There has been much discussion over the subject of cleaning firearms. For those of you who are still under the assumption that you must clean your firearms after each and every range session, or after some prescribed number of rounds, then I urge you to please read an excellent article titled "A Clean Barrel" on page 66 of the November issue of the American Rifleman, by John Barsnsess.
I agree with John on many points. The Black powder era is indeed long gone. We have been shooting smokeless powder for well over a century now. There is no reason to fear that your barrel will rust away if you don't clean it. Many new shooters who come into my shooting club are under the assumption that they must clean their firearms after every range session. Nothing is further from the truth than this misconception.
Rifles: My Savage match rifle chambered in .308 Winchester
My Remington Model 700 VS Varmint rifle fired well over 1,000 rounds on a four day Prairie Dog hunt in South Dakota, and was only cleaned twice. Once during the hunt, and then when I got home. We dispatched an awful lot of Pasture Poodles on that trip and not one of them complained about a dirty barrel not shooting well.
In 1994, I attended the FBI's Sniper/Observer School. I used a Springfield
I shoot the Savage a lot, so when I do decide to clean it I’m not very persnickety about it. I brush the bore several times with a plastic bore brush to loosen any powder fouling in the barrel. Next, I'll push a wet patch through the bore followed by a few dry patches to wipe most of the fouling out. Finally, I use a wonderful product called Outer's Bore Foam. The Bore Foam looks like shaving cream and was created to remove the dreaded copper fouling. I spray the foam into the bore from the breech end until it comes out of the muzzle. I let the foam sit in the bore overnight. The next day I’ll push the foam out with a couple more dry patches. At this point, I'm done cleaning the bore. What's that old Hippie saying? Better Living Through Chemistry.
I’m also not in the habit of running a slew of patches through a bore until they come out squeaky clean because personally, I’ve never seen that happen. There will always be some discoloration left on a patch. Anyway, I'm going to foul up the barrel again fairly soon so I don't sweat it too much. If you can run a dry patch through a clean rifle bore that comes out without a speck of discoloration on it then you're definitely a better man than I am.
Barrel Break-in: As far as the barrel Break-in procedure goes. I've done the barrel break-in procedure on a few rifles and I've also shot a lot of them right out of the box. Both the Remington 700 VS and the Savage Model 10FP were not broken in. I just shot them as is. I personally never found any appreciable difference in accuracy to ever waste my time with that process again. Now that may raise the hackles on some of you die-hard riflemen out there but that's the plain and simple unadulterated facts of life. If you insist on doing it, then have at it!
A lot of riflemen I know are still futzing around breaking-in their rifles, tweaking this or tweaking that. Three of my club’s F-class seasons have come and gone and some of these guys have yet to fire a single round down range. Let's face it folks, this isn't a NASA mission. We aren’t sending men to Mars here! I believe the best advice I can give a guy like this is for them to clamp on their scope, bore-sight their rig, and go out to the range and start shooting the damned thing already! We can always work out the particulars on the firing line. A few minor scope adjustments and an Allen key and you'll be zeroed for 300 yards in no time flat.
Pistols: The handguns I use in match competition also shoot far better dirty than they do when they’re clean. My PPC revolvers and my Smith & Wesson Model 52-2 target pistol all go a full season between cleanings. That's approximately 1,000 rounds per revolver and about 500+ rounds for the Model 52-2. Granted, I'll run a Bore Snake through them once in a while, and wipe off the feed ramp on the Model 52, but I'm not dissembling them during the shooting season unless I absolutely have to.
My Glock 34 pistol has gone through a couple seasons of Three-gun matches and a tactical training course or two without being cleaned and that amounts to roughly 2,000 rounds, give or take a hundred. My AR-15 has also fired several thousand rounds between cleanings without a hitch. My good friend, and master instructor, John Krupa of Spartan Tactical Training Group couldn't believe that my AR-15 still worked after he inspected it.
Over the years, I've known several shooters who have done major damage to their firearms by silly, over-zealous cleaning rituals than by shooting them. I've seen the Crowns on several Smith & Wesson revolvers totally ruined by Nimrods wanting to thoroughly clean their revolvers. Beware of Aluminum cleaning rods. They can damage firearms. Use a Brass rod when cleaning a firearm or better yet, purchase the new Graphite or Carbon Fiber cleaning rod if possible. The one-piece models are best. There are no sections to unscrew during use. If you're cleaning a bolt action rifle you should definitely be utilizing a cleaning rod guide while scrubbing your bore.
Now, I'm nowhere near the best shooter in my shooting club. There are several members who are far better than I, but I do feel my level of ability speaks for itself. I didn't get to where I am today by constantly cleaning guns. I got here by sending thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of rounds downrange. I'm sure if asked most of our top shooters don't scrub their guns after every range session either.
If you like to clean guns often then God bless you. You can then come to my home and clean mine if you'd like? I absolutely detest cleaning guns! It's too much like work. It stinks, it's messy, and it's time consuming. I feel that the time I have left on this good Earth is far better spent sending a lot of rounds down range, thus trying to become a better shooter than by constantly cleaning my guns.
One Word of Clarification: These are NOT duty weapons we're talking about here. Duty and Self-defense weapons a completely different animal unto themselves. Duty and Self-defense weapons should be thoroughly cleaned and inspected after each and every use. Your life or the life of a partner, or loved one may depend on it.
