Do you clean your handguns after every range session?

I clean my pistols immediately after every trip to the range. My Dad was a gunnery instructor in the Navy in WWII, and he passed-down his care and maintenance routine to me.

It's a ritual for me now. I really enjoy the smell of Hoppe's and the sight of a clean and "ready" pistol.
 
If I shoot more than 20-something rounds through a handgun, I will probably clean it.

If it's a carry piece or a HD, it gets cleaned if I shoot more than a magazine or cylinder through it.

Usually I shoot 50 rounds through six different handguns and clean all of them.

Sometimes I skip 22's, but they're just for fun.

Centerfires autos will get field stripped, cleaned, and lightly lubed.

Centerfire revolvers will have the barrel and each chamber swabbed out, behind the cylinder, underneath the star, etc. and a drop of lube down the rod the cylinder spins on.

I rub each one down with an oily cloth after I'm done.

I spend about five minutes per handgun. To my relatives who were in the military, my guns aren't "clean".

I'd rather leave a gun a tiny bit dirty, rather than put too much wear on parts by scrubbing them really hard for a long time every time I cleaned the gun.

None of my firearms has worn out yet. Some of them I've owned for 20-30 years, so it seems to be working.
 
I'm not even sure what "deep clean" means anymore. There are so many of these how often should I clean threads and there are so many answers. In this case handguns, I have a few that I shoot quite often, or at least often for me ( 2-3 times a month). For these that get shot often I will put them up after one range session and then clean them after the second session. Effectively they get cleaned every 150-300 rounds. A cleaning includes brushing breech face, feed ramps, running a few patches down the barrel, then clean ones. Oil barrel, slides, and other important areas. That's all I have ever done. If its a less used pistol and will sit for months until use again I will clean it after usage, but the cleaning regiment is the same.

-Jeff
 
I do, very basic, cotton swab solvent, bore snake, brush micro fiber wipe & oil. Only because its a nice relaxing time after a day out. Usually 2-3 handguns.
 
When these threads come up, I usually tell the story of my old Bianchi Cup gun built on an S&W 686. I was shooting hundreds of rounds every day and often just couldn't be bothered to clean it. It sometimes would get so dirty that I couldn't even touch it without immediately having to go shower, but it never stopped working, never incurred any finish damage, and never suffered from accuracy problems caused by bore fouling. So at least in some cases, a gun doesn't ever actually need to be cleaned.

Blued guns are a different story, of course, assuming you care at all about appearances. And carry/duty guns probably should receive regular attention, if only to keep your clothes clean!

These days, I rarely am sure how long it will be before the next time I shoot a particular gun, so I always give them at least an oily wipe-down to remove powder fouling and fingerprints. I normally run a boresnake through the barrel and chambers as well. On the rare occasion that I use jacketed bullets I will check for jacket fouling and chemically remove it if it has built up. Lead fouling just gets ripped out with 0000 steel wool on a brush. And lastly, unless I am sure that I will be using the gun again within the next few months, I will give it a light coat of RIG grease before returning it to the safe.

On a final note, I almost never touch the bore of a .22 LR. The rest of the gun gets the usual treatment, but with decent ammunition the bore stays protected by a layer of wax and removing it just means I'll have poor accuracy until enough rounds have been fired to restore it.
 
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Handguns and shoguns yes. Rifles it depends. Range toys yes if I’m checking my zero I’ll clean it then fire a fouling shot and put it away. I also zero cold. Takes longer but it’s the first shot from a cold barrel than needs to be on.
 
Rifles, pistols, revolvers, or shotguns; if I shoot one round or 1,000 rounds I clean the gun. Learned this at my Dady's knee in the 50s and reinforced by 22 years in the Army.
 
whatnickname said:
Admittedly, I’ve gone back and forth on this issue. When I shot competitively I would clean my handguns about every 500 rounds or when they started acting sluggish...whichever came first. Today I clean them after every range session. I just prefer to keep them clean and I’m a bit lazy too. Cleaning 22 pistols after 500 rounds is a real chore. Easier to keep the crud in the action to a minimum. Am I cleaning my handguns to death?
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No I don’t. I’ve read it isn’t necessary unless for carry pistols. I usually clean other handguns ever 2, occasionally 3 odd range trips, for manageability. That means about every 150 rounds. I think that’s sufficient.
 
Slamfire said:
Just yesterday at a Small Bore Prone match, I talked to a lady who also shoots Bullseye Pistol (with a 22lr, a 45ACP is way too much for her!). Her boyfriend provides the pistol and the ammunition. I know boyfriend, he is an amazing rifle and pistol shooter, but he is one of those who does not clean their competition guns until they malfunction! And guess what, lady friend's loaner pistol is malfunctioning.

