Am I the only person who cleans his guns?

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I clean my Mauser after every time I shoot it. I detail strip all of my other guns after I shoot them (not hard with a Marlin bolt action .22) except revolvers. It is just a question as to how long after I shoot them, meaning how many times I took it out again, that I get to them.
 
I "mess with" my guns a lot, and because o that I tend not to use the truly "good stuff."

I have seen a lot of military guns with finishes removed because people were beaten into "getting any black off" and have had to clean a lot of guns very harsh-like daily, even though they sat next to me indoors all day.

Cleaning a gun to a certain point is good, no doubt about it. I myself field strip a gun, run some brushed over all of it and a boresnake through the bore until I can see the rifling real well and leave it at that.
Once in a while I will detail strip it, brush it and leave it at that.
Daily brass brush cleanings are not something I'm going to subject my finish to, even though just about every Marine I've eveer talked to will tell you is a failure waiting to happen.
Incidentally all the guns I treat this way run best when dry. Let's just say that I like running my guns dry, and mildly dirty, simply because the specific ones I have perform best like that.
Now, if I had a finicky precision rifle I'm sure I would treat it differently. Seeing as I have a RIA Compact ... no reason to treat it like that.
 
All are cleaned-except for the old .22-within about a week of use. Especially the M-1 Garand.

If you recently installed a Tech Sight on an SKS, after how many rds. do you remove this sight, in order to clean the bolt carrier etc? My interest is to prevent rust and cumulative mechanical wear.

One thing is for certain: if each SKS had been built in the US, not only would they cost much more, but people would neither neglect nor abuse them so much.
 
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If you recently installed a Tech Sight on an SKS, after how many rds. do you remove this sight, in order to clean the bolt carrier etc? My interest is to prevent rust and cumulative mechanical wear.
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Not a Tech Sight, but I had a B-Square scope mount on my Norinco for years which prevented the receiver cover from coming off. I shot about 2000 rounds per year through it for five years (I miss those $50 crates of 7.62x39) without taking it off. Two or three times per year I would remove the trigger group and stock which gives pretty good access to the receiver through the hammer cutout. Compressed air, brake cleaner, and RemOil did a good enough job of cleaning things out. When I finally did remove the mount there was no rust or abnormal wear, just a bit of crud in the recoil spring and inside the bolt carrier.
 
I clean all of my guns after each and every range trip. I guess I started doing this long before I went into the military, having started shooting at about age 12 or so with surplus rifles using corrosive ammo. This was back around 1960. I always thought a clean gun was a better functioning gun, and nothing I've seen since that time has changed my mind.

Frankly I can't understand letting a gun go until it stops functioning before cleaning it. How often do you change the oil in your car or truck? I change mine every 3,000 miles and I currently have 285,000 miles on my primary vehicle and it still runs like a top.
 
All my guns are clean right now. Next weekend something will be dirty. Most times I'll do a quick field strip and just run a patch down the tube. Cursory wipe down and put them away.
If it's only been 50 rounds, I don't bother.
 
The best way to address the OP's question is to observe some behavioral and skills trends ongoing, at least as I see it.
Since I was a kid, I was mechanically inclined and motivated (by my father) to engage in all things mechanical. I service and modify my cars, do work around the house, build computers and the like.
I'm also kind of neat an tidy. Was always that way. I think it's in my DNA as well as my fathers Army training washing over me. And being a Navy guy didn't hurt either.
But as I get older, I observe that the number of my contemporaries who are either mechanically willing and able and/or have an attention to detail and cleanliness seems to be waning. Fewer and fewer men and women seem to care as much about these things as our predecessors. They call for a plumber instead of doing it themselves. Or throw something away and buy new instead of fixing it. And it's these two qualities that are needed to take good care of their guns. Both the desire to keep things clean, and the ability to engage mechanically to do so.
So as the number of gun owners increase and the total of people with the skills and desire to maintain them shrink, the OP's observations will grow.
B
 
If anyone wants a real Adventure In Gun Cleaning, they should pick up one of the "untouched" Martini-Henry .577-450 rifles from Nepal that IMA has imported. These were stacked in an arsenal in Katmandu before 1900, and haven't been touched or cleaned in 130 years or so. Some of them turn out surprisingly well, once all the grime and yak grease are cleaned off.
http://www.ima-usa.com/militaria/an...short-lever-rifle-1880-s-dated-untouched.html
 
Some people are just cleaners. My FIL scrubs his grill down with windex and paper towels every time he uses it. Same with the miter saw and the pressure washer. I've never seen outdoor power tools so immaculately clean. Every hunting rifle he owns (and that's quite a few) gets cleaned at the beginning and end of hunting season, shot or not. I don't think he owns a gun with a spot of rust or fouling on it anywhere. And bully for him.



