Is a clean gun truly a happy gun?

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Are we talking about exterior, action or barrel?

Wipe down the exterior if it needs it, but dont even think about cleaning the barrel on any accurate/target rifle until you have a reason. Clean it incorrectly or make one mistep and the accuracy will be ruined. Thing is, most rifles are inaccurate enough that they dont get much worse after a cleaning hack job.
 
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I clean every few hundred rounds. On my shooters I go for functional clean not white glove. Never have anything not go bang.

On my Sig rifle I go about 1k rounds between cleanings.

On my .22's never really. I cleaned my 10/22 for the first time last month, this had been after 3 years of about 500 rounds a week, and being dunked in the snow/water/mud a few times.


Combat firearms don't get dirty punching paper, unless your rolling around in the mud cleaning all the time is kind of pointless.

OTOH the safe queens/old military stuff is cleaned after every shooting, even if its one shot, and oiled every few months.
 
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I tend to clean my firearms after every trip to the range -- This involves field stripping, cleaning, and oiling. I like to clean them well but I don't do the whole white glove, Sergeant Major is coming, kind of clean we had to in the service.

For rifles, the barrels only get cleaned when they're dirty enough to impact accuracy (every 3rd or 4th range visit). About once a year, I'll do a complete tear down.

I think it's all about balance -- Many guns have been destroyed from neglect but many have also been destroyed by over, and incorrect cleaning. It's very easy to accidentally damage a rifle barrel's crown, especially when there's no other choice but to clean the barrel from the muzzle side. Many used guns have massive throat erosion because of it.
 
Originally Posted By: 2cool
Old Army habit is to clean the weapon every time after each use. OTOH, range rentals are cleaned once a month, no oftener; and shoot and shoot.
Does it really make that much of a difference in reliable shooting if less than 50 rounds have been put through it?


I don't agree with what you say about range rentals. There are a few indoor ranges around here, and they NEVER clean their guns unless they won't even cycle. Most of them look like a carbon encrusted spark plug, and they jam all the time. They refuse to put even 1 drop of oil anywhere on the gun. I do not know why.


My philosophy is "one round down the pipe, and it needs to be cleaned." Because I am a BITOGer, my guns are dripping with oil.

A friend of mine never cleans his guns. When they don't function he complains, but a few drops of oil, and they start to work again.

In the old days with mercury primers, you had to clean you guns or they would rust.
 
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Buy enough old milsurp guns and you will see tons of ruined barrels from GI's stuffing cleaning rods down the muzzle, and over cleaning their weapons to pass white glove inspection. Military cleaning procedures in all military's up until pretty recently were very damaging to their weapons.

Except the Swiss, they issued bore snakes and proper cleaning instructions.
 
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Buy enough old milsurp guns and you will see tons of ruined barrels from GI's stuffing cleaning rods down the muzzle, and over cleaning their weapons to pass white glove inspection. Military cleaning procedures in all military's up until pretty recently were very damaging to their weapons.

Except the Swiss, they issued bore snakes and proper cleaning instructions.


When I'm looking at a military rifle, the question isn't if the barrel is damaged, it's how badly it is. I've seen Garands that were so bad, you could drop a .30 cal round down the muzzle, all the way to the base of the cartridge's neck.

When I was in the Army, there was a lot of pressure to remove every bit of carbon, using any method possible -- Guys would take rifles in the showers, fill them up with shaving cream, solvents from NAPA, etc.

Nobody wanted the 1SG (or higher) to stick his pinky in the chamber and have it come out with even a speck of carbon. It doesn't help that when deployed, there isn't much else to do but clean your rifle.
 
Originally Posted By: kb01
Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Buy enough old milsurp guns and you will see tons of ruined barrels from GI's stuffing cleaning rods down the muzzle, and over cleaning their weapons to pass white glove inspection. Military cleaning procedures in all military's up until pretty recently were very damaging to their weapons.

Except the Swiss, they issued bore snakes and proper cleaning instructions.


When I'm looking at a military rifle, the question isn't if the barrel is damaged, it's how badly it is. I've seen Garands that were so bad, you could drop a .30 cal round down the muzzle, all the way to the base of the cartridge's neck.

When I was in the Army, there was a lot of pressure to remove every bit of carbon, using any method possible -- Guys would take rifles in the showers, fill them up with shaving cream, solvents from NAPA, etc.

Nobody wanted the 1SG (or higher) to stick his pinky in the chamber and have it come out with even a speck of carbon. It doesn't help that when deployed, there isn't much else to do but clean your rifle.


This is why I beleive in a functional clean. Carbon is inert and won't hurt anything, simply shooting a firearm unless its black powder or uses corrosive ammo doesn't make it "dirty".

IMHO scrap off the big stuff, oil up the action, and its good enough.
 
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