PSA ALERT! Clean your guns!

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Godsgunman said:
Just as important as washing your hands will prevent the spread of viruses and keep you healthy and alive, cleaning your guns will do the same. I'm not talking about disinfecting your guns (probably not a bad idea actually), I'm talking about cleaning and oiling for function people.
The last 3 used guns I have purchased were absolutely filthy. With them being compacts and subcompacts their main purpose is for carry and defence. How do you expect this tool to actually function correctly and save your life when it's clogged up with gunk and grit? :scrutiny: I can possibly understand a range plinker not being cleaned after every outing or if you're Mr tacticool YouTuber doing you're "torture test". Let's be honest EVERY big name out there has been tested and proven. You wouldn't run your car without oil and expect it not to blow up sooner than later, why carry a gun you've shot a thousand rounds through without cleaning and expect it to not malfunction when you actually need it.
I have a co-worker who has an lc9 that has NEVER been cleaned because she "doesn't know how to field strip it" :thumbdown:. I told her to YouTube it or bring it to me and I'll clean it for her. SERIOUSLY?

OK rant over. Please wash your hands and clean your guns. Your life and health depend on it.
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Oh, LUBE your guns. I thought you said CLEAN your guns. LOL my bad
 
I tend to clean my carry guns every 100 rounds or so, when I carried them for work, every time they were shot.

My Buckmark target .22, almost never. When the slide starts to slow down to the point where it needs a hand to close on the first round, then I know it's time.
 
Do you all have the same cleaning regiment for your carry gun vs your range guns?
 
TonyAngel said:
Do you have any idea of what sort of customer service nightmare any sort of large scale manufacturer has to contend with on a daily basis?

Customers who don’t do any maintenance at all calling and complaining that their gun won’t run. The manufacturers have issues to deal with such as not being able to rely on a customer having an iota of common sense. Why do you think lawn mowers now have a warning telling you not to put your fingers under the deck of the mower while it’s running?

They can’t just say to use your common sense and clean or lubricator when needed. They have to take the safe path, assume that the customer has no sense and advise the above to cover all situations and avoid being blamed for problems caused by abuse and/or neglect.

For those that simply choose to or lack the common sense to know when to clean or lube, the above is provided for your reading enjoyment with a recommendation as to how to spend your free time.
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Yes, I do have a sense of what that large manufacturer faces when it comes to customer service calls. I have a friend who is the president of a call-center company. I have another who is director of customer service at a very large company. Through him I know another man who is SVP of Customer Care at another Fortune 500 company. We drink beer together, fish together, a couple of us even shoot together. I hear a lot about customer service issues, etc. I also happen to know a person who does technical writing for a large company. So yeah, I have an idea. And the reality is, they try not to make the manuals any more complex than necessary. No, they don’t suggest using “common sense” much, because, frankly, nobody knows what that really means. Or rather, lots of people do, but they’re all wrong. So they put out a manual. Sometimes the manual is a good one, sometimes not-so-good. In my experience, in general the better the product, the better the manual.

But let’s get back to common sense. My dad has done more than a fair bit of shooting over his lifetime, and he taught me way back when, and recently taught his youngest grandson as well, that a responsible shooter cleans the gun every time he shoots, when he’s done. Being so fastidious has never caused him a problem, caused a gun to malfunction, etc. It has helped him keep guns in beautiful condition and excellent operating condition over several decades. If you have some other system that works for you, well, great. But my common sense tells me to go with what I was taught by the guy I know best who still knows more about firearms than I do, after having also forgotten more than I’ll ever know.
 
Every gun owner has an opinion on when and how to clean their guns. I have mine, and I clean them after use.
Every mechanic had an opinion on how to take care of their tools. I have mine, and I wipe them all down after use.
Every homeowner has an opinion on when to mow their lawn. I have mine, and I mow it every week.

This works for me, YMMV.

Stay safe.
 
Assuming they are dirty but not broken, guns will run dirty as long as you lube them properly. But fail to keep them lubed, and they will fail sooner.

But I do agree with the idea that properly clean and lubricated tools is the best scenario.
 