It is impossible to fully express my distain for the average gun owner who never seems to clean their firearms.
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I'm pretty sure the language filter wouldn't let me type my response to that. Guns are machines, not little people. I'm not denying them anything they're due by not cleaning them. Gun cleaning for any purpose other than preventing corrosion is for the benefit of the owner, not the gun. Kinda like a funeral is for the living, not the dead because they don't care anymore.


I clean my guns when the mood strikes me. I carry a Glock so that I don't have to worry if a ball of pocket lint is going to jam it when I need it. I've sold dirty guns before to people who looked them over carefully, saw the dirt, and bought them anyway. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
 
But as I get older, I observe that the number of my contemporaries who are either mechanically willing and able and/or have an attention to detail and cleanliness seems to be waning. Fewer and fewer men and women seem to care as much about these things as our predecessors. They call for a plumber instead of doing it themselves. Or throw something away and buy new instead of fixing it. And it's these two qualities that are needed to take good care of their guns. Both the desire to keep things clean, and the ability to engage mechanically to do so.
So as the number of gun owners increase and the total of people with the skills and desire to maintain them shrink, the OP's observations will grow.
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I wonder. I've done the gear-head thing since I was young. Disassembled and reassembled engines, transmissions, transfer cases. Serviced every vehicle we've ever owned myself, and upgraded/modified a good many of them, too, including building custom suspension parts. Learned plumbing and electrical work in the field and by the code. Design buildings and run construction projects for a living. Make knives, handload ammo ... hell, I even delivered two of the kids myself here at home (though my wife says she had a hand in it).

And that's lead me to think a lot about efficiency and reliability and the ways things really work. And to test things out and see where the rubber really meets the road.

So when I want to find out how reliable a 1911 might be, I may just run it week after week in practice to see when it really starts to become unreliable. Then I know, or have a pretty good guess, when it would happen again. I run guns and put them away dirty and pick them up next time and check for rust or other problems, and shoot them, taking mental notes of any poor performance or other issues. After years of that kind of testing, I've come to believe that -- now that we're using non-corrosive priming compounds and minimally fouling gunpowders, this habitual cleaning obsession is really pointless, if not counterproductive.

I know, for an absolute FACT (to whatever degree someone can know these things) that I can run my xDM for 1,000 rounds straight without a stoppage or slowing, or even a need for lubrication (under most conditions). I expect I could get nearly twice that out of it without extra lube, but I don't know that for sure. I don't generally do that. Usually I'll clean it at the halfway point or so, knowing I have plenty of reserve reliability in that system before I could reasonably expect any trouble at all.

So what then is the point? I'm a pretty confident type of guy so I don't need to brag to anyone about how clean my gun is, and I know it's going to work through the round count I'm running, so I have no other reason to decrease my maintenance interval.
 
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This makes me feel a little better. We went to the range yesterday without cleaning since the last trip for the first time since we got the guns. They will get cleaned tonight, though. We put a box through each one on a trip, usually.

Both of my used guns were dirty when I bought them. And they had both been traded in by shooters with excellent reputations in our area. :confused: I suspect that they stopped in at the local LGS after a trip to the range to see what was there and traded in for something they fancied. They were both on consignment so the LGS owner just put them under the counter.

Watching a youtube video and then cleaning the gun, especially the P226, was an excellent way to get acquainted with it. With the Sig I was completely unfamiliar with autoloaders (and a little intimidated) so taking it apart and cleaning and reassembling it took the mystery and uncertainty out of it. (I'm just talking about field stripping and cleaning under the grips; they will get a thorough cleaning at the shop by a pro when the time comes.)

