How many rounds before cleaning your AR?

[Fast Frank]

There's another angle to this.

Sure. My AR will shoot lots and lots and LOTS of bullets before it quits working. It's good equipment and it should.

I'm also quite sure that my car can go three or four years without being washed and still run fine.

Except for one thing...

My car is nice, and it was expensive, and I enjoy owning nice expensive things that look good.

So my car gets washed and waxed so I can be proud of it and enjoy owning it.

Guess what?

If I open my safe and pull out a rifle that stinks of gunpowder and is full of black crud, I don't enjoy handling it like I do when it's clean and nice.

I sure wouldn't sit on my wife's couch and fondle one in that condition or hand it to somebody for "Show And Tell".

And being clean doesn't detract from the gun in any way. It will do the deal as good or better than a dirty one.

So, I keep my guns clean and in good shape. That's the way I like them, so that's the way they are. I clean them every time they get fired.

Here it comes: "But my guns are MANLY and made for jumping in the mud, blood, and guts with!"

Right. You guys can feel free to leave your guns just as nasty as you like. I don't have a problem with that at all.


But mine are clean.

 

[68wj]

As a former Marine, I'm trying not to be as anal retentive about cleaning after every range trip. But, it's soooo hard!

Those Marine armorers can be real SOB's!

As a former Marine armorer, I was obligated to ensure the highest standard of cleanliness. I can only think of one time I wiped my finger on my boot (the days of black polish) to intentionally fail someone, but that is another story.

However, I also saw more harm than good come to the firearms because of the Corp's cleaning regimen. Unauthorized disassembly created lost parts or wrong reassembly. Unauthorized cleaning solutions (electrical contact spray was the worst) stripped anodizing, melted plastic components, or seized components such as the internal buffer weights on an M16.

My rifles gets a wipe down after use, a thorough cleaning when needed, and a scrubbed bore when accuracy starts to wane.

 

[Coop45]

Didn't McNamara say they didn't need cleaning.

 

[mtrmn]

After every range session, regardless of round count, I will run a patch through the barrel with WD40 and tear down the BCG for cleaning/oiling. This only because I live in the tropical jungles of Louisiana and my barrels are not chrome lined.

As far as THOROUGHLY cleaning the barrel-I rarely ever do that unless accuracy has fallen off drastically.

 

[highbrow]

Most get cleaned after every range session. My Franken AR hasn't been cleaned in 2 years, >5000 rounds steel cased ammo, just some lube before shooting. Will clean it when it chokes. Still going strong.

 

[StrutStopper]

I think I cleaned mine, once.

 

[KimberLover]

Choice of bullets and cleaning....

I'm sure everyone that has read this cleans his AR like most would.
However, some bullets are slightly more dirty when the powder burns than others.
The AR bolt carrier operates on blow back and that is a tiny hole that can clog and lend to making the bolt carrier sluggish.
I would suggest removing the upper and taking the bolt carrier out and blow the gas tube with a good cleaner once in a while.
It sure can't hurt!

 

[waffentomas]

Hey 68wj, sorry about using so much carburetor cleaner just to pass your damn inspections....well, not really.

Tom

 

[briansmithwins]

Stoner system rifles don't operate on blow back, but the gas piston is made up of the bolt and bolt carrier. The gas holes aren't that small and they seem to keep themselves blown clear.

ARs have a lot of problems but filling up with carbon isn't one of them. Keep it wet and it'll keep working a long time.

BSW

 

[matrem]

That "tiny" hole isn't so tiny and 10-15 k psi keeps it rather clean.
The only carbon issue in the gas system i've ever noticed, is the back of the gas key seems to get rather loaded with it, but even after thousands of rounds i've never seen enough in it to cause any malfunction.

 

[mec56]

68wj, hated you guys, 8 hours cleaning, 1 q-tip with a speck of dirt and have to start all over. At the time I thought electrical spray plus a shower worked great. But that was when I was really frustrated

 

[68wj]

68wj, hated you guys, 8 hours cleaning, 1 q-tip with a speck of dirt and have to start all over. At the time I thought electrical spray plus a shower worked great. But that was when I was really frustrated

The problem is that CLP, or most oils, is needed for corrosion protection in storage but also extract carbon from the many nooks and unreachable recesses. Large carbon buildup, rust, and dirt needs to go; a little oily color is a good thing.

 

[Girodin]

do not use steel case ammo, bi-metal bullets, or any import ammo. Most of what I shoot are handloads with known very clean burning powder. Thus I can get a lot of rounds through one before it acts goofy.

