Love shooting but HATE cleaning afterwards. Keeps me from going to the range often

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desibaba

New member
Since I bought my first gun in the beginning of this year I have loved the range. Its a lot of fun for me to shoot my 9mm and my AR. What I absolutely hate doing is the cleaning up (especially the AR15) after getting home. The XDm isnt too bad but the taking apart of the AR, the bolt carrier group, etc is something I hate so much that I sometimes dont go to the range because I procrastinate the cleaning up afterwards. A friend told me the "Cleaning" is part of the fun. My response is that I love cars and driving them but I always pay someone to wash, detail and wax my cars while I sit in the AC in the car wash place sipping coffee while they do the dirty work. Someone should come up with quick gun cleaning services at the range. Id be happy to pay a fee and have them cleaned while Im there instead of going home and getting my hands dirty. Anyone else feels the same way as in you love to shoot but absolutely loathe the cleaning up afterwards that you have to do?
 
Gunslick foaming spray. 30-45 min depending on how grungy. Run a bore brush through after (20 passes) and then carb cleaner maybe 5 passes. Bcg is a pain but I don't clean it as often. I think some use a sonic cleaner for the bcg.
 
So don't clean them. It won't hurt the guns to leave them dirty. It will eventually lead to reliability issues but you'll be surprised how many rounds it takes to cause malfunctions.
 
Not really. Many people have the notion that a gun must be cleaned spotless after every use which just isn't true. I'd bet a lot of people cause more harm/wear cleaning so frequently than if they didn't.

The only gun that gets a good cleaning after range use is my carry gun. The rest get a quick wipe down with oil to prevent rust, and some grease to high wear areas if necessary. That's it. Once a year I fully take apart every one of my guns and do a nice detail cleaning. I've never had a problem with rust or malfunctions doing this.
 
The indoor range I use in the winter offers a gun cleaning service. Ultra sonic cleaning for like $25 /gun. Too rich for my blood though. I just run a bore snake through the barrel a couple times and wipe off the actions and re-lube before putting away. After a couple range trips I'll strip em down and clean them good.
Maybe google ultra sonic gun cleaning near you and see what happens.
 
Pistols and ar15's get a bore snake and wipe down. It's like a 5 minute job.
It takes a lot of rounds before the gun needs a detailed cleaning.
 
Most of my rifles get a thorough cleaning once a year whether they need it or not. I wipe down the exterior and wipe out any residue and gunk from the action after each range trip but that is it. Takes about 1 minute per firearm. Rifle barrels take up time, but are only cleaned when accuracy starts to suffer of if they get wet from hunting in rain. Even if wet it only takes a few seconds to run a dry patch though to dry out the interior of the barrel. Most rifles shoot more accurately if the barrel is fouled anyway.
 
I must be a weirdo. I enjoy the stripping and cleaning almost as much as the shooting.


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As has been mentioned, you don't need to clean every time.

You should check your bore for obstructing items before each use.
 
There's no magic number of rounds between cleaning, but "every range session" is totally unnecessary unless you're shooting a thousand rounds in a session... and even then it's not "necessary". I shoot 10 or so mags through my G19 when I've got the time and try to remember to clean it every 5 trips or so... that's well under 1000rds, but even then, I think it's overkill. I do give it a shot of RemOil a few times in between each cleaning, but that's all. I carry it everyday and have no worries about it going bang when I need it.

If you want to do a real test and let your gun tell you when it's time to clean it, just go buy a pallet of ammo and start firing until it's so dirty you start getting failures. I bet you get over 5000rds with no failures... then replace the recoil spring and shoot another 5000rds with no failures.

Your AR15 is the same way... unless you're shooting a known dirty ammo through a suppressor, you should have no problem reliably cycling 3-4-5 thousand rounds without a problem in between cleanings. A coated BCG and a shot of lube every couple hundred rounds is insurance.
 
I clean when I feel like it, which is about 60% of the time. I use CLP for most everything (Frog Lube for others) so it doesn't take long. I find it fun because I have a lot of different firearms and they all seem to take down slightly differently. Some VERY differently.
 
I wipe the exterior down after each range trip and fully clean them about once a year...it has worked well for several decades.

However, the carry gun gets more frequent cleaning as it gets a lot dirtier.
 
I agree with others here. I wouldn't worry about cleaning after each range trip unless you just wanted to.

If I had a place to shoot regularly, I would like to see how many rounds of cheap ammo I could put through an AR before it malfunctioned.
 
My response is that I love cars and driving them but I always pay someone to wash, detail and wax my cars while I sit in the AC in the car wash place sipping coffee while they do the dirty work.
Click to expand...
3 choices here, clean them yourself, don't clean them, or pay someone to clean them for you. Its not rocket science. I guess I can toss in number 4 sell the guns ,don't shoot and nothing to clean.
 
As mentioned a detailed cleaning not really needed each time out.
For instance me and my buddy shot yesterday
I put about 250'down range from my 45 shield that I CC and he did roughly the same with his G30S.

A quick boresnake and lube and reloaded for CC.

When I shoot others long guns etc. like my AR for instance I do quick clean lube. I have a few hundred down the pipe of the AR and I have yet to disassemble the BC group.

Last "big session" took 6 long guns and 5 pistols.
Next day I spent a leisurely 1 1/2 hrs cleaning and lubing them as many of them hadnt been shot in yrs and wont be again since a couple of them are pushing a 100 or so. But thanks to care of the years are still good to go.


Bottom line dont need to do a white glove cleaning every time out but dont neglect um totally either.




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Maybe you need to try different guns. I avoid 1911's because I find them harder to take apart and put back together. My several Ruger's are all quite easy to dissemble and reassemble so cleaning is a breeze. I will admit that I probably should fire my new shotgun more often to get more comfortable with it. I had never owned a shotgun until recently and I bought an 8 round Mossberg 500, 20 inch barrel gun for ultimate home defense. Taking it down for cleaning is easy, getting it back together is a real challenge. I've almost given up on one or two occasions and thought of taking it back to the gun shop for help, but have kept at it until I did it right. So I have found that I hesitate to go to the range with it right now because I dread having to clean it.

And as far as handguns, cleaning revolvers is a bit more time consuming but certainly easy as there is nothing to take apart or put back together, just swabbing the exposed areas and running a patch down the barrel and the cylinders.
 
Get an automotive parts cleaner.
No need to take guns apart, just spray and brush.
A real dirty one might need a few minutes soak.
Short of that, soak in mineral spirits, then spray with gun scrubber/brake cleaner.
Let air dry and minimally lube.
Most guns don't need to be stripped, just dribble oil in where it eventually needs to be and move the actions.
I'm kind of anal about getting them clean and this process takes about five minutes per.
See how easy life can be?
 
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