Cleaning Firearms

fidelity said:

Btw, great to see both Clandestine and John in MD sharing their collective experience in this thread.

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Doco Overboard said:

I clean the bore and moving parts of my weapons every time I shoot them. My goal is to prevent a build up of metallic and carbon fouling and prevent unnecessary wear. I find the cleaner they are, the less time it takes to do maintenance. With hunting rifles I do not clean until I have to or may just use an oily patch if they were wet.
I do it because I can and have no adverse effects or damage. Periodically I will clean with JB bore brite and Kroil or after a sufficient round count has passed or accuracy begins to suffer dramatically.
Shot guns I just mop the bore out, make sure there is no plastic residue that can trap moisture, good wipe down and carry on. Once in a while do a more thorough break down to remove bits of dirt and marsh grass that always seems to get in there. However, 22's once in a blue moon, maybe the action more than the bore if its a semi.

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clandestine said:

I personally teach people to look at their firearm like it is an automobile.

Do you change all of the fluids in your car after each trip to the grocery store and completely wash it?

Of course not. You use a maintenance schedule or if the gun is exposed to something extremely dirty then you take corrective action.

I worked as a professional gunsmith for a little over a decade and more often than not I saw people that damage firearms due to excessive cleaning than I saw damage in relation to insufficient cleaning.

I did see problems in regards to lack of maintenance but it often had to do with the exterior of the firearm not being wiped down after usage (sweat and finger prints are corrosive) or the firearm was kept in a condition that was not proper for a firearm to be stored in. The type of ammunition also dictates whether or not the gun needs to be cleaned. If you were shooting corrosive ammunition or black powder then the firearm should be cleaned after every use to remove the corrosive properties of the ammunition that was used.

Much of what people do today in regards to Firearms maintenance goes back to the days of ammunition that was corrosive to the firearm and products that was applied that went bad if not maintained such as animal fat and oils that went rancid or oxidized.

There are products on the market that are simply terrible to use on firearm such as WD-40. It's okay to spray WD-40 on a rag and wipe a gun down but you do not want to use it as a lubricant as it ages it tends to coagulate.

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