Gun Cleaning - How often?

[EEH]

Go shoot a match 150-200 rounds go home,, next day clean gun.

[AverageJoeShooting]

13 hours ago, motosapiens said:

so you pay money to enter a match and take the time away from your family knowing that every 5th match or so your gun is going to fail? that sounds a bit bizarre when you say it out loud.

i have 4 open guns, all in 38sc and i bought a 1050 specifically for the purpose of reloading

the money isnt really an issue for me. 

 

i shoot to chill with friends for a day after work beats my ass all week, frankly it never mattered to me where i finished or how i performed. If its a good match then its a good match, if not oh well, ill clean the gun and it will be a good match next time. 

 

[MC_DO]

I clean my gun and mags every time after I shoot them.  

[BadShot]

I field strip and clean my autos(Shadow2, STI open, CZ Parrot) after each match. Mags get cleaned  twice a year or when they are dropped in mud.  My revolver gets the cylinder cleaned and everything else wiped down after each match.  I haven't cleaned any of their barrels in several years.  

[Brooke]

Clean your gun as often as possible. There is no downside to cleaning but dirt can cause ejection issues and generally gum up the works. Especially with 1911/2011 guns they run terrible when dirty. Those guns need clean oil always. There is zero upside to running a dirty gun.

[WFargo]

Yeah, I clean them after every shooting session. I can't help it.  It actually bothers me to know there is a dirty gun in the safe. 

I really enjoy having a completely clean gun, nicely oiled, all smooth...   very OCD but hey.. it makes me happy. 

plus, I only shoot 1911's / 2011.... and these ladies will get mad at me if I don't clean them. 

[CC3D]

I shoot cheap coated bullets loaded over titegroup. I pop my barrel out and run a brass bristle brush through it every other time I shoot, to ease my conscious about leading. It also makes it less work when I do a deep clean, so I don't have to run 100 patches though it. As for the rest of the gun, when it starts to look like hell I'll remind myself to clean it, which usually doesn't end up happening for a weeks after. IMO, if it starts to jam up in practice it's time to clean it, until then its up to your own standards. 

[Thomas H]

How often I clean them depends on which gun I'm using.

 

Glock?  Before local matches if I remember I'll wipe the feed ramp and snake the barrel.  About a week before a major I'll pull it apart and fully clean it, then go shoot at least 100 rounds through it at the range, then wipe the feed ramp and snake the barrel.  But that's it.

 

Single Stack gun?  Clean the stupid freakin' thing between every match or any longer practice sessions.

 

Revolver?  Um....wipe under the star every once in awhile?  Maybe remember to snake it and brush the chambers in the cylinder once in awhile if I happen to recall that it has been awhile?

 

PCC?  Copious amounts of oil on the bolt, and let it run.  After the filth has built up enough (but hasn't made any difference to how it runs, it is just getting messy to run it) I'll pull the basics apart, fill it full of CLP, spray it all out (with a brush here and there), add more oil and shoot 50 rounds through it before taking it to the next match.  Mostly, other than adding oil, I just shoot it.

 

Other than 1911s and 2011s, most guns out there just don't need to be cleaned that much.  As long as the chamber is clear and the feed ramp is smooth, they'll run.

 

[Bakerjd]

I used to be super crazy about cleaning my guns. Especially 1911/2011 ones. Now I clean them when I feel like it. The girlfriends amd my p320s haven't been cleaned in a long time. Can't even remember when. And honestly I don't think I have cleaned her p320 max at all yet. I do put a little oil on them before a match amd thats about it. 

[JonD]

I clean mine usually after every use. I use that time to decompress, think about what I did wrong and right. What I'm working on next...and I love the smell of Hoppes.....plus I just love my kits

[Cuz]

Here’s a good one, about 5-6 years ago I bought a Stoeger MK3 and had it sent to MOA Precision for their package deal. That shotgun has been absolutely awesome, and runs flawlessly. 
Last month I decided to try trap shooting and brought the Stoeger. It certainly got some looks at the shooters with their fancy trap guns. I did lousy, but had enough fun that I decided I needed a trap gun. I went back last week to ask more questions, look at the guns others were using and of course, shoot the Stoeger. One of the guys there with a fancy gun suggested I might do better if I changed chokes, and asked what I was using?  He laughed when I told him I didn’t know, I got it cuz it had a red band on it that matched all the fancy red parts that MOA put on the gun. Then he looked at my other chokes and suggested a swap, except that we couldn’t get the choke out, it was stuck in good. A few people tried, with multiple choke tools. Finally the guy got a little exasperated and said, “you know, you’re supposed to take the chokes out and clean them when you clean your gun!”  I looked at him with a straight face and said, I know that, but I’ve only had the gun for about 5 years so I haven’t cleaned it yet. He got all flustered and walked away. Wouldn’t come anywhere near me the rest of the day. I thought it was pretty funny. 

