by crbutler on Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:35 pm
I’m not a fetishist with regards to cleaning. At least not anymore.
I used to do the disassembly and clean every time I shot them.
Now I tend to either do it annually or when I start to see signs that it’s needed.
I will occasionally clean my competition 1911 type guns to the point of pulling the hammer/sear/safety out and cleaning then relubing. I’ve never pulled out the mainspring on mine, as I don’t have all the tools for it. I will stick these into an ultrasonic cleaner and lube occasionally. Replacing recoil springs, pulling the extractor, pulling the firing pin and occasionally replacing the firing pin spring, and getting all the crud off the slide there.
I’ve never pulled the fire control parts apart or pulled the trigger out with a glock or other striker fired gun.
Generally, I field strip and clean the assemblies as well as the slide, and then will blow out the frame parts with gun scrubber/compressed air and relube with spray on gun oil to the areas that I blasted out, and then wipe off the excess and clean the slide, barrel, etc. as per usual.
The revolvers and DA metal guns if I’m going to go to the level of detailed disassembly, I take it to a gunsmith- and have them replace anything that they feel needs it.
Rifles- I will generally disassemble the bolt in addition to field stripping, and pull actions from wood stocks and clean/ apply wax before a major hunting trip.
Competition semi autos get a bit more than a field stripping, but I don’t detail strip and clean/replace everything.
Shotguns never get more than field stripping, blasting out crud, and cleaning the bores then relubing to a level depending on use (I will run hunting waterfowl guns for freezing weather use without any lube but clean them as soon as I get back)
The problems I’ve had with guns have not been crud that couldn’t be prevented by just field strip/clean have been generally major part breakage.
I have had rare issues where I didn’t put it together right after a more detailed breakdown or once lost a part… that cured me of detail stripping things.
If I had a good vise and the right tools, detail stripping and spring replacement isn’t that hard on some guns, but on others the subassemblies are often not meant to be taken apart.