How Thoroughly Do You Clean Your Gun?

[jon45xdtac]

Farely self-explanitory. Just curious as to how thoroughly everyone cleans their gun after a trip to the range.

[propellerhead]

I don't clean mine after EVERY trip to the gun range. Some guns I shoot often, like 2-3 times a month. I might clean those every 1000 rounds or so. No sense in cleaning them if I'll be taking them out again in a week. Some guns I shoot only once every 2-3 months. I'll clean those within a day or two of shooting them, only because I know it will sit in the safe for a while. For all those, I just do the basic field strip, brush all metal with a toothbrush and Hoppes, rinse it all with WD-40 or whatever gun cleaner I have. Then I blow it all out with compressed air. Then I oil it a lot and blow it out again to remove the excess. Then I wipe it down and reassemble.

[ivwarrior]

We're supposed to clean them?

[Krackels]

Depends. I find myself doing a quick wipe down of the interior of the slide with some clp, followed by a wipe down of the exterior of the slide and barrel, and then waiting a few more range trips before I clean the barrel.

[jon45xdtac]

I'll usually use solvent on my barrel, followed by a few dry patches and then oily patches. Everything else gets just a standard wipe down with oil. A few times I've used solvent on my slide, but was hesitant do not being able to remove all of the solvent from internals.

If I'm in a hurry, I'll just run an oily patch down the barrel and wipe everything else down with oil. I'll usually do this as a bare minimuim.

[Joeywhat]

After every trip to the range I at least run the boresnake a couple times and give it a rough cleaning...sometimes don't even remove the slide. After every 800-1000 rounds, however I'll do a full field strip and get everything cleaned and lubed really well.

[scurtis_34471]

I usually use solvent on the barrel and just use Hoppes Elite on the rest of the gun. If the gun is particularly dirty, I may blast it out really well with synthetic safe gun scrubber and then use Hoppes. I clean it more often than really necessary. I would say once a month is average with two or three range trips and as many as 300 rounds between cleanings.

The dirtiest I let my gun get was at Front Sight. I fired 650 rounds over four days in the desert where it was dusty and windy. When I finally field stripped the gun it was full of crud, but it never malfunctioned once.

[tt350z]

I'll run a boresnake through each gun, than a field strip each one. I'll disassemble them to the point where i have to knock out roll pins. Spray everything down with CLP, wipe it all, repeat again. Than a final lube with CLP and reassemble. Takes a few hours for me to finish as I normally shoot all 3 guns when I go shoot, but hey what else do I have to do besides cleaning them

[1lowlife]

I only shoot every few months.
I clean every time I shoot.

[SMMAssociates]

I generally shoot once a week, and try to clean whatever's dirty by the following weekend. To some extent it depends on how much shooting - some nights we shoot more bull than bullets, but if the gun's new, it gets a thorough cleaning. Older ones may skip a session.

I think I've got one that won't get clean before the next range night....

Generally, I'll strip 'em down to the "don't strip it down past this point" level, run some solvent through the bore, and Q-tip everything. Once the solvent dries (or is wiped off), everything gets an oil film - Q-tip, cloth, etc. - and then the rails get greased.

Other grease and oil as needed - some guns want a little different ritual.

My 1911's get their slides pulled apart and cleaned about once a month. Frames a couple times a year, except for the LDA's. I don't take those apart more than a little bit.

Other guns (XD, M&P, etc.) as far as I dare.

(I hate cleaning revolvers....)

Regards,