It's been three days since the Northeast Bloggershoot. I still haven't cleaned my guns. This is somewhat of a record for me - I'm so obsessive-compulsive that I typically clean the night I go shooting. I will and have cleaned guns that I've only shot six rounds through. Now, I'm not talking about corrosive ammo, mind you - TOTWTYTR has a cautionary tale about being careful about cleaning after shooting corrosive ammo that you should read and heed - but six rounds of factory ammunition...
I actually like cleaning guns. I'll toss in a DVD of The Simpsons or The Tick for background noise, cover the kitchen table with a thick towel, lay out all my supplies, and go to town. I don't like to clean more than 4-5 pistols at a time, though, as the more there are, the more likely I am to miss a critical step like lubricating rails or properly reassembling cylinders... When it's rifles I generally don't like to clean more than 2-3 at a time, unless it's bolt-action rifles.
Clean guns are necessary - that point was driven home at the Bloggershoot by a handful of cleaning-related failures on certain guns (basically guns that had been shoot pretty darn filthy over the course of the day and starting to fail to feed/eject/etc.) - but it's not mandatory to clean them the instant you get home. I'm still working on this one, but it does look like I'm finally starting to break myself of the "ZOMG my gunz are dirty I must clean them NOW NOW NOW" habit...
What other odd gunnie compulsions are there that I could pick up instead? ;)
That is all.
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7 comments:
I kinda share your gun cleaning obsession. It's "therapeutic", in a way, for me to sit with my girls and give them the once over before putting them away. It can have important side effects, too. I used to carry a Star BM as my primary CCW. After a trip to the range, I stripped her down for cleaning and the barrel link dropped out in two pieces. It had cracked, apparently, on the last round fired at the range. I could have potetially been carrying a gun that wouldn't go bang when I needed it to.
As for what other obsession you could "swap"... I knew a guy that would periodically unload all his loaded rifle magazines and "let them rest" before reloading them and putting them away.
...Knucklehead :)
It depends on the gun. I've put 50,000 rounds through a skeet gun without a cleaning or a misfire several times.
At least I'm not the only one. I'm usually very good about cleaning after a range trip. This time however.....
I quick-cleaned the 2 that shot corrosive ammo (the CZ52 and the M44) before I even headed home Sunday. Then I gave them a better cleaning at 10pm that night. That's as far as I got. As a matter of fact, the bolt for the M44 is still sitting on the kitchen table. Really need to get down and dirty after work, but the last two days I've just been too tired by the time I got home. It was all I could do last night to post pics from Sunday and stay (mostly) awake to listen to Gun Nuts.
"What other odd gunnie compulsions are there that I could pick up instead?"
Gee, I don't know, the desire to stick a bayonet on everything? Heh.
"C'mere son, let me see if this fits on your forehead ..."
Paladin,
Exactly! There's also a genuine feeling of accomplishment when you take a pile of filthy, gritty, powder-encrusted guns and scrub them good and shiny.
It is, as you mention, also a great way to check for wear and tear. It also helps you get to know your firearm inside and out.
As for letting magazines rest, insert eye-roll here. My understanding is that it is the very action of loading and unloading the magazines - when the springs are actively compressed - that wears them out.
I inherited some magazines for the M1 Carbine from my grandfather when he passed. These magazines were loaded with Korean War vintage ammo, and probably had been loaded since around that time frame. I took them to the range and fired 'em off without a single hitch...
GeorgeH,
It does depend on the gun. I rarely clean shotguns after individual outings. In fact, I found that my JC Higgins Model 20 worked WORSE after a cleaning!
If it's not encrusted with filth, I let it be...
mopar,
When I got home, I realized that, even though I'd brought 14 different firearms with me to the bloggershoot, I'd only shot 4 of them! And of that four, one (the aforementioned Model 20) didn't even need to be cleaned!
Even at that, they're still waiting for me. I'm hoping to get to it tonight...
David,
I thought we were going to weld a bayonet lug on my truck... ;)
I cleaned a bunch that night. Needed to clean the 91/30 because of the corrosive ammo gave a few others a scrub until I got too tired.
It was a good way to unwind after a long and fun day.
Was too busy to do the rest the last few days. I should have time tonight.
Also I have a CZ 82 that's encrusted with packing grease.
I'm always on eggshells the first few times I tear down a gun because you don't know all the tricks, nor is every little bit familiar to you.
About magazines. Wearing them out will happen from repeatedly cycling the spring (compression - relaxation - compression - relaxation). Therefore, the best way to unload them is to fire off the ammuntion. Letting them sit with loaded will do no harm (which is why 30 year old magazines loaded 30 years ago still work). Constantly loading and unloading magazines will wear the spring out. If you do a lot of training and use snapcaps to teach people how to load magazines, I would set aside a magazine (or magazines) specifically for that purpose. Then instead of wearing all of your magazines out, you only wear one out.
The exception to this would be shotgun magazines (like the Saiga). Leaving these loaded will cause deformation to the shell which will then result in feeding problems.
Guns are so cool. Not only are they fun to shoot, but you can learn material science and physics from them.
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