I think it stupid to drive half and hour to two hours to go to a match and have the pistol choke because accumulated crud caused it to malfunction. So even though I will only fire 90 rounds through a 22 lr at a Bullseye Pistol Match, I clean the pistols before putting them up. I clean the bore, paying particular attention to the chamber. Feed and extraction is enhanced when the chamber is clean. Recently I purchased a five gallon air compressor, noisy bastard, but just wonderful for blowing out unburnt powder residue and old oil, from the tiniest nooks and crannies. I make sure all surfaces get saturated with some sort of powder solvent, (incidentally, I purchased a gallon of Liquid Wrench. It also dissolves powder residue) and then wiped off. This is for rust prevention as carbon against a steel surface will cause rust pits. Then I lube everything.

No rust on this M46. Had collector value till I had it drilled and tapped for an Ultra Dot!

View attachment 1081577


Putting away clean guns means I can leave them in the safe for years, literally, and not have to worry about rust. And I can pull them out, rapidly check to see if the lubricant has dried, and if the lube is good, the pistol is ready to shoot.

For your self defense gun, do you care that the pistol goes bang when you need it? I am surprised that actually LEO's are rather dismissive about keeping their firearms clean. A shooting bud of mine, a retired State Trooper, told me he visited the house of one of his troopers and pulled the pump shotgun from that man's cruiser. It was so rusted shut, he could not rack the fore end.
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I think there’s a huge difference between cleaning a firearm every other range visit, let’s say, versus never cleaning or “not cleaning until it malfunctions.” You are using an extreme to prove a point. It doesn’t answer the question as to whether one needs to clean every single range trip. My understanding is this is a military and policy policy, but not strictly a necessity from an engineering perspective.
 
I clean after I go to the range, every time. I feel better about putting away a pistol that I spent $500 to $1000 on back in the safe clean. I also can’t say when I’ll pick up that gun again; work and life change plans constantly.

It doesn’t take very long to run a few patches through the barrel, get the dirty grease and oil off the slide and rails, and put clean oil on.
 
Once upon a time I saw a post "Don't let the sun go down on a dirty gun".
Probably a Marine who wrote that, and though I am an (ex) Navy aviator, I have a lot of respect for Marines, and I know that they know their way around weapons far better than I do. So i defer to their expertise, and clean my weapon after each firing.
They haven't led me astray so far.
 
I used to but not anymore. Reliability is way up on these new generation pistols. I will occasionally clean and grease them but not every session.
 
Guns that I take to the range on a weekly basis (mostly 22lr or 9mm) are only cleaned about every fourth range trip. Guns that only go to the range infrequently get cleaned every time so they do not sit in the safe dirty. EDC guns get cleaned each week whether they have been shot or not.
 
Been using Iosso bore cleaning paste recently. It really works. Even after using a solvent like Hoppes and getting a clean patch, then use the paste directly on a nylon bore brush (Iosso also makes brushes) and scrub back and forth. Run clean patches through. You can't believe there's still more grime.
 
I was taught from a young age by my dad, “if you take a gun out of that gun case, you clean it after you use it so it is ready to go for the next person who wants to use it.” That’s how it was growing up. No exceptions. Handguns, shotguns, or rifles, it didn’t matter, the treatment was the same.

As a youngster, had been shooting my Dad’s Sweet Sixteen through my teenage years and he shot his old Remington Model 11-48 12 gauge. He bought it in about 1950 and the barrel and action was always kept clean per the house rules. He finally said I had to use the 12 and he was going to shoot the 16 as we grew older. The 11-48 began to have some issues cycling after heaven knows how many thousands of rounds he put through it, but the barrel and action were still mirror clean. He sent it off to Remington and ask them to please repair it as it had been his go to shotgun for many decades. They sent it back to him about three months later completely rebuilt, no charge. They figured anyone who would take that kind of care of their shotguns and simply wear out the action is deserving a “new” condition shotgun and thanks.

Heard that story a few times and there was never a dirty gun in the gun case.

There are no dirty guns in my gun case, either. Obsessive, probably; guns ready to go, always.
 
Yep...If it was fired, it gets cleaned...and thoroughly wiped down for anti-rust purposes. Recreational shooting aside, I want my guns to work when called upon...keeping them clean reduces the chance of a malfunction in time of need. Best regards, Rod
 
Like many others here, I was in the USMC, and we were taught to always clean our weapons. I always clean my guns after every range session. My wife, not so much. She only shoots revolvers, and the worst that happens to her is that the cases might stick in the cylinder.
 
Zygodactyl said:
A drill Sgt pounded it into our heads 52 years ago. Take care of your weapon before you do anything else. No matter how tired I am when I get back from the range, I clean them all.
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Hangingrock said:
In the USMC cleaning a weapon was almost article of religion!
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Bruce D Pease said:
Sure do. Drummed in by my Gunny and before that my dad and uncles. I love the smell of hoppes!
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dawei said:
Rifles, pistols, revolvers, or shotguns; if I shoot one round or 1,000 rounds I clean the gun. Learned this at my Dady's knee in the 50s and reinforced by 22 years in the Army.
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Pistolay said:
Like many others here, I was in the USMC, and we were taught to always clean our weapons. I always clean my guns after every range session. My wife, not so much. She only shoots revolvers, and the worst that happens to her is that the cases might stick in the cylinder.
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All this incessant over cleaning mistaught in the military is neither for the benefit of the gun nor the soldier....
 
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