I like cleaning the guns. We sit at the table and the Boy cleans the 38 special and I clean the Sig and we chat. Quality family time :)
 
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Sam1911 said:
I wonder. I've done the gear-head thing since I was young. Disassembled and reassembled engines, transmissions, transfer cases. Serviced every vehicle we've ever owned myself, and upgraded/modified a good many of them, too, including building custom suspension parts. Learned plumbing and electrical work in the field and by the code. Design buildings and run construction projects for a living. Make knives, handload ammo ... hell, I even delivered two of the kids myself here at home (though my wife says she had a hand in it).

And that's lead me to think a lot about efficiency and reliability and the ways things really work. And to test things out and see where the rubber really meets the road.

So when I want to find out how reliable a 1911 might be, I may just run it week after week in practice to see when it really starts to become unreliable. Then I know, or have a pretty good guess, when it would happen again. I run guns and put them away dirty and pick them up next time and check for rust or other problems, and shoot them, taking mental notes of any poor performance or other issues. After years of that kind of testing, I've come to believe that -- now that we're using non-corrosive priming compounds and minimally fouling gunpowders, this habitual cleaning obsession is really pointless, if not counterproductive.

I know, for an absolute FACT (to whatever degree someone can know these things) that I can run my xDM for 1,000 rounds straight without a stoppage or slowing, or even a need for lubrication (under most conditions). I expect I could get nearly twice that out of it without extra lube, but I don't know that for sure. I don't generally do that. Usually I'll clean it at the halfway point or so, knowing I have plenty of reserve reliability in that system before I could reasonably expect any trouble at all.

So what then is the point? I'm a pretty confident type of guy so I don't need to brag to anyone about how clean my gun is, and I know it's going to work through the round count I'm running, so I have no other reason to decrease my maintenance interval.
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So you're the guy who is selling the OP all of those dirty guns! :)
Actually, fair points all. But you may be helping me make my point. You're adept enough in mechanical design, maintenance and quality issues that you are actually testing your knowledge in delaying cleaning on a gun. Somehow, I doubt that most 'non-cleaners' are running similar tests using their experience to calculate the frequency by which they must clean and service their weapons.
OTOH, maybe I'm just hanging around with some lazy and sloppy guys.
 
I know a lot of people who don't clean their guns, I always try to keep mines clean after each use.
 
Most guys dont want to have a spare box of ammo in a caliber they no longer posess, so they take the gun out for one more range trip before it departs. That is usually the reason why IMHO.

Clean the carry bi weekly and the range guns every 500 rds is my usual methodology.
 
Clean mine every few hundred rounds. I have bought a used gun from the lgs that was not cleaned even though it was on display. That had surprised me, I would never sell a dirty gun.
 
I clean mine after each use. Its probably just brainwashing after being in the military. I have much more confidence in the weapon if it has been cleaned and function checked after each use. To me they are too expensive to leave unmaintained. It doesn't matter 5 rounds or 500 rounds. You wipe your butt after you take a dump each time no matter how much comes out.
 
I have a few fun guns that I'll clean twice a year or so, but they don't get shot much. My daily carry gets cleaned every thousand rounds or so unless for some reason the bore looks particularly bad, which has only happened once with some handloads a friend gave me to burn through after he sold his last .40.
 
2 Topicstarter, now you are not, because after every trip to range my gun room looks like ER surgeon room

however its a fact that due to high tech finishes and clean ammo, modern firearms do not require much cleaning. Also design is evaluating, firearms become more and more reliable.
 
I used to think I was lax about cleaning guns because I let them go for 500 rounds or more, which made them "dirty". After seeing truly dirty guns I think l'm pretty good! I had a friend show me an old airweight he bought that had so much gunk in it l'm amazed it still fired, .22 autos that l had to shake the dirt out of to get them to cycle, etc. If others want to scrub 'em every time they're shot that's fine with me but there's no need to project that belief onto others like it's the one true way to treat a firearm. I've bought dirty guns before (not filthy, but needing cleaned) and l've sold guns with the powder residue still visible. Different strokes & all that...
 
I'm not OCD about cleaning but they do get wiped down with an oily rag after each use or every 6 months. My carry guns get a visual inspection about twice a week.

I am not nearly as bad as I used to be. New finishes and better ammunition have made a huge difference.
 
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