Can storing a dirty gun damage it?

[22-rimfire]

I wipe them off before putting them away typically unless I have shot a lot. I seldom clean 22 rimfires unless they start jamming or they really drop off in accuracy. The only 22 that I really pay attention to is a TC semi auto and I try to keep the chamber clean.

 

[JohnKSa]

...I could add that it's a good idea to keep a log book on them. ... I make it a habit to at least check every gun at least every 6 months and a quick check of the log book lets me know if a particular gun is due for a 6 month check. ...the bottom line is; " keep an eye on 'em". Fired or unfired.

I think this is a good point.

I keep a record for each gun that includes rounds fired, rounds fired since the last cleaning, other service information, and anything else that might be relevant to the use of that particular gun.

 

[H&R Glock]

You did not say how much corrosive ammo you have shot in it! One round- CLEAN IT

 

[Walkalong]

It sure can, although it often doesn't.

 

[entropy]

There's another thread running regarding how dirty WWB is, which prompted my question. I clean my guns after I shoot them, regardless of how few rounds I put through them. I'll always do that for my carry guns. For range guns, can leaving them dirty for an extended period of time damage them somehow? Does the powder leave anything corrosive behind? There are times where I bring a number of guns to the range and one of them may not have that many rounds put through it. When time is tight, I'd rather wait until the next time I shoot it to clean it assuming I can do so without damaging it.

Do you own a Mosin? Shoot it with surplus ammo, don't clean it, let it sit for a short while. It can rust and corrode in as little as 2 hours in the right (or one could say, wrong) conditions. Guns fired with newer ammo, probably not as urgent. Cleaning is generally a subjective matter, as the varied answers here will attest.

 

[thebaldguy]

Yes.

Condensation/moisture can cause rust and ruin a barrel.

 

[bearcreek]

Yes.

Condensation/moisture can cause rust and ruin a barrel.

I believe the thread is about storing a gun dirty. Condensation doesn't form because of powder, lead or copper residue.

 

[Walkalong]

No, it doesn't cause condensation, but it does attract/hold moisture from the air and can corrode because of it.

 

[Yo Mama]

There's another thread running regarding how dirty WWB is, which prompted my question. I clean my guns after I shoot them, regardless of how few rounds I put through them. I'll always do that for my carry guns. For range guns, can leaving them dirty for an extended period of time damage them somehow? Does the powder leave anything corrosive behind? There are times where I bring a number of guns to the range and one of them may not have that many rounds put through it. When time is tight, I'd rather wait until the next time I shoot it to clean it assuming I can do so without damaging it.

So that was my thread, and glad you as made this one.

Yes i was passionate about the dirty wwb because ive seens guns put away dirty and came out bad. A relative of mine recently showed a collection passed down from his relatives he had not taken care of and they were rusted horribly.

Now was this winchesters fault? No. It was the owners fault for not cleaning them. We live in the desert so it was not humidity that did it either.

In the end i was raised to clean them every time you shoot them. Maybe once a year if they didnt get range time. Especially a gun i have for defence its getting cleaned no matter what it will be spotless before it goes back in my holster.

 

[hdwhit]

TomJ wrote:
Does the powder leave anything corrosive behind?

No.

But, what is left behind by fired powder doesn't have to be corrosive to become problematic. When you clean a gun according to most manufacturers' instructions, the last thing you do is run an oil impregnated patch down the bore thus leaving a film of oil on the now-clean metal. The oil film makes it harder for corrosives in the atmosphere (including moisture) to get to the metal underneath. When you shoot a gun, that oil film is stripped off either through combustion or mechanical means as the bullet travels down the barrel. And what is left on the surface of the bore are combustion by-products, some of which are hygroscopic (i.e. they attract moisture).

You can immediately see the contrast.

When you clean a gun, you remove combustion by-products that attract moisture and cover the bore with an oil film that protects it. When you shoot and gun and then store it without cleaning it, you leave behind by-products that attract moisture and leave the bore with no protective oil film.

 

[CoalTrain49]

I clean my shooters about every 200 rds. Sometimes that may take several weeks or maybe even a month. The guns are stored in a heated room with a dehumidifier in the safe. I don't think it's necessary to clean every time after you shoot, but it probably doesn't hurt anything.

