...Do you guys/girls who DO NOT clean after every shoot include your self/personal defense guns in that regimen? I can't imagine walking out of the house with a carry gun that isn't 100% ready for duty. Or perhaps I am a bit paranoid.
When I shoot my edc say 200+ rounds in a session it gets cleaned, and lubricated.I am down to 2 house guns, 2 carry guns, and a .22LR plinker. The plinker mostly gets cleaned after every shoot, mostly. If less than 100 rounds, sometimes I pass. My house guns gets cleaned after every shoot, even if it was only a few rounds. They also get a once-over clean and lube about every 6 months, whether or not they've been fired. My carry guns get cleaned after every shoot, and a once-over clean and lube about every 30 days.
Of note: except for my .22LR plinker, any of my guns may be called on for the primary intended task at any moment. Because of that, I clean after every shoot, paying particular attention to carbon build-up in 3 areas: 1.) breech face, 2.) rear/breech end of barrel, 3.) under extractor. I am old(er) and blind in my right eye, so I use a magnifying glass for those areas. That build-up may cause a failure to return to battery, or a failure to extract, at the most inopportune time.
Do you guys/girls who DO NOT clean after every shoot include your self/personal defense guns in that regimen? I can't imagine walking out of the house with a carry gun that isn't 100% ready for duty. Or perhaps I am a bit paranoid.
If a edc can't handle at least 1k rounds without one failure in doesn't make the cut for my edc.This is exactly why I joined this forum: to learn stuff! Thanks to the above 3 posts, I learned a good lesson in this thread. My obsession with cleaning after every shoot was firmly ingrained by US Army Drill Sergeants. I've carried that with me for almost 50 years, and it is wrong! The logic making sure the gun fires WHEN I NEED IT TO FIRE would be way better served by cleaning BEFORE a trip to the range. Sometimes I put a lot of rounds through in one day, but not often. My last range trip included my Keltec P32. I cleaned it when I got home. Making sure it stays reliable would be better accomplished by cleaning it, then putting my obligatory 32 rounds [(7+1)x4 mags] through it. And 32 rounds will (should?) never make for a 'dirty' gun. I can't believe I've never thought of this before.
Serious competition bullseye shooters, which I am not anymore, will usually fire a first shot as a throwaway before firing a group because the first shot through a cleaned and oiled barrel would likely be a flyer that spoils the group. More of a problem with rifles, but it was still a common practice among bullseye pistol competitions.