How often should one clean their gun? I remember my father cleaning his about once a year after deer season unless his last hunting trip involved wet weather. I was just wondering...do you clean yours after every trip to the range, after every shot at the range, after every hunt trip, once a year, or once every 3-4years? Also, how often should someone do a "complete takedown" of their gun and give it a thorough once over, as a gunsmith might?

Thanks
Dave

After every 25th shot, or, if fewer shots are fired at the range, after every trip to the range. Just before going on my hunting trips, I like to shoot the clearner shots, like nine of them to get the rifle shooting where it should be shooting. If I am doing load testing at the range, like I said, after every 25th shot. If I am getting close to being in the middle of a certain load, then I will cut the 25 shot rule short. Regardless, I have to shoot nine fouling shots to get my rifle hamering nailheads. Tom Purdom

I clean my centerfires after every 20 rounds or so, and if they get dirty and/or wet when I'm out hunting, I clean them.

Each time it is fired, be it 20 shots at the range or 1 shot at game. Not necessary ? Maybe, but that's the way I was brought up. OTOH, I may be lucky but none of my rifles moves its POI more than 1-2 cm/100 m from a clean, cold bbl.

I would like to relate a story told by one of our club members at the local range. It seems this member works security at the nuclear material facility located nearby in Oak Ridge. He said he had attended a training session at Quantico. Apparently the "residents" shoot every day there. One of the instructors demonstrated his proficiency with the .308, rapid fire at targets ranging from 100 to 450+ yards. After ringing the gong with every shot, he was asked how often he cleaned the .308. He replied that he didn't, it had over 18,000 rounds through it since it's last cleaning. I don't know how much truth there is here, but I thought it an interesting story......

Maybe we can ask someone in a similar "field" to respond.

MKane160 aka BigDogMK

Similar story. I always cleaned mine after every hunt or range session. I felt guilty if I waited until the next day to clean. A couple of weeks ago I asked at the range as to how often the national competitors clean their competition guns. He said it varied sometimes between matches to the other extreme of a person that hasn't cleaned his bore since the early '70's ! !

Big game rifle, once a season.



.223 varmint rifle, every 50 shots.



Shotguns, every trip out.



High power competition rifle, every match.



All that goes for a bore cleaning.



I don't take a gun apart and clean the action unless it is very dirty and is impairing functioning or rusting.



To much cleaning wears out more guns than too much shooting................I think.

Center fire rifle may have different things to get out of the bore:



1) storage oil

I store guns with motor oil in the bore, but it takes a long time to shoot it out, so I push a clean patch through before shooting.



2) Powder fouling

Most good smelling bore cleaners will dissolve this.

Powder must be cleaned out before the copper is cleaned.



3) Copper fouling.

This affects accuracy, and accumulates as a function of velocity and bore roughness. I can only see the last 1/4" of bore at the muzzle, so I must clean until the copper color is gone there.

I use the stinky bore cleaners; Butch's Bore Shine, Shooter's Choice, Sweet's 762, etc.

Cleaning copper is aided with new bronze brushes, an abrasive like JB bore paste or Flitz, and determination. I sometimes scrub for 1/2 hour before I get so tired, I just leave the bore overnight with copper solvent. Don't leave Sweet's in for more than 10 minutes, or it will etch the steel.

I put a wet patch of Kroil / Shooter's choice mixture through the bore before shooting to make it harder for the copper to stick.



4) Corrosive primers

Military ammo sometimes has corrosive primers that leave salts that will ruin the barrel in a few days.

The salts are not soluble in the non polarized petroleum distillate solvents. They are soluble in a polarized medium [water].

I use Ammonia to clean it out, but I hear that hot water is just as good.



5) Acid from moly break down.

In my moly guns [to prevent copper fouling], I put allot of Moly bore cream in the bore before shooting moly bullets and this can make sulfate residue in the bore from the thermal disassociation and partial combustion of the MoS2 when firing. The moisture in the air combines with that to form sulfuric acid (H2SO4, battery acid).

To clean this out, I use a mixture of baking soda and water.

Maybe the water is the active ingredient, I don't know, but the "red bore" syndrome has stopped.





How often do you clean?

As often as needed to get the accuracy and bore protection desired. There are plenty of rifles with lots of Copper fouling that get 6 moa accuracy, kill a deer every year, and the owner is happy. Benchrest competitors clean while in a match, and they have factory hand lapped bores that are slow to foul.



--

A society that teaches evolution as fact will breed a generation of atheists that will destroy the society. It is Darwinian.

I clean pretty rarely compared to ya'll.

Shotguns: rarely "clean" the bore, other than scrubbing the forcing cones and removing the chokes and cleaning them. Mainly clean the gas piston in my semi auto and take out the trigger assembly and clean it off. Probably once every 1000-1500 rounds on the choke tubes/forcing cones, and once every 250-350 rounds on the gas piston and trigger. Of course if I'm shooting shells that foul the gas system more, I'll clean it more often. Sometimes I run a patch or 3 down the bore, but I dont really consider that cleaning.

.22 rimfire: I've probably shot 5000 rounds or more without touching the bore. The action, bolt, outside, etc gets cleaned or oiled down after every handling.

Centerfire rifle: Dont/haven't shot enough of them to really have any pattern yet. However when using military ammo with corrosive primers, I usually clean the bore within an hour of shooting, or less.

clark, you clean yours every 3,000 miles or 3 months? lol

I clean after every range session, which is usually twenty rounds per centerfire rifle. The sooner I clean after shooting the better, and I use benchrest-type cleaning equipment and proceedures. No 'Bore Snakes' or other ineffectual gimmicks are employed. I never allow a rifle to remain uncleaned in the rack at home for more than a day or two if I've been pressed for time.

Varmint rifles I might clean twice a day if there's a lot of shooting, such as on a prarie dog or sage rat hunt.

During big game hunts I might not clean at all until the end of the hunt if I'm hunting in a dry environment, such as SE Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, or Sonora. If it's wet, I clean every day. I might clean every-other day in Africa if there's been a lot of shooting, and just to make sure that foreign matter hasn't been introduced to the barrel by insects, etc.

I pay particular attention to the chamber when I clean the barrel.

AD

I clean them after each time I use them, unless I go away for a few days hunting then I just do them when I return home.

I clean my rifles after every range session or use. I took a rifle from my safe that I knew was clean and tried to try this new Blue Wonder on it. The dirt that came out was remarkable. I am impressed. Knowing the bore was clean beforehand leaves me with the haunting feeling that there must be some gimmick such as the cleaner reacting with the steel to turn black and appear to be dirt. I don't think so but I'm not sure.

I clean after every range shoot and some times in between if alot of shooting is done. When hunting it will depend upon the conditions, rain, snow, they will be cleaned that evening.