Am I the only one who hates cleaning ARs?

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Do you live about 12 min. from a shooting club or range etc?
You could spend hours per week cleaning, with four 7.62x39 rifles and a pair of .22, three 9mm handguns.

I tend to do internal cleaning on each about once per month, otherwise rubbing somewhat moist patches on the outsides.

Coal Dragger: A young Marine who worked three years ago as hotel security (during our layovers) in downtown Tallahassee served as Infantry in Iraq. He told me that on the first patrol after cleaning, they would see at least one standard rifle jam.
Was it too much CLP, which might have been exposed to the thin dust, or probably just very worn out components?

I doubt many of us shoot in an Iraqi-like environment.
 
Do you live about 12 min. from a shooting club or range etc?
You could spend hours per week cleaning, with four 7.62x39 rifles and a pair of .22, three 9mm handguns.

I tend to do internal cleaning on each about once per month, otherwise rubbing somewhat moist patches on the outsides.

Coal Dragger: A young Marine who worked three years ago as hotel security (during our layovers) in downtown Tallahassee served as Infantry in Iraq. He told me that on the first patrol after cleaning, they would see at least one standard rifle jam.
Was it too much CLP, which might have been exposed to the thin dust, or probably just very worn out components?

Lack of lubrication, or bad magazines.

The myth of lubrication causing malfunctions in a sandy environment is just that: a myth. AR’s do not like to be run dry.

I used mine in Iraq and had no issues. Every now and then broke it down shotgun style to pull the BCG to scrub sand and grit off and re-lube. Took maybe 30 seconds. Only needed to do that when doing a lot of off road driving if we were mounted, and had to treat all the belt feds the same way.

Bad magazines are the biggest issue we had, you’d turn in a bad magazine and the moron armorers would reissue it to someone else. So they just stayed in circulation until you literally destroyed it and turned in a crushed magazine.
 
There's no problem at all. I don't care if they dip their rifles in marinara and roll them in shredded mozzarella.

I'll keep cleaning my guns the way I do now.
And we'll call is spARghetti. .. . .I could go for a good marinara.....
Oh! the left overs we can put eBay parts in and call it gARbage casserole....
 
I love how easy the AK in particular makes it. Pop the dust cover, pull the bolt carrier out, rotate the bolt free. You've just disassembled the gun as far you'll ever need to in about 20 seconds. Now I don't love how AKs shoot, but you can't ask for easier maintenance.

The only problem with the ARs IMO is that you have to remove a cotter pin to really get to the bolt, which kind of annoys me.

I rarely take the bolt apart unless some sort of malfunction starts to happen. My strangest malfunction I get the most is the bolt locking back, no jam, no stove pipe, round in top of mag. I check action, release bolt, keep shooting. No idea what that's about. Tried changing extractor spring (don't know why just popped into my head to do that) and mag springs, still does it maybe once every 2 mags.
 
I rarely take the bolt apart unless some sort of malfunction starts to happen. My strangest malfunction I get the most is the bolt locking back, no jam, no stove pipe, round in top of mag. I check action, release bolt, keep shooting. No idea what that's about. Tried changing extractor spring (don't know why just popped into my head to do that) and mag springs, still does it maybe once every 2 mags.
Bolt catch spring might be too weak allowing the bolt catch to pop up from recoil.

With the way the bolt latch works that seems unlikely to me but I can't think of anything else.
 
Who cleans their ARs?

Yeah, it's self-cleaning. At least that's what our leaders told the GI's in 'Nam so they didn't issue cleaning kits.

In reality, I've gone over 500 between cleanings and usually clean it just because I have some spare time available. Most guns are cleaned way too often and more wear and tear is put on guns by cleaning than shooting. Now 22's are a different story.
 
I have three waiting to be cleaned. Based on some of the comments, I'm not sure if they even NEED to be cleaned yet. It's the thought of having to do all three that gets to me. Maybe I'm too meticulous, and I hate cleaning the recesses of the locking lug.
 
