I'd love to jump on this "no cleaning" train with you but I would be guilt riddled and miserable. It took me forever to stop changing the oil in my car every 3000 miles. I have issues with over maintenance!

I'll never know!

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
Is knowing how much gunk it takes to stop the extractor from working a useful piece of information? You'll never know, until you know.

I admit I didn't read the entire thread to check, but was there any discussion of corrosion issues? Can residue left too long promote corrosion?

If I didn't obsessively clean my guns I would rob myself and the gun of that special bonding time. I just can't do that.

Guy walks up and shoots a fellow point blank in the head, broad daylight, then flees. Multi agency pursuit/manhunt ensures. Several hours later suspect is cornered, opens fires. Officer returns fire, neutralizing the suspect. Shoot team forensics shows up, collects everyone's firearm for testing. Sure glad mine was clean after having said I didn't fire.

quote:

Originally posted by sigspecops:
If I didn't obsessively clean my guns I would rob myself and the gun of that special bonding time. I just can't do that.

Just go with a carry rotation, spread the love around and they'll feel much better!

quote:

Originally posted by arcwelder76:
Some guns, like Glocks, come lubed with an abrasive, and should not be cleaned NIB.

By all means, clean your guns. You're cleaning too much, and that's OK.

Glock uses Loctite Copper antisieze lube on the rails and is most definitely not an abrasive! [FLASH_VIDEO] [/FLASH_VIDEO]

I like clean, inspected firearms. Sure they can go longer, but why?

Most importantly, shooting leaves a lot of lead and other residual contaminants that are harmful if absorbed through the skin. I try to minimize lead exposure as much as possible, by cleaning and using latex gloves when cleaning, washing my hands as soon as possible after shooting and cleaning.

But you do as you please.

quote:

Originally posted by Blackwater:
I like clean, inspected firearms. Sure they can go longer, but why?
Most importantly, shooting leaves a lot of lead and other residual contaminants that are harmful if absorbed through the skin. I try to minimize lead exposure as much as possible, by cleaning and using latex gloves when cleaning, washing my hands as soon as possible after shooting and cleaning.
But you do as you please.

I don't clean guns nearly as often as you do but you should switch to nitrile gloves.
Tougher, resistant to solvents and they can be found pretty cheap. (4mil are thick enough for most tasks)
Also works MUCH better when working on the car because oils & greases don't dissolve them like they will latex.

quote:

Originally posted by KMitch200:

quote:

Originally posted by Blackwater:
I like clean, inspected firearms. Sure they can go longer, but why?
Most importantly, shooting leaves a lot of lead and other residual contaminants that are harmful if absorbed through the skin. I try to minimize lead exposure as much as possible, by cleaning and using latex gloves when cleaning, washing my hands as soon as possible after shooting and cleaning.
But you do as you please.

I don't clean guns nearly as often as you do but you should switch to nitrile gloves.
Tougher, resistant to solvents and they can be found pretty cheap. (4mil are thick enough for most tasks)
Also works MUCH better when working on the car because oils & greases don't dissolve them like they will latex.

Equate Nitrile Gloves are the actual gloves I use. You can pick up a box of 50 pairs cheap @ Wally World.

If a gun is intended for anything but the most serious purposes, then it doesn’t matter how it’s maintained. Going on a once-in-a-lifetime safari and the gun doesn’t work? Well, you’ve got a guide and at least you probably have some nice photos. Teaching a class and the gun doesn’t work? Well, you probably have spares or can make a student lend you one for the demos. In a competition and the gun doesn’t work? Better luck next time; at least you have an excuse for not winning.

When one’s life might hang on a properly functioning weapon, though, the gun might still work okay even if it’s not clean (it did all those other times), but the knowledge that it’s clean and properly lubed can eliminate one source of anxiety during such incidents. This thread reminded me of a long story I posted here shortly after I became a member. It was about my small unit’s being under attack and how two of the members’ M16s were lying on a desk partially disassembled during the incident. They hadn’t been cleaned right after they were fired some weeks before and the firing residues had hardened and prevented disassembling the bolt carriers.

