Always when shooting my black powder rifles. Clean with hot soapy water, then a few patches with just hot water, dry and oil or grease. I have an old 1869 Swiss Vetterli that has one of the best looking barrels of any gun I have seen, including new and unfired. It has a shine that simply does not quit, no pits or frosting, just perfect. It apparently has been extremely well cared for over it's 149 years. The cartridge cases also get washed, rinsed and dried.
How often do you clean your firearms?
- Thread starter Toothpick
- Start date
Always when shooting my black powder rifles. Clean with hot soapy water, then a few patches with just hot water, dry and oil or grease. I have an old 1869 Swiss Vetterli that has one of the best looking barrels of any gun I have seen, including new and unfired. It has a shine that simply does not quit, no pits or frosting, just perfect. It apparently has been extremely well cared for over it's 149 years. The cartridge cases also get washed, rinsed and dried.
I went to the range and ran 105 rounds through my pistol on Tuesday. I didn't get a chance to clean it until this evening. Something dawned on me while I was cleaning it earlier. I think that I've been bitten by a bug. It reminded me of changing my strings and cleaning up my guitar every week when I used to play in bands. It reminded me of washing and detailing my Olds 442 when I had it in my teens and twenties. It reminds me of the appreciation that I have for my gear when I get interested in something and want to go further and excel in that hobby. I had a thorough appreciation for cleaning the gun and knowing that it'll preform efficiently the next time I use it.
shoelessjoe
"I took out a Chihuahua!"
As Dad, a Pontiac mechanic, handed me the keys to my very first car, he said, “Joe, if you take care of it, it’ll take care of you.”
Call me odd, but I get just as many miles out of caring for/cleaning my weapons as I do reloading for & firing them. Be it 20 or 500 rounds, each piece gets cared for after a trip to the range. Safe queens, collectibles and those WW2 pieces that rarely leave the safe, get babied once or twice a year ... fortunately, high humidity is non-entity in these parts.
My go-to products are: Wipe-Out bore cleaner; Royal Purple gun oil; Brian Enos’s Slide Glide (light) & Eezox.
Call me odd, but I get just as many miles out of caring for/cleaning my weapons as I do reloading for & firing them. Be it 20 or 500 rounds, each piece gets cared for after a trip to the range. Safe queens, collectibles and those WW2 pieces that rarely leave the safe, get babied once or twice a year ... fortunately, high humidity is non-entity in these parts.
My go-to products are: Wipe-Out bore cleaner; Royal Purple gun oil; Brian Enos’s Slide Glide (light) & Eezox.
As of today, I went to the range 6 out of 7 days this week. I didn't shoot the same guns two days in a row. Every gun got wiped down with oil and put back in the safe, but not cleaned. Matter of fact, a few of those guns havent been officially cleaned in several years. They all still look and function great.
+1 If my gun doesn't like to work dirty? I don't want it. I'll get rid of it and get me a 'real gun.'
I like to run my guns like I like my women, hot, wet and dirty! JK, sorta.
I wipe mine down after use with a rag (old t-shirt) which I had soaked with Ballistol. The mags as well.
Clean as needed, but most do 1000 rounds before they get a cleaning.
Clean as needed, but most do 1000 rounds before they get a cleaning.
Depends on how much and how often I am shooting. I try not to let anything set for extended periods of time.
+1 Everything gets at least a quick clean as soon as there isn't a next range session already planned. A weekend at the farm can mean 2-4 sessions plinking on the backyard range. No sense in cleaning after each session. On the other hand, if I know it's a one and done trip to a commercial range I'll clean them as soon as I get home.
Usually I only swab out the bore and do an exterior cleaning without any major disassembly.
I used to be rather fanatical about cleaning, but as I have gotten older I have become more lax. My rimfire rifles simply get a wipedown with an oily rag and put away. I got to thinking about my rifle team days back in college. Those fine target rifles were never cleaned while I was on the team. Semi auto rimfires get a bit more to get powder residue out of the breech area. Lever, bolt action, and single centerfires, and my gas piston operated AR rifles have the bores swabbed to remove powder residue, then lightly oiled. Direct gas impingent operated AR's get more through cleaning to remove powder residue from breech and trigger group. Same goes for semi auto centerfire.
Generally if I shoot them, I clean them.
Have not been shooting as much as I used to but I clean after range trips or at least once every two months.
I forgot, on my muzzleloaders or the big black powder cartridge rifle, as soon as I get them home.Several quarts of hot almost boiling water down the barrel with a bit of Ballistol added at the end. Then swab and oil them as per the other guns. My caplock rilfe has an easily removed barrel so I set the barrel breech end in the hot water and pump water in and out of the barrel through the nipple. My flintlock is almost impossible to remove the barrel on, would probably damage the stock, so I have an adapter that clamps on the barrel flats over the vent hole, after removing the lock, attach a small rubber tube into the hot water then pump water in and out of barrel through the vent hole. I helps to get barrel good and hot, dry and then oil while still warm.
Depends. Some of my guns get basically no love at all and just keep going. Some of my guns get a good wipedown every time I have fired them. Some of my guns get a thorough cleaning of certain areas every time they are used. It's rare that any of them get a 100% cleaning. There's just no need.
When I was shooting ISSF .22 prone I’d fully clean my rifle after each match or training session so usually every 60rd. I treat all my old .22s the same.
As for my AI AW it only gets a fully clean after about 600rd. The type of competition I shoot now doesn’t allow for fouling shots so after a full clean I’ll head to the local indoor range to crack 20 through to settle the bore again.
Centre fire rifles, especially bolt guns, don’t need to be cleaned all the time other than clearing the carbon.
As for my AI AW it only gets a fully clean after about 600rd. The type of competition I shoot now doesn’t allow for fouling shots so after a full clean I’ll head to the local indoor range to crack 20 through to settle the bore again.
Centre fire rifles, especially bolt guns, don’t need to be cleaned all the time other than clearing the carbon.
All of my Pistol's are Glocks - Glocks work fine dirty - love them
Good guns work dirty.
Wonder how often WW II servicemen seeing combat duty in European or Asian theaters of operation had the time, desire, or ability to clean their Garands after each engagement? Surely they had a lot more riding on the ability of their rifles to properly function than do most today
simon1
Self Ignored by Vista
Dad was a combat rifleman in WW II...him and I cleaned them after every time we shot them. He was meticulous about that.
He was meticulous about keeping all of his equipment in top notch shape...he got on to me for not changing the oil in my car enough.
It's kinda funny that you don't realize what your Dad taught you until years later.
Similar threads
