How often should I clean my AR after shooting?

Ar cleaning -

Got my first AR in 1969 - a shortie -

Once (over several years) I put about 8000 rds thru it with NO cleaning -

I just squirted CLP into the bolt now and again -

Never failed -

Still shoots 1 inch at a hundred.

:ar15:
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I clean mine when I feel like sitting down and cleaning it, which amounts to once every 400-1200 rounds. As long as you keep it sufficiently lubricated I wouldn't worry about it very much.
 
Lee Enfield said:
1000+ rounds assuming you are lubing it
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Wow 1000rds without cleaning. Obviously this is your 10yd CQB rifle because if you were shooting tight goups your accuracy would suffer big time.
I don,t think a precision shooter would do this. After 100rds my groups open up. After 1000rds you probably have to soak that sucker just to pull the copper from the barrel.
I clean after every outing regardless of the amount of rounds, I just like a clean gun, and its easy to clean when you do it everytime.
And if I wear the barrel from cleaning (which has not happened yet) I will just buy a new, better barrel, its easy to do on an AR yourself with the tools.
And on your precsion rifles send it out and get it rebarreled, and maybe even change the caliber, depending on what action you have.
Not trying to tell you what to do, but its a good idea to clean your rifle after every shooting and inspect all the parts for wear, especially those seal rings on the bolts of AR's and replace if necessary
 
Apparently you don't shoot service rifle matches since many members on here prefer to shoot their AR's filthy out to what, five , six hundred yards? If my pistol can run a whole season of IPSC without stoppages or major accuracy loss with a little lube why can't an AR? We aren't generally talking about a 1/4 MOA gun here it's a service rifle.
 
Ive seen milspec AR's with thousands of rounds through them with nothing more than a squirt of CLP through them before they're fired on the range. Ive never seen one fail because of being dirty, but having them gummed up will certainly cause premature wear on your working parts, particularly the gas rings (as mentioned.)

IMO its better to keep it clean and properly oiled than dirty, but with a platform like the AR, i wouldnt skip a beat if you miss a cleaning once or twice!
 
mac100 said:
Wow 1000rds without cleaning. Obviously this is your 10yd CQB rifle because if you were shooting tight goups your accuracy would suffer big time.
I don,t think a precision shooter would do this. After 100rds my groups open up. After 1000rds you probably have to soak that sucker just to pull the copper from the barrel.
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Not at all. My rifle is used in ~monthly Service competition to 500m, and about quarterly to 900m. When I am in doubt if a precision issue is me or the rifle, I take it back to 100m, and try it. Even at round counts in the 1K range, it is still sub minute for 10 shot groups.
 
Yota said:
Ive seen milspec AR's with thousands of rounds through them with nothing more than a squirt of CLP through them before they're fired on the range. Ive never seen one fail because of being dirty, but having them gummed up will certainly cause premature wear on your working parts, particularly the gas rings (as mentioned.)

IMO its better to keep it clean and properly oiled than dirty, but with a platform like the AR, i wouldnt skip a beat if you miss a cleaning once or twice!
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So the barrels don't get copper fouled after that many rounds? I have 3 AR's, so I am not saying that they aren't good guns. I love them, but my cocern was about the barrels really, I know they can shoot alot of rounds before cleaning, but why would anybody be so lazy as to not clean it anyway.
 
mac100 said:
So the barrels don't get copper fouled after that many rounds? I have 3 AR's, so I am not saying that they aren't good guns. I love them, but my cocern was about the barrels really, I know they can shoot alot of rounds before cleaning, but why would anybody be so lazy as to not clean it anyway.
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I used to clean the bore of every rifle when ever I got back from the range. Then I did some reading and realized my time is better spent doing other things (like working, being with my family etc).

I just cleaned my 308 that I am selling. I must have 200 rounds through it this season. I couldn't find any copper to pull out. It did not need to be cleaned at all all of my rifles get the same treatment.

I've also watched guys shooting F-class and TR for a whole day at 1000 yards. Not one shooter was cleaning their rifle during the match.

At another event, Bench rest I saw a competitor let a friend clean his bore before shooting the match. His rifle took 10-15 rounds before it would group again. Completely screwed his score.

I'm not going to tell anybody they should not clean more often.....but I won't be listening to anybody who tells me I have to. To each their own.
 
^^I would tend to agree with your post if we were only talking about the barrel. But unfortunately with the AR, the barrel is not the most important part that needs cleaning.
 
cyclone said:
This thread is going a long-way to dispel those "DI-myths" so prevalent among the piston-people !....;)
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Not really - the bolt has to be kept bathed in clp (not cleaned) otherwise the gun dries to a grinding halt -

Remember - it sh!ts where it eats.

The clp (or oil or smegma or whatever) allows the carbon to keep from turning into cement, and helps to blow it out the ejection port --

:ar15:
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Keep the Bolt carrier group wet and you're good to go for most Canucks.

My CDX-15 demo AR has done around 3500 rds of MFS since Jan. 2011 and I've cleaned the chamber once because of laquer. Otherwise the BCG stays wet and I've had no issues in accuracy or feeding.
 
chopper 1 said:
Not really - the bolt has to be kept bathed in clp (not cleaned) otherwise the gun dries to a grinding halt -

Remember - it sh!ts where it eats.

