Benefits of cleaning a silencer?

M

Machineguntony

New member
I ran about half a dozen silencers in my sonic cleaner for about 30 minutes. That loosened up the carbon, and after the silencers dried, I just shook out all the carbon.

Afterwards, I asked myself...

Is it really necessary to clean a silencer? There are no moving parts in a silencer, nothing that needs to be oiled, so I don't see a practical benefit to cleaning them.

Other than the desire to have something clean and shiny, what practical benefit is there to cleaning a silencer?

Fellas/ladies, what do you say? Do any of you not clean them at all?
 
I believe in cleaning them, if not it may become impossible to take apart in the future. Also if they keep filling up you will loose volume in the can and they will be less effective. Plus it seems pretty easy to just drop them into the cleaner and come back 30 minutes later, its not like your scrubbing and it takes all day. Also if your shooting lead the lead will build up inside.
 
What sort if solution do you guys use in the sonic cleaner?

I never really gave much thought to centerfire rifle silencers needing cleaning as they generally don't see exposed lead bullets and I figured the hotter gasses made them somewhat "self-cleaning", like a gas tube on an AR.
 
I wouldn't know since I haven't cleaned mine much. The centerfire has under 200 rounds through it. The rimfire(s) have between 150(the 17HMR) and 500(22lr) and seem fine. I'm sure the rimfires will require soaking in CLP to ease baffle removal but, so what? Mine don't seem to be any more difficult after hundreds of shots vs 50.
 
Supersonic rifle cans will clean then selfs shiney inside. Pistol and rimfire cans need to be cleaned out due to build up of shmutts. Namely the latter.
 
I use a Hornady tub cleaner, I forget the name, it's the big one. I also use a big jug of the Hornady cleaner. It's the best ever cleaner.
 
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