Cleaning your guns

[Ribwizzard]

All depends on my mood.

 

[lkabug]

What is this cleaning you talk of??? I don't remember anything in the book about cleaning.

I love my stainless revolvers---when they quit functioning properly I simply break them down and run them through the dishwasher. Quick lube job and they are ready to go another year or so.

Gotta get me some of that detergent! Kmart?

 

[Struckat]

Sometimes I am satisfied with just a wipe down dependent on number of rounds fired. They are never dirty, but not really clean.

 

[shocker]

Minutes, and the older I get, the less often.
Jacketed factory ammo is by and large, very clean stuff. Can go many hundreds of rounds between cleanings. Cast bullets are another story. 22 LR? I have my junior markmanship booklet from the 1960s. It basically says never clean a 22 rifle...

 

[Dutchboy901]

In all fairness, I should add that my cleaning efforts are not a continuous process, in that I will stop periodically just to give myself a break & go do something else, then come back to the grind!

 

[oysterer]

I clean mostly after each use unless I know I shoot during the same few days again.

I try to not bring more than 2-3 guns to practise as I do not like to spend ages cleaning.

I shoot frequently and my routine is efficient and quick. 10 min each gun and done, no grit left behind and very clean.

I dont do the whole Ren Wax spa thing very often but sometimes when more 'me and my guns' time is needed.

Very seldom I do a copper deep clean to the barrels but hardly since I went mostly to 'blue bullets'.

 

[smoothshooter]

Most of the time, I only do a partial cleaning.
If I have fired more than 3 or 4 dozen rounds, I will clean the chambers in a revolver pretty good, especially any slight lead deposits in the cylinder throats and forcing conesince I only shoot cast bullets in them. I like to clean the cylinder cut-out on the frame pretty well too. Every few hundred rounds I will do a more thorough clean-up, but even then it rarely takes more than 30 minutes. Cleaning an automatic takes me about the same amount of time or less.
I see little point in taking more than 45 minutes to clean any gun, even black powder revolvers and flintlock rifles and smoothbores which I shoot year around.
But unto each his own.

 

[Engineer1911]

When the trigger pull increases, cylinder gunked up with bullet lube, inside the slide, barrel, breach fouled with powder and bullet lube, lead streaks in barrel; then it is time to clean an individual gun.

I've shot dirty guns and I've shot clean guns, didn't make much difference in group size. Varmint rifles get cleaned after 200 rounds on a week long shoot. 22 LR rimfires get cleaned when the action looks filthy. I don't care about a powder burn on the cylinder face or a less than shiny, pristine feed ramp. Functionality is what is important. When clean burning powder is developed, I'll have pristine, white glove inspection guns. This will not happen with today's powder and cast lead bullets with conventional bullet lube.

 

[muddocktor]

I'm a bit picky myself when cleaning my pistols and rifles and pretty much clean them no matter how little they have actually been shot. My auto pistols generally take me around 15-30 minutes to get pretty clean, but it usually takes me an hour or more with my revolvers. On my revolvers, I remove the yoke and cylinder from the frame so that it's easier to clean them. I cannot stand having carbon buildup on the sides of the cylinder or on the yoke and across the top strap of the frame and separating the yoke and cylinder from the frame makes both much easier for me to remove the carbon. The front face of the cylinder I don't worry too much about though; just make sure I get any loose carbon off. And I thoroughly clean under the extractor star too.

 

[Krogen]

Hah! Cleaning guns ain't my favorite activity. I clean them when they need it. There. I said it. I don't clean after every use. I do keep things protected from rust, but that's it for routine attention.

 

[Racer X]

"I love my stainless revolvers---when they quit functioning properly I simply break them down and run them through the dishwasher. Quick lube job and they are ready to go another year or so. "

My old room mate did this with his Glocks all the time.

 

[glowe]

. . . nail polish? . . .

 

[grinner]

. . . nail polish? . . .

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by this. How the heck do you use nail polish to clean a gun? Maybe the OP meant acetone (nail polish remover), but I'm not sure that's a better solvent for gun cleaning.

On to my response to the OP's question. If spending three hours cleaning your guns is therapeutic, then by all means go for it. For me, I can find other things to do that are more enjoyable for three hours than cleaning my guns. I clean after a couple of hundred rounds fired (and have gone upwards of 500). I usually visit the range once a week, and shoot a 50-round box each through my 1911 and 327, so it works out to once a month.

If a gun can't function after firing 200 rounds through it without cleaning, it's too finicky in my book and not worth keeping.

But that's me.

 

[Dutchboy901]

. . . nail polish? . . .

The "nail polish" are a couple of maintenance items that I use from time to time. I use the clear nail polish on my holster tension screws to keep them in place. Yeah I know all about "LocTite", but this is an old technique that was around long before locTite and works just as good!

The white polish I use to mark my settings on my tension screws, as well as my sights every once in a while. Yes I know there's other stuff just for sight dots, but nail polish works just as good!

The red polish I use for my safety dots that I apply every once in a while. I also use the red to mark my mags.

 

[Dutchboy901]

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused by this. How the heck do you use nail polish to clean a gun? Maybe the OP meant acetone (nail polish remover), but I'm not sure that's a better solvent for gun cleaning.

On to my response to the OP's question. If spending three hours cleaning your guns is therapeutic, then by all means go for it. For me, I can find other things to do that are more enjoyable for three hours than cleaning my guns. I clean after a couple of hundred rounds fired (and have gone upwards of 500). I usually visit the range once a week, and shoot a 50-round box each through my 1911 and 327, so it works out to once a month.

If a gun can't function after firing 200 rounds through it without cleaning, it's too finicky in my book and not worth keeping.

But that's me.

Never said that I use "Nail Polish" to clean my guns, you assumed that Sir! I said that it's in my gun cleaning kit!

 

[grinner]

Never said that I use "Nail Polish" to clean my guns, you assumed that Sir! I said that it's in my gun cleaning kit!

Why would it be in your cleaning kit if you don't use it for cleaning your guns? Still confused.

 

[HorizontalMike]

Never Clean?

Minutes, and the older I get, the less often...[snip]... 22 LR? I have my junior markmanship booklet from the 1960s. It basically says never clean a 22 rifle...

Well, I used to follow that line of thought... but finally got around to cleaning my 1948 Remington 121 22LR Pump, AFTER ~65yr.
I do have to say that it was very well worth the effort!

BTW, my father and I used to target shoot with this in our basement "range" back in the 1950s. No deck of playing cards were safe!

 

[Dutchboy901]

Why would it be in your cleaning kit if you don't use it for cleaning your guns? Still confused.

Grinner, So as not to repeat myself again, please read up, my post #34 Sir. In that post you will find why I keep "Nail Polish" in my gun cleaning kit!

 

[bigggbbruce]

Sometimes I am satisfied with just a wipe down dependent on number of rounds fired. They are never dirty, but not really clean.

That's all mine get.. I'm always taking mine out to shoot..

After a few times out the revolvers get a BoreSnake through all holes. The auto's get the top end taken off and rail wiped and relubed..

Once in a Blue Moon I take them completely apart and do a complete clean and lube..

 

[bigggbbruce]

"I love my stainless revolvers---when they quit functioning properly I simply break them down and run them through the dishwasher. Quick lube job and they are ready to go another year or so. "

My old room mate did this with his Glocks all the time.

Bet that tastes good. "What's that black residue in the dishwasher?"