How Often Should You Clean Your Firearms?

Cleaning your firearms is a critical part of gun ownership. If you don’t clean your firearms, carbon and other fouling will build up, which introduces a few problems when you go to shoot. But how often do you need to break down your rifle and deep clean your AR15 upper receiver? Here are a few things to know about how frequently you should clean your guns.

AR15 Upper Receiver

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What Happens If You Don’t Clean Your Firearms?

Before determining if you need to clean your guns, it’s important to know what can go wrong if you avoid this task.

If you don’t clean your guns, expect to run into slowly growing problems. Fouling in the barrel can result in decreased accuracy. Fouling in the gun's inner workings, such as the trigger assembly, can make it harder to use and may cause misfires. It may get to the point where your gun simply won’t fire if you don’t clean it, as it is completely fouled up, and then you go from needing to clean it to needing to repair or restore the gun.

This is why regular cleaning and occasional deep cleaning are so important.

How Often Do You Go to the Range?

The first question is, how often are you at the range? Do you go every weekend? Once a month? How many rounds are you putting through your 9MM PCC each range session? The more often you go, the more often you’ll need to clean your gun. If you shoot a few mags one weekend a month, you might not even need to clean after every range trip, although there’s nothing wrong with a quick clean.

AR15 Upper Receiver

If you don’t go to the range often, you can simply run a snake and some oil through the barrel a few times, and save the deep clean for after you’ve shot more rounds.

Clean Before Putting Guns in Storage

Storing your gun for a long time is a different matter. Even if you just took your hunting rifle out to shake the rust off, you will want to clean it before putting it away. After a successful hunting season, you might not use that rifle until next season. But if any fouling is left inside the gun, it could lead to rust, and it will be much harder to clean in the future.

Give it a deep clean, apply a thin layer of oil (don’t go overboard), and pack it away in a cool, dry place.

When to Do a Deep Clean

Generally, you should deep clean guns you regularly use at least once per month. If you fire 3,000 rounds through your gun, it’s time for a deep clean. You might also want to deep clean guns in storage, which can also help ward off rust. For a deep clean, you’ll have to do more than just swipe a snake through your Block 2 M4.

You’ll likely need a cleaning rod, different solvents and lubricants, patches, brushes, and some time blocked out to clean. It might seem like a chore, but it can actually be an incredibly peaceful and rewarding experience.

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Original Source: https://bit.ly/4kiTkJt