The clp (or oil or smegma or whatever) allows the carbon to keep from turning into cement, and helps to blow it out the ejection port --

:ar15:
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So basically :confused: , lubricating the bolt is being considered distinct from even briefly cleaning the rifle ? ...:redface:
 
Without being too cryptic, whenever it needs to be cleaned.

What does this mean? Keep an eye on it and keep it lubed.

For me, I'm usually doing a quick cleaning of the bore and oiling the bolt. Before a service rifle match or before hand-load testing, I'll give the rifle a thorough cleaning. Also, if you're starting to experience failures, tear it down and clean everything. I had to do this earlier in the simmer with my Swiss Arms (gas system was full of crud after 2000 rounds, including a case of that dirty but oh so cheap MFS, lol).
 
Clobbersauras said:
^^I would tend to agree with your post if we were only talking about the barrel. But unfortunately with the AR, the barrel is not the most important part that needs cleaning.
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Clobb - you are right. I was talking about just the bore. I do tend to clean the bolt more often than the bore, but not every range session. I will often just lube it before or during a match and it is good to go. I have a match at the end of the month and I will likely disassemble and lube the bolt before hand.

I have a bolt action match the day before that. I'll just grab that rifle the morning of and out the door I will go.
 
For the original poster (OP), the reason most seasoned gun owners aren't cleaning the barrel very often is because they don't want to cause any erosion to the throat of the barrel. See the below quote to get a picture of what the throat is and why it's important. If you wear down the edges of your throat, you can cause the cartridge to feed into the barrel differently between shots and can also increase the "jump" distance the bullet has to travel before it gets caught in the rifling (this affects precision between shots). This is one of the main reasons you shouldn't use steel cleaning rods, and one of the primary reasons so many people who use AR15s are switching to boresnakes (no hard metal pieces). Also, this is why you should trim your brass if you reload. Long brass necks on your cartridges can bang up the throat or cause the cartridge to be seated farther back in the barrel than it should be.

Personally, I'll give my barrel a good proper cleaning with foaming kleen bore once a year now. After you use the foaming cleaners, you only need to pass 2-3 patches though to remove the liquid and copper precipitate. Other than that, I'm just using my bore snake with CLP to avoid excessive wear on the throat and take extra crud out of the barrel. Otherwise, I'll give my complete bolt carrier group a wipe down and re-lube between range days just to I have the peace of mind to know that the firearm is properly lubed to avoid rusting in my lock up.

throat%20length.jpg

Above - throat length explained. (a) shows the throat length or "free bore". (c) is the projectile ogive, (d) is the projectile bearing surface. (b) shows the distance the projectile must "jump" before the bearing surface engages the rifling. The throat length dictates the maximum cartridge over all lenght (COL). The COL of factory ammo is designed to work safely in all factory producted rifles. Handloaders have greater flexibility as they can seat projectiles close to the rifling for optimum accuracy so long as a good porportion of the projectile bearing surface (d) is gripped firmly by the case neck.
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from: http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Resources/Articles/True-Flite+Rifle+Barrels++My+Custom+7mmRUM.html
 
Depends on the Ar: I have a precison rig I clean after every outing. My mid-lengths about every 500 rounds or so and my shorty CQB gets it every 1-1.5K or so (I shoot the shorty the most).

However after each use they all get inspected. The BCG gets a fast wipe with a rag as does the upper then fresh lube is applied. All my firearms get a thorough cleaning at the end of the season regardless of how much use they have seen.

Regards,
 
cancer said:
For the original poster (OP), the reason most seasoned gun owners aren't cleaning the barrel very often is because they don't want to cause any erosion to the throat of the barrel. See the below quote to get a picture of what the throat is and why it's important. If you wear down the edges of your throat, you can cause the cartridge to feed into the barrel differently between shots and can also increase the "jump" distance the bullet has to travel before it gets caught in the rifling (this affects precision between shots). This is one of the main reasons you shouldn't use steel cleaning rods, and one of the primary reasons so many people who use AR15s are switching to boresnakes (no hard metal pieces). Also, this is why you should trim your brass if you reload. Long brass necks on your cartridges can bang up the throat or cause the cartridge to be seated farther back in the barrel than it should be.

Personally, I'll give my barrel a good proper cleaning with foaming kleen bore once a year now. After you use the foaming cleaners, you only need to pass 2-3 patches though to remove the liquid and copper precipitate. Other than that, I'm just using my bore snake with CLP to avoid excessive wear on the throat and take extra crud out of the barrel. Otherwise, I'll give my complete bolt carrier group a wipe down and re-lube between range days just to I have the peace of mind to know that the firearm is properly lubed to avoid rusting in my lock up.

from: http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Resources/Articles/True-Flite+Rifle+Barrels++My+Custom+7mmRUM.html
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Mostly true - but what you describe is throat wear not throat erosion.

Throat erosion is caused by the explosion of the cartridge and increases in length towards the crown as more rounds are fired.

More throat and bore wear is caused by cleaning rods rather than bullets.

A good chamber bore guide is essential - then, any kind of cleaning rod can be used since the rod has no contact with the barrel interior.

Chrome lined bores that are copper fouled shoot well, precision barrels usually dont until the copper fouling is removed.

:ar15:
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"IGNITION~EXPLOSION~EXPANSION~EXPULSION" - Festus
 
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