DIRTY!!?!???!

[Chris_B]

Well. I don't know just what to do. Tonight is my monthly maintainance-on-the-guns night, and I am angry at myself

I checked my Colt 1903 (1920). Clean. Oily patch down the barrel. Check.
P.38 (1944). Clean. Oily patch down the barrel, check.
1911A1. Clean. Oily patch down the barrel, check.
1862 Colt repro; disassemble, check for rust (cleans with boiling water and soap). Tiny bit of orange of the barrel wedge. Clean that off, no other signs of rust. Revolver is clean. Oily patch down the barrel, check.
Colt M1911 (1918). The white rag I'm poking into places come back with a black smear 1/4" long when I jam it into the slide with the action open. What the F

Take it apart. Check the whole thing. I just cleaned it the other day, when I swapped out the original grips for some Colt-made ones they sell for their WWI re-issue M1911s. Where's that crud coming from...ah. A little corner right by the barrel shroud. Clean the frame. Clean the slide. Clean the barrel. Oily patch down the barrel- check. Pistol is clean, re-assemble and wipe down.

Now I'm annoyed. I go and get the Colt 1903. Take it apart and make sure it's really clean. Then the P.38, and then the 1911A1, and then the 1862. Then the P226 gets broken down and scrutinized, then the P-22

I reluctantly grabbed my M1 rifle and took it down. C-l-e-a-n. Whew. Felt like I had somebody looking over my shoulder waiting to yell drop and give me fifty. I put it back together, and then wiped all that stuff down and put that away too.

This was supposed to be a 15 minute oily-patch-down-the-barrel night. One and a half hours later, I'm done. I never cut corners cleaning and I don't know how I missed that little nook filled with uck.

The trouble is, now I want to go shooting

[jrothWA]

DETAIL It!

Good catch, prevents major OOps later.

[David the Gnome]

Whew, it's a good thing you can't see in my safe right now... :D

[45Gunner]

Ya just gotta look at it as the total gun experience.

I have a golden rule: If it gets shot, it gets cleaned before it gets put away. Prevents nasty buildup and residue that gets difficult to remove and if something comes up the next day that it would normally get done, it doesn't gets postponed again.

Also, my EDC gets wiped down and gets an oil coating each and every night before I turn in for the night. It removes any body oils that may have come in contact with it and other dust and dirt that may be in the air.

I try to make the task enjoyable by putting on some nice music and get lost in the smell of the Hoppes.

[Mike38]

Geesh, you guys would slap me if you see my cleaning schedule.

Two M1911’s… Field strip and clean every 500 rounds, but I do wipe out the big chunks after every time shooting.

Two IZH35M target pistols… I don’t clean them until they start to malfunction, but as above, do wipe out the big chunks.

92FS…. Once a year whether it needs it or not, but as above, do wipe out the big chunks.

22/45... Once a year whether it needs it or not, but as above, do wipe out the big chunks.

J frame S&W… Once a year whether it needs it or not, but as above, do wipe out the big chunks.

I’m “one of those” that believe frequent total cleaning wears out a pistol faster then shooting it. But I do keep them well oiled, so much that it washes away most of the crud.

[greyson97]

i'm purposely not cleaning my guns just to see if they fail. except my SD gun.

[45Gunner]

I don't want to turn this into another clean gun vs dirty gun debate so I will simply say that I believe in preventative maintenance vs if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I can't help it, I spent a lot of years as an Airline Pilot...I have to have that attitude. And I spent a lot of years running big boats, Island hopping. I had to have that attitude. I buy my cars, not lease them. I have to have that attitude. Don't think I ever changed the oil in my lawn mower tho. Oh, wait a minute, the community landscapers do my yard, front and back. I don't have a lawn mower.

[Chris_B]

The point wasn't "do as I do" ;)

The point was wow, I thought I had them all clean as could be, and somehow I missed a patch of goop. For me, personally, that prompted me to clean them all again because that's how I am. If you take a closer look at my post, I have some pretty old stuff and I try to take care of it as well as I can.

