I have several thousands of rounds thru my 15-22, and clean it after every 500 rounds or so. This is an easy gun to clean, except for the bolt face. I struggle with it and use different picks and brushes. I must be doing a good enough job as I just almost never have any failures.

So when my Form 1 came in, I had to remove the barrel for the first time. I was amazed at all the junk I was missing. Granted, I assume it must not be in areas that are critical to shooting function, but it was rather dirty in places.

Curious if folks around here remove their barrel regularly for cleaning? After what I saw, I plan on fully stripping my gun every thousand rounds or so. The bolt is sure easier to clean with the barrel off the gun. I use Tacticool22's barrel vice & barrel nut wrench.
Barrel Vise Jaws and Barrel Nut Wrench (Pro) Combo for the Smith & Wesson M&P15-22 [BVJ-1 & BNW-PRO - COMBO] - $44.00 Tacticool22, Parts and Accessories for .22 Caliber Firearms

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It is?

The only time I had the barrel off was to re-seat the ejector. There was some crud in some spots that didn't affect operation of the rifle, so I didn't worry about it. It's your rifle, so if you want to detail strip it that often, go for it.
Personally, I'd be worried about the long-term impact of frequent disassembly/reassembly of these components. Granted, the metal collar threads on the metal barrel, so there's not metal-plastic threading, but still it seems that every 1000 rounds might be a little excessive and would be doing more harm than good.

How do you damage a gun by disassembly? Sure if you do it wrong, I'm sure you could do harm but by using proper tools & technique, what do you hurt?

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Sorry, said that wrong. Meant to say bolt face but not sure what that part of the barrel is called on a 15-22. On an AR, I think you call it the barrel extension... where the feed ramp is located.

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I've owned a lot of .22's for a lot of years. Never removed a barrel for cleaning.......Never will......Including my 15-22.

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About 20k through mine and I have never removed the barrel. Personally, I don't see any need to, but then you ol' rednecks always do thing differently.

The bolt face doesn't seem to be a problem for me. I spray a little CLP (Gun Scrubber if it's been more than a thousand rounds) and let it sit for a few minutes. Then a stiff toothbrush and a dental pic gets the gunk off in about three minutes.

I use about 90 pounds of compressed air blown both ways through the firing pin channel to make sure the pin is free running.

My other two 22s are designed for easy barrel removal... my Buck Mark & my CZ 455. I have swapped out barrels on both, so removing a barrel is nothing odd for me.

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I felt the same way prior to removing my barrel for cutting (it is now only 4.5" long). Might want to take yours off & look for yourself. Not saying that gunk impacts operation but it is still there.

If I remember correctly you only live with the Yankees... weren't born one.

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There is discussion galore on this board about the damage done to the polymer upper when removing the flash hider improperly. Maybe if more folks complexly stripped their gun, at least once, they would understand why. I learned a lot about the 15-22 by stripping it.

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Off topic a little but I use a porcupine quill and a rag for cleaning

How's the project going? I don't think I've seen any new pics...but I may have missed them.

Attached the short barrel this am & am awaiting my lower to come back from engraving. Didn't take any pics as so far looks just like what you have done. My barrel looks just like yours & I cut down the handguard identically to what you did.

I will take pics of the engraving when the lower comes back as I don't recall anyone here using Orion Arms to do so.

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Excellent. Be interested to see how Orion did. I'm sure it looks 1000% better than mine.

What was the turnaround time on the eForm? 25 days or so?

I would sure hope so! Your thread was a big help for me. Told me what to do with the barrel & handguard... and what not to do for engraving.

100 days or so. Submitted back in May when efile was taken down, so did this one via snail mail. I was still very pleased with that turnaround. Submitted a new one 2 weeks ago via efile for my 300 Blackout. Hope it does come in within a month. That would be super.

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I'm a ...

West Virginian by birth,
Christian by choice,
Texan by the Grace of God,
Temporarily forced to live among the heathen.

BTW, every 5k, I've squirted the area around the chamber end of the barrel liberally with Gun Scrubber and used 90 pounds or so of compressed air to clean any accumulated crud out. Seems to work.

How do you make the critter hold still that long.

The bolt face is extremely easy to clean.
Open the upper and pull the charging handle to remove the bolt and rails. The face of the bolt is right there and easy to clean.
The face of the breech is a little more difficult. Plastic scrapers and picks. Q-tips and CLP of your choice. Removing the barrel is a little overkill, but overkill is often under-rated.
Whatever works for you is what works.

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Buy cheap, pay twice.

That is the part I am talking about. I am all for overkill.

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The bolt itself, yes rarely as needed. the bbl not as of yet.

Another way to do damage is to hold the reciever with muzzle pointed up while loosening the barrel nut. IIRC, one guy here harpooned his foot with the ejector as the barrel fell from the upper when the barrel nut reached the end of threads. Ouch!

Jim shoots suppressed so his gun will get dirtier quicker. Absent a flash suppressor torqued on from the factory to wrestle with, all there is to do is pop off the plastic end cap and remove barrel but. Done. A lot of gunk will build about around the sides of the breech and reciever that can't ordinarily be reached. It don't hurt nothing to leave it or clean it. These 1522s are notorious for having a loose barrel nut. So even if you don't remove the barrel it isn't a bad idea to pop off the end cap and make sure it's tight anyway. If you don't already have one, might check in with Forum Vendor Tacticool22 and pick up a barrel nut wrench.

If you never remove the barrel from the upper receiver, you will probably never manage to find a way to damage the ejector. And the rifle will keep on functioning just like it's supposed to (with the occasional half-assed cleaning that most .22 rifles receive).

However if you do remove the barrel and happen to bend/break that frighteningly fragile little part, you're looking at sending the whole thing back to S&W. I would rather rent a porcupine.

I've had my 15-22 detail stripped down to pieces several times for configuration changes. Sure, it's interesting to see how it all goes together. But it's not going to break itself without me messing with it. I would never bother to disassemble it like this for an unnecessary cleaning of the breach face. But I personally hate sending gear back to the factory.

This forum is littered with folks who have damaged that little ejector... and very few did it while removing the barrel. Improper cleaning technique has done in more of those parts than anything.

I treat that ejector like it was made of glass. I cover it with a straw during cleaning & when I shipped the barrel off for cutting, that thing was packed like an egg was enclosed.

I have a spare 15-22, mainly to have a spare upper. If I want to let someone borrow my gun, I can now just swap out uppers & keep the SBR at home. Really the only option as you can't purchase an extra barrel. I can use the spare for parts too, but since it ain't a home defense gun, that is not really necessary.

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