If you fire your carry gun at the range...

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Playboypenguin

Moderator
...do you clean and inspect it before returning it to your holster?

I know I sometimes end up firing a few rounds, not only through the guns I carry to the range in my case, but also through the gun I happen to be carrying that day.

When I do, I always give the gun a light cleaning (swab the barrel and wipe it down and relube it) and then inspect the operations of the gun before reloading it and returning it to my holster. I later clean it more thoroughly once I have returned home for the night.

How about you?
 
Don't know about you, but if I couldn't fire my carry piece a few times with out cleaning and inspecting before holstering and carrying again I would probably get rid of it. :rolleyes:
 
Nope... I tend to keep the bore in "shot" condition. I will field strip it and wipe down any gunk and wipe the rails and give it a light shot of lube, wipe the breech face, but the bore stays fouled. I tend to clean the carry gun BEFORE heading to the range.

All the others are cleaned after the range and kept clean.
 
At the "range", yes. They have tables and heat and good lightning so it's easy. Most of my shooting is done in my dads backyard so I wait until I get home therefore it's technically not "before I reholster" but it is ASAP. I NEVER shoot without cleaning. (Carry gun only, others can wait a week or three).

(Pretty much like you, PBP)
 
Nope. I let it cool off a bit, give it a cursory visual inspection and a wipe if it needs it, and then it's reloaded and holstered.
Don't know about you, but if I couldn't fire my carry piece a few times with out cleaning and inspecting before holstering and carrying again I would probably get rid of it.
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Exactly.
 
Don't know about you, but if I couldn't fire my carry piece a few times with out cleaning and inspecting before holstering and carrying again I would probably get rid of it.
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For me, it's not a matter of could or couldn't. It's a matter of keeping Mr. Murphy, who is a VERY close associate of mine, at bay. He and I have discussed adding my name to his law, in my "honor" so to speak, being that I have been the recipient of his graces so many times.
 
Function check (50 rds or so), re-holster, then clean first thing when I get home. It always seems like I spend more time cleaning than shooting... I thought I had OCD, until I started reading everyone else's cleaning habits :)
 
I always think to myself, "Okay, so the gun worked great at the range, awesome. What if during the cleaning I accidentally put something in slightly wrong and it messes up when it matters the most? As it sits right now I have proven it functions flawlessly. If I take it apart to clean it, that test is no longer valid because I have added a bunch of confounding variables to the whole experiment. I would then have to prove that it works again once it's been fully reassembled and cleaned. Perhaps this time I didn't get the springs seated right, or one of them is reversed, or maybe I used too much grease, or not enough lubrication, or maybe too much; there are so many confounding variables not taken into consideration."

But... I also have a degree in experimental psychology so I worry about those kinds of things. :p
 
For me, it's not a matter of could or couldn't. It's a matter of keeping Mr. Murphy, who is a VERY close associate of mine, at bay. He and I have discussed adding my name to his law, in my "honor" so to speak, being that I have been the recipient of his graces so many times.
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Exactly, it kind of amazes me that some people will be completely prepared for the infinitesimal possibility that they will need to use a gun in self defense during their daily life, but completely disregard something as possible as a mechanical failure of even a reliable gun.
 
My guns pretty much stay "clean" unless I am at the range. That goes for my carry and all others. As soon as I darken the door I head to the garage (or the basement if its really cold outside) and field strip them all. It has nothing at all to do with having to clean my carry for fear of it falling to pieces, I just love to look through the chamber and into the barrel and see it shine (or inside the slide or any other metal part).
 
My older Sig 220 is reliable regardless. Fire a hundred or so rounds through it, holster...continue with something else.

I can see how you'd want to clean other pistols though, especially a tight fitting 1911 or similar.
 
Futzing with your CCW while on my range is distinctly frowned upon, so I never shoot what I'm carrying that day. I'll usually shoot my alternate carry piece and get to them that way.
 
I can see how you'd want to clean other pistols though, especially a tight fitting 1911 or similar.
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It's not always just about function, the powder, lead, and dirtied oil can get on your clothes, giving you a bad laundry day.
 
For me, it's not a matter of could or couldn't. It's a matter of keeping Mr. Murphy, who is a VERY close associate of mine, at bay. He and I have discussed adding my name to his law, in my "honor" so to speak, being that I have been the recipient of his graces so many times.
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Exactly, it kind of amazes me that some people will be completely prepared for the infinitesimal possibility that they will need to use a gun in self defense during their daily life, but completely disregard something as possible as a mechanical failure of even a reliable gun.
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I don't disregard the possibility of a mechanical failure at all. It's just that, under the circumstances, changing the state (i.e. breaking down and cleaning) something that just proved to me that it is in working condition seems to me to be a much more enticing invitation for Mr. Murphy to join the party than leaving it be.

I don't do torture testing at the range. A few boxes of ammo is not likely to have effected the mechanical functioning of the gun. It is especially unlikely that it would have worked perfectly throughout the session, and then broke in an imperceptible way on the last round. In this situation, I think that mucking around with something that is working would be a more likely cause of malfunction.

When I draw it from the holster, it is clean and good to go (it's always comforting when that magazine full of cartridges that you've been toting around for a week or two goes bang start to finish without a hitch, isn't it?). When I'm done shooting it, it's just a little dirtier, and freshly "field tested." To my way of thinking, then, leaving it in it's unmolested, proven state is my defense against Murphy's Law.

I feel confident that cleaning can wait until I am in the comfort of my own home, where I will be unhurried and undistracted.
 
My carry gun is also the gun I sh0ot most at the range. After I'm done I give it a quick once over and then its back in the holster. However, after I go to the range its straight back to the house where I clean it. Even if I wanted to clean it at the range, there is nowhere to do it. Blue Ridge in NOVA doesnt have the courtisy to put folding tables out for range bags, inspection ect...
 
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