Don't clean your own guns ever folks, see if I lose sleep over it :D I have a couple bucks tied up in these things. I wash and wax my cars, too.

I suppose Mike has a point, there's always the old stories about cleaning hurting a GI rifle more than not cleaning

But I use brass rods with rubber bumpers, plastic patch loops, etc, not vintage GI cleaning tools ;) there's a difference between cleaning and being careless while cleaning...but then again, if y'all toss your guns in a mud pit and then fish 'em out with a pitchfork that's your affair ;)

[BigJimP]

Cleaning doesn't wear out a gun / abrasive gunk in it, and shooting it, wears it out ...

Don't forget to take those mags apart too - for regular maintenance ( about every 10 - 15 times you use a mag or so, is probably enough - depending on how clean your ammo is )....but I clean my guns every time I shoot them ...

and at least every 6 months I do a detail strip on each weapon ...

[PointOneSeven]

I've always wanted one of those part rinsing machines mechanics use :D. I'd toss all my pistols in there and hose the crud out :D.


Probably need a proper solvent that's safe for guns though :cool:.

[drail]

OK here's what happened. No matter how well you cleaned it the other day there was residual crud in the bore that had not been broken down by the solvent. Yet. No matter what you clean a bore with if you come back a day or two later more stuff will come out. It's not you, it's just the nature of gun barrels. I have proven this to other guys and they were always amazed. They thought my solvent was better than theirs. I usually clean them pretty good and then let them soak with some CLP in the barrel overnight. Next day lots more stuff wipes out. The good news is it wipes out instead of being bonded to the metal and doesn't want to let go. (like copper does) Try not to be too anal about all this as it doesn't really matter. The first shot you fire at the range next time just fouls it again.

[Mike38]

Cleaning doesn't wear out a gun / abrasive gunk in it, and shooting it, wears it out.

Understood, but it sort of depends on what firearm we are talking about, in a sense. I get my belief of frequent cleaning wearing out a pistol faster then shooting it from customized M1911’s with pistol smith fit barrels. Excessive removal of an interference fit barrel bushing will, without a doubt, wear that part of the pistol quicker then shooting it dirty will. Then the $500 you spent to have a barrel fitted gets thrown out the window. I tend to carry this belief over to all my guns, and maybe I shouldn’t. As a side note, I would never suggest letting a carry pistol go dirty. When you life depends on it, you sure as heck wouldn’t want a failure because the pistol was dirty. But carry pistols don’t have to be as accurate as ones used to put ‘em in the X-ring at 50 yards.

[christcorp]

I hear you mike38. I break down and clean my guns thoroughly, 2 times a year. May and November. May, because of not much shooting through the winter. November, because of all the shooting in the summer and hunting season just finished up.

The rest of the time, I can air the guns after shooting them to get grit, dirt, etc.. out of it. Then I run a bore snake down it. Then I spray lube it, work the action a few times, dry fire it for function test, and put it away until time. Guess it's hard to change what works after 30+ years. Just got to keep it quiet. Don't want my guns to hear. They don't know that they're not suppose to work correctly if not cleaned thoroughly after every shooting.

But drail is totally correct. When you do get in depth cleaning a gun, the solvent won't break down the residue immediately all the time. Just like soaking rusty metal in oil. It sometimes needs to sit for a few hours. There will be some hoppe or similar in the gun when you get done. it will mix with the lube you put on the gun. It will break down some of the other residue after a few hours. The only way to not have this happen is to give the gun a bath. I've done that with some M16's and 1911's in the military, but it wasn't on a regular basis. I use to help out working at CATM some times when bored, and we didn't give weapons a bath all that often.

[Stevie-Ray]

Geesh, you guys would slap me if you see my cleaning schedule. Same here. Other than my carry guns, they get a good cleaning after firing and then maybe once a year if I think about it. If I don't well, some have gone to the range 2 years or so later than the last time with no cleaning in-between.