It has been accepted that Chrome lined barrels should be cleaned only when necessary or maybe a thousand rounds as over cleaning can do more harm than good.
sometimes we have a squeeky clean barrel after cleaning. then a friend comes a long and you take him to the range to “sample” your AR. he shoots like 2 mags (60 rounds) and that’s it.
do you clean that barrel? sometimes It would be months before I shoot another round. say like 2-3 months specially when Im on an away trip.
is this ok?
I almost never clean my AR’s.
aha! the answer ive been looking for.
it’s not a precision rifle though. just an RDS on it. woudn’t hurt accuracy right?
you almost never clean it… the barrel you mean. but the bolt ?
The golden rule that was pounded into my head most of my life is “the sun never sets on a dirty weapon.”
So I clean my weapons when they are used…no matter if it was 1 round or a 1,000 rounds.Never had any issues resulting from doing so either.This practice also allows me to inspect the parts for damage,which may help prevent a failure on my next trip to the range,hunting,defense or whatever.To me its just a good time to make sure the weapon is good to go regardless.
Now I don’t do a white glove spotless cleaning,but I do clean,inspect and lube after each use.I seriously doubt I do as much damage as lets say rust would if not maintained properly.Here where I live things will either rust or grow mold in a very short amount of time,and the condition of my weapons is too important for me to chance it.10-15 minutes of my life,a few cleaning patches and a bit of CLP is cheap insurance IMHO.
I also like to relube the weapon and punch the bore before use if its been in storage for a long period of time.
But thats my opinion.
Lube is important - “cleaning” isn’t.
that’s interesting… I was afraid of something like that happening. rusting and all. yes I live in a humid country too.
i was thinking of doing a pass or 2 of solvent soaked rag. just to remove fouling and maybe clean the exterior of the BCG. I almost never clean the insides of the bolt.
Me, I clean and lube after every use. For multi-day affairs I’ll lube every day but defer cleaning until I return home. But I use one-piece Dewey rods with a rod guide, and I don’t overdo the cleaning. Nothing that I own has ever seen a GI or other sectional cleaning rod.
no sectional rods? why? even sectional aluminum rods? I use sectional alum rods. I thought that since it is chrome bore aluminum rods won’t harm it.
Im ok with the lubing part. but when you remove the BCG to lube it… won’t you at least clean it since it’s already out? or do you just lube thru the BCG holes.?
I know it’s not needed. But I clean my AR’s after each use.
Mostly just pull the patches/brushes through the bore a couple of times. And the BCG gets cleaned and re-lubed too. I strip everything down in the bolt except the ejector stuff.
I also relube my main AR every week, shot or not. :o
cleaning has been suffocated to death… but the growing consensus is that getting “most” of the mud out and reloobing is all that’s needed. now that the world has discovered that more is more when it comes to loob, you can get pretty honkin dirty before you need to clean. a chrome lined bore probably doesn’t ever really NEED to be cleaned… there are theories about copper plating getting too thick, and i buy that- so about every 5000 rounds i’ll do a copper solvent soak and scrub with a nylon brush (copper solvent eat bronze bristles), but i dont spend a lot of time on even that. i do clean after every session, but it’s not detailed. takes 15 minutes, including a quick bore scrub.
I used to do that but here lately I have been trying to break that habit some what its hard to do when its been ingrained into me from day one. For the past 2 years if I shoot a pistol I try to hold off on cleaning it until the 2nd or 3rd trip to the range I do re oil it after every use usually just a few drops rust prevention mostly and 1or2 passes with a bore snake just to make sure the carbon is out of the chamber and barrel. With the rifle when I breaking it in I have cleaned it after every range trip until I get a far amount of rounds down range about 1000 after that I am going to start backing off say 2nd or 3rd trip to the range [normally I fire 120-250 rounds a trip] I am doing the same thing re oil and maybe 1-2 passes with bore snake. after about 600 to 800 rounds I usually try to decopper the barrel with hoppes. I know its not a direct comparison because I shoot out of a chromelined bore and BR guys don’t but I keep seeing more BR guys say the get longer barrel life with fewer cleanings. I keep it clean enough that I know I shouldn’t have problems with fouling build up. But when I do clean I try to do the best that I can remove all carbon build up and brush the interior and exterior with a good nylon brush.
At the minimum I always run a couple of dry patches, followed by lubed patches to remove any corrosive debris from the bore. A clean, unobstructed bore is an accurate bore. A properly cleaned, lubed, and maintained weapon is a reliable weapon. The other reason we clean our weapons is to inspect for damage or abnormal wear. I disassemble, clean, inspect, and reassemble every time I fire my weapons. My life and livelihood depend on them.
so basically… just don’t clean it till it gets a lot of rounds
clean bcg and oil well.
is everyone agreeable on this?
Not even on precision rifles. I have been on various rifle teams shooting match grade .22’s, M-16’s and M14/M1A1’s. We never cleaned them only once a year or after all the matches for that year had been completed. We found cleaning affected accuracy.
I too, hardly ever clean mine, but I do lube before shooting and clean the extractor if I start to get FTEs. If cleaning after every range trip is your thing, and gives you a warm and fuzzy, then go for it.
I run a bore snake with FP-10 three times and call it good.
as for the bolt assy. I always wipe it off and re-apply FP-10
after 1k or so, I make sure I use coated rod and do it right…
aha… if a rifle team sez barrel doesn’t need cleaning I would believe you. but I have to ask. how many rounds does a rifle team shoot in a year?
The only time I really clean my ARs’ barrels is when I shoot a lot of crappy ammo or .22s through them. The most I do for the barrel is spray it with Gun Scrubber or Carb Cleaner and run a couple of patches or the Bore Snake through it.
That all depends on funding. Mine was all funded by the tax payers (military). Back in the day, we fired 100-200 rounds per day precision slow fire and rapid fire from 100 to 1000 meters, and every range in between using 762 and 556 (out to 500M), five days a week for practice (AM & PM shoots as well) and add the matches in between. Anywhere from 2K-4K per month. The competitive shooting season ended after Camp Perry concluded, Then we would clean and store, take a few weeks off (Admin/Additional duties, evals, etc…)for the armorers to go over the weapons with a fine tooth comb, replace parts and barrels as needed, and go right back to it.
I clean my 3gun rifle after every range session. I don’t get it sterile just generally clean. I also clean it with copper solvent everytime.
My other ARs (non competition guns) I just give a quick wipe down and relube and just a few passes with a bore snake after cleaning/wiping out the chamber.
I hate this Thread!!
Someone explain why a chrome line bore does not build up copper / powder / carbon where you can go 1000 rounds. Is this ONLY for chrome lined bores?? Stainlees and non chromed AR’s need different care??
Sorry, but I’m an old benchrest guy and I’m bore cleaning s.o.b…just how we did things. 25 rounds or 200. I feel like I need to clean the bore.
I was out at the local pd range where they just run the bore snake & I was picking up fired cases from their Bushmaster compared to my rra. Their primers showed to me A LOT more pressure evidence compared to mine with the same ammo?? Is this the gun, or the build of crap in the bore due to substandard scrubbing.
Man, and have I heard good things about the new foaming bore cleaners. Even the BR boys & long range / overbore guys swear by them. Little to no scrubbing.