How often to clean

[USMCDK]

Fred/chieftain, I could not have said it better myself except for using the name ametuer... I would have left that part out. Needless to say I still agree with you. No professional (OORAH and Semper Fidelis fellow Teufel-Hund) especially a Marine would go anywhere where they may be a shoot-out and be there with a dirty weapon, with the exception that they were already just in a fire fight and didn't have the time to clean it, and fighting broke out again.

But I digres even I a fully trained Marine am human, falible, and err. I need to clean my pistol after shooting it 4-days-ago.

 

[f4t9r]

I at least wipe them down after shooting, then clean when nothing else is going on. Sometimes a few days or weeks later

 

[USMCDK]

Hey everybody here's a link so go and vote. KEN C I started that thread to give you a visual result of how many say "yes or no" after every firing session, I hope it helps you out.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=357974

Have fun guys

So far it's a 5 yes and 0 no

 

[TimboKhan]

I was a Marine, and I don't clean my guns that often.

Let me clarify a bit: Basically, my rule of thumb is every 200 rounds, I clean. I don't particularly like cleaning guns, and I have shot enough guns to know that 200 rounds is plenty frequent. For that matter, just to see what would happen, I have shot a couple of my guns well over a thousand rounds with no failure. I wouldn't advocate carrying in that state of dirty, but neither would I have been particularly worried about it. I will give my guns a wipe down when I get home, but as far as actually breaking out the hoppes, every 200 rounds.

There are exceptions. Corrosive ammo = cleaning as soon as I can, and if I happen to have a rod and patch at the range, I will even run a wet patch down the tube right then. .22's never get cleaned. I simply haven't noticed any difference in function or accuracy. My MkII can put them into a nickel off the bench, and it has been cleaned once in the entire time I have owned it (this one, 5 years) My previous MkII was never cleaned in the 10 years I owned it, and hasn't been cleaned by the guy who owns it now. My 10/22 has never been cleaned, and it has been a good 20 years now, and it still shoots exactly to point of aim. I just don't see the purpose, and given that I don't like to clean to begin with, I have no intention of changing.

 

[JohnBT]

"I know and have known many professional gun fighters, I used to be one."

Dang, I've never even met a professional gun fighter. Go figure. I've met soldiers, Marines, State Troopers and sheriffs and even been related to a few, but I've never met a professional gun fighter. I guess I'll stick with the training I got from the professionals I've known.

John

edited to add: Although this is Handguns: General Discussion and not the rifles section, I'd like to add that if I carried an M16 everyday instead of a handgun I'd clean it every time I sat down.

"The M16, however, has always required constant cleaning to prevent it from jamming." - Army Times editorial

 

[chupacabrah]

i clean after a few hundred rounds, or just whenever it looks dirty in there

 

[KI.W.]

If Ishoot, then clean, ofcourse.

 

[ImARugerFan]

I would give them a quick cleaning with a spray cleaner followed by an oiling after each range visit. Then a teardown and thorough cleaning of the whole gun once in a while.

 

[brentfoto]

At least from this source, to be a gunfighter the person must be a veteran of 'many' gunfights. And that's not even modifying the word by the word 'professional'.

From dictionary.com:

"gun·fight·er Audio Help /ˈgʌnˌfaɪtər/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[guhn-fahy-ter] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun a person highly skilled in the use of a gun and a veteran of many gunfights, esp. one living during the frontier days of the American West.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1890–95, Americanism; gun1 + fighter]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. "

 

[DawgFvr]

...as for me, I'm just a product of Army training. All weapons, in my family, require three cleanings after firing...the first comes at the end of first day's range session or cease of hostile action. The second and third cleanings come with the second and third succeeding week naturally.

I, personally, am unable to sleep at night with a dirty weapon in the house. I believe it is sacrilegious. Also...I enjoy cleaning my weapons...especially my revolvers. Just my two cents.

 

[USMCDK]

Well I can tell you this much

104 THR memebers say to clean every time you shoot your firearm and 52 said no.

Here's a link to my poll that backs up this post and the fact that I say you should clean it every time. Heck some of them said they at least clean it every month even if they haven't fired the weapon.

So here's the link

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=357974&page=2

Always respectfully,

USMCDK

 

[XavierBreath]

Let me check in here and point out that calling anonymous people on the internet internet amatuers or professionals is silly. The truth is, most of us here do not know who the dickens wrote what we are reading.

I'm a professional gun fighter. No, I'm a fighter pilot. I have been shooting 456 years. No wait, I've owned a squirt gun for 3 months. I was a Marine. No, wait, my wife is Maureen. Know what? All these claims mean squat. I don't have a clue as to who most of you are. The veracity of your opinion is generally assessed by the cohesion of your thoughts as you typed them into the computer. In other words, does this make sense to me?

Secondly......Most of us here have no aspirations towards being a professional football player or a professional gun fighter, assuming there was such as thing as Paladin in today's United States. We have professional policemen, professional shooting competitors, professional soldiers, professional this that or the other, but I challenge anyone here to name one person who makes his living from gun fighting, ie killing other people, in today's United States that is not a wanted felon. Anyone who claims to be a professional gunfighter, using such a claim to lend credibility to their internet advice is immediately suspect in my eyes. I would no more take gun cleaning advice from some dude claiming to be a professional gun fighter or someone claiming to know a herd of such critters, than to take medical advice from some guy in the airport claiming to be a physician.

The vast majority of our members are honest gun owners with a job outside the gun industry. We have some members who are gunsmiths, some who compete on the national level, some who are gun writers, others in law enforcement, and some in the gun manufacturing industry. There are some members who I do know personally. I know them because when I run into them and they recognize me from my blog, they introduce themselves. We have no claivoyants with a documented powers of prediction of future events. While some members may believe they have these powers, even those powers of claivoyance are only as valid as the last prediction proven true, not the one awaiting verification.


I can say this though.....for those who desire clairvoyant powers, threads that make gun owners look like loons are generally closed at The High Road.

Hey.......look, there is another one!