 

[John Joseph]

I leave .22 bores alone until accuracy starts to drop off, but various crud can and does compromise reliability. The soot WWB and other 'range' ammos are noted for can bind up a DA revolver if left unchecked. Likewise plastic deposits from shotgun wads can build up to the point of raising pressures in shotgun barrels. Leading in handgun barrels can ruin accuracy. Copper deposits--- the thicker they the harder it is to remove.

Treat your firearm like baby and don't put 'er away dirty.
Learn to properly clean your gun so you don't harm it.
If you have the time to shoot it, you've got the time to clean it.
If you take care of it, it will take care of you.

 

[Sam1911]

The problem with the above statements is that they take on an air of moral imperative which is wholly misplaced.

Treat your firearm like baby and don't put 'er away dirty.

This, for example, is simply nonsensical. A firearm is not an infant. The parallels are tortured at best, and pointless.

If you have the time to shoot it, you've got the time to clean it.

Patently untrue. I often shoot matches knowing full well that I will not have time to clean my gun that day, and -- more importantly, that cleaning them before the next outing would be completely irrelevant to how well they'll perform the next time out.

A very apt analogy would be your car's engine.

If you've got time to drive it, you've got time to change that oil when you get home! Why don't we change the oil every time we drive our car? Because that's unnecessary. Change the oil when it actually needs to be changed. Not every time you dirtied it a little.
Would changing it after every drive make the car last longer? Oh sure! But nobody does that and a car is worth FAR more than almost any firearm.

If you take care of it, it will take care of you.

Hopefully so, but know just how much taking care of it really requires. Don't go overboard and get righteous about it unless you're just looking for another hobby to kill time.

 

[RAEIndustries]

If its a dry climate or climate controlled storage it will be fine for quite awhile

 

[Rshooter]

In the Marine Corps rifles were over-cleaned. I was reading that for Garands the ME is sometimes more to do with improper cleaning than shooting.

 

[vito]

I clean my pistols after a day at the range, or periodically (like once every year or so) if not used. But my one and only shotgun, a Mossberg 500 that I only shoot very rarely and keep it as a "just in case" type gun, hasn't been cleaned in the last few years and has had about 200 rounds fired through it in that time. For me the reason is that I find putting this particular gun back together after taking it apart for cleaning is really tough. If everything is not just exactly right I can't get the trigger housing back in properly. So I don't clean it and I don't worry about it. I assume that as a simple pump action gun it can get pretty filthy before it affects the function of the gun.

 

[Sam1911]

In the Marine Corps rifles were over-cleaned. I was reading that for Garands the ME is sometimes more to do with improper cleaning than shooting.

The military has somewhat of a reputation for using routine tasks like cleaning a rifle or cleaning a bathroom floor or polishing boots or folding bed linens as means to develop discipline in raw young recruits. Yes the drill instructors often will require a white glove cleaning of a rifle issued during basic training. To the extent that rifle parts are carried into showers or steam cleaning benches and scoured until not a fleck of lint or grease or oil or anything else is left in the mechanism.

It has been noted that combat units who use their firearms regularly have a much different approach to cleaning them.

Someday I'm sure I will finally hear from a fellow who says, "my Drill Sargent would kick my butt if he found out that I didn't clean my bathroom floor with a toothbrush every morning! So I do! Just before I roll up my pairs of socks in a row and spit polish my boots, and then go out and police my front yard for cigarette butts on my hands and knees."

Surely somebody out there is still doing all the stuff their D I insisted upon!

 

[RedlegRick]

The military has somewhat of a reputation for using routine tasks like cleaning a rifle or cleaning a bathroom floor or polishing boots or folding bed linens as means to develop discipline in raw young recruits. Yes the drill instructors often will require a white glove cleaning of a rifle issued during basic training. To the extent that rifle parts are carried into showers or steam cleaning benches and scoured until not a fleck of lint or grease or oil or anything else is left in the mechanism.

It has been noted that combat units who use their firearms regularly have a much different approach to cleaning them.

Someday I'm sure I will finally hear from a fellow who says, "my Drill Sargent would kick my butt if he found out that I didn't clean my bathroom floor with a toothbrush every morning! So I do! Just before I roll up my pairs of socks in a row and spit polish my boots, and then go out and police my front yard for cigarette butts on my hands and knees."

Surely somebody out there is still doing all the stuff their D I insisted upon!

