Weapons Maintenance Kung-Fu

First:

Gratuitous lingerie'd tits 'n ass cleaning a modern musket and the most popular rock-chucker ever? Edutainment at its finest.

How to Field Strip and Clean an AR-15 Rifle
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How to Field Strip and Clean a Glock Pistol
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Now:

Weapons Maintenance Kung-Fu​

Firearm maintenance is an interesting topic because the different philosophies that emerge for essentially the same set of issues. Some folks live by the mantra that you should white glove your piece after every trip to the target range, while others tend to believe it's okay to kick 'em open, squirt 'em down and run 'em until they break.

What is your maintenance philosophy? How often do you clean your weapons? What are your thoughts on the two schools?

Me? I tend to baby my guns. I lightly clean them between range sessions as a part of a basic inspection to ensure that they don't have any worn or damaged parts. I avoid situations where the weapon will be scratched or dinged by storing them in individual padded cases. While I recognize guns are just tools made of metal and plastic and wood, they are expensive precision tools that deserve care to enable them to do their job to the best degree possible for a longer period of time.

What maintenance tips have you picked up over the years? What's the best maintenance related fuck-up you've witnessed?

The most obvious tip for n00bs is that like your favorite woman-mounted fuckhole, guns run best when wet and that many stoppages are related to the fact that you're trying to dry-fuck your toy at the range. My favorite maintenance fuck-up is the inevitable spring-goes-flying mishap where you know you'll never find it and you have to wait a week for that tiny package from Brownell's to arrive. Expert gunsmiths step into the shower stall, plug the drain and close the curtain when faced with a spring situation on a weapon that requires five hands to safely disassemble.

Go.

 

1.) What is your Maintenance Philosophy?
Ideally, I'd like to clean my weapons after every use. A clean, well lubricated weapon is at the peak of its reliability, and I like my firearms reliable.

2.) How Often do you clean your weapons?
Weapons that have been shot--hopefully within a week of use. Weapons in storage, at least once every six months. I'll pull my stored firearms out of the safe and lube and inspect them about twice-a-year.

3.) What are your thoughts on the two schools?
A firearm holds aesthetic appeal to me--a cared for 1911 or Colt Python is quite a sight to behold. I prefer to maintain my guns. I only really have one "beater" pistol, and it's my USP45 that's worn to it's tennifer finish. I scorn dirty weapons--not only are you taking a chance on a fouling-related stoppage--it also shows a lack of discipline.

4.) Best Maintenance Tip?
I really believe in the value of a one-piece cleaning rod. It makes cleaning my long-arms a breeze. And I avoid dirty thoughts about scarring the bore.

5.) Biggest Maintenance Mishap?
I have to take the cake on this one--I've done this a couple of times too. I reassemble an AR15 without the buffer-spring assembly, and when I function check the weapon, I inevitably get the bolt-carrier-group stuck in the receiver extension. What follows is a comedy of cursing and prying as I try to lower the hammer enough to slide the bolt carrier back in to battery. Yea. I'm a moron.
--- merged: Feb 13, 2013 5:54 AM ---
Edit to add: Precision rifles are a bit of an exception to the "dirty-weapon" rule. They tend to be most consistent with a bit of fouling in the bore. I try to avoid over-cleaning my precision rig, but OCD usually takes over.

 

When I first bought my guns I was pretty OCD...I would push bore patches through until they came out white. And I would use qtips to clean out the little nooks and crannies of the slide. Now, I just don't care that much. I hose slides/BCG's with ballistol and wipe them off with blue shop towels and then hose them down again with ballistol and reassemble.

-I've never cleaned the buffer-spring in my AR (doesn't matter).
-I stopped cleaning the recoil spring in my glock (doesn't matter).

Altogether I would say I cut my cleaning time in half by eliminating unnecessary cleaning that I was doing just to make the gun pretty.

Yeah the one piece cleaning rod is great. I had some crappy 3 piece screw-togther model that I got out of a kit from Cabella's and that thing warped pretty quickly and eventually broke.

