question about cleaning an AR

[Housezealot]

Alright I may be about to prove my ignorance, I was shooting with a friend of mine the other day who is a huge AR guy, he knows the weapon in and out and carried a M4 through 2 tours in iraq and one in afganistan, I have always broke my ar's down and gave them what I thought was a good cleaning everytime I shoot, but he was telling me on an ar you should disasemble the entire bolt assembley, gas key, firing pin, etc and clean all everytime you shoot it, this sure isn't what i remember them telling us in basic, but he has definetly spent more time with an M4\ar than I have.
is this over kill? I thought you werent supposed to mess with the gas key screws in less you had to?

[jeo556]

Everytime that I shoot my AR it gets cleaned just as your friend explained. Tell you buddy that I said thanks for his service.

P.S. I don't remove the gas key.

[precision_shooter]

I don't ever mess with the Gas key. I do disassemble the bolt, and clean, but not after every outing. I would say every 500 to 1000 rounds on my RRA .223 and about every 100 rounds on my Remington R-25 .308. .308 gets dirty a lot faster than the .223. Maybe I'm not doing it correctly either but I have not had any problems so far by following this procedure.

[OLNfan]

I have no military experience, but I would say EVERY time cleaning it that might be over kill, but again thats just me. I just obvoiusly take out the retaining pins to seperate the upper and lower recievers compeletly. Then I pull out the charging hadle out. Im not in the mood to take out the codder pin, firing pin, and take the hole bolt apart. but I will get my fingers in their spray alot of gun lube etc but again Im in no mood to take the bolt apart, Im to afraid Ill mess something up. and then I just continue on cleaning the bore and everything else an little touch up. I meen you and your friend are proboly much more knowledgeable at this then I am but I THINK what he does is a tad over kill perhahps? Im not saying its not a bad idea to do, I meen maybe once every 3 months wouldnt be a horrible idea.

But I do think its over kill and why take the chance on trying it when nothings wrong to begin with, and shoots just fine. If I were entering shooting competitions thats a different story, but for regualr use then I wouldnt even go their EVERY time. to tell you the truth I proboly wont even go that far unless I start having problems.

[Scorch]

Never remove the gas key, the screws holding it on are staked in place and if they come loose your rifle won't cycle reliably. But the gas key does get thoroughly cleaned inside and out with a bore brush, and the bolt gets fully disassembled. Scrub the gas rings, bolt head, cam key, firing pin, and take a pistol bore brush to the inside of the bolt carrier. Then clean the chamber and locking lugs with a chamber brush. Then the usual bore scrub and action bath (including trigger group), and every 2-3 times you shoot your rifle, take the buffer out and clean out the tube. Sounds like a lot, but you get pretty fast at it with practice, probably no more than 5-10 minutes.

[Bartholomew Roberts]

Hmmm, I don't recall ever disassembling the gas key in the military. That strikes me as being more likely to cause problems than solve them. In any case, I can tell you it is unnecessary to keep an AR running. I usually don't even bother disassembling and cleaning the extractor but once every 3-4k. The main point is to keep the cam pin, gas rings, bolt body and bolt carrier rails well lubed.

[Technosavant]

The gas key and screws stay where they are. I restaked them on most of my BCGs (one was properly staked, the others needed help), and they aren't ever getting loosened.

I clean the barrel and inside of the upper. The BCG gets disassembled (with the exception of the gas key), and I get all the junk off of it, check the condition of the gas rings, and lube everything very well. I also put a few drops on the hammer and trigger pins then reassemble. As Pat Rogers says (over at arfcom), if you're putting much more than 20 minutes or so into it (don't remember if he said 15 or 20), you're likely overcleaning- sure, you get it spotless, but you aren't making it so it will run any better.

[LoneWolf22056]

+1 on not removing the gas key screws.

if a part on an AR requires a tool to remove, you should not be removing it. I think your buddy mispoke. If he didn't, and he really meant that he removes his gas key every time, he will eventually run into problems.

This is not a personal attack on military members, but think about it like this. Race car drivers are excellent at what they do-driving. But does that mean that it's good for our vehicles to drive around at redline, pushing the limits of frictional force around each turn? No. Race cars are replaced/rebuilt after each race, and being that rough on a daily driver will accelerate wear on parts. Being in the military/law enforcement does not qualify you as a cleaning expert. There are guys in the military who bring their rifles into the shower with them to make cleaning faster. Is that smart? Nope. You're leaving low-level traces of lead for yourself to experience on a daily basis. AND, all that soap and hot water is going to degrease the rifle beyond belief, so you had better put some serious lube on it.

[overkill556x45]

+ Infinity to DO NOT MESS WITH THE GAS KEY. But yes, to really "clean" an AR you need to tear the bolt down and get into all the nooks and crannies. On missions, I would just wipe out the upper receiver and wipe off the bolt with a clean-ish rag and re-lube as necessary. Sand in the barrel and chamber wasn't an issue because it was almost always loaded, dust cover closed, and a shoot-thru muzzle cap. Once I got back to the base, I'd tear the whole thing down and do it right.

[armedtotheteeth]

Im doing something wrong then. I will on occasion run a rod down my barrel. Probably every 200-300 rounds. My bushmaster doesnt get cleaned every outing, or even every 5 outings. Ive taken it aprt a couple of times over the last few years. Mine dont like being clean. It tends to jam more when super clean than when it is gritty. Dont over clean them. Just give them some oil on occasion. Clean the barrel when groups open up.

[chadwick76]

DO NOT REMOVE GAS KEY! But i agree with the rest of what he said.

[KChen986]

Gas Key should stay on.

Otherwise, standard practice is to clean after every range trip--BUT:

FWIW, I've heard reports that some 'hi-speed guys' clean at 1,000 rounds or so. This makes sense, as I believe we introduce more wear to the AR every time we clean it, and the AR is a pretty reliable platform.

[armsmaster270]

Check here for the M-16 TM http://www.armsmaster.net-a.googlepages.com/gunsandammo