Field strip cleaning question

R

RAfiringline

New member
My weekly range shooting is usually 50 rds. per gun. I don't field strip and clean after only 50 rds. After any shooting, I always use solvent and a toothbrush on the bolt face, the chamber face, soak up dirty solvent, then run a boresnake through the barrel, twice.

Yesterday I realized that I was pushing 900 rounds through my favorite 9mm, since the last field strip/cleaning. That seems a bit much, especially since it's also a home defense gun, not just for targets.

Does anybody have opinions about what the fired rounds interval should be, between field strip cleaning for handguns and rifles, assuming a quick cleaning after any shooting?

edit: A couple people have mentioned ammo and conditions as being important. In my case, run-of-the-mill jacketed ammo, clean conditions w/ no dirt, mud, water getting into the actions. I do use some Russian Tula and Brown Bear in my AR, which can leave behind more carbon debris.

Thanks
 
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A lot will depend on the type of ammo you shoot; lead vs jacketed. dirty powder, etc. I clean mine every trip, even if it is just a wipe down and boresnake as you described. Some guns can keep on going, some not as much.
 
The only time I haven't cleaned right after a session is if there's another session coming up the same week and the gun is working as it should.
More of a time thing than a round count.
Although 900 rounds might be pushing it, especially if it's for home defense.
But like FITASC sez, it depends on the ammo and the conditions it was used.
 
Clean after use, works for me. Takes five minutes and done.

The stuff in the safe gets pulled out and cleaned and oiled once a year, inspected more often.
 
I usually like to do a full cleaning on my S&W 4006 after 100+ rounds. Until that 100 round mark though I usually don't clean it at all; I just make sure it's well oiled. I'm sure I could get away with not cleaning it for much much longer however.
 
I clean mine after every range trip, I just like clean guns. If it doesn't smell like a mixture of Hoppes #9 and gun oil it just ain't right!
 
I'm another who cleans after each range trip. Is it absolutely necessary? Probably not, but it keeps you from guessing whether it is going to malfunction due to lack of cleaning, and I don't think proper, gentle cleaning is going to hurt any well-made firearm. My late father did it that way, and guns that he had for decades are both spotless and in excellent working order.
 
I don't think proper, gentle cleaning is going to hurt any well-made firearm.
Click to expand...

It won't.

However, done improperly, it will. And, SO will improper disassembly and reassembly.

The military has an obsession with cleaning their firearms. This is a hold over from the black powder days, a way to keep troops "busy", and a practical matter as well, because of the amount of use and abuse military arms are subjected to.

Firearms designed for military use are rugged, and designed to be taken apart, cleaned, and put back together by people who often ARE the 5 thumbed apes they are so often made out to be. I saw many while in their company. I was a Small Arms Repairman...

Civilian firearms, particularly the older designs were never intended for constant disassembly and reassembly. Doing so simply accelerates wear, and risks actual damage if not done properly, and with the correct tools.

As an experiment, a couple decades ago, I basically stopped cleaning (some) my guns, the intent was to see how many rounds (average) it would take before they started to malfunction.

All of my service class autos and all my revolvers went several hundred rounds with no cleaning, and no malfunctions. At that point, I went to wiping out those areas I could easily reach without disassembly. Same results.

One Ruger 10/22 deliberately did not get cleaned (other than wiping crud out of the action) for over a decade. It was still running PERFECTLY when I did break it down for a detail clean. Other than were the bolt ran, there was 1/4" (or more) of built up powder residue all over EVERYING inside that gun. And it was still working fine.

I do clean them all now, once in a while, but I am now convinced that in normal situations constant clean for functioning is not generally needed. Exceptions exist, of course, and nothing is harmed by cleaning done right, and most of us like to do it, but it usually isn't needed as often as we do it.

Now, cleaning the BORE for accuracy is an ENTIRELY different matter. Centerfire rifles (and some handguns) need to have the bores cleaned regularly to maintain their accuracy. RIMFIRE rifles, generally do not, and it is often found that a rimfire bore will LOSE accuracy after being cleaned, and may take a few hundred rounds to regain the accuracy it had before cleaning.
 
I clean after every range day. I also take more then one pistol to the range at one time so it may only get 50 rounds out of it I dont keep count usually I just have fun. But I do clean them all once I get home.
 
field strip and cleaning

I field strip and clean all my guns after every range trip, because I only go every few months and I like to clean and lube them before storage, sometimes it could be several months until I use them again, thats why I make sure to clean them before putting them away.

especially if I shoot old surplus military ammo out of my military surplus bolt action rifles, to prevent corrosion

I use hot soapy water on those everytime they get used
 
Self-defense carry guns usually get cleaned after every range trip. And then subjected to a thorough function/safety check. The main reason isn't reliability, it's that the gun will be carried/handled and I don't want the fouling getting on stuff.

However, with enough rounds downrange without maintenance, you may get some reliability problems.

I've shot more than 1000 rounds through a centerfire handgun on a couple of occasions without cleaning and at around 900 rounds, one of them started having some relatively minor function issues due to fouling.

Admittedly the conditions were poor (light rain) and the ammo was inexpensive practice ammo, but still, the gun did get noticeably less reliable. The failure mode was that it would no longer reliably chamber the first round from a full magazine if the slide release lever was used. Manually racking the slide gave it just enough extra recoil spring compression that it still worked every time.
 
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