Rifle/Shotgun Cleaning & Maintenace - What's your routine?

[chiwawadan]

I'm curious to see the differences and similarities people have when it comes to cleaning and maintaining their long guns. Some baby their guns, some do the minimal amount necessary. How do you deal with moisture? Do you tape your muzzle? Do you clean after every hunt? Every season?

What's your routine?

[Stein]

For my rifle, I run a wet patch, dry patch and oil patch through at the end of the season when I put it up.  It's a stainless barrel and receiver, so I don't worry about water at all.  I do often tape the barrel when in the woods just to prevent junk from falling down there.

For the shotgun, well let's just say I could do a bit better.  It usually gets cleaned once a year unless I drop it in the marsh or have problems feeding.

[DOUBLELUNG]

I'm a minimalist - I clean and lubricate only when actions get harder to work or performance declines.

[Karl Blanchard]

I maintain my rifles pretty well. When I say maintenance I mean keep things lubed and debris free. I only clean barrels when accuracy falls off though which is usually every 300-500 rounds. That number also depends on what powder you are burning.


When I was a hard charging waterfowl guy I maintained my shotguns much in the same manner. Pretty easy to tell when a pump is getting gritty or an auto loader isn't feeding like it should. My first auto was an SX2 and it had to be cleaned after every shoot! It was a terrible gun.

[vandeman17]

Rifle gets a simple wipe down and clean after each extended trip or after a few day trips. End of season it gets broken down fully and really cleaned and oiled before put away.

Shotgun I will clean barrel and action every few hunts unless it's not cycling shells well then will clean right then. Like rifle, deep clean after season

[Henrydog]

Anything with rain or big temp swings gets a full clean and lube fired or not. 

Rifle after each use.

I shoot ATA trap and I only clean my trap gun every 5k or 2 months whatever comes first.  Once a year it get the full take down, stock off, new springs ect.

[kselkhunter]

If I'm rifle hunting, it's usually wet side meaning lots of rain/snow/sleet/temp changes.  I've battled rust in nasty weather for extended trips before.  So while I tape my barrel during the day, the tape comes off at night once back in the tent and a bore snake and some patches run through it then a light oiling inside the barrel.   Leaving the tape on overnight for a week with temperature changes can get some water condensation at the tip of the barrel and can lead to rust so I never leave tape on overnight.  I primarily hunt backcountry, so unless I'm packing the tipi and stove the rifle isn't getting warmed and dried every night in a house or camper like others may.    I backpack in a cleaning kit for this purpose.   I had the exterior metal of my blued rifles cerakoted years ago, as battling surface rust gets old.   So I mostly focus on keeping the barrel dried out and a light oiling on my backcountry hunts.   For stainless, I don't do anything while hunting for cleaning as I'm less worried about rust. 


When back home, I always do a light cleaning and oiling before putting away.  I have the anti-moisture cans in all the safes, but still pull all my rifles and shotguns out every three months to inspect just in case.   Which may be overkill, but getting rust on a couple rifles over my 4 decades of gun ownership made me pretty angry, so I err on the side of paranoid for keeping guns cleaned and dry.   Buy stainless and it's less of an issue, of course.   

[Alchase]

Hunting Rifles, after range trips I will clean and lube. Get cleaned and lubed a couple days before I hunt. Honestly, I do not worry about moisture when hunting at all. They get wiped down daily on really wet days. After the season, they get a complete cleaning and lube.

ARs and Pistols get shot a lot more often than my Hunting rifles.
I clean and lube them weekly. I take them out of the safe give them a good look over, make sure the actions work as they should, then run cleaning patches, dry patches, and lube patches, and grease the AR actions.
If they were shot, a thorough clean, lube, and grease before they get put back in the safe.

Shotguns, I try to do them once a month, but have let them go a few months if they have not been shot. I check action, wipe down, run cleaning patches, dry patches, and lube patches. Lube the obvious places and put them back in the safe.

[BigGoonTuna]

I never hunt with a clean barrel in a high powered rifle. Most of mine will show some poi change without a few fouling shots. If things get wet or dirty I rub them down with a cloth with some ballistol when I get home and let everything air dry. Never have a problem with rust even here on the west side.  The key is to make sure it comes out of the case as soon as I get home. I ruined the finish on first rifle I ever bought and it still bothers me, never ever store anything in a case!

[huntandjeep]

Barrels get cleaned when accuracy drops off . Light coat of oil on the metal .

[actionshooter]

On the hunting rifles I won't clean the bore unless accuracy starts falling off. Keep the outside wiped down.

On the ARs, pistols and shotguns that get shot a lot, they get stripped, sprayed out with break clean, oiled and reassembled. Lots of oil... for the chambers in those guns I have brushes on cleaning rods chucked up in a cordless drill and go to town,   

[Ingwe]

I only clean rifles when accuracy goes away. I always tape the barrel when hunting to keep dirt out. I fell and jammed  dirt in barrel once and could not shoot a bull later in day. Learned my lesson and always tape now.

[hunter399]

I never clean the barrel after season has started I want it fouled a little and hitting right where I checked sight in before season. Rifles I will clean 100-200 rounds with 5 brush strokes-bore cleaner run dry patch ,then patch come clean last stroke gun oil patch.

If your waiting till accuracy falls off your waiting too long in my opinion.You can never clean a bore to much .If you think how much heat and friction a bullet does to your rifleing then a bore brush is nothing compared to fireing the gun .But with that said you do want it fouled a little bit for best accuracy I think.
Everybody has there own way ,which is ok.

[Magnum_Willys]

On 338 Lapua every 30-50 rounds I run a couple patches thru with bore-tech eliminator, follow with 10 strokes nylon brush with more boretech on it.  Two more wet patches followed by a couple dry patches.   At least one fouling shot before use.    (Thats without HBN coated bullets).  On small calibers wipe outside with remlube before and after season. 

[Stein]

I think when we say "cleaning" we mean removing powder residue and random chunks of junk as opposed to stripping copper which is an important distinction.

[Magnum_Willys]

I think when we say "cleaning" we mean removing powder residue and random chunks of junk as opposed to stripping copper which is an important distinction.

That's a whole nother question.... do you clean til copper is gone or not.....?   To me cleaning is getting patches coming out that aren't "blue". 

[HawkCreek]

I might run a boresnake through once in a while and I'll take one apart when I'm bored and want to tinker but I really dont worry much about keeping things sparkly clean.

[Jpmiller]

Huh, I like to clean everything up as clean as I can get it, shoot the rifle right before season and leave it dirty all the while hoping those few weeks of having a dirty rifle don't damage something. Seems I'm in the minority.