Am I too anal about cleaning my firearms!

Holding the slide partway back to align the slide release lever with the cutout for removing it.

 

My habits are similar to OP, but I will put it off to the next time if I don't shoot like 50-100 rounds at least. I also don't do a full clean every time. I run a hoppes soaked patch through the barrel and then patches until they are mostly clean. Rest of gun just gets a quick wipe. Maybe 500-1000 runs I actually do a thorough cleaning.

 

Yes.

And then clean it again.

 

Lol. My theory on cleaning, right there!

 

My EDC is cleaned everytime I shoot it and I also lube it and run a rag over it every month even it's not been shot. So I guess you would say it's spotless at all times. The guns I take to the range I usually clean after the range visit and they just go back into the range bag until the next trip. I would say I usually shoot 22's more then others so after 300-400 rounds they usually need it.

 

Without even reading the thread, yes.

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Everyone who cleans more than me is anal, everyone who cleans less than me is a slob.



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I will say that sometimes a dirty firearm can stop working properly even if it has not been dragged through the mud. My Ruger Mk II .22 autoloader quite working during a match one time. I switched to another pistol to finish the match. The pistol was dirty from shooting a whole bunch for several weeks before the match and functioned properly once I cleaned it. I had a 7400 Remington that hated to be dirty. Someone stole that rifle. It was a great deer rifle. I have had single action revolvers get sluggish when they were dirty. Generally, however, I do not spend a whole lot of time cleaning most of my firearms, and they work, with very few exceptions, when I want them to work.

 

I clean my suppressors so they can be disassembled, and my 22s so they will function. My ARs I wet down and wipe occasionally, my Glocks get cleaned when they start to act up in a match or something...

 

XD on top there?

Mine seems to be able to take anything and still shoot.

 

Unless I plan to shoot the same gun within a week. Mainly every time.

 

I feel like I should be proud of myself.

I shot 150 rounds today and I am not smelling like #9 right now!

Gonna shoot another couple hundred tomorrow though.

 

One day at a time.

And about that #9. Just put a dab on the nape of your neck. It drives women wild.

 

#9 will drive women away! That stuff smells bad! The only "wild" they might be is wild to get away from the funk....lol

 

Well, your opinion is the only one that counts on this one girl!

Thank you for chiming in.

 

I used to be a "if you shoot it, you clean it" kinda guy. Every range day was followed by an hour or two cleaning guns at home. At the time I found it somewhat relaxing. Gave me something to do, and I really enjoyed it.

Eventually, I wore out the crown on a 22 mag rifle from excessive cleaning. Part of the reason was I was using one of those cheap aluminum sectioned rods to do it, but I was making just as many passes with a brush down the bore as I was with a bullet.

I started cleaning less often after that, and as my collection grew, I found myself in a situation where cleaning all the guns that have been shot would take longer than I spent at the range, so now I clean on an as needed basis. Revolvers get wiped down after a range session. Rifles go back in the safe as is. I'll strip and clean when they look dirty enough inside. Seems to vary by gun and ammo type.

 

I clean mine every time I take them out. They look like they did when I purchased them, and most do when I sell or trade them on something else. If I take a rifle out hunting, the exterior gets a complete wipe down after it comes back in. For my precision rifles, I try to clean the bores once a year, but they're shot more often. Cleaning your bore will affect point of impact for a few rounds, so I don't do it very often with the other firearms.

 

Blasphemy I say..................... You get hold of a big ole honkin country girl that shoots and you'll need a gallon of #9.

 

Gotta tell a Hoppes story.

A buddy and I went to the Bianchi Cup back in the early '90's. We went a few days ahead of the match and every day hit a local range that had a full Bianchi setup for practice sessions.

Jimmy was a fanatic about cleaning his gun after every session. We were shooting 686's and, for him, that meant taking the side plate off and completely gutting the gun. And that first night I left the hotel room to get something to eat while he stayed behind to clean his gun.

When I returned the Hoppes smell hit me as the door was opening. I told him he'd better open the window or we would get thrown out of the hotel, which was next to the Holiday Inn that was the "official match hotel".

The following night I was in the Holiday Inn bar and got talking with one of the Australian team members. I had noticed that they were at the practice range every day, too, and were pounding the rounds downrange. I asked the guy just how much ammo they had brought over with them.

"Just our match ammo."

So I asked what they were doing for all that practice ammo they were shooting. They weren't buying it here, were they?

"Oh, no. We're reloading. We have a Dillon 1050 C-clamped to the dresser in one of the rooms upstairs and have a reloading session every day."

What???????? They let you get away with that?????????

"Oh, yeah, mate. The maids even straighten up the cans and boxes when they clean."

When I got back to our room I told Jimmy to just go ahead and stink the place up.

 

If the guns are blued they get cleaned and oiled after every range trip and if they are fondled they get wiped down with an oiled cloth.

My mil spec or duty style guns get oiled before every trip and cleaned every 2-3k.

 

put that in the dishwasher and spray it off with CLP and you'll still be good to go without the mud

 

Same. I clean when I think about it. I do have to oil certain finishes more than others (the boy's H&R singles will rust every time if I don't wipe em after they hunt. Same with most newer Remington shotguns and rifles with the 'matte' finish).

Boresnakes are a lazy mans friend, ESP with a muzzleloader. I shot my smokepole 2 or 3 dozen times last weekend and the bore snake just saved me time and effort.

 

@Tim I eyeballed that bottle of Goex before I left for the BP range sesh...........and then I grabbed my bottle of 777 with the funnel cap attached! I wanna burn black so bad, but I kinda cringe. I know hot water will clean it right up, and it's easy on an inline. And then there's that damn Triple 7 'ring of crud'. Even with the boresnake I have to take the breechplug out and scrub with a brush and hot water

 

I picked up my hatred of gun cleaning when I was much younger shooting mil-surps. You could spend hours cleaning your 1920s Turkish Mauser and it would never actually be clean. There is no point where you could look at one of those guns and say "This is clean." Scrub and scrub all you want, and a clean patch will come out dirty. It's like raking leaves: completely hopeless and thankless, and a total waste of effort and time.

So now the internals of my guns get cleaned when they stop working, and the externals get cleaned enough to stay ahead of rust. And that's it.

 

Easy here...guns inside the Gates have not been cleaned this year. Guns outside the Gates get blown off with air hose [lint], checked visually, mag out, run the slide, mag in, load and go. This once a week.

 

Am I too anal about cleaning my firearms!

Well, you ended your question with an exclamation point, so I guess you know the answer.

Seriously, though, I used to strip and clean my guns after every trip to the range, that was what my Dad taught me when I was a kid. After about 30 years I finally figured out that non corrosive primers really are non corrosive, and that most of my guns can get pretty doggone dirty before they need cleaning. Exception being the buck mark .22. If I let that one get gummed up it will let me know in short order.

Everything still gets a good wipe down before it goes back in the safe, I'm just not as anal about it all as I used to be. But, if you enjoy cleaning guns, it sure can't be bad for them, so go for it!

 

This thread made me re-think how I am doing things.

I am going to clean my CARRY guns BEFORE each range session.

That I way, I minimize long-term buildup of crud and I am sure that it is functioning normally when I put it into back into service. I'll still probably clean range toys after sessions.

Carry on...

 

@Burt Gummer stayed in the Bunk House last wee and noted "Hey that rifle could use a little love". It's our turtle shooter and has been in the Bunk House since it was completed. Never been cleaned, never been re- zeroed. 114 yards across the pond, it will still knock a turtles head off any time anybody picks it up.