Dirty, Dirty Range Guns

M

Mike H

New member
Now that I'm a Pa resident (for a while at least), I decided to try out a nice looking rental range I have used before just outside Pittsburgh.

The gun I chose was the Walther P99 in 9mm. I wanted to convince myself that it really is nice to shoot as I seem to be the only person in the thinking world who doesn't like this pistol.

You see I had tried out this very gun in October of last year at the same range and felt that it had a lot of muzzle flip for a 9mm. On locking back the slide I couldn't believe what I saw. The feed ramp had approximately a quarter of an inch of black sludge on either side with a neat shiny "trough" gouged out up the center where the bullets had entered the breach. It is my personal opinion that this gun has not been cleaned since October of last year, and possibly has NEVER been cleaned, it takes a lot of ammo to build up the amount of dirt I saw in the P99's internals, I saw them lube the slide rails on every gun rented, but I suspect that was it. The staff appeared to be moreinterested in arguing about how much bonus they would receive this month.

They did however have a new Steyr Scout on sale chambered for 7mm-08, one of only 100 made, needless to say, I wanted it.

So does anyone clean range guns these days, hell, is it even worth cleaning a handgun ?, the Walther performed perfectly, dirt and all.

For the record the range concerned is Bullseye, Campbells Run Road on the way to the airport.

Mike H
 
If a person doesn't own it, chances are they won't maintain it. You often see this in police departments, and on occasion in the military as well. Stupid, stupid, stupid...
 
Sounds about right. About a week ago my friend and I were trying to help a first time handgun owner frind of ours on what his first purchases should be so we took him to rent a bunch. He tried my Buckmark, CZ, and MKII, and my friend's USP and Desert Eagle and we also rented a 92fs and a Cougar. The rental guns were so dirty that you could not see any steel inside the breach. It was all black soot. Further more the Cougar 8045 seem to have been droped on its front sight at some point as it was obviously bent. The 92fs had such worn springs that it took about 1/4sec to return to battery.

I dont understand it, considering that the place has an ultasound cleaning machine so no elbow grease would be involved.

Loch
 
Around here in Seattle, Wade's and WSI (my range) constantly clean their range guns.

They shoot better. Better accuracy and function means more money to the owner. People shoot more if their targets are sweeter.

And if a dirty gun kabooms, the range owner has some liability and lawsuit action his way.

If they clean them regularly, I'll shoot them. Or I ask to clean the one I want to shoot.

But I won't shoot a dirty range gun. Don't know how many rounds have gone through it!
 
Around here all the gun ranges are also gun dealers, so the rentals are guns they sell.

They keep 'em real clean since 90% of the people renting them are really trying before buying.

I'd have to wonder what other safety/maintenance they aren't doing if their guns are THAT dirty. :eek:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top