I have now put 120 rounds thru my M & P. To date, I have only ran a solvent brush through the barrel and than oiled it. I have not disassembled the bolt to clean that yet. I did remove it and brush it with solvent and than reinstalled it. The guy at Gander told me the bolt and upper receiver do not require any oil and are designed to run dry. My two questions are is that true about running it dry and how often should the bolt be cleaned?

I'm new to AR's and in all my research I've done, they absolutely do not like to fire dry! do so e searching around, there are lube charts posted to help you out

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With a new rifle, I would not run it dry until it is broken in. Some situations, like dry and dusty locations, will demand minimal lube on the bolt carrier to minimized dust attraction.

Me personally, I prefer the old school keep it wet approach unless doing so it going to cause a problem. I also clean and lube the BCG as well as the chamber and the barrel every time i shoot but opinions on that will vary widely. Some don't clean for hundreds of rounds and others every time they go to the range.

There is some debate amongst armororers and gunsmiths between " drop here, here, here, here, and light coat there" vs " dripping with lube " . I come more on the dip the bcg into the synthetic motor oil school. ( All this presuming you are located in temperate North America, powder sand in middle east is seperate situation.)

At the risk of insulting the few competent people who may work in big box/chain type stores that deal with firearms: THEY ARE GENERALLY IGNORANT OF HOW TO OPERATE FIREARMS!

OK, let's work on terminology here. When you say "bolt" do you mean the actual bolt or the bolt carrier group? The BCG is the large diameter thing that runs back and forth inside the upper receiver. The bolt is the removable widget at the front end with locking lugs on it-looks kinda like a star. It does make a difference. I clean the BCG and associated components every time I go shooting. If you don't, getting the bolt recess in the carrier clean can be a beast. See below.

Your owners manual has directions for the cleaning and lubrication and parts identification. I'd suggest you sit down with your Sport and the book and get to know it.

I'd strongly suggest getting a CAT M4 tool (about $30) to help you clean your bolt and carrier. It was the best money I've ever spent on cleaning gadgets.

Besides the debates noted above between slathered with lube and just a little dab, there are debates about the best lubes. My experience has been to avoid normal oils like the plague. The hot gasses dumped into the receiver/bolt turn them into carbon. Stick with either dry lubes (Dri-Slide or similar) or synthetics (Mil-Tech or Mobil 1 20W-50 or similar). Limited lube in contact areas is what I've used for 40+ years.

I'm also in the "run it wet" school, but by that I also mean "heavily lube the shiny spots" rather than slathering the whole bolt and bolt carrier assembly in oil.

The only spot that is susceptible to carbon build up is the stem on the bolt behind the gas rings. And that's not really a big deal. You can get a tool to remove it, you can just use some solvent and an old bronze bore brush to keep it knocked down to minimal levels.

Consequently, I'm not in the "lube it with synthetic motor oil" school of thought. Break Free / CLP works fine (and the civilian stuff smells better than the military stuff), and LSA worked fine way back in the day for that matter.

FWIW, I agree the guy at Gander Mountain is ignorant. It's hard to blame him though, as it's a common misperception - one that took awhile to dispel in the sand box, where the belief was that running them dry prevented dust from sticking to the bolt and carrier. Dust will do that anyway, and with no lube to reduce the friction it just increases wear and causes stoppages.

Another vote for CAT M4.

You'll eventually end up with a really stubborn deposit of carbon on the rear taper of the bolt (right behind the gas rings) if you don't keep up with it.

I don't think there's a warm pitcher of spit's difference between the lubes, as long as you USE one. For the bolt and bolt carrier, we used old fashioned shaving brushes to put a light coat (enough to see, but not enough to 'push' around) of oil on...also good for keeping parkerizing on barrel oiled up, but not messy.

In answer to op,

You should fuss with your rifle less frequently than you think.

If there's no debries, leave things alone.


Be sure you keep everything lubed per handbook instructions.

Every 6 months. When I clean the rifle...

My AR's are dirty things.

I clean my rifle after every range session. This includes the bolt & carrier. My AR's are clean things and always ready for what comes next. Not Dis'ing the dirty gun guys - it's just my answer to your question By the way, fan here of Slip 2000 lube.

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Webfarmer

I don't know where that is, but it's plenty sandy where I live:


I'm in the school of use enough, but don't over do it. I love to watch the "it should be dripping wet" guys when they try to shoot here. If there's going to be a malfunction, they're the ones who'll have it here.

Of course that's really a moot point. The design is a good one and the guns rarely, if ever, fail.

Disassemble the bolt? Yeah, I do it whenever I clean the gun. It's just too easy to not do it.

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Freedom isn't free.