Is something like that possible with today’s ammunition and lubricants? Probably not, but it’s still the sort of thing that’s hard to forget, even after 50+ years. And it’s the sort of thing that prompts some of to do the things we do.

I keep all of my weapons spotless and lubed, now.

I have only ever had two guns jam from gunk caused from not cleaning. One was my Marlin model 60. I got it when I was eight, shot thousands of rounds through it. Was never shown how to clean it or told that it was necessary. It started to jam when I was bout 16, all I did was spray it with oil, probably WD40 and it worked fine.

The other was my issued M16A2 at the Reforger exercise in 1989. It started jamming after shooting at least 1000 blanks through it, all shot in a couple hours. I took out a Cobra and a Bradley with the MILES gear

I also tear down my car's engine after every trip to the grocery store for cleaning and inspection.
Hey, I may need to drive myself or a loved one to the ER some day and my car had better be properly maintained to insure we get there without any mechanical trouble.

quote:

Originally posted by Oscars father:
Guy walks up and shoots a fellow point blank in the head, broad daylight, then flees. Multi agency pursuit/manhunt ensures. Several hours later suspect is cornered, opens fires. Officer returns fire, neutralizing the suspect. Shoot team forensics shows up, collects everyone's firearm for testing. Sure glad mine was clean after having said I didn't fire.

This is a good point. I clean and lube every time after my gun is fired, even if it's just a single shot to put down an injured animal. I've seen guys get investigated before and have their duty guns taken to confirm they haven't fired, and I don't want to get jammed up over something as stupid as having a dirty gun.

Keeping my duty weapon cleaned and lubed has paid off over the years, too. I've been to plenty of range sessions where other guys are having malfunction after malfunction and keeping the instructors busy troubleshooting issues with their weapons. In the 10s of thousands of rounds I've fired, I've never had a problem with my duty weapon during department quals or practice. It's worked for me this far, so I don't see any reason to change now.

I've probably posted on this thread... but to possibly repeat myself...

I'm not a cleaning fanatic but it is fun to do after going to the range.

I go at least once a year to some intense firearm training and usually buddy up and room with a good friend who is a retired Marine DI and he requires we clean our weapons before we go out to eat for the night.

A few years ago I was out at Front Sight in the Nevada dessert and one of the instructors pointed out that my Sig P226 was going to jam from all the dust we were making because pistol was too wet from oil... I just laughed at him.... the gun has never once had a misfire or malfunction.

My guns aren't Marine Corps white glove rifle inspection clean, but they're always "pretty clean" & always properly lubricated. I never wanted to be that guy whose gun wouldn't work because I was too lazy to spend a couple minutes cleaning it.

After shooting, I'll take 3 minutes and get 90% of the crud out with an oily rag, a toothbrush and a couple of cotton swabs. Push a patch through the bore...and that's enough.

Then a few drops of oil or tiny dabs of grease and I'm done. Perfectly clean? Probably not, but I'll take an easy 90% anytime.

I clean mine after every trip to the range. If I shoot 1 round or 1000 rounds they get cleaned. It’s probably unnecessary, but it makes me feel good.

clean them all on a rainy day. it rains allot here in Oregon.

Unlike some (most?) here, I don't enjoy cleaning guns. I used to be a little fanatical about it. I always took my big Tipton cleaning box to every Highpower match I shot, and as soon as the match was over I would strip and thoroughly clean my rifle. I was usually one of the last ones to leave the range. Handguns waited until I got home, but then they got the same treatment.

Nowadays, not so much. For one, my volume of rifle shooting is down (can't shoot Highpower anymore due to bad back & knees and a nervous system issue). But mostly I've just become lazy. After a handgun outing I'll strip them just enough to make sure they're still lubed adequately, and only really clean them maybe a couple times a year. Rifles, they get cleaned when I start feeling guilty about neglecting them. My semi-auto rifles get a good dose of oil when I take them out to the range.