My biggest mishap could have been pretty bad for my eyes. I was replacing the stock trigger on my Daniel Defense with a rock river 2 stage and not wearing eye protection. When I released the tension on the spring in the trigger of course it went flying in front of my face and across the room. I almost shot my eye out !!

Lesson learned.

 

Firearm maintenance is an interesting topic because the different philosophies that emerge for essentially the same set of issues. Some folks live by the mantra that you should white glove your piece after every trip to the target range, while others tend to believe it's okay to kick 'em open, squirt 'em down and run 'em until they break.

I tend to insist that my weapons perform, but for many of them I expect them to perform in adverse conditions. If I have a sniper rifle, I will clean it spotless (when able), but I expect it to work just fine if I don't bother for a couple thousand rounds. If we are talking about a battle rifle/pistol my cleaning is minimal; I will clean thoroughly every couple months/several thousand rounds, but my daily cleaning is basically to wipe the carbon off and re-oil. If I have not shot the weapon I won't clean it... Any gun which requires preemptive maintenance doesn't need to be in my arsenal.

My standard for 'clean' also differs: For a sniper system I try to make the bore impeccable (with ten brush strokes or less) and I go to some lengths to remove as much carbon as possible from the rest of the weapon. For my M4, I expect it to perform under any conditions and as a result I focus on removing the worst carbon buildup, applying sufficient lubrication and then ensuring the bore is properly cleaned (or it will screw you over time). For my Glock I pretty much don't give a fuck as long as it isn't rusting into a brick. I have taken mine through Karez systems, swam it, crawled through mud and rather than cleaning it I typically take it to the range the next day to see if it still works... It does. Then I give it a quick bath/wipe down and ti keeps on going strong.

So my standard: Sniper Weapons Systems: Clean, if possible with resources on hand. Mostly due to anal-retentive nature of that specialty rather than real needs of the weapon.

Battle/Combat weapons: Oily, most of the bulk carbon gone. Will turn a glove black, but won't 'goop' one up.

Pistols: Functionally dirty. I have had multiple former RI's lose their shit when they see me carrying a pistol encrusted with mud. Get over it. I can shoot my pistol better than any of the pistol nazis I have yet encountered. Even with all the mud. IMHO mud on the grip improves grip, I clean the internals of course but nobody ever seems to care about anytihng other than the exterior appearance.

I don't have anything against cleaning weapons, but I think fail to recognize that we quickly reach diminishing returns and begin to do more damage than good. Let weapons exist in the state that best supports your mission. If smearing mud on the rails of a sniper rifle camouflages it effectively, without interfering with it's operation then good on you for doing it.

What is your maintenance philosophy? How often do you clean your weapons? What are your thoughts on the two schools?
My maintenance Philosophy is minimalist. I typically add CLP to any weapon that has been involved in a lot of shooting. Later, likely the next day I will wipe it down with a rag and some more CLP. I will often run a boresnake through the barrel. This is normally 'good enough' for me.

For sniper Weapons Systems I try to find a balance between decreased accuracy due to fouling and decreased accuracy due to excessive/improper cleaning. I try to clean (carefully) from the breach to the muzzle with a very limited number of brushes and patches. I use a bore guide and appropriate cleaners. However, I will not try to clean until the patches come back 'all the way white' either. I will work quickly to remove carbon/copper fouling, but will not try to get 'everything' for fear that my cleaning process itself will erode my crown or other sensitive areas and thus decrease my accuracy.

What maintenance tips have you picked up over the years? What's the best maintenance related fuck-up you've witnessed]]
?Tips? Well, I have these to offer: Don't mess with the crown of your muzzle. In other words avoid a boresnake unless you have a muzzle break that 'centers' it coming it out the front of your weapon. Always use brushes's /patches from the rear to the muzzle, never pull them back through; use a chamber guide; be willing to replace your bore brushes; give up on perfection, it is the enemy of good enough and will destroy your barrel; it doesn't need to be perfect, or perfectly oiled. A weapon needs 'some' oil and 'some' maintenance but shoudl work just fine through adverse conditions when they occur.