)
 
Field strip it,unless it's a revolver of course, swab barrel (and chambers if revolver) with hoppes #9, let set for a few minutes, the brush out barrel (and chambers) with bore brush. If a semi auto I wipe down internals on frame and inside of slide, run a few patches down the barrel (and chambers) then run a bore snake through them too. Oil it up with ballistol and/or shooters choice FP10 (mmm cinnamon), reassemble then wipe down outside of gun with my gun wipe down rag. That's about it.
 
My one buddy used to field strip his UZI and MAC and threw everything (gun and parts) into the dishwasher after shooting corrosive surplus. Seemed a little extreme to me, but he said it worked great. I just rinsed mine out in the sink with hot soapy water and then clear, then shook it out, and then cleaned and lubed it as usual.

My MAC was "cheap" ($225 new) and the only squirt gun I had I would "knowingly" shoot corrosive out of. There were times you just never could be sure it was all non corrosive, so the gun was treated like it was and cleaned accordingly.

No way of knowing how much corrosive had been through my MP40 in the past prior to me getting it, and while it was a bit worn on the outside, at least it was properly cared for and didnt appear to have been abused. I normally did my best to try and make sure it and my MP5 only got non corrosive, but again, you just never knew for sure, especially when a lot of people brought ammo and you cant read the writing marked on the box. :)

The gun is clean enough when its clean. Unless of course, you just want to keep scrubbing. No one is saying to over clean, just suggesting you actually clean it.

Patches are like toilet paper. It all depends on whats left on them and what youre willing to accept as "clean" at the end. Sounds like everyone is different in that respect. :)

This was a guy's Glock.
 
the question is how many people run a dry patch again before shooting? I think about it, but never seem to actually do this step, which I see recommended. In my mind I've put a firearm away read to shoot, so unless it sits there for 2 years, I pack for the range and just shoot them, clean and back into the vault.
 
My last patch is always dry. I dont leave excessive solvent in a bore. I also dont use oil in a bore.

If I were to put it away and not shoot it for an extended period, I might run a patch of Eezox down the bore and then a couple of dry patches. Thats what I use on my wipe down rags, and it works well, but I really dont think its necessary other than maybe long-term storage in unknown conditions.
 
the question is how many people run a dry patch again before shooting? I think about it, but never seem to actually do this step, which I see recommended. In my mind I've put a firearm away read to shoot, so unless it sits there for 2 years, I pack for the range and just shoot them, clean and back into the vault.

I do. I grew up in a desert and dust got into everything. I also leave bores a bit oily. Running a patch through the barrel takes care of both problems.

BSW
 
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