I do it when I clean, which is usually before the 5k round mark. So every few thousand rounds. Sometimes less. There is no hard and fast rule but these rifles are not as fragile as people make them out to be. 500 rounds is good, 1000 is fine too

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I just bought a new AR and the manufacturer recommends using FROG LUBE so that is what I'll be using. I already use it on my handguns.

Was taught from my father when I was old enough to handle a weapon to always clean my gun before putting it away ..
Even now its the first thing I do when coming home from the range or from a hunt, I always break it down and clean the weapon...
Others miles may vary.....

I'll bite, do you actually break down the Bolt every time you shoot ? As in remove actual bolt, then remove extractor and gas rings ?

Why in the name of (insert deity of your choice) would you remove gas rings in less you're going to replace them? I also don't remove the extractor-unless there's been extraction/ejection issues.

I'll also admit that if I only fire a couple of rounds, I generally don't bother to clean. Now, if I'm going to do anything off the property, I do clean. I never want to be explaining to an LEO that "Yeah, it's x shots dirty, I was shooting groundhogs yesterday/last week."

That's weird. I've never heard of anyone recommending removing the gas rings unless they are broken. Why would you do that?

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Freedom isn't free.

The on regularly recommended ""break down" I've ever heard on the bolt is pulling the extractor to clean under it.

Personally, I wouldn't do that every time but it wouldn't be a bad idea every so often, after several hundred rounds or so.

well as usual there is a consensus of opinion on this subject

Don't forget the very rare removal of the ejector plunger and spring that requires a jig. Don't ask me how I know.

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-John

I just recently bought a new to me product called GRIZZLY GREASE. Let me tell you, this stuff is the CATS A**! But, I still use my 3 IN 1 oil and my M1 5W30-90% + Mercon V trans fluid 10% as well. And, I run my BCG "WET!"
You will get 500,000K types of lube suggestions on here, so, pick and choose at will. I wonder if bacon grease will ACTUALLY smell like fried bacon if being used?

Grizzly Grease Non-Toxic CLP 4 FL OZ. - Grizzly Gun Care

You expected something different?

We all know how these threads go. Nothing in this one should be a surprise to anyone. Even so, we go through beating this horse because it does bring some value. There is always some tid bit that we haven't heard before or some new shooter who will benefit greatly.

Yes, you have to pick and choose who to believe. Nevertheless, it's not a useless exercise.

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Freedom isn't free.

I have only shot my ARs in competition and training, but not in combat. After I resumed shooting after my accident, I had not cleaned my rifle after 3 or 4 matches due to injury induced pain, and I had found fouling build up on the taper of the bolt that enters the bolt carrier that has bound up the bolt and caused it to jam and not lock into battery. At times, after EXTENDED firing sessions, I have had enough carbon build up on the firing pin to prevent free travel, resulting in rounds not firing. I now break down the bolt carrier group and clean the: key, cotter pin, firing pin, bolt, and bolt carrier religiously after each session.

It is paramount to keep any rifle clean at all times, because you don't know when you will have to employ it for defense, and you don't want it to fail at the most inopportune moment.

Generally, I run my AR bolts dry, but on a rare occasion, I may have a light coating of LSA on the bolt and bolt carrier, or a little bit of Parr (I think that is the name, it's what I use to lube the op rod channels of my M1 and M1A) on each bolt carrier rail.

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Judge control not gun control!

When new keep things clean and lubed, it will help. When I can, I clean and lube after each range session.

I'm a huge Mobil 1 fan, it really cuts down on fouling. I'm also in the "lube sparingly" camp after break in. There is no need to run the gun drippng wet, a little lube on the BCG in selected locations and in a few other locations on the rifle is all you really need.

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Still carrying my S&W 642

This, generally I try and run a bore snake through the barrel after each trip to the range, but at least 50% of the time I don't due to getting distracting and doing something else with my time. If I'm running the bore snake through I'll check how easily the bolt moves in the BCG while its out, unless it's really sticky I won't do more than wipe the outside of the BCG down with some Balistol, mainly just because I have it out already and a balistol covered rag...so why not.

With this methodology I find I end up cleaning the bolt every 1-2k rounds depending on the type of ammo I'm shooting. Otherwise unless I have a malfunction while shooting, I leave it alone.

another +1 for the Cat M4 tool though, very useful little thing.

I don't break down the BCG often, I mostly slide it out, and apply a light coat of grease where metal slides against metal, everything else gets CLP. I do this after every range trip.

I have found that being a little more liberal with the lubrication of the bolt especially when new, has virtually eliminated the vast majority of malfunctions that I used to experience with the AR 15 platform.

If you can run one dry without problems, then drive on. However that certainly didn't work for me, and I was not running them dry at all, I was just being a little stingy with the lube.