What does "clean your gun" mean?

H

HoraceHogsnort

New member
For me it means giving it a real good blast of brake cleaner, blowing it out with an air gun, and then applying some FP10 where ever I can.

Edit 9-3-10: OK, I do run some patches down the barrel with solvent and run a brush thru a few times, but I'm not fanatic about it.
 
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Depends on how I feel really, but I can tell you what it's not. It's not tearing it down to the last little piece and putting it back together. The only guns I ever did that to were Com-bloc surplus, and them only once to get the cosmoline out/off.

A little Gunscrubber (or WD-40) wipe it off, maybe run a patch down the bore, oil/grease as needed. Worked for me for 40 plus years.
 
I'm a brushes and patches kinda' guy. For me it means field strip and clean with appropriate tool (brass rod and bronze bore brush and patches, nylon or bronze utility brush, tooth pik, q-tip or whatever works). Then reassemble and lube (I use militec-1) as necessary. I also oil the barrel (Otis bore oil, light application and remove excess with a couple of patches.

Revolvers always get each cylinder bore cleaned with an oversized brush (one caliber up), then oiled lightly. Barrel cleaned with brush and patches. Nylon and/or bronze brush under the extracter star and on the cylinder frame, top strap and recoil shield face.

I'm also a Hoppe's 9 fan.
 
I've discovered a set of dental picks come in really handy for all the built up crud on the bolt face. Chemicals generally can't get that junk off.
 
Cleaning

For my 1911: I field strip it after every 100/200 rounds. Slide off, barrel, bushing and recoil spring out. Spray everything with Gun Scrubber or brake cleaner. Wipe it all down. Run a bore snake through the barrel. Take special care of the trigger yoke - clean and lube. Take out the firing pin and spring and extractor. Spray. Wipe down. Spray everything with a light coating of TSI 301.
Reassemble.
Takes about five minutes max.
.22s -Much longer time between cleanings. Bore snake through the barrel and multiple passes through the cylinder if a revolver. Clean the breech face if it is a semi-auto.
Spray on a light coat of TSI 301. Wipe down.

BP revolvers - cylinder out, dropped into warm soapy water. Rod and brush and patch saturated with warm soapy water and through the barrel until I get a clean patch. Then dry patches. Oil - mostly Ballistol.
Cylinder gets scrubbed. Dry - coat lightly with Ballistol.

Pete
 
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NOT factory new...
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All the factory new guns I've bought have been dirty.

Clean means clean. Stuff accumulates in the nooks and crannies that will eventually cause you troubles if you dont get it out. The longer you wait, the more work it is.

A lot of how we feel about the subject is probably hereditary and what was instilled at birth. I was brought up in a Marine Corp family. Your weapons well beings come first, and they are lovingly maintained and kept clean. Killing with a dirty weapon is unsanitary. :)
 
It all depends on the gun.

If it is one of my revolvers; Brushes, patches, solvents and oil. I take the grips off and wipe down the grip frame. I stop short of trying to remove the scorch marks on the cylinder.

If it is one of my Glocks or my USP; Solvents and brushes and such, Q-Tips in the nooks and crannies... once every 500 rounds or so. Other than that a bit of oil on the rails before shooting.

AR-15s... Depends on what kind of mood I am in. Sometimes they get surgically clean, sometimes the BCG gets a wipe down and that's it.

My 22/45 upper gets a bath in mineral spirits once or twice a year.
 
While I clean my guns after every range outing, I also clean them just to clean them. This is gonna sound weird, but I find it calming, relaxing, almost like bonding time with the firearms. I think this "bonding time" is important especially with my carry firearm, I want to be intimately familiar with it in every function, piece, and curve, and I find a good way to do that is to clean it thoroughly. I live in a small apartment and I've converted a walk in closet into a room where I keep all of my cleaning supplies and guns that aren't being used. Have pegboard up on the wall, tools, etc. I don't watch TV while cleaning my guns, when I clean them I just clean them.

But I don't think I'm answering OP's question :p After the range, I usually run a few patches and brushes down barrels, some patches and hooks in the receivers, re-oil what needs it, etc. Otherwise, when I feel like it, I do the above, and fully strip my firearms and clean everything.
 
Take the slide off the frame.
Remove the barrel from the slide (if not blowback design).
Clean everything. Breech face. Under the extractor. Remove the old dirty lube from the slide grooves. Anywhere contaminated with powder blast, clean it.

Remove any copper or lead deposits from the barrel. Clean the chamber and surfaces of the barrel of any powder blast.

Clean the frame's exposed areas from powder blast. Oil any exposed pivots or coil springs in the frame.

Oil the top of the slide, and the outer shaft of the barrel. If you live somewhere prone to rust, push a clean oily patch through your barrel. Oil the link or pivot point of the barrel.

