Stopped Cleaning your Gun! I did - You Too?

Mark_Mark

Mark_Mark

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How many of you guys & gals stopped cleaning their guns. I did… well, if I plan on shooting it in the next few months, it might just get a CLP bore spray, and a CLP wipe down.

I figure, it’s going to get dirty again. Why strip and clean 🧽 🤷‍♀️ Anybody Else?
 
GRIZ22 said:
Depends on what you're using it for. I was a LE firearms instructor and I've seen guns so dirty they couldn't get through a magazine without malfunction. Moreso in the cold.
Click to expand...
My carry gun can get very clogged & dry! quick CLP spray brings it right back
 
I plead guilty....
Since I started shooting regularly (over the past year) I don't strip and scrub after every range session. A little CLP in critical areas and a wipe down. No malfunctions yet.
 
I shot NRA Action with a heavily modified 686, decades ago. I was averaging a few thousand rounds a week in practice and competition, and it sometimes felt like I was spending half my waking hours cleaning the thing. So, partly as a joke and partly just because, I stopped.

Using a load of 231 with plated wadcutters in .38 cases, the outside of the gun quickly became so dirty that people got smudged just walking by it. Surprisingly, copper fouling built up to a uniform coat in the bore and progressed no further. Accuracy didn't seem to be significantly affected - but then, NRA Action doesn't require extraordinary precision. Eventually, copper started "plating" the outside of the cylinder. I'm assuming some of it was aerosolized during firing and somehow stuck to the sides of the gun.

I let it all go for several months, and eventually the filth seemed to stabilize. I'm guessing there was so much dirt that it started simply falling off the gun. I never did run into any reliability issues, although the carbon rings in the chambers were so severe that I'm sure there would have been no way to get .357 cases in there. And of course, one gun does not make a comprehensive research project. On the whole, though, I did learn a bit about the subject, and it is one of the reasons I sometimes make some gentle fun of the "Clean your gun even if you only fire a single round!!!" crowd.
 
Mark_Mark said:
How many of you guys & gals stopped cleaning their guns. I did… well, if I plan on shooting it in the next few months, it might just get a CLP bore spray, and a CLP wipe down.

I figure, it’s going to get dirty again. Why strip and clean 🧽 🤷‍♀️ Anybody Else?
Click to expand...
Good for you.:rolleyes:
😞
 
I suppose it would depend on the firearm, but I definitely don't clean after every range session. I shoot mostly AR type fire arms and Glocks. I inspect each for parts wear every couple/few thousand rounds and the inspection requires removing the heavy stuff, so that's pretty much as far as the cleaning goes.

My barrels are chrome lined or otherwise treated, so they just get a bore snake once in a while and I lube every 500 rounds or so. The AR action does a pretty good job of displacing crud, as long as it's lubed.

Ive never had a malfunction due to either an AR or Glock being dirty from being shot.

If I drop one in the mud or something and suspect foreign material may have entered the action, then I'll douse the fire arm in wd40 or some such compound, brush the crud and hose it out when I get home.

I used to keep my fire arms really clean, but realized it got me nothing. The biggest concern for me is that some who don't clean are doing so in a neglectful manner and not keeping up with maintenence.
 
I give them a wipe down removing most of the soot and bullet lubricant after every firing. I normally will wipe the bore minimally with an oil soaked patch then a dry patch. I don't thoroughly clean very often, perhaps once a year.

I give the maintenance cleaning and lubrication after every firing.
 
After owning a bore scope my barrels don't get so much attention. Plus wipe out with accelerator dosent stink and is bore scope proven.
Bore snake to cut out powder dirt and they keep shooting the same.
Air hose , oily rag and a few drops of rem oil is common
Mark buys a new gun when one gets dirty. Ha ha
 
For an SD weapon - it is comforting to know that it is actually in working order, and not just clean.

So, a range trip or two is no problem, and have a tendency to clean them before, not after, if warranted.
 
I clean to prevent rust and to avoid malfunctions due to dirty residue.

One Camp Perry, a bud came in with his state M14, he was having malfunctions on the firing line. I looked at the firearm, nothing obvious on the outside, then I removed the gas cylinder lock, to see if something was wrong at that end.

His gas pistol was full of carbon. "Experts" had told him to never clean his gas system. That was bad advice, his gas piston was full of carbon, which changed the timing of the action. Probably over sped the operating rod and bolt. I cleaned the carbon out, he went off, and his rifle ran reliably.

Some firearms are more tolerance of dirt, carbon build up, etc. And there are always stories about shooters putting massive amounts of ammunition through their firearm, and the thing keeps on functioning. But there are also stories of dirty firearms not functioning because they were clogged with residue.

Used to get these same sort of stories from those who never changed their motor oil. If offered, I would not have purchased their vehicle.

If all you are doing is busting rocks, then a malfunction is not going to cause much of a problem. And if you live in an area where humidity is so low that things hardly rust, well maybe you can put up a dirty firearm and not have to worry.

But I will keep my stuff clean.
 
I used to have that mindset, until one of my most cherished guns grew pits in the barrel from fouling, dirt, or whatever trapping moisture. Even smokeless through a chrome lined barrel.
I had bought a new hunting rifle and set the old one aside with plans on rescoping it the next week. Next week went by, and 20 years later I finally pull it out to do something with it. I found the barrel pitted near the muzzle though I have always been careful about storage.
Now every gun gets a cleaning after use if just to get the moisture-trapping residue off and a coat of RIGGS grease on it.
Because I have a lot of guns and it literally might be years between range sessions or hunts for some guns.

You don't want to reach into the back of your closet or safe to find a nasty surprise.
 
Field strip, clean, lube after a range session, although it may take me a few days to get to it. A range session usually includes the EDC.
The EDC also gets gets a field strip and lube about once a month.
Pins and springs about a year interval.
 
I quit cleaning like I had to in the military, but I don’t like a nasty carbon and grit soaked tool.

On a scale of 1 (neglected lawn mower) to 10 (strip and clean as used and weekly if used or not), I’m about a 7. I clean shotguns, AR’s, and Glocks every second or third range session. Blue steel guns like revolvers every session.
 
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