How Often is cleaning needed?

[Grandpa Rex]

I clean my guns just before I sell them.

[gyrfalcon]

I haven't cleaned the Glock I bring with me to the range in over a year, and it has a few thousand rounds through it...but that's mainly because I'm lazy. I clean my carry gun fairly often even if i haven't shot it to check functionality and to get rid of any lint balls it might have accumulated. So the appropriate answer to how often cleaning is needed depends upon a number of factors such as:

what sort of firearm you're using
what sort of ammo you're using
what sort of conditions the firearm is subject to (rain/sweat/mud/seasalt/etc)
what sort of shooting you're doing with the firearm
what your personal preferences, manufactures instructions, departmental policies, etc... are
how well you actually clean a firearm once you decide it needs to be cleaned...
etc...

[Seismic Sam]

I normally clean mine after every outing. Especially my carry!
There has been a time or two that I let my Glocks go for a cpl times out. Throwem in a bucket of soapy water till the next time and yur good to go.

C'mon!! Everybody knows Tupperware is dishwasher safe!!

[MrVvrroomm]

I have trouble sleeping if I have a dirty gun in the house. Seriously.

[JJ]

Thats what the solvent manufacturers want you to believe. I have seen more damage from overcleaning than from not enough.

What kind of damage?

Not so much in handguns, but you would be amazed at how many people can manage to dmage the crown on a rifle by over cleaning and letting the rod drag on the the edge. Also too many people use really crappy cleaning rods in general and can damage the rifling as well.

I won't even go into how many "bag-o-parts" guns I have reassembled. I.E.: "Here's all the parts that were in the gun when I took it apart. They are all in the bag"

[hammAR]

Thats what the solvent manufacturers want you to believe. I have seen more damage from overcleaning than from not enough.

What kind of damage?

Not so much in handguns, but you would be amazed at how many people can manage to dmage the crown on a rifle by over cleaning and letting the rod drag on the the edge. Also too many people use really crappy cleaning rods in general and can damage the rifling as well.

I won't even go into how many "bag-o-parts" guns I have reassembled. I.E.: "Here's all the parts that were in the gun when I took it apart. They are all in the bag"

That is all easily explainable.....lack of knowledge, experience, or plain stupid.......

Anyone that puts convience,laziness, or stupid at a higher priority than their or their families lives when it comes to a fully reliable amd functional weapon.......well they should not be allowed to own more than a butter knife or maybe a sling shot.......

[farmerj]

That is all easily explainable.....lack of knowledge, experience, or plain stupid.......

Anyone that puts convience,laziness, or stupid at a higher priority than their or their families lives when it comes to a fully reliable amd functional weapon.......well they should not be allowed to own more than a butter knife or maybe a sling shot.......

So at what point does your weapon have issues?

[EJSG19]

I tend to clean every gun I have, every time I shoot it. I was taught this way, and I suppose its more out of habit than anything, however when I sit and think about the pro's and con's of cleaning every time, the logic to me seems overly simple. The benefits of cleaning every time, to me, clearly outweigh the risks of not cleaning every time. (This holds true for every gun I own, except my 10/22, which will not be put into service should anyone drop kick my front door at 3am.)

I like my guns, to the point that 99% of them are sentimental to me. I can't afford to buy as many guns as I'd like to. I'd also like to think that I could grab any of them at any time, and they will do their job for me, however serious that job is.

Here is what not cleaning equals to me: Poor reliability, guns that look like ****, guns that will degrade much faster in performance and appearance, and guns that I won't be as proud to hand down to my children, etc.

I have an AR right now that has had 4 rounds fired through it since I last cleaned it. I am sitting here wondering why the **** I am typing a post, on a subject which I see almost no valid argument against, instead of cleaning it! Then again, since I am a bad ass internet operator, I just tell people that after I clean a gun, I want to test it for function in case the zombie **** hits the fan... can't be too careful out there...

The above of course excludes reliability testing a gun, which I agree, it is nice to see how dirty/long it will get/go before it fails. But why would you do that repeatedly?

[Norsesmithy]

I don't clean my guns after every range trip, unless I've used corrosive ammo.

My defensive firearms are inspected, and wiped down if gritty. I also make sure that everything has a light coat of whatever lube is appropriate.

No white glove treatment for sure.

It seems to be working, all my guns are running reliably, remain accurate, and lower than expected wear levels for their round counts.

Dave, running oil down the frame rails is a recommended break in procedure in Kimber owner's manuals.

I did it a couple times, the first time it was gross, didn't do much other times, I'm sure it'd be gross if you were shooting dirty ammo like Blazer or Tula.

[Pinnacle]

You should clean your guns to the level of your comfort knowing that a machine that is not maintained properly - will not function properly... End of story.

It's your choice. Your life, your gun.

If it is my choice, life and gun - which it is - they get cleaned before they are trusted to protect my life....

[farmerj]

The above of course excludes reliability testing a gun, which I agree, it is nice to see how dirty/long it will get/go before it fails. But why would you do that repeatedly?

There's the catch. I don't feel a compelling need or facination with cleaning EVERY gun range. Nor is there a compelling desire to to see how long between cleanings. But there is an educated and experienced decision.

If it is exposed to moisture, it gets cleaned.

If its had a harsh range day, it gets cleaned. Harsh is not running one or two magazines. 3-5 boxes, yeah, it's gonna get more likely. At least a serious wipe down before it goes home along with a bore snake run down it.

8-12 boxes in a range day, yeah, it's gonna get wiped down and cleaned afterwards. It's likely it was touched up before it got used that day as well.

Army has a nice little process called PMCS, Preventive Maintenance Checks and Services. Any time you pick up a piece of equipment, I don't care what you pick up, gun or camera or saw, You are doing some kind of maintenance on it just by looking it over. You realize it needs to be wiped down, you wipe it down. You see it's in need of a new cap, put a new cap on it.

Anytime you take something out, you are doing some kind of checking on it to make sure you can use it. You did maintenance.

So while someone might see it as lackadaisical in what others might do, sit back and look at what they might really be doing.

[Dave Pendleton]

Personally, I don't care how often you clean a firearm or if you clean it at all.

What's interesting here is that people think a modern firearm becomes less reliable after being used to do the very thing it was designed to do.

There's a tipping-point, of course, and I indicated this in my original post.

150 to 250 rounds is not a "harsh" regimen for any modern firearm. I took a Farnam class where we fired more than 750 rounds in two days. I've taken classes at D.E. where the daily load-out was 1000 rounds. Nearly every firearm in attendance at all these classes performed just fine.

[hammAR]

So at what point does your weapon have issues?

When it does not function.........
my main 1911 has well over 10k rounds a year through it...
regarding issues - in over 10+ years it boils down to a hand full of times when something broke,
not due to lack of maintenance, but sometimes **** happens even with new or replacement parts, broken spring, firing pin, extractor........
it runs a minimum of 100 rounds a week, every week, and for example last year it had zero mechanical problems......
so I would say that it doesn't have issues...
but then it runs through its maintenance cleaning every single week/range trip.........

[Spike]

Not so much in handguns, but you would be amazed at how many people can manage to dmage the crown on a rifle by over cleaning and letting the rod drag on the the edge. Also too many people use really crappy cleaning rods in general and can damage the rifling as well.

I won't even go into how many "bag-o-parts" guns I have reassembled. I.E.: "Here's all the parts that were in the gun when I took it apart. They are all in the bag"

None of what you listed above has anything to do with cleaning too often and everything with bad equipment or improper cleaning.

- Spike

[Rem700]

I dont recall my wife every cleaning her HP in the last 6-7yrs and it still runs all the time