My drills weren't that picky about it. CLP always lifts crud up later, and the climate at Sill lent itself to internals rusting. We'd get gigged mercilessly if we were caught with our rifles in the showers. They had other ways to torment us instead.
Cleaning can be taken to extremes, but I look at it this way. I spent a lot of money on my weapons, and it behooves me to take the best care of them I can.

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I don't see leaving a gun dirty as failure to take care of it.

 

[Walkalong]

I routinely put "dirty" pistols away. I do wipe them down well with a rag full of RIG grease first, but do nothing to the bore. I don't want to put them away with my sweat on them. Some days I only bring SS pistols to the range because I know I'll be sweating profusely. I still wipe them down with a rag and follow with a rag full of RIG grease.

Pistol bores simply don't need cleaning very often.

Rifles too, there is usually no need to clean after every single outing. Your usage and accuracy needs may vary. Target rifles? Sure, give the bore a light cleaning after use.

Always wipe them down well. I have seen too many rusty guns not to wipe them down well after use. YMMV.

 

[entropy]

For me the reason is that I find putting this particular gun back together after taking it apart for cleaning is really tough. If everything is not just exactly right I can't get the trigger housing back in properly. So I don't clean it and I don't worry about it. I assume that as a simple pump action gun it can get pretty filthy before it affects the function of the gun.

And as a gunsmith, I have seen Mossberg 500's, Remington 870's, Ithaca 37's and Winchester 12's all brought in because they malfunctioned due to non-cleaning. If you don't know how to disassemble/reassemble your 500, bring it into your gunsmith once a year, (or more depending on rounds fired per year) and have them do it.

Using the car analogy running in this thread, your Mossberg is an ambulance; A just in case vehicle, but when you need one, you need one. Are you going to wait until the engine seizes up on a life-and -death run before you change the oil? No, you'll have that ambulance maintained by a shop so that it works as needed when needed. Or if you are like me, even though you hate changing the oil, you know how to do it, so you do it.
Oh, and it's your life that's on the line with your gun, keep that in mind.

As has been mentioned, yes there is such a thing as over-cleaning, but this is far preferred to waiting for weapon failure to clean them.

 

[caribou]

Be aware of corrosively primed ammo. The salts used in the priming , with every shot, will be spewd last down the barrel, after the bullet and powder are pushed out and burnt.
The salts are hydroscopic, and draw water from the air as well as being residues with unburnd powders, will rust with a coating of oil over them.
This priming is not in general use anymore, but American Ammunition made before WW2 and eastern block ammo was corrosively primed untill the 90's, and there are .22lr that are still corrosively primed for deep cold weather biathlon target shooting.
Corrosive priming has the advantage of more reliable ignition in deep cold, something I know it very true.

If you do shoot corrosively primed milsurp ammo, its VERY easy to clean. I use boiling water poured down the bore to dissolve the salts and flush them from the bore. Then a scrub and another flush, dry it and oil it.....done.
Boiling hot water has the advantage of heat , and in heating the steel, its self drying and does so very quickly, and is a quick and simple cleaning. No rust from the limited exposure to water, either.

I used corrosively primed ammo for many years, with no rusting problems at all. Now I do so when using my black Powder weapons, and its a habit I dont regret.
If you use milsurp corrosivly primed ammo, you will need to clean the bore after 1 or 1,000 shots.

 

[Ironicaintit]

I inspect and re-lube a lot more often than I clean. Even the BHP I carry everyday and practice with regularly, rarely gets more than a field strip, brush off any chunks, and oiled.
Rifles of mine that see regular (but sporadic) use may not cleaned for quite some time, but so long as the deposits are oily, they stay soft and haven't been an issue (for me...yet)

Now, if something gets put away in the safe, it's going to be clean, wiped down and oily before it gets there.

My 10-22 on the other hand....I treat it kinda haphazardly and it may even border on neglect. But it still gets oiled.

 

[TomJ]

Most of what I shoot is what I load myself, using BE86, HP38 or CFE Pistol. From time to time I'll order 9mm ammo from Ammovalley. It's pretty inexpensive, about $140 per 1000 rounds and I have no idea what powder they use. Thanks for all the feedback. As I said, I've always cleaned them after shooting them regardless of how few rounds I shot, and what I'm reading confirms this is the right thing to do.

 

[Fleetman]

Guns that typically primarily reside in the safe were cleaned and oiled before stored; shooters are always wiped free of prints, etc when stored but, depending on what it is; i.e. may only get "cleaned" every 500 rounds or so, AR/AK's easily triple that cleaning regiment.