DON'T Do This To Your Guns

Sneakymedic said:
What is it with people that don't clean their guns? I do/did all kinds of things that my life depends on my equipment. Cave dive, SWAT medic, High Angle Technical Rescue, Haz-Mat.... all the /my equipment is cleaned and inspected after each training or use. Maybe its an emergency services thing... Or my Grandpa telling me to "take care of everything cause its expensive and you paid good money for it" "Clean it up, don't leave it out". .
Click to expand...


I'm sorry, I must have forgotten to ask you what I should do with MY guns.

A good gun cleaning rant does tend to get the ole CFF jimmies rustled. I don't clean my guns because it's not necessary and I don't feel like it. Until they stop working properly or start rusting I usually leave them alone.
 
Obsessive cleaning of a gun is a personal thing, it has nothing to do with function on a good firearm. If your gun has failures because you use it, there is a problem with your gun. I also notice and have read on forums the obsessive cleaning is bad on the finish. Has to do with the cleaner you use and how much rubbing with a cloth you do i suppose. I find the guys who shoot the least, clean the most, while the guys who shoot the most, clean the least. I have been thinking about getting a sonic cleaner. Would make the gun cleanings less odious.
 
Sneakymedic said:
What is it with people that don't clean their guns? I do/did all kinds of things that my life depends on my equipment. Cave dive, SWAT medic, High Angle Technical Rescue, Haz-Mat.... all the /my equipment is cleaned and inspected after each training or use. Maybe its an emergency services thing... Or my Grandpa telling me to "take care of everything cause its expensive and you paid good money for it" "Clean it up, don't leave it out". .
Click to expand...

Do you use a lot of guns when caving and doing high angle rescue LOL? "For the last time! Please don't shoot the Haz-Mat barrels Frank. That is bad"

:)
 
Variable said:
Do you use a lot of guns when caving and doing high angle rescue LOL? "For the last time! Please don't shoot the Haz-Mat barrels Frank. That is bad"

:)
Click to expand...
only when its tactical. hahahahaha. and you cant tell @wsfiredude anything, he chews on the tires at training.
I guess my point is that I consider a CCP a piece of life saving equipment. When we do high angle rescue, all of the ropes are inspected, by hand, every foot. Then washed with soap and water to avoid grains of grit/ sand to cause unneeded wear within the rope, and potentially failure under stress. When cave diving, a mile under ground, underwater…. we always check and double check o rings, rinse regulators and check them before use. same with the BC, or harness, and cave lines. In the fire department, we crank the saws once a shift, or at least once a week or the hydraulic tools generators…Anything that could fail. 90% of the time a gummed up firearm will function, but if I wanted to be sure that it was going to fire when my life depended on it, it will be clean and lubed and ready to go. It amazed me to see some officers come through quals with belly button fuzz, cheetoe dust, etc in the hammer area around their firearms. Shot it once a year, and put it up. I don't understand that. So, you can do what you want with your firearms, but I will tell you if you don't take care of them, they wont take care of you.
 
Last edited:
Me. said:
Sorry to spoil the party... you can drop the slide on a 1911 all day long. As long as you have the trigger pulled back.

Even if you don’t hold the trigger while doing it, 99.9999999999999% of the time, no problem. The worst possible thing that MIGHT happen, is to have the bounce cause the hammer to follow, drop on the half-cock and do damage to a fine-tuned trigger job. Maybe.

It can also have the hammer bounce on the sear, dulling the trigger-job surfaces. But not with the trigger pulled, as the two are disconnected at that time.


Judging people’s gun handling skills based on this little test is flawed.


Sure, you might say “how can I drop the slide on an empty chamber with my finger on the trigger if I’m following the rules I have my finger outside the trigger guard?”


Plenty of people with long thumbs drop their slide on an empty chamber every single time they empty a magazine. Because their thumb rests on the slide-release and they never get slide-lock on an empty mag. I’ve been doing it for decades.

Maybe you guys with short fingers never dealt with this issue, but big guys know what I mean.

It’s OK to let this myth go now, like not going swimming until 30 minutes after eating. Or eating carrots helps eyesight.
Click to expand...

I guarantee GI 1911s were abused in every way possible for decades from 1911 to the 1980s and continued to shoot and function. Dropping the slide on an empty chamber was part of the manual of arms (inspection arms). Dropping the slide on an empty chamber? Let's talk about dropping the whole pistol on the ground, getting it run over by an M60 tank and other such foolishness. Dropping the slide on an empty chamber went on all day long in the arms room while the armorer played SGT Rock with the CO's .45.

Inspection Arms. The command for this movement is Inspection, ARMS. (1) On the command of execution ARMS, execute raised pistol and then, without lowering the right hand, reach across the body and grasp the slide with the left thumb and the first two fingers so that the thumb is on the left side of the slide. Shift the grip of the right hand so that the right thumb engages the slide stop. Push the slide fully to the rear and engage the stop in its notch with the right thumb. Return the left hand to the left side and remain at raised pistol. (2) Ready, Port, ARMS is the only command that may be given from inspection arms. On the command Ready, place the right thumb on the slide stop. On the command Port, press down on the slide stop, allowing the slide to go forward, and then place the forefinger on the trigger. On the command ARMS, pull the trigger and return the weapon to the holster, fasten the flap, and come to Attention.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Me.
Variable said:
Obsessive cleaning of a gun is a personal thing, it has nothing to do with function on a good firearm. If your gun has failures because you use it, there is a problem with your gun. I also notice and have read on forums the obsessive cleaning is bad on the finish. Has to do with the cleaner you use and how much rubbing with a cloth you do i suppose. I find the guys who shoot the least, clean the most, while the guys who shoot the most, clean the least. I have been thinking about getting a sonic cleaner. Would make the gun cleanings less odious.
Click to expand...

