Cleaning your M&P

[Chris A.]

For anyone who wants to chime in on this one. I am just curious how long it takes you to clean your M&P. I am not having any issues and have a set system that I use.

Taking my time, looking everything over, with some music going in the background, it takes me about 1 hour to go through my cleaning routine. Just wondering how that compares to you all.

Happy Holidays!

 

[Dragon88]

I shoot too much to spend an hour cleaning one gun. 10 minutes is usually enough for a polymer semi-auto.

 

[obiwankabaldi]

Wow an hour. I shoot often and sometimes more than one firearm. An hour each every time would cause me to neglect to so it as often as I should. I would guess that as mentioned with the M&P it should only take 15 - 20 minutes. Barrel, slide, solvent and let sit. Brush rest of frame. Go back and clean barrel and slide. Little oil on metal of frame where slide moves and touches, reassemble and function check. Once a year serious cleaning.......Maybe an hour for that.

 

[SWMod10]

I'm 1200 rounds into a 2000 round test on my M&P 45. All I have done it wipe soot off the slide.

So far, no failures.

I normally clean after every range session, not a detailed strip, but just a normal cleaning. Maybe 15 minutes at most.

Once a year I do a more detailed cleaning of all my firearms.

 

[bluzman]

Now that I've got my routine set, I spend 20-25 minutes.

 

[Chris A.]

The hour includes from the time I get to the workbench to the time I have everything put away. This includes letting things sit with solvent while I typically go take care of other chores. Probably closer to 25 minutes actually working on the pistol. I think I am a little over cautious about getting everything clean.

Would still like to hear others' opinions.

 

[Dragon88]

If it makes you happy to clean your pistol like that, cool. But it's not necessary at all, many modern polymer wonders will go thousands and thousands of rounds without a cleaning with no ill effect. Depending on how cautious you are with cleaning rods and brushes, ramming tools through the bore may actually be doing more harm than good.

 

[Old_Salt]

I guess I fall right into the pack with about twenty minutes and that's because I can, if I was rushed, no more than 5-7 minutes tops, I clean my firearm often (but after no less than 250rds) so I never see a lot of anything. A quick solvent spray, a few minutes wait then scrub, wipe, etc and then inspect, lube, reassemble, load in some dummy rounds for a function check, All okay, pack it up for my carry.

 

[sgtvilla]

It depends on how dirty it is of course. This is determine by how much I shoot, how crappy the ammo is, and if its raining or nasty outside.

That being said, I normally take about 10-15 minutes to clean it. I have a system down and Im always careful not to "over clean" Sometimes this cause more harm than good, and shortens the life of weapons.

This happens a lot in the military since cleaning weapons its a discipline thing and we are brought up thinking a weapon has to be extremely clean and spotless every single time.

Armalite released this about AR-15s: http://www.armalite.com/images/Tech Notes\Tech Note 29, Rifle Cleaning, 99.04.pdf


I don't know S&W has to say about this, but like dragon88 said, a polymer pistol does not require much.

 

[roundgunner]

I guess I fall into the fanatic category.

It is kind of a military thing, almost a ritual that gives me a odd calmness.
I clean my guns every time they go out. I do shoot 95% lead so I get them pretty dirty and the lube can and will get into things like extractor hooks and such.

I break the M&Ps down to barrel, frame, spring & slide. Dip a bronze brush in Hoppes #9 and scrub out the barrel and let sit. Then I dip a tooth brush in the solvent and scrub everything I can inside and out then I hit it with compressed air & wipe it the best I can with a cloth, once in a while I will also spray it out with break cleaner.

The slide gets the same treatment except the white dot sights get break cleaner every time to keep them bright. Once in a while I pull out the striker/pin. The spring gets wiped & now the barrel gets finished, patches and wiped.

As far as lube goes S&W likes to run them almost dry so I stick to the points the book says but take some of the extra off the slide spots with my finger and rub it onto the spots that show wear signs.

I’m going to guess the time is over 30 min but under an hour.

 

[Ramman911]

Average about 15 minutes. Every few months I'll do a nice 45 min or so detailed cleaning.

 

[chuck s]

All ya need to clean a pistol that's not shooting corrosive ammo is a bottle of CLP, shop rag, tooth brush, and a Boresnake of the right caliber. There has not been a need for copper solvents since 1952.

Field strip the pistol and glug (a technical term) a little CLP down the barrel. Drag the bore snake thru it. Do it twice if you're anal about barrel cleaning. Use the CLP, tooth brush, and rag to clean the rest of the pistol.

Give the lube points a drop of CLP and reassemble. Use the rag to wipe the exterior,

Shouldn't take much longer than this took to type.

-- Chuck

 

[Deadeye Dick]

All ya need to clean a pistol that's not shooting corrosive ammo is a bottle of CLP, shop rag, tooth brush, and a Boresnake of the right caliber. There has not been a need for copper solvents since 1952.

Field strip the pistol and glug (a technical term) a little CLP down the barrel. Drag the bore snake thru it. Do it twice if you're anal about barrel cleaning. Use the CLP, tooth brush, and rag to clean the rest of the pistol.

Give the lube points a drop of CLP and reassemble. Use the rag to wipe the exterior,

Shouldn't take much longer than this took to type.

-- Chuck

Yep, that's pretty much my SOP only I use a bore mop rather than a snake. I try not to coddle my guns too much, don't want them to get prissy on me.

 

[Capt Steve]

As soon as I finish shooting be it at the range or out on the mountain every gun fired gets cleaned. I spend about 10 minutes on each. Strip them down, spray them off with solvent and use toothbrushes, soft and wire, as needed. Patches down the barrel/cylinders until they come out clean. Couple of drops of oil on a large soft clean cloth and wipe everything down. May take an hour or more depending on how many guns got shot. This must work as all of them,look and shoot like new. YMMV

 

[nun]

15 minutes

 

[growr]

You are supposed to clean them? Uh-oh.......Just being a smart @ss. Seriously I will clean after every 3-4 matches which is around 4-500 rounds.
Randy

 

[k2ue]

A lot depends on what cartridge and powder you are shooting. I've noted that low pressure cartridges, like the 45acp, blow more powder residue to the rear, probably because the case mouth doesn't seal as tightly to the throat as higher pressure rounds. And the larger bores seams overall dirtier than smaller, perhaps because of the applicable powders.

I shoot mostly 357sig these days, and I find that it and the 38 super seem to leave, on average, the cleanest cases -- I can go a long time without cleaning, typically many months. I personally reload with Shilouette, which leaves a little carbon in the cases, and nada in the gun. A guy spitting out pristine 38 super cases said he used SR7625.

Conversely, I remember doing an Intensive Handgun course for 3 days with Glock 30, and I wound up having the vigorously scrub the front sight with a toothbrush every 50 rounds or so, because the heavy beige powder residue on the front sight made it disappear against the berm! That was Blazer aluminum, chosen in hope of reducting the schlep weight of the 2500 or so rounds we burned.

 

[Knightrider03m]

It may take me an hour to clean all 3 of my guns. But that is just me taking my time watching a movie or a TV show.

 

[shotslow]

Great thread. Simple subject, but one I have asked myself. How long should I spend cleaning. I spend 15 to 25 minutes. Sometimes I don't clean after every use. If I shoot and am going to the range the next day, I don't clean. But, as an ex-Marine I suffer great guilt.

 

[Bob Crail]

I spend "0" time cleaning .... I let my wife do it