Question How often do we clean our firearms?

[dvoncock]

Recently, I noticed some GunTubers casually mentioning how dirty their firearm as a sort of humble brag. This strikes me as odd, because I was taught to NEVER put a gun away dirty.

Personally, I always patch the bore with Hoppe’s, lube friction points, and wipe down everything with a little Ballistol after live fire.

How about everyone else?

 

[RustyIron]

some GunTubers casually mentioning how dirty their firearm as a sort of humble brag.

It's the Participation Trophy Mentality, where people are encouraged to feel proud, regardless of their level of mediocrity. Those are the same people wearing a fifthly shirt and who have dishes stacked in the sink.

 

[joefrank64k]

Oh boy, here we go, haha!!

I’ll start: I never clean my guns. I shoot them until they stop working, spray some lube, then shoot them some more. I will wipe the crud off the outside (especially if it’s CCW) but that’s to keep from getting gun mung on my clothes, haha!!

When that doesn’t work, *then* I’ll break them down to clean, but only enough to get them working again.

Not a humble brag for me. My view is that modern finishes, propellants, and primer compounds make keeping a gun spotless unnecessary.

I’m not taking away from those who take an opposing view, and/or just enjoy cleaning their guns, getting into the mechanicals of them, etc.

 

[Gawernator]

I look at it, if it looks dirty I clean it. Otherwise... lol. I'm definitely not cleaning after every range trip. Longest I pushed my AR15 with no cleaning was 2k rounds which was really filthy after with Wolf ammo hahaha. The only gun I go out of my way to make sure is really clean and lubed perfectly is if it's my CCW like the PDP. Probably every 500-1000 rounds is fine. Some Breakfree CLP works great and I guess you can do a deep cleaning when you feel like it

 

[bonesurf]

It's the Participation Trophy Mentality, where people are encouraged to feel proud, regardless of their level of mediocrity. Those are the same people wearing a fifthly shirt and who have dishes stacked in the sink.

That’s nasty. I clean after every range trip, altho, sometimes that is days later. It’s not an as soon as i get home kinda thing necessarily. Also if i havent shot something in a long time and im taking it to the range i clean it before. Function check and stuff. But i would say, this is normal field strip cleaning. I rarely do a “deep clean” unless something is wrong which, again with modern guns…..like never? Some of my old C&R and antiques that’s a different story.