Am I the only person who cleans his guns?

[Picher]

There's an old saying, coined during the black powder days: "The sun must not set on a dirty gun."

Being a hobby gunsmith and a person who used to keep my varmint bore fouled during season and ruining it because it was stored in an apparently moist environment, I try to clean all my centerfire guns the same day they're shot, or the next at the latest.

There probably isn't going to be much corrosion on guns in the arid states, but here in the East, we have damp basements and very humid summers, so guns not cared for can pretty rusty.

All guns are wiped down that day, but .22LR bores aren't cleaned often, except for handguns, which are always cleaned. They don't really need to be, because the wax on all .22LRs will preserve the bore as well or better than most preservatives. (That doesn't apply to .22 WMR or .17 HMR rounds, since they're jacketed.) The biggest problem with .22 LR handguns is that they shoot really dirty, both revolvers and semi-autos, so they can have FTF or FTE issues if not kept pretty clean in the breech or cylinder areas. Buildup on the bolt and barrel faces are reliablity issues. Dirty cylinders cause extraction problems for DA .22LRs, but single-actions poke 'em out regardless.

 

[wingman]

We tend to live in a throw away society that includes tools, homes, cars, by and large growing numbers don't clean, use it abuse it and toss it, seems to be the motto. For me if I purchase a product with hard earned money I take care of it, but on up side it keeps the consumer based economy running.

 

[txgunsuscg]

I don't clean my guns religiously, by any means, but if I sell a gun, it gets cleaned well before I turn it over. If some guy just paid me a couple hundred bucks for a gun, the least I can do is clean it for him.

 

[zonzin]

I clean mine after every use or extended time in the wood. Thats the way my daddy taught me.




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[SharkHat]

I enjoy cleaning my guns. However, I tend to clean after every couple of outings, unless it's gonna be a while before they come out again.

 

[HOOfan_1]

Clean mine after every range trip, except for my hunting rifles, when I check the zero before hunting season I will leave them fouled, but will oil the outside. I just cleaned my deer rifles yesterday, mopped the barrel with Ballistol and then ran a dry patch through to get out the excess.

I can some Hoppes Copper solvent through my 30-06, about 5 soaked patches, all came out blue, then let it sit for 3 hours, when back out and ran a dry patch through, came out as blue as the windows XP task bar at the bottom of my screen. After I had finished cleaning out the Hoppes and went through with a few Ballistol soaked patches, I looked at the bore and saw shiny copper still in the lands.....:banghead: seems like all I did was polish up the copper still in there.

 

[Slamfire]

It is impossible to fully express my distain for the average gun owner who never seems to clean their firearms.

The number of firearms that I have seen that were never lubricated, never cleaned, put away dirty, exceeds by a large margin those that show obvious signs of care.

This poor pistol, which I bought, if only they had cleaned out the barrel. The previous owners, and I met them, had not. This was owned by a lady in her 70’s and it was her Grandmother’s pistol. The barrel is a sewer pipe.

 

[jblackfish]

It is impossible to fully express my distain for the average gun owner who never seems to clean their firearms.

The number of firearms that I have seen that were never lubricated, never cleaned, put away dirty, exceeds by a large margin those that show obvious signs of care.

This poor pistol, which I bought, if only they had cleaned out the barrel. The previous owners, and I met them, had not. This was owned by a lady in her 70’s and it was her Grandmother’s pistol. The barrel is a sewer pipe.

That's too bad but still a very unusual and great looking collector's item.

 

[ball3006]

I am a C&R junkie so therefore, I clean after every shooting session.....chris3

 

[timhernandez]

I clean after every range session. Saw a guy almost lose his life once because he didnt keep his weapon clean and it failed him when he needed it.

 

[MtnSpur]

Recently took possession of a 1976 Colt DS that on the outside looked new and bore was shiny as well as the cylinder chamber walls. Opened the cylinder and it seemed rather stiff but, ok, maybe it wasn't opened that much. Put some snap caps into it and cycled the action. Stiff. Hmmmm says I. Popped the sideplate and it looked like varnish on the internals . About and hour or so later and lots of Gun Scrubber, CLP, Q-tips, etc I buttoned her up and the trigger pull is wonderfully smooth, the cylinder opens and closes nicely and all is well. Just because someone cleaned the bore and cylinder chambers doesn't mean the gun is clean. So YES, I clean the weapon stem to stern and then some.

 

[Sam1911]

1976 Colt DS

Ok, to be very fair here, the vast majority of revolver owners shouldn't be pulling the side-plates of their wheelguns -- certainly not on an old Colt.

If you have the correct screwdrivers, and a light touch, and have an informed idea of what you're doing -- and you shoot the revolver a lot -- you might want to really clean out the wheel works every year or two ... or three. But those aren't designed and intended to come apart after every single use, and I'd consider it abuse if they did. (Not that I care what you do, per se, but that I wouldn't want to buy a revolver knowing that the owner did that.)

The issue you faced with a 35 year old gun is that the old lubricants had dried out and solidified and did need to be removed and the gun properly lubed. Once. If that had happened once a decade you'd not have had the problems with it you initially had.

