To clean or not to clean?

if your friend has a safe with a dehumidifier im sure it helps too. I don't clean my ak very often but Ill shine a light down it every now and then to see if corrosion is taking place. Between the chrome lined barrel and low humidity in the safe, all the powder residue just kind of sits on things like dust.

no doubt in my mind id have a much worse problem with it if there wasn't a de humidifier in the safe

Depends on purpose and how long it's ganna be before I shoot it again.

Ruger old army, she gets a bathtub scrubbing every time she goes out.
Ak not so much.
AR not so much

Duty and carry pistol every time.

See my point?

I knew an older Scottish man who insisted changing oil in a car was a ploy buy the oil companies to sell more product.

I know a few people who never bathe, others who never clean their house.

My guns, especially my primary hunting gun, are VERY accurate and I wipe out the barrel with at least light oil and a dry cloth if not more every time I shoot.

Why? Because they belong to me and if I keep them clean there is absolutely no question what is going on inside the barrel.

Besides, if you truly like firearms and shooting in general then the little required disassembly, cleaning, and wiping down of your firearms should be a relaxing and enjoyable part of the shooting experience.

Can you see it now, at Quantico? Relax men - don't clean those rifles, they'll be just fine.

There is a reason!

I clean after shooting everytime, that's just me.

I clean pistols and revolvers. Rifles not so much.

I'm in the "very seldom clean" group.

Last weekend when I came back from the range I swabbed the bores of an M1A, a BAR, a Model 70, and a Model 700 PSS for the first time since the 1990's just because I was bored. The M70 had just a tint of copper.

They've all been shooting perfectly for over 15 years with no changes in performance. The M700 has been regularly winning our club's monthly benchrest competition since I bought it. That's not saying a whole lot, it's pretty small potatoes, usually 10-12 shooters max. However, that does mean that I have a record of its' groups over that time. First time I shot it in 1997 I had a .268 group at 100 yards and .641 at 200. Last week it shot a .273 at 100 and .628 at 200.

It's going to be aggravating if it changes now that I've cleaned it.

On second thought -

I clean my barrels constantly, but I don't use a brush or solvent.

I use a copper jacketed bullet at 2,700 - 3,300 FPS.

I use a copper jacketed bullet at 2,700 - 3,300 FPS.

Click to expand...

Now that's cleaning!

I keep the bolt face of my bolt action clean. Every hundred rounds or so I may clean the chamber. Can't remember the last time I put something not a bullet down the barrel. It's not that I don't care, it's that I haven't seen any value in it.

and yet, hundreds of rounds later, it's still a .5moa rifle.

Times I would clean include: long term storage, suspected foreign object in barrel, troubleshooting a noticeable unaccounted for decrease in precision. Outside of that, I think you add a greater variable by cleaning than by not.

That's for me and my needs though. Taliv's post on different shooting styles applies.

What I'm getting from this thread is that it's wise to inspect often and clean when the look of the bore alters.

If there is obvious rifling and some scattered fouling "dust"? Leave it.

If it's becomeing increasingly difficult to see the rifling or there are obvious patches of deposits that do not belong? Yeah, time to break out the bore brushes and suitable solvents.

The info on the benchrest clan is interesting. They produce a consistent environment by another means than what some of us are suggesting. They clean often and shoot a couple of fouling shots to move the cleaned barrel back towards a repeatable steady state situation for a group. Then they start over with a clean bore and fouling shots.

So it seems to me that the key item here is that we shoot from a state of repeatable consistency.

I was chasing accuracy around in circles for the first 4 months of owning my first precision rifle.
I would clean the gun then go shooting.
10 or so rounds into my session I would be getting great groupings.
I figured that I was getting comfortable behind the gun.
By the end of the day the (5 shot) groupings would be down around .25 MOA.
I would go home and clean the gun and start the chase all over again next time.

