How clean do you keep your guns?

[wally]

Other than my carry guns count me as one who only keeps them clean enough to work.

Only other time I'm diligent about cleaning afterwards is when I shoot corrosive ammo.

--wally.

 

[Blue Brick]

Everything gets wiped down and oiled once every month and my carry gun is every two weeks or as needed.

 

[Beelzy]

Safe Queens, so clean they are surgical quality.

Users, as clean as reasonable as I like a little burnt powder smell on a firearm. Let's me
know she works.

 

[brandnew]

I clean mine extremely well every time. I've got acidic chemistry and I have the power to make metal rust! I've also had a couple of firearms rust on me from handling them and not wiping and general neglect.

I strip my 1911s all the way down for cleaning, scrubbing, wiping and re-lubing every single piece. Shotguns too.

 

[BrianB]

Depends on my gun. The pistol gets cleaned completely after each firing. The SU-16 (piston driven stays so much cleaner) gets fully cleaned every few hundred rounds, but the bore is cleaned every time. The 10/22 gets it's bore cleaned every time, and gets the full treatment every few hundred rounds. The 12 ga. gets cleaned every time, and rarely needs it except the bore.

 

[mboylan]

I sometimes get the sense that my rimfire guns actually shoot a little better when the barrel is dirty, after the first few dozen rounds through. Anyone else experience this? I think I may recall a competitive target shooter mentioning this, as well, but I could be imagining it (Then again, it could be a real phenomenon and I could be imagining that I have the skill to detect when the gun is firing less accurately than I am. ) Does the lube build up in the barrel and tighten things up a bit? Even so, could there be any harm in leaving the barrel dirty, as several folks have posted? It was my understanding that lead and soot buildup would corrode metal eventually.

(just simul-posted with the above post, suggesting other people do see this effect)

Completely true. .22 bores are seasoned in 50 or so rounds and give best accuracy for the next few thousand rounds. Light build up takes several thousand rounds. A seasoned bore isn't rust prone. Most of the seasoning is bullet lube. The lube is there to prevent leading.

BTW: More .22 bores are ruined by cleaning with a rod from the muzzle than anything else. It will totally wreck the rifle crown. Don't do it. Bore snake if you feel you have to. Otherwise, it's perfectly OK to run 10,000 and more rounds down the bore before cleaning the barrel.

The feed ramp and the action should be cleaned regularly on semi-autos.

Bolt action bores are cleaned from the breach with a bore guide only. It's much better not to clean than to clean without a bore guide.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Field stripped after using and detailed cleaned every 1000 rounds.

 

[Jubjub]

It all depends. Stainless .22s get cleaned maybe once a year, if I get bored in the winter. They don't even get wiped down after shooting. The 10/22s and the MKII between them eat maybe 10-15K rounds per year, and run flawlessly without cleaning. I do sit down every winter and strip and clean all my 10/22 magazines. They can get pretty sticky. I have one 10/22 with a blue barrel, and it gets wiped down after shooting, as do the other .22s. None of them get shot as much, and so the detail cleanings are very infrequent.

Centerfire revolvers get a wipe down to remove the soot, and autos usually get a quick strip and wipedown inside and out. I almost never clean the bore.

Big bore centerfire rifles and shotguns are the same, usually just a wipedown. I have an old .222 with a bore that was just a bit worn when I got it, and it likes to be clean. It seems to group best from about round 5 to round 40 after cleaning. After 50 rounds, it starts to open up noticeably, so it gets cleaned pretty frequently.

 

[steeveshephord]

I clean my gun each and every time after shooting ...
I keep it clean always and I'm looking for a good range target for it ..

 

[MarineOne]

For my 10/22 it gets cleaned when I shoot more than 25 rounds. That .22LR is a dirty little thing.

For all my other weapons, more than 100 rounds and they get cleaned.

Since I'm overseas most of the year, I clean them when I first come home, clean them after the range trip(s), and then finally once more prior to going back over.



Kris

 

[CajunBass]

I clean mine every once in a while. No set schedule. The only exception is a black powder rifle. I clean the bore on that every couple of shots, but it shoot better and loads easier with a clean barrel. Then I deep clean it when I get it home.

The only guns I have ever torn down completly are Com/Bloc military guns that came packed in cosmoline.

