Gotta keep them ARs clean

AR/M4 AR General Discussion
41

I was told to clean very often with chamber and bore brushes. I stopped doing that, well I never really did it.

This is my regimen which I find most reasonable for me, and works: clean every 800-1,000 rounds. Last time I fired around 900 rounds in a camping trip, the weapon was filthy because I put a bit too much drops of EWL on it. When out in the desert there though, more lube the better, sandish little rock dirt, whatever it is out there, got into the mags like no other, from prone, they still operated fine. They were not dirty compared to the soldiers in Iraq, however. The bolt was gritty as hell, you had to slam the charging handle forward, or have it lock back and use the bolt release else it would lose momentum and jam the gun. Next I will try “enough” lube, not more the better philosophy, due to gritty dirty experiences there. Though the fine rocks in the moving parts of the gun could have been responsible for feeding issues. I could work the gun, but my friend found it difficult not knowing.

Most of my not cleaning my gun to get it dirty as hell is to know and understand its workings in that condition, for I know how it operates clean. And as I always hear: “You do not get into gun fights in sunny weather with raindows and stuff, etc.” So knowing how the gun runs dirty, just if I am ever in that situation for some reason, is good knowledge. Same with when I ran until the lube dried. It is also like when my offroad trucking friends like when they see their truck all muddy: they know they just had fun and that is the result. So when can visibly see my gun filthy, I know I just worked hard all weekend trying to improve myself, I also, very strangely, enjoy the smell of it when its back in my room reeking up the place, :smiley:

When I do clean my rifle, I am usually coming back from a weekend of training- just drills I do myself no carbine classes yet- and its filthy, in my standards, over lubed with dirt stuck,and carbon and lube spewing out of the dust cover, the rifle is tan and the carbon outside the gun and lubing coming out is noticeable. So I put on the Bellator fights I missed that Friday, and get everything spotless with q-tips, I use no metal to clean my rifle.

Yes, you can say I over clean it, it does not need to be spotless and the BCG does not need to be lit up with a light to less every last spot, but its more of a relaxing experience to me than it is fearing it not operating.

42

Wow, talk about missing the rest of the thread.

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43

There’s nothing a q-tip can clean or reach that brake cleaner can’t do better and faster. The white glove and “so and so taught me X amount of years ago so that is the ONLY way to do it” crowd are free to practice their peculiar form of weapons worship while ignoring thefact that there are indeed better and faster ways to do things though.

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44

This is what I do. I tend to run the internals a little wet with lube after cleaning.

Looking back to my military days, I believe I caused more wear and tear on my rifle by the way I cleaned it than I ever did by firing it.

45

While MAYBE a little off topic, it’s very interesting to see all the different responses and I’d like to hear more. While my desire is to have a ‘spotless’ rifle at all times, I’m just too danged lazy to spend more time cleaning than shooting.

Actually, it gets in the way of having fun, as I’ll have this internal debate…“If I shoot this, I’m gonna have to clean the dang thing when I get home”…

Yeah, I’ve read the TM plenty of times, but I served long enough to know that the Army way isn’t necessarily the “only” or “right” way…

46


As primers were corrosive up to about 1952ish…and hot soapy water is also used to clean after using corrosive primers, this also may explain your showers…

In defense of cleaning your AR once in blue moon, if not after every range trip, it does give you the opportunity to check for such things as damaged/cracked parts, loose carrier keys, etc.

Maintenance does not only mean cleaning, it also means inspecting for wear and damage.

Or you can just shoot it until it breaks…

47

I clean my rifle after every use but not obsessively.

[ol]
[li]Use chamber brush to clean chamber(twirl for 20 seconds), followed bu a chamber mop to clean up.
[/li][li]Wipe out upper with rag.
[/li][li]Run bore snake down bore 2-3 times with lube on the brass brushes.
[/li][li]Use small string part of borsnake to loop around gas tube and clean it.
[/li][li]Completely wipe down BCG with rag and scrub the tail with a GI toothbrush lubed up for 20 seconds.
[/li][li]Take Cat M-4 and put a 2x2" patch on end to clean inside of Bolt carrier.
[/li][li]Wipe downCH.
[/li][li]Remove buffer and spring, wipe them down with a rag.
[/li][li]Use my rag to wipe down lower including FCG.
[/li][li]Relube everything and reasseble.
[/li][li]For the barrel iuse the tail end of the boresnake to wipe it off, and past the gandguards I use a rag, then relube for rust prevention.
[/li][/ol]

All in all takes no time and this gets my gun perfectly clean without doing harm.

48

Chrome lining wasn’t a characteristic of most firearms produced during that era, either, hence the ‘pitting’ and 3 days of cleaning BS. The carry over of that information by people in charge from that era & Vietnam was passed from one NCO/Officer to another, adnauseum. Funny how ‘hearsay & BS’ throughout the ages, is more regulatory in nature to this day, rather than the information that’s actually current in the operator’s manual for that weapon. It’s called being to fuckin lazy to read up and keep current and following the dogma/mantra/BS of previous lazy inept leaders.