Godsgunman said:
Just as important as washing your hands will prevent the spread of viruses and keep you healthy and alive, cleaning your guns will do the same.
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Not so sure of that, I have some firearms I haven’t touched in a decade, much less anyone else. Then again skin to steel contact isn’t a priority for me.
 
Back in my competition days I was shooting a couple of thousand rounds a week and cleaning my gun (heavily modified S&W 686) almost every day. Partly through curiosity (but mostly through laziness) I decided to see how long I could go without cleaning.

I never did find out. The gun just kept running. Eventually it got so dirty I couldn't even look at it without getting smudged, so I went back to cleaning it - but only every week or two.

So yeah, clean your guns how you want - but you probably shouldn't lecture folks about it. Some of them might know more than you think!
 
Styx said:
Do you all have the same cleaning regiment for your carry gun vs your range guns?
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I keep my carry gun pretty clean and lightly lubed. I don’t shoot it a lot. Every month or two to make sure it’s still working and blow the lint out. Then I wipe it down, clean off the feed ramp, lightly lube, wipe off any excess and reload/holster until the next time.
 
I'm in the camp that cleans their EDC frequently. As a former industrial equipment mechanic and building contractor I know the importance of keeping your tools in good operating order so they dont let you down in a moment of need.

But, to each their own.
 
I've had the S&W 2206 since ~'85 or so. I lost count how many cases (5K) I've been through in that time. It would get a regular field strip cleaning and perhaps a spray of the trigger assembly every so often to flush the remains out. Sometime in '18 I pulled the trigger and nada. Racked another round and same thing. Picked the unfired ones off the floor to see that the rim barely had a hit on it. I thought oh-sheep the pin must have chipped or something. Oh well, packed it up and came home to take it apart. I pushed the firing pin out and it was intact but felt pretty crusty and it remained stuck in the forward position. That part that had not been cleaned at all. There was so much residue in the channel that was pretty tough to remove, the spring had an equal amount of crud between the windings.

Now I periodically check the firing pin channel and clean them all. The 1911 is one I do with more frequency about every 8K as well as the extractor channel. The 9's have not been picky nor do I notice an obvious build-up.
 
ATLDave said:
I've seen plenty of Glocks malfunction from things that had nothing to do with dirt.
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And I've seen many Sigs do the same thing..This thread is about cleaning your chosen HG, not an opportunity to comment about Glocks..
 
FFGCOLORADO said:
And I've seen many Sigs do the same thing..This thread is about cleaning your chosen HG, not an opportunity to comment about Glocks..
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Sure. I've seen guns of basically every stripe fail. But it usually doesn't have anything to do with whether they're cleaned every X-hundred rounds. That was my point - not a knock on Glock or anything else.

There's a lot of magic-rock-that-scares-tigers thinking on this topic.
 
Styx said:
Do you all have the same cleaning regiment for your carry gun vs your range guns?
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Cleaning, when done is basically the same. I do lubricated my carry guns and hunting guns just a bit more judiciously to help keep me cleaner. My competition guns I run fairly wet, especially my ARs. Don't stand too close for the first few shots after a lubing there is going to be some splatter.
 
ATLDave said:
Sure. I've seen guns of basically every stripe fail. But it usually doesn't have anything to do with whether they're cleaned every X-hundred rounds. That was my point - not a knock on Glock or anything else.

There's a lot of magic-rock-that-scares-tigers thinking on this topic.
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Hmmm...

I shoot, I clean the guns I shoot..even Glocks...:eek:
 
I have a tendency to clean my guns after each outing, and usually that's for about 400-500 rounds of shooting. I know they don't need it to function, but I'm just a meticulous person. If I pick up my guns I'd rather have a little oil residue on my hands than carbon fouling.

But I've never had one malfunction due to crud or dirt. I use gun grease on the rails along with a drop or two of Hoppe's gun oil. They run just fine.

I suspect based on my experience and the experience of others who have posted, I could probably not clean them for quite awhile and with regular lubrication they'd be fine.

My Henry 357 lever gun has been sitting uncleaned for probably 7 months now. I just keep forgetting to do it.
 