[GOF]

On 12/22/2021 at 8:03 PM, ltdmstr said:

I've never known of a mechanical device that didn't operate better when properly cleaned, lubricated and adjusted vs. dry, dirty, etc.  Proper cleaning will not harm the gun in any way.  

A big +1! Why wait until you have score-damaging malfs to do what would have been easy a day or two earlier? I clean & properly lube every one of my various match guns before the match they are to be fired in.  

[Cuz]

4 hours ago, GOF said:

A big +1! Why wait until you have score-damaging malfs to do what would have been easy a day or two earlier? I clean & properly lube every one of my various match guns before the match they are to be fired in.  

 

Don't you trust the reliability of your gun to go a couple of matches and maybe a practice session or two without malfunctioning?  I would NEVER want to own a gun like that.  Years ago I used to clean a gun every time I shot it.  Then, life took over and I cleaned it every few times I shot it.  Then, I started wondering why I really needed to clean it all that often and started not cleaning it.  I was amazed at how long it went.  And when it does malfunction, it will be at most one jam or hiccup which lets me know it may be time to clean, at which point I also replace all the springs.  I don't shoot big matches and in the few matches I do shoot, I make plenty of mistakes on my own, that one hiccup in my gun isn't going to matter.  Besides, I always bring a backup gun to a match so if something big happens I just swap guns.

 

I do NOT apply this theory to any carry guns or home defense guns.  Those are kept clean, and for each one, I have a duplicate that I practice with until it gets dirty and needs a cleaning, then I clean it, and it becomes my carry/home defense gun, and the one I was carrying becomes my range toy to practice with.

 

This process might not work for everyone, but it works great for me.

 

[Haalck]

A gun can’t be too clean but it can be too dirty. I clean the bore and oil each time I use it and 100% strip clean every 2,500 round. There are a few variables such as the gun itself and how clean the ammunition burns. 

[Zachjet]

I’m no where near as hard core as a lot of you guys, but I’ll field strip and clean my barrel after every shoot. I spray the slide and inside the frame, And wipe everything down. 
Further stretches I’ll stipe everything and give it a detailing.  I figure it can’t hurt to be clean and freshly oiled. Plus it’s kinda relaxing to clean my stuff 

[shred]

At a big match every day or two.  "clean" is the only known cleanliness point you can get to and work from.

 

But you need to know if it'll run with some level of goop and how much.  I've put hundreds and hundreds of rounds through Open 2011s without cleaning (sometimes adding oil) and it really doesn't matter for far far longer than most people will let them go if they're built right and they aren't coated in sand or abrasive dust.

 

Long ago Schuemann said there was no point to cleaning pistol barrels shot with jacketed bullets except for the chamber, and as near as I can tell he's right about that.  One of my barrels went ~70K Open Major loads before wearing out with zero scrubbing of it besides chamber cleaning and accuracy was always great.

 

 

 

 

[RIIID]

With my Open and Limited guns I ran 2 seasons with just cleaning the gun a week before the Nationals and didn't clen until the next Nationals. I was using jacketed bullets, Vit powder, and Slide-Glide. I occasionally added some Slide- Glide if it looked like it needed more. It would get really black but kept on working, no malfunction. At this time I was shooting 35 to 40K rounds in each gun per year. Cleaning is over rated, don't think it is possible give it a try and see how far you can go.

Rich

[Batmo]

On 12/22/2021 at 5:03 PM, ltdmstr said:

I've never known of a mechanical device that didn't operate better when properly cleaned, lubricated and adjusted vs. dry, dirty, etc.  Proper cleaning will not harm the gun in any way.  

With that "said" I'm a bit surprised.....but not really that shooters would only clean after an equipment failure.  That opens a box of questions ????

I was taught that cleaning was part of shooting . My teacher held  9 national records during his life time.  Thanks Dad !

[Cuz]

On 9/3/2022 at 12:26 PM, Batmo said:

With that "said" I'm a bit surprised.....but not really that shooters would only clean after an equipment failure.  That opens a box of questions ????

I was taught that cleaning was part of shooting . My teacher held  9 national records during his life time.  Thanks Dad !

 

I doubt that any time he spent cleaning made him a better shooter.  I wonder if he spent all that "cleaning time" practicing, maybe he would have many more than 9 national records.  But, he'll never know, because he wasted valuable practice time cleaning his guns.

