How long does it take for you to clean a gun?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I will say this about cleaning... many of us grew up in the world of "the sun never sets on a dirty gun", and many of us were also taught that any truly clean gun could easily pass a "white glove inspection".

The reality is that our guns don't need to be cleaned as often as most people clean them, nor does cleaning this often do anything good for your guns. When I really started to get into long range precision rifle work I had people telling me constantly to clean my guns LESS. It took a few months for me to embrace this philosophy, especially since we're talking about some of my most expensive equipment. But, I think they were right. I gained nothing by cleaning after every single range session, and some would argue that doing so is actually damaging to the gun. I now try to clean every 200 rounds or so (with a bolt gun), and it seems to work fine, with more consistent results while shooting.

Just some thoughts for those of you who do regularly spend hours cleaning, and don't like doing so!
 
Short answer: as quickly as possible while still leaving the gun A) ready for operation and B) ready for storage. I am overseas for most of the year and some guns may only get shot and cleaned once in several years.

Longer answer:

1. I don't enjoy cleaning and try to own and shoot guns that are easy to take down and clean. Typically, this means military designs as opposed to "civilian" designs like the 10/22 and the Remingtion 1100.

2. I have piston AR's because they are SO MUCH EASIER to clean than direct impingement AR's (like someone above, I have bad memories of sitting around in barracks and outside armories clearning M-16's forever while in the National Guard).

3. Main thing for me is the bore and bolt face + leaving the whole gun well oiled internally and externally.

4. For whatever reason, though, maybe lots of practice, I find that the Walther P-1 / P-38 is the gun that I can clean the easiest and the fastest. After 10 minutes it's as good as new, very well-designed in that aspect.
 
It depends how long it's been since I have cleaned a gun in general, and that gun in particular. I forget how to efficiently do things, rather quickly. :)
 
Around 15 minutes for a pistol or my (DI) AR, unless I am in the mood to get every little spec of carbon out of a pistol's nooks and crannys.

Field-strip, fill bore with Outers foaming bore cleaner, go do something else for a while, come back and clean the barrel till it looks pretty decent, lightly oil the bore if I'm not going to shoot in a while, wipe off the old lubricant and carbon from the action with paper towels (Q-tips for nooks and crannys), inspect for worn parts, quickly re-lube with Mobil 1 (AR) or Tetra lube (pistol slide rails and lockup surfaces), reassemble, lightly oil outer surfaces with Rem Oil if applicable, done. Every few cleanings I give the AR a quick chamber brushing but not every time.

White-glove cleaning is fine if you enjoy it, but it's not necessary for reliable function or preventing wear.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top