I don't particularly like cleaning any gun.
Revolvers are the closest that I come to enjoying it.
Which is why I don't do it very often, except of course for MLs which get cleaned ASAP after firing.
 
Yeah, it's self-cleaning. At least that's what our leaders told the GI's in 'Nam so they didn't issue cleaning kits.

In reality, I've gone over 500 between cleanings and usually clean it just because I have some spare time available. Most guns are cleaned way too often and more wear and tear is put on guns by cleaning than shooting. Now 22's are a different story.

How are .22s different?
 
How are .22s different?

That's a good question, but I'm guilty of rarely cleaning .22s as well.
I have a Marlin 60 that I purchased new in around 2000. I can count on one hand the number of times it's been cleaned, and it probably hasn't had a patch ran down the barrel more than 2 or 3 times.

When it gets so gritty I think it may malfunction, I hose the action out with Gun Scrubber and then oil it.
It's never jammed and is very accurate.

My father is ex military and is one of those guys that cleans even if he only shoots once. He has given up on me. He just shakes his head and no doubt, thinks he failed as a father. lol
 
Unless I know for a fact I am going out within the next few days (and the current day wasn't out in the rain/snow/damp) I clean everything back to pretty near new. It's not as meticulous as it sounds if you stay on top of it every trip. I hear people talk of over cleaning, but if I wear down metal with a cotton swab or patch, I must have been on something. I like my stuff to look good and clean whenever I get it out, plus if something happens to me at the very least I will either look responsible or like I wasted a bunch of money on guns I never shot.

The only part of AR cleaning I hate is behind the locking lugs outside the chamber. Black powder is easy with soap and hot water. Hate that I have multiple chambers on revolvers. But I enjoy the quality time spent with the firearm when working it over.
 
That's a good question, but I'm guilty of rarely cleaning .22s as well.
I have a Marlin 60 that I purchased new in around 2000. I can count on one hand the number of times it's been cleaned, and it probably hasn't had a patch ran down the barrel more than 2 or 3 times.

When it gets so gritty I think it may malfunction, I hose the action out with Gun Scrubber and then oil it.
It's never jammed and is very accurate.

My father is ex military and is one of those guys that cleans even if he only shoots once. He has given up on me. He just shakes his head and no doubt, thinks he failed as a father. lol

I asked because I've heard .22s rarely need cleaning. My local gunsmith's son shoots .22 competitively, and rarely runs a patch through it.
 
It'll still work,
Until it doesn't. Murphy's law applies here, too. Anything that can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible moment. And since all of my guns are bought with that worst possible moment in mind, I keep them ready for rough service. I don't clean them to Arms Room standards, as I mentioned before, but I do go over them. I don't know how many times I've seen guys at the range fumbling with a malfunctioning gun, and when I tell them (after looking at the gun) it jammed because it's dirty, "Well, I run 'em until they don't anymore, then I clean them" it gets me to wondering what they plan on defending themselves with when the time comes. I get this picture like when Harry Tracy stared at his bent front sight on his rifle before he died.
 
Shooting them? That's not a problem at all. Getting them clean, to include the carbon build-up? I'm behind on that for sure.
I am not an AR shooter, but I have friends that are. They swear by this stuff: https://www.qmaxxproducts.com/product/black-diamond/

I use their Blue product on my bolt actions, shotguns and handguns. Really neat stuff. And it doesn't smell bad, neither! When used as directed, crud will not stick to your guns like it will with your conventional cleaning products. I don't use anything else anymore.

One friend builds all his own AR's including a couple "Ghost Rifles". He has one dedicated to load development and it gets a lot of use and abuse. The first time he cleaned it with the qmaxx Black Diamond product he was impressed with how easy it cleaned. When he next took it out to shoot, he put "over 400 rounds through it without a hickup." His words. When he took it apart to clean it that night, he said he just wiped the parts off and put it back together without cleaning it because it wasn't dirty.
 
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