I am confused...you shoot 1k rounds a weekend including endless drills drawing out of a holster and "running your gun hard and dirty" but are worried about a cloth rubbing the finish off of your gun?

How much cleaning is obsessive?

Are you doing a Joaquin Phoenix style troll?

phoenix.jpg
 
rufrdr said:
I guarantee GI 1911s were abused in every way possible for decades from 1911 to the 1980s and continued to shoot and function. Dropping the slide on an empty chamber was part of the manual of arms (inspection arms). Dropping the slide on an empty chamber? Let's talk about dropping the whole pistol on the ground, getting it run over by an M60 tank and other such foolishness. Dropping the slide on an empty chamber went on all day long in the arms room while the armorer played SGT Rock with the CO's .45.

Inspection Arms. The command for this movement is Inspection, ARMS. (1) On the command of execution ARMS, execute raised pistol and then, without lowering the right hand, reach across the body and grasp the slide with the left thumb and the first two fingers so that the thumb is on the left side of the slide. Shift the grip of the right hand so that the right thumb engages the slide stop. Push the slide fully to the rear and engage the stop in its notch with the right thumb. Return the left hand to the left side and remain at raised pistol. (2) Ready, Port, ARMS is the only command that may be given from inspection arms. On the command Ready, place the right thumb on the slide stop. On the command Port, press down on the slide stop, allowing the slide to go forward, and then place the forefinger on the trigger. On the command ARMS, pull the trigger and return the weapon to the holster, fasten the flap, and come to Attention.
Click to expand...

I guess that explains why the ones that were actually issued are rattletraps and replacing the barrel so frequently was SOP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Me.
SC380 said:
I am confused...you shoot 1k rounds a weekend including endless drills drawing out of a holster and "running your gun hard and dirty" but are worried about a cloth rubbing the finish off of your gun?
How much cleaning is obsessive?
Are you doing a Joaquin Phoenix style troll?

View attachment 128822
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree. You are confused.

V
 
  • Like
Reactions: Me.
I was brought up by my dad to believe "if you shoot it, you clean it". I stuck with it for years, and I was obsessively cleaning guns a few times a week. Eventually I wore out the crown on a .22 mag rifle from over cleaning it.

After that, I started to talk to other guys at the range about their cleaning habits, and I backed off on my cleaning. I'll wipe down the exterior with a cloth to remove residue, but I don't strip the gun and pull out the rods and brushes unless its had a few hundred rounds through it.
 
I used to clean guns, then I met @Slacker. This was good for me because I shoot a wider variety on a range trip. Seriously, I didn’t shoot the 45/70 much at all because I never really wanted to put hundreds of round through it in a day or clean it after a couple dozen, now I’m free to not clean it every trip so I shoot it more.

Honestly there is a good balance between “I put a mag through it today, better clean it” and “it hasn’t failed yet, not time to clean it.”

As for dropping a 1911 slide on an empty chamber, I have no facts one way or the other, but I would not be surprised to learn that there is more risk of damage to a finely tuned gun than to a GI gun.
 
JimB said:
I used to clean guns, then I met @Slacker. This was good for me because I shoot a wider variety on a range trip. Seriously, I didn’t shoot the 45/70 much at all because I never really wanted to put hundreds of round through it in a day or clean it after a couple dozen, now I’m free to not clean it every trip so I shoot it more.

Honestly there is a good balance between “I put a mag through it today, better clean it” and “it hasn’t failed yet, not time to clean it.”

As for dropping a 1911 slide on an empty chamber, I have no facts one way or the other, but I would not be surprised to learn that there is more risk of damage to a finely tuned gun than to a GI gun.
Click to expand...

They don't call me Slacker fer' nuthin!
 
Variable said:
I find the guys who shoot the least, clean the most, while the guys who shoot the most, clean the least.
Click to expand...

Indeed, this has been my experience, too.







Looking into the chamber of Slacker's gun is like looking into the sun. If the Sun was a super horribly crusty gun.
Luckily he doesn't shoot kweer 1911's and sticks to CZ's.
 
Last edited:
SC380 said:
I guess that explains why the ones that were actually issued are rattletraps and replacing the barrel so frequently was SOP.
Click to expand...

I ran a DS/GS level small arms maintenance shop. About the only component we replaced sort of frequentlywere ejectors that got loose and fell off from an enterprising GI trying to do a complete strip on his pistol. And also grips that could no longer be 100 MPH taped back together. In the two years I was the OIC I can think of barrels that were U/S for being shot out and a barrel that cracked but that was about it. The standard issue was designed to rattle and function, not to be a match weapon. Match guns were different issue items.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Me.
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom