How clean do you keep your guns?

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pak29

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I've heard folks on here say that they never clean their guns until they malfunction; others who strip their guns down after every range session. The middle ground is probably something like run a bore snake or a few patches through, and wipe off the soot, saving the major cleaning for later.

Personally, I am towards the obsessive end, and get every surface as clean as I can, just about every time I use the gun. I like the activity of cleaning, and getting to know the mechanism. I find it relaxing and enjoyable- not as fun as shooting, but good gun time nonetheless. I used to be a bike mechanic, and there's a lot of similarity in cleaning a gun to doing a lot of bicycle repair tasks - disassemble something fiddly; lovingly clean each and every piece, noting areas of wear and clever design; reassemble; lubricate lightly; listen to the sound of a perfectly conditioned machine cycling through its functions. :)

Where do most other folks stand?
 
the "middle road"

I clean the bore thoroughly after a shooting session unless I shot only a few rounds (10-15) and plan on shooting again in the next day or two. If, after a day or two, I haven't continued the session then I do the thorough cleaning of the bore.

I try to remember to do the chamber cleaning before I do the bore but sometimes forget and it's not a good idea to do those chores in reverse because then you'd get chamber crud into your brightly shining bore again.

As far as a total break down cleaning - rarely is a good way to describe it for me. My AR is broken down and cleaned after about 200-500 rounds. I have never cleaned the insides of any of the bolts of my bolt guns.
 
My .22 rifle hasn't been cleaned since I bought it. I avoid cleaning the .22 because I shoot mostly greased lead bullets and don't find any deteriation of accuracy over time.

My centerfire pistols and rifles are different though. I'll clean out and oil the bore every time I come back from the range. Always! I'll lightly clean out the action without complete disassembly. I'll only do that after a couple of shooting sessions or whenever I notice the action "feeling" dirty. I usually won't disassemble a gun unless there's a reason to.
 
Call me OCD but I clean my guns completely each time that I shoot any more than a single magazine through the gun.
 
I field strip and clean/lube after hunting or a trip to the range. How soon after the cleaning is actually done has steadily increased since having kids!
 
Ever since I baught my first AR-15 which was 29 years ago I have been obsessive about keeping my firearms clean and well lubed. It is almost therapeutic and calming, be it after 1 shot or 100 I will break down and thourghly go over my beloved weapons.
 
I have never cleaned my .22 rifles

My centerfire rifles I run the bore snake through them 3-4 times and oil the bolt if it feels a little stiff.

As for shotguns, depending on how many rounds I fire I usually take the barrels off, spray some WD-40 down the barrel and run a tampon through them. It only takes one pass.
 
I have wipedown guns and I have full cleaning guns:

Pump-shotgun is a wipedown. CLP on a rag and it all gets wiped down. Every maybe year or so the bore gets cleaned.
.22 revolver gets wiped down too. I'm a little more thorough on this one because it's SS not blued, so I get all the streaks off the areas around the cylinder and around the crown.

Everything else I disassemble and clean after every range trip. I suppose I wouldn't if I had only shot one mag and planned on going again the next day, but I don't see that happening.
 
Match pistols get a complete breakdown and cleaning every 6 months. AR every 500 rds.
Custom CF rifles get a bore cleaning (NO BRUSHES) after every 10-20 rds.
22LR-actions get a cleaning every 500-1000 rds. 22LR bores get a thorough cleaning every 50,000 rds or so.
 
Heh. When I had one gun I cleaned it religiously. Now I have more I don't.

Cleaned my 22 rifle the other day, took 50 shots to get it down to 1" (5 shot groups) at 100.

I don't even clean my carry gun, except sometimes. OK, it's a stainless revolver, doesn't need cleaning except for cosmetics.

So, yea, to answer the question, "when it needs it, and it needs it a whole lot less than most people think".
 
I sometimes get the sense that my rimfire guns actually shoot a little better when the barrel is dirty, after the first few dozen rounds through. Anyone else experience this? I think I may recall a competitive target shooter mentioning this, as well, but I could be imagining it (Then again, it could be a real phenomenon and I could be imagining that I have the skill to detect when the gun is firing less accurately than I am. ) Does the lube build up in the barrel and tighten things up a bit? Even so, could there be any harm in leaving the barrel dirty, as several folks have posted? It was my understanding that lead and soot buildup would corrode metal eventually.

(just simul-posted with the above post, suggesting other people do see this effect)
 
My weapons get a through cleaning, certainly after each use; and "safe
queens", periodically between every 3 and 6 months. I don't believe in
over doing it; but I like for them to be "squeaky clean", when I exhibit
them~! Heck, I even keep my Kel-Tec P3AT .380 ACP clean, and it has
a "Blue Wonder Armadillo" coating on it. ;) :D

FWIW: All of my firearms get a weekly rub down with a silicone rag:
with either Eezox or Break Free applied.
 
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I'm with you pak29. Something relaxing about cleaning. Could be I know it will go bang when I need it. I'm at the range at least twice a week and field strip and clean after each trip. Break down the inernals of the frame, slide and magazines every 3 months.

Dave
 
Stateside: Clean after shooting, clean every 3 months or so if I haven't shot it in that time. When possible, for my CCW, I clean and reassemble on the range, then fire 5 rounds before re-holstering.

On deployment: Clean it after shooting, clean it after mission, clean it once per week if the previous two don't apply. To me, "clean" means the patches, q-tips, and pipe cleaners come out light gray in color. Reassemble and fire 5 rounds if I have the facilities and extra ammo.
 
my rifles get cleande when they begin to malfunction or lose zero. My handguns get cleaned after every rence session. I normally run a bore shake through the barrel after shooting at the range and do a complete cleaning when I get home. My Glocks all have 2 barrels, OEM for real life and aftermarket barrels for practice.
 
After each range session, unless I only fired less than a dozen rounds or so. Even then, I'll sometimes just clean that gun because others are getting cleaned too, so while I have it all out, I'll just do it. It also depends on the ammo I'm using because I shoot a lot of lead cast. When I shoot that stuff, I clean the gun even if I only shot a few of those rounds through it.

I don't consider cleaning to be soothing. It's just such a chore.
 
Revolvers = Once a year whether they need it or not. I don't shoot them much any more except my 629. It gets cleaned before hunting season then after. It's a safe queen most of the time. My other revolvers have turned into safe queens.

Semi Auto loaders (pistols) Once every outting.

Bolt action rifle cleaned once before hunting season, once afterwards.

Ruger 10/22 once a year whether it needs it or not.

Black powder rifle and pistol cleaned after every shooting.

All the others cleaned rarely. They just don't get shoot that much.
 
Misplaced all the cleaning gear during a move a few years ago...
I guess I should probably think about replacing it.
I do have some oil, though.
p
 
I want my guns to be totally clean at all times. Whatever goes to the range gets cleaned ASAP. Guns that havn't been to the range also get cleaned every couple months.
 
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