After speaking to a friend he suggested to not clean the rifle and see what it would do the next time out.
The next time out I was with a couple of friends.
I pulled out the rifle and it was a perfect day with no wind and a nice 70 degree temperature.
I set up at the exact same 200y bench and put the first shot right through the X ring. The first group was .34moa and the following groups were in the same neighborhood.
I have not cleaned the rifle since August.
I have hidden away my bore guide so that my cleaning urges don't get the better of me.
YMMV

For my .22lr, I only clean the chambers when I start to get FTF or FTE, but never the bore unless I have reason to believe there is some type of foreign stuff in there (mud, leaves, etc). I do clean the bolt every couple hundred rounds, more because the soot tends to get all over me and everything I touch after shooting a dirty RF.

For the AK/SKS, I will clean the bore if I am not sure of the ammo - I have seen some that was listed as non-corrosive and most definitely was. I am not sure how much accuracy suffers with a cleaning, since mine are not that accurate to begin with.

For other centerfire rifles I only clean when accuracy drops off. My .308 for instance takes at least 5 rounds or more to settle down after cleaning, and those fouling shots are absolutely all over the place.

CF pistols get a scrubbing if I can see lead deposits, otherwise I leave them alone.

I clean handguns far more often than long guns. Their short barrels can't straighten out a bullet that has been pushed off line by some gunk in the bore. And most pistols weren't as reliable as long guns when I was learning to clean weapons. So keeping them clean meant keeping them working. Pistols are a lot more reliable now but I still clean them often. The majority of the gunk that builds up in a weapon is around the chamber area of course. That means a bullet can be altered very close to the point of fire and there just isn't enough barrel to put it back on line. That's my theory anyway. I don't actually know if it's valid. i just know I clean my handguns more often for this reason right or wrong.

Like many others, I never CLEAN my barrels unless it loses accuracy and I'm troubleshooting the cause. I DO run a couple patches of WD40 or something to prevent corrosion here in the tropical jungles of Louisiana.

I give my hunting rifle a good cleaning after every season. This makes me feel more comfortable about abandoning her for several months...

In regard to bore cleaning, I say whatever works for you and your accuracy requirement is what you should go by. Non corrosive ammo of course. However, Have handled multiple semi auto firearms that get sluggish when dirty. So especially for a weapon you are trusting your life with, keep it lubed and clean in the action.

Some guns will shoot dirty forever, some won't.

Know your equipment.

I clean the bore of my .22's once in a blue moon. I always clean my centerfire pistols, rifles and shotguns barrels. I'm not necessarily convinced they need it, except in the case of corrosive ammo, but it's fun.

I always clean the action of any firearm.

Quoted for earlier post on this thread"

"Actually some barrel makers do tell you not to clean often. They state that barrels must be coated with lube and when you mix lube from type of ammo with another type you can have serious accuracy problems."

This is certainly interesting. Please list who those barrel makers are. Many of us would like to know.
Thank you

A good and interesting thread. I have been cleaning everything after shooting it. Pistols and rifles. The Mosin has to be cleaned out as the ammo is corrosive. The others I do just because I've heard over and over to clean them all the time.

I haven't been doing the brush thing, just a #9 soaked cloth through the barrel then dry ones... and I was always concerned it seemed I could work on a gun forever and always get 'more' black out of the barrel on a patch, but it appears that's not really an issue.

Clean them.

Charger442 said:

Barrel manufacturers are never going to tell you not to clean. Its their job to sell barrels.

Click to expand...

My Marlin 60 manual says you never have to clean the bore. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. If I do, a few fouling shots and it's back to driving tacks.

If shooting jacketed bullets I clean the bore usually before I leave the range.

If shooting my cast lead bullets lubed with my own lube I rarely clean unless leading is apparent.

Normally it is the latter that I shoot anymore.

Clean.
Corrosive residue is always cleaned that same day (takes ten min.), and normal residue within a week or so.
The longer we wait, the less motivation there is.

What surprises me is that sellers expect a potential buyer to make an offer on a dirty gun (only five on the table....).
I never made an offer on a gun with a dirty bore, unless a rod and patches were brought along to then allow a realistic evaluation.

I don't want any of my guns to look like the types belonging to those sellers.

I am old enough to remember the general pervasiveness of milsurp corrosive ammo, and even corrosive 22 long rifles. I still shoot corrosive ammo in some of my rifles. It is just easier to clean the rifle after shooting it, IMO.

If you need foulers, then fire 3 or 4 foulers and you are back in business.