I shoot a lot of wolf through my Novekse and it can get through a lot of rounds before there is an issue. I probably clean it around every 1k rounds. It surely could go more,much more, but I typically clean more often than needed, often when I just want to get the gun out and do something with it. I also like to just give things a look over. I'm much more concerned about it being lubed than clean.

If it is lubed, any good AR is going to be able to shoots thousands of rounds without a serious cleaning.

 

[Zardaia]

I clean after every range trip. Maybe not white glove inspection lvl, but at least clean. Goes for all my guns, lvl of cleaning depends on # of rounds and wether I'm fealing lazy, but at a min some patches down the barrel and a wipe down.

 

[HOOfan_1]

The problem is that CLP, or most oils, is needed for corrosion protection in storage but also extract carbon from the many nooks and unreachable recesses. Large carbon buildup, rust, and dirt needs to go; a little oily color is a good thing.

Thats the number 1 reason I like to clean my guns. Not only do I like them clean, I like them oiled, not to mention cleaning off the crud allows me to inspect for wear and possible signs of problems.

 

[holdencm9]

Fast Frank,

Well put. I feel much the same way. Sadly, I handle and show my guns just about as often as I shoot them, what with prices and availability the way they are. There is nothing like pulling a pristinely clean gun out of the safe.

I never understood the high some people seem to get off of letting their guns go for as long as possible without cleaning. Surely I have gone 500 rounds without cleaning before, and probably 1000 rounds without a deep cleaning, but that people purposefully neglect their weapons and get some joy out of bragging about the round count, to me is just strange. But, to each his own.

 

[Grassman]

Only when I'm shamed into it from reading on here.

 

[Welding Rod]

About every 6 - 10 matches.

I do push 2 oily patches down the bore after each shoot when I get home just because it is so wet where I live and don't want a pitted bore. I then push a dry patch out through the bore before I go out to shoot the next time to remove any excess oil.

 

[Girodin]

I never understood the high some people seem to get off of letting their guns go for as long as possible without cleaning.

I don't think it is a high. It's probably that some of us have our guns for more than conversation pieces. It makes little sense to some to spend a lot of time detail cleaning a gun that has only had 250 rounds or so put down it if you are going to do the same thing in a few days.

Furthermore, for performance minded shooters, versus those who mostly just fondle their guns, there are perfance and reliability considerations. For example look at what Todd hodnett has to say about cleaning his percision rifles.

 

[Welding Rod]

It all boils down to ..................How you`ve been trained.

Haha - I was trained keep a M16 dry so that migrating oily muck wouldn't fail an arms room inspection. And then to scrape off dry hard carbon with sharp metal tools.

Some military training is just assinine.

I was assigned to 4 permanent duty stations, and attended plenty of service schools. Finding a gun savy guy in the crowd was almost unheard of.

As I posted above, my personal regime is entirely different.

 

[Charles S]

For example look at what Todd hodnett has to say about cleaning his percision rifles.

Girodin,

A quick search did not reveal the information you referred to. Please post a link. I am interested.

I am like Taliv,

my current go-to carbine has a suppressor and gets REALLY dirty fast, so i clean it and reapply anti-seize and lube maybe every 1000 rounds.

My carbines get dirty pretty fast with a can on them. I clean mine fairly often. Although I have not used Anti-Seize. I would be interested in any insight on Anti-Seize use.

Charles

 

[Jeff White]

Once a year whether they need it or not

 

[H.m.B]

Usually clean it within a couple of days after taking her out. Thoroughly cleaned and oiled but not as obsessive about it as I was when in the Army.

 

[Girodin]

He talks about it on the Magpul DVD, among other places.

Here he discusses clean bore shots and removing copper vs carbon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMuknl677A

 

[HOOfan_1]

He talks about it on the Magpul DVD, among other places.

Here he discusses clean bore shots and removing copper vs carbon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMuknl677A

Yeah he is also talking about "break in" which is one of those controversial things....so I am not sure what he is saying can exactly be called universally accepted.

I have a Remington 700 .30-06. It had been shot at least 200 times, and only the carbon and powder fouling being cleaned out, after cleaning those, I could see the shiny copper in the grooves. Best group I could get out of it at 100 yards was 2". Last year I started using Wipeout bore cleaner...I got all of the copper out of the barrel. Next time I went to shoot it, I was getting 1" and .75" groups.

With my hunting rifles, especially my varmint rifles, I usually take a completely clean gun to the range before the season, verify the zero with about 10 shots. Then I don't clean it until the season is over, but I use Wipeout to get out the copper and the carbon.