Cleaning a stored gun before shooting?

[Drjones]

Hi all. I have now accumulated four pistols, thanks to you guys!

I do not shoot them all when I go shooting, nor do I shoot that often. (I know, I know....start shooting more you say!)

I don't even need to tell you that all my guns are of course stored thoroughly cleaned and lubed.

That said, do you clean/lube them again before shooting after they've been stored a while?

What is your routine?

 

[Airwolf]

Everything gets stripped and cleaned after the trip to the range.

Before heading out again we'll do a quckie check, field strip, check lube, reassemble and wipe down.

 

[10-Ring]

Depending on how long you've stored your guns & what you've prep'd them with prior to storage, I too would recommend a good clean & lube prior to shooting.

 

[riverdog]

I have a number that are fired infrequently and are stored with CLP in the bore and on the exterior as corrosion control. These need to have the excess CLP wiped down so they can be handled and to reduce the overall mess. They also need to have a patch run down the bore remove excess CLP there. Other than that, they're good to go.

 

[PATH]

Always a quick clean and lube before and a thorough after!

 

[Trisha]

Ditto, airwolf; PATH.

After a couple decades of shooting, it's always a delight whenever someone appreciatively comments on how clean our firearms are...

And as the pistols we compete with are our carry guns as well, the extra attention they get is an act of refocusing on legitimizing the absolute confidence one must have in a defensive firearm.

Trisha

 

[Bainx]

Good Doctor-
Do them every 6 months at least. You can stretch it to once each year but, that is stretching it.

Otherwise, what riverdog said.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Always—and I clean my carry guns weekly.

 

[Blackhawk]

I'm a fastidious cleaner. They get a good going over after a range session, and inspections and touch ups every couple of months if they don't get out to the range.

OTOH, I got a stainless PPK .380 that had been stored dirty for about 20 years. It was stiff, but it went right to the range and ran perfectly. Cleaned it up, changed the springs out, and it became a really beautiful sweetheart despite its tendency to bite.
I wouldn't say the gun was well cared for at all, in fact it was abused, but long term dirty storage didn't seem to hurt a thing.

Don't know that you'd have anything near that good luck storing a steel gun dirty for any length of time, though.

 

[Kahr carrier]

Yep I would do a quick check on it run a patch through the bore and made sure it was still lube good then shoot away.

 

[justice4all]

Mine usually don't sit too long, but I just take them out and shoot them. They always work. Handguns don't need that much lube, so if you left some there whenyou put them away, it's probably still there. If it's not, you definitely need to shoot more often.