Clean or dirty handguns?

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Dingoboyx

New member
At my local range where we shoot practical, one of the instructors, a mate of mine, saw me cleaning up my guns after the shoot, he said to me (he is a top shooter, gold medals to prove it) that he NEVER cleans his bores on his Browning, glock, or wesson wheels, because the performance of the gun changes from clean to dirty :eek:

He shoots and often wins comps, he reckons he leaves them dirty (fouled) so they always shoot the same, where as other instructors in the same club (also top shots) clean theirs between stages.

Is there merrit to what he says? I know it works for him.... is it just a personal choice, or is it right or wrong?

What are your opinions, either way (for or against)?

Does anyone else leave their barrel fouled? :confused:
 
Interesting... I clean mine after every range trip. That's just my presonal preference, but you wouldn't think that keeping them dirty would help out much. Then again, I dont have any gold medals for my shooting skills either :D
 
i clean mine after every range visit.Even clean the front of the cylinder face so i don't have the black rings.I like shiny all the way around.:D
 
I think either way is fine - clean between stages or just leave them dirty. The whole trick to accuracy is consistency.

But then again, I am not a competition shooter either. I clean after the range, but not to the point of cleaning the front of the cylinder. You can definitely tell mine get shot.....:D
 
The only time I really clean the barrels is if I am shooting a lot of lead. If I'm shooting FMJ or JHP, I don't really touch them. But once is a while I will shoot a few boxes of lead through them. Then I clean them when I'm done.
 
It's amazing to me that people like that guy ever won a medal. If his practices keep on the pace they're at now, he'll be needing a Lewis lead remover and a month's worth of Outer's electronic de-fouling pretty soon. It's also amazing to me at the number of posters here on TFL that whine because something doesn't go right with one of their guns--right straight out of the box.

I was always taught from the school of "firearms respect". If and when the great event of getting a new gun ever occurred, it was briskly cleaned and re-lubed with our own preferred products right out of the box. After each round of shooting, cleaned again to perfection. At the end of the season; whether fired or not, each gun was cleaned on the outside and inside the action to relube everything even just from the use of loading and reloading. Periodically, each was wiped down with an oily rag just from sitting.


Now I can't say I'm as dilligent today. I have acquired a much larger collection, time is very limited, and protection products are probably 10x better than when I started shooting. I still clean before the first shot is taken, after each round at the range, and at the end of season from carrying in the field. The retired old-timers even get a good oily rag every couple of months. I figure for all they've done for me, a little respect is the least that I owe them.




-7-
 
The firearms I don't shoot often I keep clean. My daily carry I keep clean. My often used range pistols I usually clean after about three sessions...
 
OMG, that's "every round as in session, not bullet." OCD is in the same family with Turret's, ADHD, and ADD. T-t-t-t-try and c-c-c-c-calm d-d-down. -7-
 
I shoot a Walther GSP .22 in two Bullseye leagues. I clean it at the beginning of the season and then again at the end about six months and several thousand rounds of ammo later. The point of aim definitely changes after cleaning and it takes about a box of ammo to get it back to where it was before. I've never had a FTF, either in practice or competition.

The centerfires, on the other hand get cleaned after every few range trips.
 
My experience mirrors FlyFish. All of the smallbore shooters I know abhor cleaning a barrel mid-season, and never before a big match.

I can say I've noticed more difference in the rimfires than in centerfires. My .44, .357 and 9mms all shoot the same clean or dirty. My M-18 shoots spotty until a little dirty, then fine, then tapers off as it gets too dirty if I'm using cheaper ammo. Feed it CCI SV and once it settles it shoots well for a while. My Ruger semi-auto .22s (rifle and pistol) also shoot better with some fouling.

About the only centerfires I've ever noticed a significant accuracy/zero shift in are my AR match rifle, which does NOT like to be scrubbed clean with a brush, and a .260 Remington I had, which again, would shoot cruddy when squeaky clean, settle down adn shoot, and then shoot cruddy when too fouled. Then I had to scrub it down and repeat again. Oddly enough, the AR hangs in when cleaned with just patches and copper remover.

But in centerfire handguns? I can't imagine keeping a pistol that was that picky about shooting clean or dirty.
 
Machines need to be clean to work properly

Not my rule, but is is a rule nonetheless

Great, this competition shooter doesn't clean his guns. Great for him. I wouldn't buy his pistol as it's been abused. Good on him, he shoots straight and for him that works....fantastic. From a mechanical standpoint he couldn't be more off base
 
If you clean your guns and then want to go target shooting, that is what "fouling shots" before the match are for. As for the people that keep a loaded gun in the home or do CCW, do you trust your life to a cruddy gun? I know some "old timers" did not clean their guns bores. If that goes back before the war, to corrosive priming, that explains all the guns at the gunshow that are junkers with ate up bores.
 
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