 

[P97]

Carry Gun once a Month. Most others every three months. Some have never been Completely Cleaned. Boresnake through the Barrel after each shooting session. Has worked fine for years. Humid Climate and no rusty guns.

 

[DeepSouth]

It Depends

I have an AK that I cleaned once and that was the day I brought it home. Now my every day carry weapon, it gets cleaned every time I shoot it and if I go a while without shooting it I'll clean it between shootings.

Most of my other guns get cleaned when ever I feel like cleaning them, sometimes that is very often and sometimes it is several weeks. Some of my guns I just love get cleaned mush more than necessary.

 

[pak29]

Completely true. .22 bores are seasoned in 50 or so rounds and give best accuracy for the next few thousand rounds. Light build up takes several thousand rounds. A seasoned bore isn't rust prone. Most of the seasoning is bullet lube. The lube is there to prevent leading.

BTW: More .22 bores are ruined by cleaning with a rod from the muzzle than anything else. It will totally wreck the rifle crown. Don't do it. Bore snake if you feel you have to. Otherwise, it's perfectly OK to run 10,000 and more rounds down the bore before cleaning the barrel.

Amazing! Thanks for the info!

 

[Just One Shot]

.22's not so much but my CC handguns, shotguns and Ar get cleaned after every firing.

You never know when you may need it so why not take the time to clean and inspect it BEFORE your life depends on it?

 

[psyopspec]

Why the five rounds, psyopspec? Just so you know it works?

Yep. Learned that from some very experienced guys and gals that have been shooting longer than I've been alive. It's largely a peace of mind thing; the very last thing that gun did before going in the holster was shoot properly.

Also, from my time in the military I've seen a lot of things go wrong with a variety of weapons. Often the circumstances surrounding the failures have to do with cleaning, reassembly, and maintenance, usually by a person inexperienced with the weapons system.

 

[Tim the student]

It depends on the gun and what I was doing with it. Generally speaking, I am not obsessive about it unless accuracy drops, or if I am out in bad weather with them.

 

[Mervyn_b]

Quick clean-up with Ballistol and art-brush on the outside/crevices minus the bore/chambers.

Sweat and dirt tends to make 'em rust. I like to remove the Hogue rubber-grips on my S&W revolvers and store them in the safe that way. They cause the frame to rust. And yes, they're made of stainless-steel.

 

[CoRoMo]

I've never cleaned the gas tube of any AR15.

 

[Artiz]

Clean enough.

If I only shoot a box I'll wait until I shoot more before I clean the gun.

 

[Pileatus]

I'm not super obsessive or OCD about cleaning, but I do run the bore snake through each time and apply oil if needed. The older Remington 1100 and BT99 get a more thorough work-over every so often, simply because one of them is my father's and not mine (the Remington) and I want to keep his gun working the way he loaned it to me, and the other one was quite expensive, and spending an extra 5 minutes to put a Hoppe's swab or two down the barrel is well worth the assurance that I won't get any nasty ruts pits or scoring in there. I consider my guns a long-term investment, and part of that investment is making sure they keep working, which means getting oily and greasy from time to time. OK by me.

 

[Catfish25p2000]

If any of my guns see any powder, even if its one round, they get completely broken down and cleaned all the way inside and out. My safe queens I don't clean as often as I should. Most of them I rub down every 8-12 months.

 

[71Commander]

Every 800-1000 rounds or so. Who counts?

If they don't work dirty, I don't want em.

 

[Suicide*Ride]

OP said - disassemble something fiddly; lovingly clean each and every piece, noting areas of wear and clever design; reassemble; lubricate lightly; listen to the sound of a perfectly conditioned machine cycling through its functions.

Wow! I needed a cig after that!!

If I just bought it used: it gets field stripped down to the last screw & inspected for wear, cracks, rust, missing pieces, etc.

Other than that, they only get a few passes w/a patch till clean, & a light wipe w/ thin oil to preserve.

SR

 

[Jaybird78]

Cleaned after every range trip. OCD I guess.

One time I left a .22 rifle uncleaned for a week, because I knew I was going back to shoot. The first night and following day it bothered me that I didn't clean it. After that I relaxed a bit. Baby steps....baby steps.