How often do you clean your firearm?

@CHRIS4 you’re a hoot! Glad you have a calendar to nag at you. I was speaking figuratively when I mentioned my calendar – I think I need one for real now. I need a nagger really badly!!!

@Jerzees I don’t know about you learning something from me, but I’ll sure as heck keep communicating, as long as y’all keep communicating. This is one of my favorite things to do now, talking with y’all on these forums. I learn so much and it’s really fun, too. And I get to see all the cool pics of the cool guns. What more can a gal ask for???

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More pictures with more cool guns :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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I’m thinkin’ we can accommodate that :grin:

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@Nancy, what about banana/raspberry/mango cake recipe? :wink:

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@Jerzees LOL you don’t want any recipes from me!!! I’m the worst cook in the world! Good answer, though!

I really like the idea of more pics with more cool guns. I think y’all should repost some of your pics, too. Helps cement them in my mind!

Y’all are great! Keep those posts coming!

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As a rule, I clean my pistols after I shoot them. However, if I didn’t put many rounds through them, I will sometimes just wipe them down I put them back in the safe. I do clean my EC gun everytime

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I am a weekly shooter so I do a basic clean after every use , I just learned to do a complete breakdown so my new schedule is clean after every use basic - quarterly complete breakdown - deep clean

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I clean my weapon everytime I use it. Paying particular attention to the rails, breach, feed ramp if applicable and magazine. If it’s my daily carry, even if I haven’t fired it, I clean it once a month to get rid of lint/pocket fuzz, if it’s my weapons in storage that are not being used, usually three times a year they are brought out, inspected, lightly oiled and scrubbed if needed.

I don’t clean every gun after every trip to the range, field, or what ever. It depends more on what gun and caliber I am shooting. My field guns -shotguns, rifles, and/or pistols - are at a minimum, wiped down. If I shot them a fair amount, or it rained, I will field strip them before I put them back in the safe or gun rack. Range guns that get shot often, I will field strip or detail them when I have a malfunction that is not ammo related, or a every x-hundred/thousand of rounds depending upon caliber and pistol/rifle.

I guess I do a hybrid of everything mentioned. I always clean my firearm after a shooting session. Simple field strip but very thorough clean using Mil-Comm. HOWEVER, after cleaning I will load up a magazine, shoot one round, replace that round in the magazine then store/stage/carry the gun until I chose to fire again.
Carry firearm, maybe field strip and give a good wipe down every couple months… I know it is already “clean”, so just applying additional protection and removing any debris it may have picked up in the carry process.

Buy a Mosin Nagant. They never need cleaning. In fact if you do clean them you are liable to cause it to explode. Russian rifles of that era run on filth.

What is the reason for shooting the round?

I field strip to clean and lubricate after every trip to the range.

After reading a lot of comments on this topic, I thought to myself that maybe that was excessive. Especially since the ammo shortage when I go to the range and only use 50 -100 rounds.

This last weekend, I brought 3 firearms to test some reloads. I fired a few rounds from each just to make sure they cycle properly. I decided that was a good time to stop being so CDO about it and did not not field strip and clean all 3.

All was well - until 11:30 PM. That’s when I got out of bed, take the firearms out of the various safes around the house, run a bore snake through them a few times, then put them back.

Cleaning habits are hard to break.

p.s. I did not mis-type CDO. It’s just like OCD, but the letters are in the right order. :wink:

After first purchase I thoroughly clean any firearm before it’s used.

I also clean any firearm that went to the range shortly after. Normally within a few days…

Carry firearms are checked weekly.
Staged self defense in the home are checked monthly.

After cleaning, thoroughly, I wipe the weapon down, then I left out a step I often use and that is to then use an air compressor at perhaps 80 psi to blow any extra oil and/or grease off the frame. The reason I like to fire a single shot after cleaning is multifold. One, it acts as a functionality test and guarantees the next round is solidly in battery. The other reason, which I am sure you have experienced is occasionally the first round fired after a good cleaning tends to not fire true. Firing the one round, using a high quality non-corrosive round, at least in my mind (true or not) removes or reduces that first flyer possibility. All the functionality reasons definitely hold true.

I realize this is not an option for most people but I am blessed to live on a property where I have built a nice safe range (33 yards) and it is legal to shoot in my “neighborhood”, so I take advantage of the option.
John

Can’t discuss other people’s method, everybody does what works best for him/her.

In my opinion proper cleaning and function check (without ammo) is enough and I have never experienced any issue with shooting first round or with next round not fed properly.
Every round shot without a reason comes with danger, which I always avoid.

Agree Jerzey. I can be anal about some things. I have never had issues with feeding or the slide going into battery (after cleaning). Well, over 50 years in other weapons I have, usually my fault anyway, limp writing, using reloaded ammo, tired fingers… and always while just plinking, not serious training.

My bigger reason, in a carry gun, was the accuracy of the first shot. I have found that at 15 yards my first shot after a clean may be as much as 2 inches outside the rest of the group. Not much, but if in a crowd, I want to take every precaution available to me to avoid accidental damage.
John

What model are you shooting?

I shoot many platforms and calibers, Just depends on the weather and my mood. For the purposes of these posts I was limiting my experience to my daily carry pistol which is a Sig P-365.

I WILL SAY, because I am so anal about cleaning, I will often NOT shoot when I have an opportunity simply because I dont want to deal with the cleaning ritual. I am learning to overcome this.

Great case in point… Tomorrow I plan to shoot a Ruger MKII. Talk about a disassembly and cleaning challenge! But, it is a weapon I can shoot and learn from deviations since I know if this pistol does not hit the bullseye, it is MY FAULT, not the pistol. So I can adjust and see what I am doing different.

One thing I do that helps me determine this, is at the end of any shooting session, I set up a clean target, put usually 7-10 rounds into it, date it, label the distance, type of ammo, weather conditions… anything I think relevant… dusk etc. After cleaning the gun I place this target into the case with it to reference how I was shooting this exact pistol the last time I used it, and if I am shooting different can use the annotations on the target I saved to determine if it is some environmental factor or just me having a good or bad day.

JOhn

I was asking, thinking you shoot something special what makes a difference with shooting experience after cleaning.
But it’s not a case.

Regarding your previous post:

My guess is that the reason of first shot being not accurate is not a cleaning, but your shooting technique. You may just flinching during the first shot. After then your brain accepts “the boom” and next shots are OK.

Check this:

Hmmm… and let’s go back to the topic… :neutral_face: :face_with_hand_over_mouth: