Solid Liver

I'm curious how often people here clean their guns and to what degree they clean them. When I was a kid, my dad taught me to clean the gun every time I came in from the field. His idea of cleaning was to do the full job: wire brush soaked in solvent 10 times through each barrel; run patches through the barrels until they come out clean; oil the whole thing down, inside and out.

That's what I've always done. But now I'm hunting more and the time between trips might only be 4-5 days. I know this is lazy, but I'd rather give the gun a quick clean up when there's only a short time between trips and save the full-on clean for when I'm not going to be using the gun for a while.

Is this just crazy talk? Should I just do it the way my dad taught me? Or do some of you folks follow a different schedule for cleaning. What do you guys do?

SL

mounting man

I have a few different style of guns. Some are blued steel and the others are stainless.
The blued steel are my woods or hunting guns. These are cleaned after i am done finding out which load they like. Near the opening day i shoot 2 or 3 fouling shoots[my guns need this] and leave it this way.If I harvest deer,then i clean the bore and store the gun. If i do not fire it,i just clean the outside of the stock and barrel,for the next days hunt.
My stainless steel guns are used for BR shooting. I must clean them at or near every 10 shots.
I am a firm believer of the field of thought "People do more damage,to a gun,with a cleaning rod,than shooting it ever will!"

icthruu

Basically I only clean them after they have been fired. I do wipe them down when I get home if I haven't fired them. Let them sit for a while to warm to room tempurature if it's been out in the cold, then just wipe 'em down with whatever oil etc you use. But once they have been fired, it's major cleaning time.

ktscontender

HMMM, depends. I shoot my guns year 'round.
22s and my 9mm? I clean the bolts and wipe down every time I shoot them and they get a complete scrub every 500 rnds or when they lose accuracy.

My contender bbls get a scrub after each trip to the range and if I shoot them alot I'll clean them a few times at the range.

If I'm testing a new load or barrel it gets cleaned every 5 rnds.

I shoot my hunting rifle year 'round too but before the season I'll make sure its right on, clean it real good, shoot 5 rnds and then I won't clean it again until after the season tho it gets wiped down after each day in the field.

All my guns/bbls get wiped down any time thier handled. And the few guns I have that don't get shot any more get a light cleaning/rub down twice a year.

I use MPRo-7 gun cleaner. Most of my barrels are conditioned now and come clean real quick so it is not a major chore.