Where did you learn your cleaning methods?

Boot camp. And when you were done that sucker was clean.

Also in the field with some expedient modifications. It really wasn't possible to get a weapon "inspection clean" in the field, but I strived for "fully operational" clean. In 10+ months in unpleasant conditions I never had a weapon assigned to me have a malfunction.

Learning Gun Cleaning ?

Sitting on my sweet old Grandpappy's knee, so to speak. God bless him, and He is blessing him ! ><>

By my Dad. It was always done after you got home from shooting. Or if you didn't shoot while hunting you put RIG on the outside. NEVER the next day...no matter how tired, or how late, you did it the same day.

By my Dad, a WWII vet.

Although, in those days (late 60s), ten total rounds through his single-shot, bolt action .22LR rifle and/or one magazine of .45acp through his WWII 1911 was a good day's shooting.

Later on, by Uncle Sam. Methods and inspection criteria were very similar...imagine that.

I have seen it put here in a way that summarizes it perfectly: "Never let the sun set on a dirty gun."

My wife may have that put on my tombstone, and I wouldn't object a bit...

One day, when I was about 4, my dad showed me how to shoot. He taught me never to point the gun somewhere unsafe. Told me even when it's unloaded, treat it like it's loaded anyway.

That night, he showed me how he would disassemble that Ruger single six and swab out the barrel and cylinder with hoppes and q-tips, and oil the moving parts.

Over the years I've learned better techniques, tools and materials, but the lesson to always care for my guns, clean them every time you shoot them, and they'll always be there, be dependable when you need them, that's one lesson I've always tried to stick to.

Father and other relatives, all veterans, cleaning guns was serious business. A spot of rust was absolute heresy, and any gun fired must be cleaned that day, with very rare exception.

I learned the right way from the right teacher....an Uncle who had learned at the knee of the sages who learned before smokeless powder and non-corrosive primers. So I was taught to clean the things to the point of apoplexy......and do it again a day later as more fouling would 'sweat' out.

I also learned from this same man to never leave finger prints on bluing. As a result my blued weapons have held up well over time. The whole thing is really, very neurotic--but then again the man's weapons are mostly in fine shape and most of them ended up in my collection. So while I might let my 'own' weapons stay dirty, those left me by my Uncle are cleaned after each use. But really, I know that over-cleaning can do more harm than good....and I still let the AK's go dirty 'cause they like it that way!

I'm with P5, My first revolver back in the late 60's early 70's. I remember asking the old man 'who is now me", what I should use to clean it with, and e gave me the standard Hoppes, kit, the rest as they say is history.

CLP combo ....

I'd say it was a combination of military training/conditioning, research-reading, T&Es of different products, etc.
I've used many, many gun care products over the past 25 years or so.
As of 2015, my gun cleaning stuff includes: Froglube CLP(liquid), Hoppes #9 synthetic, Ballistol. It works well for my firearms.

YouTube.

Various tips and tricks picked up by mentors as well as peers in the military. A few things I learned on my own through trial and error. One thing I can say about being in the service is, it is very possible to learn something everyday. One of my newer guys was an armorer before switching MOS, picked up a few ideas from him.

From my Father

`Long before I was born he quit high school in 1929 and joined the Marine Corps. Sending cash home during the depression. Tour over and out. He was drafted into the Army at the start of WWII. He applied and got OCS. My birth, 1944. End of WWII father stayed in the reserves as a Capt. His unit was re-upped when I was 6 years old and he was assigned to Fort Bragg, eventually going to Korea. That is when he taught me how to shoot a handgun. That was when I learned how to clean a fired weapon. That was when most ammunition was corrosive. That was also when every unfired weapon was checked at least once a year. Wiped, and a light film of oil in the bore and on the outside.
Those circumstances taught me how to clean a weapon.
Although there is almost no such thing as corrosive ammunition now days I still do what my dad said to do.
The 60+ weapons I still own, some over 80 years old, still look good.

I learned pretty much from my older brother who had been in the Marines. Took awhile but eventually I came to like the smell of Hoppes No. 9.

Mostly from online and self taught.

My dad owns guns (though he's more of a "hunter" than a "gun person"), taught me how to shoot, and bought me my first gun when I was 7, but he used them strictly as tools. He had guns that hadn't been really cleaned in 20+ years.

His idea of cleaning was if he took his gun out hunting when it was raining and it rusted, it got a rubdown with some WD40 and an old sock. Beyond that they didn't see a cleaning until I became an adult and cleaned them for him.

Believe it or not, that bastion of liberalism, college!

Fella snuck a class onto the roster back in the early '80s called "The History, Use, and Maintenance of Handguns". We actually took them to school and eventually shot them at an indoor range too. The only class my dumb butt actually did well in.

First in Boy Scouts summer camp, where we had to clean the 22 single shot rifles after using them at the little range.

Later in USMC basic.

Uncle Sam taught me, U.S. Army, Ft. Knox, Ky. 1970

Talked to other gun owners, and then started experimenting with different products to find what works best for me.

I remember the day my dad taught my older brothers how to clean the shotguns he had just bought for them. I was 5 at the time. He knew I saw how to do it so he never bothered teaching me later on. I had seen my brothers do it plenty of times since anyway plus all the shotgun shooters in our backyard were very picky about how they cleaned their shotguns. We had a trap range about that time dad taught me brothers. Some guys brought in shotguns that cost $3000-$4000 back in the early 60's. They would cost around $25,000 by now I guess. Fine Italian and British shotguns mostly. They never shot those. We just looked at them. I have no idea where those guys got their money but I believe some of them were the executives at the railroad where my dad worked. I actually got to handle those guns too even when I was 5. My only instruction was "never touch the metal" because it could cause rust very quick if the acid in your skin oil was just so so that day. I've seen that happen too. I always make sure any gun that's had someone handling the metal gets a coat of oil where they touched it and that's after I rub off their skin oil. I learned all that stuff when I was 5 and that was 54 years ago.

Dad traded an old 16 gauge shotgun for a little Remington single shot rifle when I was about 5 years old. He started teaching me to shoot. Dad wasn't a sportsman. He probably never even thought about cleaning a gun! When I was a little older and started taking the .22 out hunting, I started seeing how dirty it was inside the barrel. I took some kite string and a piece of cloth, tied the cloth to the string, and cut it just small enough to fit the barrel of the gun. I tied a 'bobby pin' to the string so I could get the string through the barrel. I used '3 in 1' oil on the string. I'd 'saw' the string back and forth through the barrel. When the string got dirty, I'd tie on another and keep doing this until the cloth came out clean. I used this method until I heard about cleaning kits.

Like some, Uncle Sam taught me well! No room for I forgot! No room for

I`ll do it later! No room for it looks good to me!. No room for I just put a couple of rounds through it! No room for nothing except....get it done!!

Thanks Uncle Sam!!

I learned most of my gun cleaning techniques from the printed material inside the lid of many tin Outers gun cleaning kits. I still have two or three.
Potions change but the system remains the same.

From the owner's manuals for me - this was WAY before Uncle Al invented the Internet.