PSA: Please take care of your firearms!

[marine4life]

How could you possibly think a dirty gun is a better shooting gun. Do you not shower after a weekend camping trip either? Shooooweeee.

 

[sbcman]

I keep all of mine pretty clean save for one place on one revolver- the cylinder face on my nickel 29-3. I have this fear that if the nickel starts peeling its going to start there, so it just gets a wipe and its done.

 

[Aszerigan]

I'll admit it, I don't clean my guns as often as I should. Whip me with a noodle, why don't ya?

I've never let one get to the point of a malfunction due to grime, and I'll wipe down the exterior before I put them away, but they don't ALWAYS get a thorough cleaning. I'll save my OCD for reloading.

 

[dbeattie]

Clean mine after every-time to the range, not often as I would like....... My carry gets a weekly cleaning/wipe down/inspection.

 

[Cemetery-man]

If any of my guns get shot, they get cleaned when I get home. That has been my policy for over 30 years and probably why they still look like new after many years.

 

[Jay]

a pristine firearm isn't the top of the pyramid

It's completely your choice. My condolences to your firearms. The condition of a firearm says a lot about it's owner.

 

[x10]

It's completely your choice. My condolences to your firearms. The condition of a firearm says a lot about it's owner.

lol
so now a dirty gun is a personality defect.
sorry I can't live up to your expectations

But on another subject

if you all get into rimfire shooting you'll find out that cleaning the bore will cost you accuracy, its best to season the bore with the ammo that it shoots well with and leave the bore alone, clean the breach and bolt but leave the bolt alone,

if your having trouble with accuracy you might find that running 10+ rounds through your bore before you shoot groups

and most rifle shooters know a clean bore will throw a couple shots out, and depending on the barrel it may take up to 5 rounds to "settle" the bore down, smoother high grade barrels will show less of this than rougher barrels, some older garand's I've seen really will only settle in and shoot dirty, I'm sure due to wear and erosion

An important thing to take from this thread is that one might want to push his gun to the limit sometime to see what the tipping point is.

Several people on the board (myself) included go to training classes and during those days the guns get pretty bad, and from my observations everyone with a quality firearms was running as good at the end of the day as at the beginning, I know the guys that I have had classes with didn't have problems with their guns because of crud.

So my suggestion is just once shoot your guns 3 times as much as you ever would and see where your firearm starts having trouble

 

[snapping turtle]

My hunting guns often go a season without much done to them other than a quick oiling. After the season they once again are surpreme in the clean dept. Then again they get carried alot and shot a little.

My rimfires get cleaned often as I hate lead buildup. I will admit to the seasoning of a good rimfire barrel.

I purchased a .223 that the owner said no longer grouped. It was very dark in the bore so I figured i would rebarrel. I soaked the barrel overnight and ran a brush and about 2 hours later the patches started coming out without blue. I think that barrel never got cleaned in its life. It never got rebarreled. Once all the copper was out it shot lights out again. I think I could have got good money from the scrapyard with all that copper if they would only have taken in patches as copper. The inside of the barrel once again shinned like a mirror.

 

[redpitbull44]

I won't sell a dirty gun.

I won't sell a dirty anything really(car, tool, etc).

 

[MadBomber]

Mine get a complete cleaning after every shooting session. My EDC's get the most attention of course. I do admit that I own one Ruger 10/22 that has NEVER been cleaned. It's 17 years old and has had approx 10K rounds fired thru it. I owned it for a year before I ever even fired it, and then only for about 50 rounds. It got sporadic use for the next couple of years, never more than 5 or 6 factory mags during a session. Of course I'd always give the exterior a quick wipedown but as far as the action or barrel, nada. One day I was cleaning up after a shooting session and realized that the 10/22 (which by this time had had around 1K rounds thru it) had never been cleaned. Since I'd never had an FTF or FTE, I decided I wouldn't clean it until I did. Like the Energizer Bunny, it's still going.

 

[Jay]

Shooting all day then cleaning is something I've done myself. Shooting all day and leaving them dirty I don't to, but that's personal preference.

My rimfire match guns are clean. Five shots or so and they're just as accurate as ever.

Your call, sir. You enjoy your dirty guns, and I'll try to tolerate my clean ones.

 

[JetGirl]

I'll try to tolerate my clean ones.

If you find that you can't tolerate them...I'll hold them for you.

 

[IndyGunner]

all but my AK. i feel dirty if i clean it.

Same here! I clean all my guns within 12 hours of being at a range... I usually leave my ak for a few range trips... they dont like to be clean.

I clean/inspect my glock frequently, but keep in mind the #1 cause for glock malfunctions is over oiling... gotta love my gun choices.

 

[k12lts]

I clean my guns every couple of hundred rounds but not every time I shoot. I've seen more barrels damaged by improper cleaning than being shot 1000s of rounds.

 

[bk1330]

I clean every gun I shoot the minute I get home after shooting whether I shoot 1 round out of it or 500 that day it gets cleaned.

 

[Yamaha]

once a month schedule for everything in the safe.......... whether its been shot or not

 

[88E30M50]

Cleaning the guns is one of the best parts of a range day. It's a chance to put the radio on, grab a beer for me and my oldest son (youngest is stuck with soda) and detail clean just about everything taken to the range while rehashing the range trip, discussing guns we'd like to buy and modifications we'd like to make. The air is heavy with Hoppes No. 9 and it's a good time. We have a table in our downstairs bar that gives us enough room for the three of us to work and the fridge is less than 10 feet away. When the wife shoots with us, she joins the group to clean her pistols.

If you think a family that eats dinner together is good then you'd love the family that cleans guns together. It's a great bonding experience.

 

[Ash]

My military surplus firearms using corrosive primed surplus ammunition...always cleaned the same day of firing. (A little extra step is used in cleaning also, for the corrive salt residue.)
Most of my other firearms...usually cleaned the same day of firing, or the next day.
My .22 LR firearms...usually not cleaned until I get a number of rounds through them each time. >200 but <500

I still don't shoot any of them enough.

Cheers

 

[edporch]

I am usually very anal about my firearms being cleaned the same day I shoot them. That being said, the last time I went out (over a month ago) I brought the AK. It still has not been cleaned.

If you used enough corrosive ammo mil-surp you'll be in for a surprise, the gas piston will be stuck.

A friend of mine shot a few hundred rounds of the chinese corrosive mil-surp ammo that you used to be able to get for "a song" and didn't clean it for a couple of weeks.

Got it out to show some people his cool new toy, and the gas piston was frozen solid.

Called Polytech and they said he could send it to them, but all they'd do is beat the gun on the edge of a workbench by the cocking handle til it broke loose.

My friend had to beat it on his workbench pretty hard to finally break it loose.

FUNNY thing is, the AK still worked flawlessly after that. LOL

 

[Bluedragon]

I picked up a new handgun at the 1500 this past weekend (a 1911) and the previous owner had seriously neglected it. The inside of the barrel was solid black in between the riffling grooves.

It took me about an hour to thoroughly clean it, I probably put 10-15 cleaning pads through the barrel and they came out black every time. I finally gave up and used a wire brush cleaning rod, followed by a few pads. That did the trick quite nicely Now it's nice and shiny again.

So please, don't get lazy on your guns! Protect them like the investments that they are. Fortunately I think it's a safe bet most of the members here pretty adamant about cleaning their weapons

And this is why I always make sure to field strip and check the insides of the barrel on any used gun I am thinking about buying.

Well that and to make sure there are no broken parts the seller might have "forgot" to tell me about.