How often (if at all) should a semi-auto pistol be completely torn down to clean?

Question

So I am a S&W fanboy. I field strip and clean my gun after every trip to the gun range. Having said that, I get a lot of mix reactions on performing a complete teardown of the firearm to clean. The logical complaint that makes me hesistate doing it is that some say punching the pins out, removing the striker repeatedly excels the wear on the gun, thus causing it to prematurely break. That only field strip cleaning a semi-auto handgun is necessary. Others say bringing it to a credible gunsmith every 5-8 thousand rounds for him to do a complete teardown clean is better. What are your opinions? And please leave your gun history in your answer...

Answer 1

Complete tear-down? Never, unless you're a gunsmith. Too much of that DOES wear out a gun too fast, and it's better to let a gunsmith be responsible if something gets broken.



Pull the slide and barrel and clean the bore? Every time you shoot. Not with solvent, necessarily, but at least a dry patch. Solvent only if the bore is extremely dirty, and follow with a VERY light coat of gun oil.



Gun history? What do you mean? Experience? My entire life, with revolvers, semi-auto handguns, bolt-action rifles, lever-action rifles, semi-auto rifles, pump shotguns, single shot break-action shotguns...



EDIT: @Fluffy, with some guns, having a clean bore can make them LESS accurate. It's not necessary to clean the bore every time you shoot unless you're using corrosive ammunition. The dry patch would just help remove loose debris. Even that isn't always necessary.

Answer 2

I agree with august, but your never going to get the barrel clean unless you use solvent, A dry patch is just not going to get the lead and/or copper out, but you should not do a complete tear down with normal use



Edit: my current firearms are revolvers, and I clean and oil them after every use, and make sure the bore is dry, when they are ready to be used. I only pulled the trigger assembly and crane once on my Ruger to make sure it had no contaminants from the factory etc. But since I take such good care of them I wouldn't have to take them apart again unless they were in a dust storm, or had a few more thousand rounds through. I'll be looking to get a high capacity semi-auto soon, and I know they require even less maintenance. But the total tear down is definitely not something you want to do on a regular basis. You Tube can also have some good information on maintenance on any given piece of equipment (firearm)

Answer 3

If you truly know what you're doing and have the necessary tools then a complete tear down should be okay. Otherwise, just clean the basics. As far as how often, it depends on how many rounds you put through it (and of course what kind of gun too). I try to clean mine every 200 rounds or so, but sometimes get bored and clean it whenever.

Answer 4

Unless they are an armorer, the owner risks voiding warranty if the go beyond field stripping. Field stripping and cleaning should be sufficient for most people for most of the life of the gun. Sig Sauer recommends sending in their pistols every 5000 rounds or so replace springs and check for wear on other parts.

Answer 5

Clean/lube after every time you shoot. If you use the gun for home defense or carry, light lube every 3 or 4 weeks.

Answer 6

I tear down and clean my Glock every time I go shooting. I also clean it once a month, even if I don't shoot because I carry it as my concealed carry weapon.