When we attended one seminar (Firearms Modifications: Do’s and Don’ts) at the USCCA Expo in Pittsburgh someone asked George Harris how often he cleaned his guns. The gist of the answer was not often, “but my carry gun weekly”. This coming from the man who co-founded the SIG Academy.
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After ,my range session the day before yesterday, I cleaned all the guns I shot that day. I’m proud to say I was able to put my bull barrel 1911 back together all by myself! It took a while, but I persisted and prevailed! Yay! I wasn’t so fortunate with my P365, which should have been oh-so-much easier to reassemble than any of my other weapons (except the S&W Shield EZ, of course). I got to the last step and couldn’t get the slide to go back onto the receiver. I tried and tried, then finally packed up and trotted over to my friendly gun store, where they know me by name. I shame-facedly showed them my P365, and Matt immediately knew what the problem was. Although it doesn’t say so in the manual, you have to hold the slide catch lever up in order to push the takedown lever down! He told me Sig doesn’t tell you that in the manual because the manual applies to other models of Sigs and it’s too expensive to put in one small step that applies only to the P365! Curses! My cleaning session would have been perfect were it not for that one silly step that Sig Sauer couldn’t be bothered to include in their instructions. Grrr!!! I pushed and pushed on that takedown lever, to no avail, and re-read the manual several times to make sure I was doing everything properly, and all the time the answer was not available except in an expert’s private knowledge banks! This was a lesson I won’t forget! Other than that, though, I had a good cleaning experience with all my toys,er, my guns! lol
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you’ll be a master of the craft soon enough.
@Zee @Jerzees Thanks so much for your encouragementl It means a lot.
I take off for New Orleans for my mother’s 93rd birthday, so I won’t be around a lot. I’ll still be reading the posts, just probably not posting much myself.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Your Mother !
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UGH! That’s frustrating! I’ve found that I usually skip the manuals these days and head right over to YouTube (or one of my coworkers) when I need to learn something about the firearm - especially when it’s taking down or putting it back together. I love having the visuals in the videos.
Happy birthday to your mom and safe travels, @Nancy!
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I followed the manual when trying to change the headlight on my Fusion. It left out the location of a clip that needed to be removed and I put a crack in the bumper cover trying to pull it off.
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@Dawn I use youtube now alost exclusively after fussing over my P365 for so long. Appreciate the good tip. And thanks for the birthday greetings for my mom. It all went really well and I had a good drive, avoiding Hurricane Dorian during my stay in New Orleans!
@RocketPak I can’t believe they left the clip location out, when it was crucial information! But I’m not trusting manuals of any kind much anymore. It’s too bad. That’s supposed to be our go-to place for definitive information about our products. If you can’t trust the manual, it’s harder to trust the product, I think. What else are they not telling us about???
I went shooting with my sister while in New Orleans and we had a great time. It was the first time she had ever shot a handgun, and she did really well. I gifted her a S&W M&P .380 Shield EZ and my 9mm SigSauer P365, and she’s in hog heaven! lol And no, I didn’t give her the P365 because I was angry at Sig Sauer or anything, I just wanted her to have a 9mm carry gun. She did really well with both guns, and you just can’t have too many guns!!! Right??? We didn’t have time to clean the guns, but I told her about youtube so she should be okay. She’s pretty smart.
It’s good to be home and I hope to hear from y’all soon!
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I clean all of my guns once a month or sooner depending on how much range time I get
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Youtube has been incredibly helpful for me for fixing/cleaning firearms, lawnmowers, dishwashers, and dryers. I’ve seen repair men using Youtube when they’ve worked on my furnace before. So instead of opting for the expensive service call, I see if I can find a video and fix it myself. I’ve had a lot of success with that. (I did need a new furnace 
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Glad it was so helpful, @Nancy! Welcome back!
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Immediately after the range or as needed. I’m a former Marine, weapons cleaning is second nature 
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@Zee, @Dawn Thanks for the welcome back. It’s good to be back and chatting again. I did invite my sister to join us on these forums, but I don’t know if she’ll join us now or not. I think it’s great to read the posts, even if you don’t feel like posting yourself. The postings give me a good feel for the subjects and I feel a comraderie with everyone on who posts on these forums. It’s also fun sharing pictures and ideas with each other. So I talked it up with my sister and hope she’ll join us. She really enjoyed shooting (it was her first experience with handguns and she did quite well) with me and I hope she’ll trust me with my recommendation that she join us here. I’ll keep reminding her, of course! As for YouTube, I love it! I hope whoever developed that idea is very rich now --s/he deserves it!
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There are a lot of people who come in to read the conversations but don’t comment, @Nancy, and I’m happy they’re here too! The amount of knowledge and advice being shared is great! I hope they feel comfortable enough to post if they have questions. 
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I clean mine after each range trip even if it was just a few rounds fired. I also clean them if they sit for longer than a few months without being shot.
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Well I have to disclose here, I have seen this topic since it was new. I know better I was trained different as an Army Infantry Lieutenant, but the gun store I go to has a young gunsmith on the staff and the business needs business volume so I pay the young fellow to clean my guns when I’m done inside the range, by the time I finish my refreshment he is done and happy to be of service to me and I am happy to have further justified him being there doing what he seems to love doing so everyone comes out a winner.
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@Robert8 I think that’s great that you have the young fellow clean your guns for you! I’d do the same if my range offered the service. The guys at my favorite gun shop are all gunsmiths and would be happy to clean my guns, but they charge $15/gun to clean. I plan to let them do it for me at least once per year, as then I can be sure my guns will get a deep cleaning, but I need to clean my own guns weekly or after range visits. I just can’t afford it more often, plus I think it’s important for me to get to know my guns. Cleaning them helps me familiarize myself with them and feel like they’re a part of me. Sound silly? Maybe, but it’s true for me.
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@Nancy Hi Nancy, I do this partially as an insurance policy of sorts. I really like the convenience of knowing that if the store goes under and has to close then guess what happens then, we’ll that fancyass range goes away, buying guns and ammunition goes away because the store has closed. Can I buy guns and ammunition other places? Sure can but I don’t want to. I’m 69 now 70 in December and when you get older you like convenience. I don’t like driving much anymore, only when I have to. I’m not so much into guns anymore, I know more about guns than many people and honestly guns at my age are sort of boring. I don’t have lots of guns like I once did, I have two guns. I love younger people who are excited about guns and defending themselves, but it’s just not who I am anymore. I get excited about learning more about cooking, I get excited for my wife and family. Life is not so serious as people make it. I lived a lot, done a lot, but if my gun goes bang when I pull the trigger that’s what matters to me. Don’t feel bad because you are doing exactly what you like and by the way having fun learning things I knew 50+ years ago. I’m happy for you and stay excited about your guns and things you like. I see you are inquisitive asking gun questions all the time, I see you are interested and want to learn and talk about things. I’m really happy and excited for you Nancy.
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You should seriously consider Melonite or a similar process.
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