 

Obviously my above comments are in jest.  Congrats to your Dad on his accomplishments, and things are very different at that level.  Me, I'm a hack just out to have fun, and cleaning guns just isn't fun to me.  Many guns don't "need" to be cleaned regularly to function, and there are others that do.  It's usually the shooter that needs to clean the gun, not the gun needing to be cleaned.

 

I specifically shoot guns like Glocks, and Revolvers BECAUSE they run just fine with minimal cleaning.  I also have an SVI in the safe that I shot for about 3 years without cleaning it.  Just a little oil on the slide every now and then.  At some point I transitioned to Glocks, and tossed the SVI in the safe, dirty of course, and it's been sitting there untouched for at least 15 years.  I'm confident, that I could pull it out, put a few drops of oil on the slide and it would run just fine.

[Cuz]

On 2/21/2022 at 6:09 AM, Brooke said:

Clean your gun as often as possible. There is no downside to cleaning but dirt can cause ejection issues and generally gum up the works. Especially with 1911/2011 guns they run terrible when dirty. Those guns need clean oil always. There is zero upside to running a dirty gun.

I disagree.

The downside to cleaning your gun, is that you just wasted that time when you could have been doing something else, like shooting.

The upside to running a dirty gun is that you didn't waste time cleaning it, when you could have been shooting it.

 

[Batmo]

5 hours ago, Cuz said:

 

I doubt that any time he spent cleaning made him a better shooter.  

Maybe not....but it made the rifle shoot better.  

[Cuz]

1 hour ago, Batmo said:

Maybe not....but it made the rifle shoot better.  

 

Touche.  I definitely can't argue with that.

Maybe that's why I suck at the precision shooting sports and tend to gravitate towards the big easy targets like USPSA and Knock-down steel...

 

[Brooke]

21 hours ago, Cuz said:

I disagree.

The downside to cleaning your gun, is that you just wasted that time when you could have been doing something else, like shooting.

The upside to running a dirty gun is that you didn't waste time cleaning it, when you could have been shooting it.

 

Surely you're kidding. Cleaning your gun takes very little time and I shoot plenty. What's plenty? 4-5 days a week plus matches. Around 40,000 rounds per year. If time spent making your gun work correctly is reducing your shooting time you are not shooting enough anyway. What a joke.

[Cuz]

2 hours ago, Brooke said:

Surely you're kidding. Cleaning your gun takes very little time and I shoot plenty. What's plenty? 4-5 days a week plus matches. Around 40,000 rounds per year. If time spent making your gun work correctly is reducing your shooting time you are not shooting enough anyway. What a joke.

I sure wish I had that kind of time to shoot, but I don’t, so I have to make trade offs. My gun runs fine when it’s clean, and it runs the same way after 1,000 or 3,000 and equally well after 8,000 rounds. I can’t tell the difference. 
Maybe you need a more reliable gun if you have to keep it so clean just so that it runs well.  

 

I’m kidding again, let’s not let this thread derail just because some of us actually enjoy cleaning guns and some of us don’t. I have a friend who is always cleaning a gun, because he says it relaxes him in the evenings, when others maybe sit down and watch tv before going to bed. 
 

To each his own. 

[TheSandMan491]

I follow the manufacturer's direction over "grandpappy's receipe"/gut feeling when it comes to gun cleaning/maintenance.  I figure they built/engineered the thing (literally every component in Infinity's case), so they know best. It's very stringent, but with all the time and effort I put into shooting with dryfire, live fire, reloading, travel, etc, I would hate for thing that derails my match to be my own apathy towards maintaining my equipment.

 

This is a 2011 Limited Gun:

• Re-oil every 200-300 rounds (so basically every match / practice session)
• Complete tear-down (grip off, etc) every 1000-2000 rounds, or before every major match
  • This includes removing all grease/oil with tool/die cleaner, lots of Q-Tip/Dental Pick work.
  • Moly Grease grip/frame interfaces, trigger shoe/grip interfaces, sear/disco, hammer hooks
  •  Re-apply silicone lubricant to any remaining surface (DLC gun)
• Recoil spring every 1-2k rounds
• Mainspring/FP spring every 10k rounds
• New Sear every 30k rounds (including dryfire, this adds up for me
• New Hammer every  75k rounds
• new magazine springs at start of year and mid-way through year (separate magazines for major matches and local matches / practice session)

Some of these regimens are a bit stringent, but that's one of the things I about this sport, it allows you to chase perfection and get that last .1% of performance, whether it's out of yourself or out of your gear.