FFGCOLORADO said:
I shoot, I clean the guns I shoot..even Glocks...:eek:
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OK. My position is that it is generally not necessary or beneficial (except in a psychological sense) to clean a service-type handgun just because someone has put a box of ammo through it. I understand many people strongly prefer to clean it even if they've just shot 50 rounds. I'm not telling anyone not to do that (although I would say that handgun bores are not well-served by being brushed very often). I'm just saying many of us are high-volume shooters and have long since abandoned that approach with no reliability compromise. Soft carbon soot just does not impair functioning of most handguns until there is a ridiculous amount of it, and if you are attuned to the gun, it is generally detectable with changes in feel long before you get any additional marginal risk of malfunction.

I have no doubt that many people have seen guns malfunction. My point is that, if they are attributing most or all of those to the gun being "dirty," they are almost certainly incorrect. Similarly, many people who generally have good reliability with their guns and have energetic cleaning regimens may be attributing causality between the two when there probably is none.
 
Paco42 said:
Yes, I do have a sense of what that large manufacturer faces when it comes to customer service calls. I have a friend who is the president of a call-center company. I have another who is director of customer service at a very large company. Through him I know another man who is SVP of Customer Care at another Fortune 500 company. We drink beer together, fish together, a couple of us even shoot together. I hear a lot about customer service issues, etc. I also happen to know a person who does technical writing for a large company. So yeah, I have an idea. And the reality is, they try not to make the manuals any more complex than necessary. No, they don’t suggest using “common sense” much, because, frankly, nobody knows what that really means. Or rather, lots of people do, but they’re all wrong. So they put out a manual. Sometimes the manual is a good one, sometimes not-so-good. In my experience, in general the better the product, the better the manual.

But let’s get back to common sense. My dad has done more than a fair bit of shooting over his lifetime, and he taught me way back when, and recently taught his youngest grandson as well, that a responsible shooter cleans the gun every time he shoots, when he’s done. Being so fastidious has never caused him a problem, caused a gun to malfunction, etc. It has helped him keep guns in beautiful condition and excellent operating condition over several decades. If you have some other system that works for you, well, great. But my common sense tells me to go with what I was taught by the guy I know best who still knows more about firearms than I do, after having also forgotten more than I’ll ever know.
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Good, then the next time you see one of your friends, ask them what their attorney advised them of when dealing with a customer or writing a manual. Even you acknowledged that manufacturers avoid making a manual any more complicated than it needs to be.

In the area of products liability, or more specifically the area of “failure to warn,” the general rule is to treat everyone like idiots. That way the idiots are covered and those with sense can figure it out.

My father also taught me a lot. I always took most of what he taught me as a guiding hand rather than gospel. I don’t know when it happened but at some point I learned to think for myself and develop my own opinions. After all, things are different from when my father learn them. I can remember a time when you had to have your oil changed in your car every 1500 miles. These days, I go 7500 without an oil change.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t clean your gun when it is dirty. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t clean your gun just because you feel like it. All I’m saying is that a modern firearm does not need to be cleaned every time you put 100 rounds through it.
 
My guns get an external wipe down with some rust preventative on a rag every time they're used, but I don't see that as a cleaning. I almost never clean my .22's because I'm concerned about the small tolerance between the cleaning rod and the bore, and the potential for damage.
 
TonyAngel said:
Good, then the next time you see one of your friends, ask them what their attorney advised them of when dealing with a customer or writing a manual.
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It's also just about universal that firearm manuals say not to shoot handloaded/reloaded ammunition in them.
 
Choctaw said:
Limp wristing will cause a malfunction every time.
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Sure. Well, not every time, but it will make it far more frequent. You know what else will cause a malfunction every time? Broken trigger return springs, broken trigger return springs, sheared-off locking/camming lug... I've seen all of these in person. Shoot a lot of high-volume competition, and you'll see all guns have a wide variety of maladies. Glocks are very reliable. Shoot them enough, and they'll break too, though. All guns will.

But cleaning soft powder fouling doesn't change that stuff. (Actual dirt is a different matter.)
 
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