Cleaning a Handgun: Steps You Don't Want to Miss

One of the responsibilities of owning a gun that often gets overlooked or ignored is the process of cleaning and care for your gun.  Why is that?  If you are like myself, you were never taught how to clean or when to clean a gun.  Through the years I have learned that it can be a tedious task that takes patience and time, but it’s a critical part in ensuring your equipment is always in tip top shape.  Let’s explore the basic steps to cleaning your handguns.

Safety

First and foremost, the three rules of gun safety do not disappear just because you are at home and wanting to clean your gun.  There are many, many stories of people who have had a negligent discharge (unintentionally firing a firearm due to carelessness or failure to follow safety protocols) when disassembling the gun to clean it, putting themselves and anyone else at home or even in the general vicinity at risk of being shot.  Here’s the steps to ensure safety when cleaning your gun.

1. The first step, and most critical step, in gun cleaning is to make sure the gun is unloaded and clear.  Remove the magazine from the gun and move the slide to slide lock.  A bullet or casing may have ejected while putting the gun to slide lock.
2. Once you have unloaded the gun, verify the gun is empty by intentionally looking into the magazine well and chamber.  This is not just a quick glance!!!  Process what you see, don’t make assumptions!
3. Then physically verify the gun is empty by using a finger to feel the chamber itself and ensure there is not a bullet located in the chamber.  
4. Next, physically verify the magazine well by feeling to ensure no magazine is in the gun.  If you have another person within the household who is comfortable verifying, have them check the gun as well.  

Once your gun is empty or “cleared”, then remove all ammunition from the room and secure it.  The final step before we jump into disassembling is to repeat the four steps above again.  Do I really need to check AGAIN?  YES, do it for your and anyone else in the household’s safety. 

Just another aside on safety and cleaning.  Most dirty handguns will run for a time, but handguns that are exceptionally dirty can become unsafe.  Dirty guns can begin to cause malfunctions more frequently and that will not make for a good day whether you are at the range practicing or if that is your concealed carry gun on a day where you need it to run flawlessly.  

Disassembly

The next step in cleaning is to disassemble your unloaded handgun.  This is where your owner’s manual comes in handy to disassemble per the manufacturer’s recommendations.  If you don’t have one anymore, consider going to the manufacturer’s website and downloading or printing the manual.  Many of us are visual learners so YouTube can be your friend in finding a video from a reputable source to show you how to disassemble your make and model of gun.  Just search for your make and model along with the term “takedown” or “field strip”.  It’s still very important that you read the owners manual to ensure the video follows along with what the manufacturer shows.

Supplies

Cleaning your gun is going to require purchasing some basic equipment and chemicals to assist with the cleaning process.  The basic supplies needed are:

• Gun cleaner/solvent - This is usually a product that lists that it will remove carbon (burned gun powder), lead (from the bullets and primers) and copper (from the jackets of full metal jacket ammo).  This also leads to a debate of whether a CLP (clean, lubricate, protect) product is good to clean and lubricate with, or to have cleaner and lubrication to be separate.  Also you might consider using items of the same brand (cleaner/oil) as mixing brands with different chemicals may cause an unexpected reaction on the metal.  Do some research on this topic and decide for yourself and for your gun what might be best.
• Gun oil/grease - There’s a hot debate in the gun world of whether to use gun oil or gun grease to lubricate your firearm and honestly it comes down to a personal preference.  One side of the fence says oil because of its low viscosity and tendency to not capture and hold the carbon/lead/copper that is generated.  The other side says use gun grease so that the lubrication stays in place and does not break down, even under extreme temperatures, whether that’s weather related high temperatures or due to excessive shooting of the gun in one training session causing the parts to heat up.  Another camp says to use grease if metal is sliding against other metal and oil if parts are rotating.  You have to decide what makes most sense for you.  Another fact to consider is with the higher viscosity of grease, smaller caliber handguns (like .22 LR) may not cycle quick enough and cause malfunctions.
• Cleaning rod and bore/barrel brush - Typically these can be purchased in a kit together and sold by specific caliber.  You need to have a cleaning brush that is sized to your barrel for the most effective cleaning without damaging your gun.  Entering the world of differing opinions again, there is another option called a bore snake, which is a rope with the brushes built in and wipes the barrel clean negating the need for a cleaning jag or slotted tip with patches.  Some camps say the rod and brush are more effective.  Again, personal preference comes into play.