 

[chez323]

I clean mine after every trip to the range just like dear old Dad taught me too. And if/when I sell a gun I make sure to give a good cleaning before I hand it over. Common courtesy if you ask me.......... guess it's not that common.

 

[Sky]

I am still someone who cleans after shooting because I may not shoot that particular gun for months on end. I am not as concerned as I once was as far as malfunctions go because of the range I go to.

The range has rental guns that are lucky if they get a few squirts of Breakfree CLP through them a couple of times a ????. I have actually cleaned a few of the range guns ( before they were sold) on occasion and like the AR you mentioned you purchased they were beyond dirty. The machine guns do get a squirt of CLP before they go to the range almost every time but even they to my knowledge never get cleaned.

The owner thinks if the weapons are used they tend to be self cleaning; probably some truth in that......His weapons his range so who am I to say otherwise or argue with success. The biggest effect all this had on me was to become a believer in Breakfree and not be paranoid about keeping a military spotless weapon......

 

[Robert]

Depends on what I am shooting and how often. Milsurp corrosive ammo will get a cleaning as soon as I get home. My competition AR will get cleaned at the end of the season. Some 1500 to 2000 rounds later. I don't keep an exact count.

 

[rodregier]

I clean occasionally/as needed. I don't shoot black powder or corrosive ammunition,
nor do I live in a warm, humid climate, so corrosion isn't a big issue.

If I was selling a firearm, I would clean it beforehand. A clean used product is easier to sell too

 

[mgmorden]

Depends.

My competition gun I typically clean the magazines after every match (they get dropped in mud, sand, etc and get pretty gummed up). The gun itself I typically will clean the barrel and give everything a light wipe down every 3 or 4 matches.

My other guns its an as needed thing. If they start developing problems, or if it gets rusty (ie, hunted in the rain or something), then I'll clean it. Other than that - never.

Naturally I make an exception for my black powder gun but it doesn't get out of the safe but maybe once per year.

I think for the most part though a little too much fuss is made over cleaning. I know people who have had guns that they shot for several decades without them ever seeing more than an old sock + WD40 on the outside to get the rust off, and those guns were still working just fine.

 

[postalnut25]

If I shoot something, it gets cleaned soon after. When I take my kids shooting it may take a few days to get all their guns clean, but it will happen. With my duty gun, it gets cleaned immediately after a range trip or qualification. Also, the duty gun gets wiped down and checked every week, or before the end of my shift if it got snowed on.

 

[Rshooter]

After being in the Corps and overcleaning guns for years I am careful to clean my guns after each range session. I do not scrub them and search out all dirt every time though. That's for quiet evenings when I have nothing else to do.

 

[788Ham]

Whats the big deal about cleaning a used firearm? My God, its not like its the same as a root canal. I was always taught to keep it clean, if you're going to use it, clean it. If I'm at the range for a session, soon afterward on my arrival home, I'll run some Hoppes down the barrel, let it set a few minutes, then continue to clean it with bronze brush and more Hoppes, simple as that. As far as taking ownership of a filthy firearm, if the dude can't clean it after buying and shooting it, what else has he subjected it to that you don't know about? Hoppes and cleaning patches are too cheap to not use, don't know about running tranny fluid and CLP through them though, mine never get that bad !

 

[Stophel]

I always figured I was the only one who ever cleaned his guns. I don't think I have ever seen a used gun for sale on a dealer's table at a gun show that was clean. Bores dirty, chambers dirty. Come on, man, you're trying to sell it, at least run a patch through it a few times!!!!

 

[rustedangel]

We tend to live in a throw away society that includes tools, homes, cars, by and large growing numbers don't clean, use it abuse it and toss it, seems to be the motto. For me if I purchase a product with hard earned money I take care of it, but on up side it keeps the consumer based economy running.

This is actually false, and a great (and often repeated) example of Frederique Bastiat's broken windows fallacy. In his original example, the argument was that having a stone break your window was good for the economy, because it caused you to give business to the glazier. In reality, if you were not buying a new window because it had been broken, you would have likely spent the money on a new suit, or a steak, or some other thing you wanted, and still had a complete window. So no, destruction of otherwise working goods does not improve the economy.

Now that said, I only clean my guns every 2-4 range trips. I mostly shoot a stainless Ruger Mk III and a Glock, and they just don't seem to me to need to be cleaned every time. In fact I think I could go a lot longer on cleanings for the Glock, but I figure if I already have my kit out I might as well.

 

[Mike OTDP]

I was raised on black powder. Which means that cleaning is reflexive.

That being said, I once owned a Walther GSP that would not cycle reliably until it had 20 rounds through it. Reliable as a brick after that, but it needed the fouling to slow the bolt down enough to pick up the next cartridge.

 

[snakeman]

as a general rule my shoot often guns get cleaned every 100 rounds. My hunting guns every
two months and my safe queens every 3. I do however clean my hunting guns every time they have blood on them or get the slightest bit damp.

 

[dev_null]

Even if it was a gun I didn't clean obsessively, I would certainly clean it before selling it. Not only common courtesy (which is about as 'common' as common sense), it's just good marketing.