It’s like applying non-current info that doesn’t apply from the first aircraft I ever flew 27 years ago, and trying to apply it to what I’m flying today. Not only would it would be completely incompetent, stupid and foolish, but I’d get my pilot’s license cut in half by the Feds and fired by my company.

49

That defines obsessive to me. Not talking shit.

50

How so? no scraping, no scrubbing and takes 15-20 minutes.

51

I typically twirl mine 23 seconds every 452 rounds. Not one round more.

:sarcastic:

52

By “spray,” I mean non chrlorinated brake cleaner.c I’ll put my 5.45 with 24k rounds up against your meticulously maintained rifle and my 5.45 won’t look any worse for the wear. WITH corrosive ammo being the main diet for the 5.45.

Use chamber brush to clean chamber(twirl for 20 seconds), followed bu a chamber mop to clean up.  [b]Waste of time, spray out[/b]

Wipe out upper with rag.[b]Waste of time, spray out[/b]

Run bore snake down bore 2-3 times with lube on the brass brushes.[b]Misdirected, use proper cleaning tools and chemicals every 1k rounds or so, or when accuracy drops off[/b]

Use small string part of borsnake to loop around gas tube and clean it.[b]COMPLETE waste of time, spray out[/b]

Completely wipe down BCG with rag and scrub the tail with a GI toothbrush lubed up for 20 seconds.[b]Spray out[/b]

Take Cat M-4 and put a 2x2" patch on end to clean inside of Bolt carrier.[b]Don't fall for that scraping shit, spray out[/b]

Wipe downCH.[b]Spray off[/b]

Remove buffer and spring, wipe them down with a rag.[b]Useless[/b]

Use my rag to wipe down lower including FCG.[b]Obviated by spraying off, relubing[/b]

Relube everything and reasseble.
For the barrel iuse the tail end of the boresnake to wipe it off, and past the gandguards I use a rag, then relube for rust prevention.[b]It's [i]Parkerized[/i][/b]
53

I do not use brake cleaner and while I could I like to sit in my living room while I clean.

I also dont scrape with the Cat M-4 tool, it has a small hole in it to stick a patch that you wrap around it and it just wipes out what is in the bolt carrier, no scraping needed.

Like I said 15-20 minutes and I am done.

54

This threads makes me feel like a dirty little bitch.

I rarely clean my guns. Lube 'em, sure. But clean them. Hell no. I have better things to do and in my probably low value opinion, most guns don’t NEED the cleaning religiously.

But if you want to. Sweet.

55

After shooting I check for anything in the action that might get in the way of proper functioning… carbon, sand, bits of brass, primers, etc… Then I make sure it’s lubed enough to prevent binding or corrosion.

I do snake the bore every now and then, but don’t actually ‘clean’ the bore after shooting as I don’t want to mess up my zero.

The main reason I don’t clean my AR’s much is that they will just get dirty again.

When I do thoroughly clean and inspect them, every year or so, it’s with spray cleaner as Lew suggests, and I am big on using an air compressor to blast particles out, dry things off, evenly spread the lube. I’m a Paslode tool repair person, and this is how I clean air/gas tools I work on.

I was in the Army during the ‘wear OD, eat from cans, drive jeeps’ era, and we WAY over cleaned our M16 A1’s. I got a Q-Tip end stuck inside the gas key one day and said “Oh crap I got a Q-Tip stuck in there” too loud and was overheard by a DI… spent 1/2 hour in the FLR position while he got an allen wrench and got the cotton out.

I found out later that the cotton will not cause a malf, it just blows right out of the action and falls to the ground.

56

Wanna bet?

You got a foreign body lodged inside the carrier key.
That’s a pretty critical component to the operation of the rifle.

Try it at home with your own rifle once.

57

I have seen two carrier keys that had the heads of cotton tips that broke off inside them. They won’t just blow out because the gas enters the key from the front and the hole that vents into the carrier body is smaller.

It will completely clog up and you will have to fish it out piece by piece with a dental pick or hook.

58

Just because you prefer to spray out your gun with brake cleaner and think that certain steps are unnecessary or a waste of time, does not mean that other means of maintenance are harmful to the weapon system, or that your method is the only one.

It’s not the cleaning that ruins the weapon, it’s the methods being employed; steel wool, scraping with screwdrivers or knives, attaching cleaning rods to drills etc.

And if people want to clean their weapons more frequently than others, why belittle them? Personally, I think the whole subject has gone from “see what abuse the AR can take as long as you lube it” to “you are only cool if your AR is dirty as fuck”…

59

Oh christ, arctic. Who was belittled? Is bullying going on? We can’t have a discussion without accusations of bullying? Who has hurt feelings here?

sinlesssorrow, I honestly think you’re wasting your time with cleaning the gas tube and the CAT tool. If you like it, rock on but it’s not necessary.

60

Well, your “Sigh” post on the previous page comes off as belittling. Didn’t contribute much, at least.

I am not saying peoples feelings got hurt, just pointing out the tendency to make derogatory remarks towards the people who don’t follow a certain maintenance mindset.