gun cleaning thoroughness?

[Lumpy]

How often would you completely disassemble a semi-automatic handgun for a thorough cleaning, as opposed to just removing the slide and cleaning the barrel, slide assembly and mag well after a visit to the range?

[Rotary12]

Once a year or so.

[Markemp]

How often would you completely disassemble a semi-automatic handgun for a thorough cleaning, as opposed to just removing the slide and cleaning the barrel, slide assembly and mag well after a visit to the range?

Depends on the gun and how many rounds. If it’s a Glock and not to heavily used, and I’ll be using it again soon, a basic cleaning is fine. On the other hand, if I shot it all day outdoors on a dusty windy day, full clean again. If it’s a safe queen then a full clean every time since you don’t know when it’ll be used next. If it’s a CZ I’d probably just throw it in the trash.

Also an annual full cleaning, but that’s more of an excuse to just look and touch everything. If it hasn’t been used in a year, it should still be ok from the last time I looked at it.

[870TC]

depends on how dirty, and if I will be shooting it again soon.
When I worked on guns for a living...a large percentage of guns that came in with the complaint "it don't work" or my favorite " gun no go bang"...just needed to be cleaned and lubed.

[daleamn]

When I worked on guns for a living...a large percentage of guns that came in with the complaint "it don't work" or my favorite " gun no go bang"...just needed to be cleaned and lubed.

Just curious, how many guns came in not working because some "inappropriate" lubricant was used that dried out and left all the works gummed up?

[870TC]

most had a combination of dirt/carbon/gunk, and I assume some lube mixed in.
Very few came in, clean but with petrified lube. Usually those seemed to be new guns that had sat for years before being taking out and used. Which I suppose makes sense, the factory is more interested in a new gun getting to the customer rust free, rather than lubed correctly.

[crbutler]

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.

[Bitter Bastard]

I almost never do a full frame strip and clean. I've done it a few times with the 1911's and a couple times with a Glocks. If I'm replacing parts or tinkering I might do it here or there but haven't really found a need to do detail strips on any kind of regular basis. If a gun gets wet I'll do it too. Like I had a P7 take a swim in a lake, that one got detail stripped and that was quite the adventure. It was early internet so no youtube tutotials but I got it back together using just an exploded parts diagram. I also took a pistol class once where it rained all day. Even after getting home, the gun was still dripping water, so that Glock 34 got detail stripped.

AR's, as simple as they are, never really get torn down either. They are just so easy to spray out the lower and swab with q-tips it is also not really necessary in most cases. They even go in the parts washer sometimes and get blown out with the air hose after. HK 90-series trigger boxes are pretty complex, never taken one of those apart but again, they are easily sprayed out or put in the parts washer.

It feels good to get a gun factory clean or even cleaner but almost never really necessary, IMO. Usually a spritz of lube will keep a gun running just fine. I used to be pretty good about cleaning guns after each shooting session but I just kind of stopped doing that over time. Not necessary, especially for the frequent shooters that are just going to get shot again. For ones that won't be shot for a while, they get a normal clean and wipe down but not a detailed strip without a really good reason.

Good luck!

Bitter Bastard