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cleaning glock 26
bikerboy
Member Posts: 68 ✭✭
How often do most of y'all clean your glock? Is it common practice to clean it after each trip to the range?
Comments
of course, you can probably get away with never cleaning your Glock, but why not clean it? it will last longer, function more reliably, smell better, look better.
It takes about 2.5 minutes to clean a Glock. Do it every time.
(Its sort of a point of pride for him that he doesn't clean it).
Anyway, yes, it IS common practice for many individuals to clean their guns after every range trip.
Do you absolutely HAVE to? No, you don't.
EDIT: How did this thread from three years ago get kicked up again?
Anyway, once upon a time, I used to meticulously strip and clean every single gun every single time I shot it. Now I don't anymore, doing so only about every 2-3 trips, or if they are clearly dirty and need a cleaning. I just don't have the free time I used to, nor the interest to maintain what are, in some cases, "beater" guns in absolutely pristine condition. I'll still wipe off external soot, and do a "wipe down" with gun oil to discourage rust before I put them away.
I think the answer of "how often to clean" depends on the gun, what you're using it for, and your own personal circumstances.
If you're shooting corrosive ammo, then those guns need to be cleaned thoroughly after shooting, even with only one round downrange.
I have a lower threshold for keeping guns clean if I'm relying on them for self-defense. Likewise, if you're going to be competing with a particular gun, you probably do want to make sure its meticulously clean every time. If I were going to war, I'd clean the gun every time it was used, and I'd clean the gun every time I was exposed to sand or other dirt.
But for a "beater" gun you're plinking with at the range? Eh. . .no real need to keep these in pristine condition, if you don't have the time or inclination. Its OK to clean them every so many trips to the range, or every so many boxes of ammo, or once they start to appear dirty. As mentioned above, some guns are highly dirt/jam resistant, and will run for quite a long time without any maintenance.
If your gun is so unreliable that it jams from fouling after only a few mags/cylinders through it, its probably unreliable period.
I do have a few guns that will actually start to malfunction after a relatively small number of rounds if not cleaned. For example, my High Standard Citation will regularly start to jam up after about 4 boxes of ammo. That's because the gun has no feed ramp into the barrel, and the tolerances there are pretty tight. At that point, a simple 15 second swabbing of the chamber and barrel breech with a Q-tip dipped in gun oil gets the gun functional again for the next 200 rounds or so. I only really strip this down and clean it meticulously infrequently. .22 bores don't need much maintenance, and its quite easy to damage the crown or rifling with overzealous cleaning if you're not careful.
Why not clean your firearms after every shooting? I find it relaxing to clean my handguns, and it gives me the chance to really appreciate their beauty, and function.
+1
I will run a patch with CLP through the bore after shooting, let it sit during the ride home and then run a couple of patches through it and see the results. Usually, thats all I need.
Since you don't shoot lead through a Glock, no worries about scrubbing the lead out.