Wipe down the recoil spring. Oil it on its captive shaft.

Put a lube on the slide grooves. Special ninja-lube, or just plain white lithium grease.

Reassemble, and wipe down with a clean oily cloth or silicone impregnated gunsock/cloth. Load and stick in your holster, or put it away in the safe.
 
Clean your gun means make it look like it's UNFIRED....

NOT factory new.... but UNFIRED.
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This is generally what I go for when cleaning my handguns... Hoppes #9, CLP, and a bit of OCD :)
 
The OCD is what gets to ya lol. "Is the extractor clean.....yea its good... wait....no..is that crud....ahhh Ill clean it a bit more. Once I get this stuff off my feed ramp....is that part of it... was that there before.....ahhh. lol.
--As for cleaning Hoppes 9, Bore brushes/patches, some Oil/tooth brushes, a cleaning rod and little wooden home made tools to get in tough spots. Give me those and I am all set. The bore brushes work great.
 
Depends.

Any gun I'm carrying gets stripped, wiped down, and lubed about once every week or so.

For guns I've shot, I field strip, clean, spray out the action, lube, and reassemble them, but I don't detail them out to an unfired state. They're pretty clean, but may or may not have a bit of residue hidden in the action.

A couple of times a year, I break my carry gun(s) down and detail clean them. It helps to prevent build-up, but doesn't seem necessary for every time I shoot the gun a bit.

As a note, I have a Colt Woodsman from 1941 that I inherited from my grandfather in the mid-1980's. I didn't know how to disassemble it, but I sprayed it out with gunscrubber once in a while for good measure, and never worried about it too much. I do shoot it pretty regularly.

A year or so back, I finally found some instructions for disassembly, and took it apart. Imagine my surprise to find that it really wasn't necessary, since the inside was perfectly clean from using the Gunscrubber.

It's good stuff.

Daryl
 
I only own Glocks at the moment so:

nutnfancy ALERT! :eek:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fx0-hMFako

Minus the grease, plus wiping down the metal parts of the frame and outside of the slide with oil then wiping them dry to give them corrosion protection.

Every 1,000 rounds I detail strip the slides and clean them.
Example of that here by Hickok45 except I use Hoppe's Elite instead of rubbing alcohol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VTIqAMPOco

The frames don't need to be detail stripped nearly as often.
 
I like to use sharp round wood toothpicks to scrape the crud out of the corners of the breech face. I figure there's no way to damage the surface, but they are strong and sharp enough to dig out plenty of stuff.
 
It means a field strip, cleaning all exposed parts (including the bore) with Hoppes, and reassembly with lubrication.
 
Some folks, many of them apparently trained by Marine "Gunnys", believe that a gun must be taken down to the tiniest pin and scrubbed to operating room standards. Too often, that approach results only in breaking or losing parts, or even ruining the gun because the owner didn't know how to put his surgically clean gun back together.

Contrary to common belief, unless the ammunition fired had corrosive primers, the barrel rarely needs cleaned. Wiping the gun down with a preservative/penetrant has more to do with protection from rust than with keeping it functional. For carry guns, I am more concerned about carbon getting on my clothing than with it stopping the gun.

Do I clean guns? Sure, in areas where it can affect the functioning of the gun. Everything else is cosmetic. Do I lube a gun? Same answer.

I have seen guns so overlubed they sprayed oil on the next shooter. Once, being the "sprayee", I asked the "sprayer" why he thought his gun needed so much oil. He told me that if I knew anything about guns, or ever discussed guns "on the web", I would know that all guns needed to be soaked in (he named a "magic" gun cleaner) to work properly. His next try was a misfeed, so he got out a can of the "magic" and poured it all over his gun and ammo.

I went home.

Jim
 
Don't lie jim, it was magic Elmors Right! I know it, gotta get me some of that.

For long guns: Three wet patches, three bore snakes, and then dry patches until no more corbon comes out, then one wet for preservation. Bolt is wiped, lubed but only broke apart once in a good while.

For pistols: Same three system for barrels, all else just gets wiped and lubed, brushes as needed.

I clean my guns everytime I shoot them even one round on a deer. Just habit now I guess.

Mike
 
I strive to make my clean gun look like it was unfired. I'm not going for never been shot factory new, but I'm going no visible dirt or junk and most importantly, proper lube.
 
+1 on what Jim Keenan said.

I learned to clean guns from my father and grandfather. They both grew up shooting corrosive ammo and needed to be VERY diligent and thorough. I learned over time that this wasn't necessary any longer, especially for handguns. Heck, I've even waited until the next range trip to clean a gun. I do admit to running my 1911s a bit on the wet side when breaking them in. Otherwise, a little goes a long way if applied correctly.
 
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