I was over at a friends house who has quite a gun collection, but doesn't shoot most of them very often and mainly is a hunter, not a shooter. Anyway, I was looking at one of his muzzle loaders and the topic of cleaning came up. He told me it was a waste of time to clean muzzle loaders very often and that he hardly ever cleaned his from year to year. He had one, he told me he hadn't cleaned it since he last shot it about 2 years ago. I asked him what he did about rust and he insisted to me that they still rusted even if you cleaned them, so he didn't worry about cleaning them and he just shot them every year and it "shot" the rust out of them. I was amazed, but looked down the bore of the one I was handling and sure enough it was full of rust. I then looked at 2 others he had there and sure enough they were also full of rust. The scarry part, is one of the ones he had was a CVA Optima that isn't his. His hunting buddy let him borrow it long term for his son to use. His hunting buddy bought the gun and said he didn't like it. Sure enough when looking at that one it was full of rust too.
I wondered if the majority of the population was like this, or if most guys cleaned them like they should? I personally always clean mine after shooting it, and I just always assumed everyone did this. However, I also found out two other hunting buddies don't clean them that often either. One does at the end of the season, but not usually during the 2 weeks of the season and the other still had his loaded from the year before so I doubt he cleaned it.
Those people that do not clean them make up all sorts of excuses. And that's all it is ... excuses. If they are too lazy to clean their rifles then they deserve just what they get. Now maybe in their defense, there is misinformation out there. Again, they need to look further into something that tells them a rifle should be allowed to rust. I was given one such rifle from a friend. And they do not shoot the same as they always did.
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, a total wreck, screaming Yahoo, with a big smile on your face."
My rifles are very important to me and I could not get a night sleep if I thought one of them needed cleaning. But there are other things I am not as fussy about...like my lawn for example. I try to keep it chopped off but I am not into having it perfect like some people are. Different strokes for different folks.
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"Just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean everyone is not out to get you"
I know some people like that and they seem to only sight there gun in the week before the season. Also they are happy with a four inch group. Some people just dont care. Which is fine with me as long as they dont use any of my guns! I'm a cleaning freak. Wont sleep until the rifles are clean.
I'm not always careful about the exterior of my guns and some of them get dinged and scratched. That's doesn't bother me (too) much. They're tools and toys after all. But the bores are spotless.
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My wife says I'm totally nuts, but I think I'm Semisane.
Things I've Learned: (1) It's not possible to please everyone, but quite easy to piss everyone off. (2) If you love animals as I do, then you're not a vegetarian. (3) There's no need to act stupid, even if you're very good at it. (4) If you eat right and exercise, don't smoke or drink, you're going to die anyway.
Someone posted that he has a sealed tube filled with mineral spirits to submerge his barrel in until he's ready to clean it. That sounds like a pretty good idea if someone doesn't have the time to clean it right away, and I know that he really cares for his BP guns.
Other folks that shoot cowboy action report spraying their revolvers liberally with Ballistol which neutralizes black powder residue and buys them extra time to clean while they need to travel a long way to return home. Sometimes they attend out of state matches that last an entire weekend.
So there's methods that can be used to help postpone cleaning temporarily without damaging a gun.
Wow, just wow. Do you know people like this?
