I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
I give up, I suck, I can't do anything right!! I asked all the questions. I bought all the potions. I made instructions for myself and printed them and laminated. I just suck and my guns are going to stay dirty and rust into a pile of metal!!
Why no matter if a new gun never shot or one that I have 1 round through or one with 100 do my patches constantly come out black? I soak with cleaner like Hoppes or whatever. Then I use brass brush. Then I use jag with cleaning patch, then I run light oil soaked patch through or a Remoil wipe through. No matter what, before the oil phase the patches are black and I see a lot of lines from the rifling. Never grey or brown or whatever, always black. I could brush the rifling clear off of my rifle and it would still be black. This sucks.
Oil on metal parts/receiver/barrel, etc. Use a remoil wipe and always looks like I am cleaning off rust, it is brown. New gun or old one, always brown, makes me nervous!! I store at 30% in a safe, like I said even new ones look that way on a remoil wipe.
Why no matter if I put 1 gallon of oil on a rag and wipe my barrel/receiver/other metal parts they still look dull and like patchy? I am talking shotgun or rifle black barrels, not blued. It is like why do I bother or what am I doing wrong?
I'm afraid touch the metal because I fear oils from my hands and rust. I wont touch wood stocks because I fear oils even though I apply lemon oil after cleaning. I am being a little facetious here bit it honestly feels that way.
Why can't I get oil where it needs to be on a barrel? Ventilated barrel? No way you are getting below the vents on top. Bottom of barrel where it goes into the forend/guard? Never gonna get oil in there. My guns are sub-par from my treatment!!
What else can I say? I'm doing nothing right!!
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
When I was in training I was always the last guy in the gun room cleaning my gun after being on the range.
I eventually bitched about this but my instructor just said "it's because you actually care".
While this is generally a good thing it can lead to the never clean enough issue you are talking about.
I learned a great phrase many years later, "clean enough for you", and it made my life a lot easier.
Just make it clean enough for you and don't worry about spotless perfection.
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
You may be over thinking this.
Back when I had like three guns total, I would clean them after LOOKING at them from across the room. Ha.
Then I started accumulating more.
Then we started doing group shoots every month and I'd drag eight to ten guns along and shoot them all and go home and look at them, and think "OMG, it's going to take DAYS to clean all of these!"
I stopped cleaning them - why bother? Just going to drag them all back out and shoot them in a few weeks and have to do it all over again.
I'll run a patch with Weapon Shield down the bore and call it a day.
If it's a blued gun and it's been out in humid weather, or rain, I'll wipe the metal down, but AR15s and AKs and such get no love.
Guns sit in basements and attics wrapped in newspaper, having not seen a drop of oil in 20-50 years and survive.
I used to be fanatical about cleaning guns. Not any more.
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Emptymag
You may be over thinking this.
Back when I had like three guns total, I would clean them after LOOKING at them from across the room. Ha.
Then I started accumulating more.
Then we started doing group shoots every month and I'd drag eight to ten guns along and shoot them all and go home and look at them, and think "OMG, it's going to take DAYS to clean all of these!"
I stopped cleaning them - why bother? Just going to drag them all back out and shoot them in a few weeks and have to do it all over again.
I'll run a patch with Weapon Shield down the bore and call it a day.
If it's a blued gun and it's been out in humid weather, or rain, I'll wipe the metal down, but AR15s and AKs and such get no love.
Guns sit in basements and attics wrapped in newspaper, having not seen a drop of oil in 20-50 years and survive.
I used to be fanatical about cleaning guns. Not any more.
I think we just cracked the secret of why you keep collecting ARs!
Guns are like cars and kids. The first one gets spoiled and too much attention, the second a bit less, and so on, and so on. If you are keeping them in a warm, dry, safe place, just a good swab and wipe down will get you 90% of what you need for a long happy life. (for the gun that is)
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Emptymag
You may be over thinking this.
What EM said. I clean to a point if desired/when I can, or when its crusty or having functional issues. Risk of overdoing is as bad if not worse than underdoing it. Store in good temp/humidity conditions and you'll be fine (excluding corrosive ammo, obviously).
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
gghbi
I think we just cracked the secret of why you keep collecting ARs!
Guns are like cars and kids. The first one gets spoiled and too much attention, the second a bit less, and so on, and so on. If you are keeping them in a warm, dry place, just a good swab and wipe down will get you 90% of what you need for a long happy life. (for the gun that is)
If one of them all of a sudden won't work because it's full of crud, I just grab another one. :cool:
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
I rarely clean my guns to the point of spotlessness. I got enough of that in the academy. Functional cleaning and oiling.
Get yourself a nice bucket, fill it up with some lightweight motor oil and just toss your guns in there when you're done. Easy peasy.
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
Boretech Carbon Eliminator.
I rarely brush.
Lycanonlycleanbarrelswhengroupsopenthrope
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
I have yet to meet a guy who said his gun didn't work because he didn't clean it. That cleaning patch gets dirty if you scrub your face with it.
Re: I Am No Longer Cleaning My Guns!
Thank you all I appreciate it. I am truly concerned. Look at my original post. Why am I seeing all that stuff I mention? It is concerning. I’m not too anal but I should be able to evenly apply oil, not get black patches no matter how much cleaning and brown off Of the outside of the barrel. Look at what I said, what the hell am I doing wrong?