What’s the big deal with ‘dirty ammo’?

[DeepSouth]

Is it that people prefer to not not spend more the than 10-15 minutes cleaning their gun or what?

In my limited experience their are 3 kind of shooters
1: people that are completely OCD about cleaning therefore hate dirty ammo.
2: people that view cleaning as a chore therefore hate dirty ammo because they have to clean more often
3: the people in the middle that don’t mind cleaning and don’t really care if ammo is dirty

 

[Caplock]

Talk about dirty. I was shooting some of my 44 mag handloads at an indoor range. 310 grain cast bullets with soft lube.

New shooter in the bay next to me getting some instruction from an employee of the range. I heard him tell her to go ahead and shoot the target. She says I can't see it! LOL.

I stopped shooting the 44. It makes cleaning easy when your stainless gun is black. Whatever is still black is still dirty.

 

[Buzznrose]

So to start:

I don’t shoot nearly as much as some of y’all do. I also don’t do any formal competition shooting.

With that out of the way:

I always here people complain about certain ammo being dirty abs how how they won’t put it through their guns. I’ve shot a few of those brands of dirty ammo (mostly because at they time they were the cheapest) and found that while it was in fact dirtier that other brands it performed just as well (in terms of firearm functionality). Went home, cleaned my guns, put them away and wondered what the issue is.

Is it that people prefer to not not spend more the than 10-15 minutes cleaning their gun or what?

I agree there is some ammo more dirty than others, but I just think people in general are most happy when they have something to whine about.

Shooters are no exception.

Dirty ammo, plastic guns, hunting and carry gun calibers, gun oil, revolvers versus auto loaders, 1911 flavors…

LOL! And I also think most folks don’t like to clean anything, including guns. I suspect folks who say they like cleaning guns ACTUALLY like tinkering with their guns, and cleaning is a reason and opportunity to do so. That’s why you hear folks who say they clean all their guns every # months whether they shoot them or not.

Just how I see it…not judging. I can be as big a whiner as anyone…but I’m trying to learn perspective these days…

 

[trackskippy]

I usually dont whine unless I dont have ammo (dont care if its clean or dirty shooting), or primers, powder, and bullets.

Ammos is still good for a couple of years or so, if I slow down a bit. Will be starting to whine about the others pretty soon though.

 

[Gun4Fun90]

Wait something just occurred to me. Are their people that don’t clean their guns every time they shoot?

don’t get me wrong I am not breaking down the trigger and pulling all the furniture and trim off my guns ever time I go shooting but I am field stripping them and cleaning them. And then if it’s something like an ar taking apart the bolt assembly and extractor.

dose everyone not do at least this every time?

 

[Jim Watson]

I am loading nearly all .45 and some 9mm with Bullseye.
But it's DIRTY! you may say.
Well, as my gunsmith points out, it is sooty and will black your hands. But it is light and fine, not gritty like the sparser fouling from some of the other stuff, and it is not going to coke up the action like at least one powder I have used.

 

[herrwalther]

I go by the old Army adage "sun never sets on a dirty gun." My firearms get cleaned the same day I fire them. Dirty ammo just means my cleaning is a little longer when I get back. So if brand X ammo is dirty and Y is less dirty, I am going to use Y to save myself time.

 

[DeepSouth]

Wait something just occurred to me. Are their people that don’t clean their guns every time they shoot?

don’t get me wrong I am not breaking down the trigger and pulling all the furniture and trim off my guns ever time I go shooting but I am field stripping them and cleaning them. And then if it’s something like an ar taking apart the bolt assembly and extractor.

dose everyone not do at least this every time?

I have an AK that has never been cleaned, +10K rounds and all I’ve ever done is spray brake clean down the firing pin hole one time…after a slam fire.

That is abnormal though, i vary wildly in my cleaning habits. I mostly only clean my 22’s when they start having trouble.
For some reason I always clean my revolvers after shooting, semi auto pistols get cleaned about half the time I take them out shooting. Except my carry guns, they’re never clean because after I clean them I’ll run a mag through them for function check.

Rifles get cleaned fairly regularly but no where near every time they get shot. Shotguns get cleaned before whatever hunting season I’m going to be using if for.

 

[FROGO207]

Years ago in high school a buddy Pat, and I used to go to the local dump at lunch time and shoot rats. We used a Ruger Standard pistol and mostly bricks of Winchester wildcat ammo. For most of our junior and senior year we did it 5 days a week and don't recall ever cleaning that pistol once in all that time. One guy would shoot and the other would reload the spare MAG. We would swap half way through our time. Those things are tough!!!

 

[film495]

Don't know. I've never really shot enough in a day or weekend, to have any issues. In theory fouling can cause ejector issues or bind things up and cuase failures, but I've never seen it.

 

[gyp_c2]

dose everyone not do at least this every time?

That'd be...no.

 

[lsudave]

I've yet to find ammo so dirty that I won't shoot it, or so dirty that a decent cleaning won't render it good to go again. If it's bad, I do what I do with corrosive ammo- hot soapy water scrub with pipe cleaners, rinse with boiling water out of a teapot, soak down with a generous amount of ballistol. The ballistol likes heat, diffuses into areas I couldn't get. Put it over something warm, then in an hour or so wipe the excess off and reassemble it.