• Cleaning jag or slotted tip and cleaning patches - This is used on the cleaning rod with cleaning patches to wipe the solvent and debris out of the barrel.  It’s important to note when buying cleaning patches, they should be marked with what caliber they are sized to.
• Brass brush/toothbrush/makeup applicators/cotton swabs - These supplies are used to get into thetight spaces and loosen some of the hard, stuck on debris.
• Old towels/rags - Cleaning guns is messy business.  You do not want to use your finest linens to wipe and clean your guns.  Cut up old t-shirts work great and can be just thrown away after use.  If you have sensitive skin, consider wearing latex or nitrile gloves (like the doctors wear) so that the solvent and oil does not cause a negative skin reaction.

• Gun cleaning mat/bath mat/puppy pads - For similar reasons above, you don’t want solvent or oil getting on your beautiful wood dining room table as it could ruin the finish.  You can purchase gun mats, yes even a Mantis one, specifically to help keep your surface clean, but a rubber backed bath mat, or my personal favorite, puppy pads can be used to stop the liquids from ruining a surface.  The great thing about puppy pads is that you can throw them away after you are done cleaning!  Consider using a separate plastic table to clean guns that can easily be wiped down and less risk of lead and solvent contamination at the dining room table where you eat.

What to focus on with cleaning?

Cleaning is a very personal experience.  You will have to decide what works best for you and again, there are many videos on YouTube of how to clean a gun.  You are going to want to apply solvent or CLP, then clean and wipe dry any reachable areas of the gun.  Overall the gun cleaning process should take around 15-20 minutes per firearm depending on how many rounds have been shot since the last cleaning.  The dirtier the gun, the longer it takes to clean it.  There are some specific parts that require extra attention and care while cleaning to keep your gun running smoothly.

1. Barrel/bore - Most fouling is on and in the barrel.  Take extra time to ensure your barrel is thoroughly cleaned with a bore brush or bore snake, including any loading ramp that your barrel may have.  Do not oil the inside of your barrel.  A barrel should be wiped dry.

2. Pistol slide rails - These parts are metal against metal with each shot, so ensure they are clean with no debris visible.  Using a brush or makeup applicator or cotton swabs helps to get into those tight places to wipe out debris.  These parts should be wiped dry and lubricated lightly until they look glossy, but should not be dripping wet with oil.

3. Extractor - The extractor is a small hook that pulls the empty casing out of the chamber.  If carbon builds up under this small hook, then failure to eject malfunctions will be more prevalent.  Take a brass brush or a toothbrush to scrub away any stuck carbon to ensure the extractor can get a good grasp of the casing.

4. Action/Firing Pin - There’s going to be spots that you can not access easily, just use the tools mentioned above and do the best you can, but be careful not to get solvent into areas where you cannot wipe it out.  Common places where you might put solvent on a cotton swap or a cloth to clean instead of spraying solvent are where the action is and around the firing pin hole.

5. 

   Compensators - Compensators are becoming more common on handguns and because of their purpose to direct some of the gasses upward to help mitigate recoil, there is generally debris that could be deposited within the holes.  If your handgun has a compensator, it might take extra cleaning and scrubbing to remove the carbon deposited in the holes depending on the shape/size of the holes and ammo used.

It’s also a good idea to do a quick wipe of your entire firearm’s outside to remove oil/acid from fingers after each time you shoot, even if you do not clean the gun.  There are silicone impregnated cloths that can also accomplish this and put a nice shine on the metal, but it also leaves a film of silicone to protect from rust and corrosion.  This might be a great option for guns that see long term storage in a safe.

Reassembly

Once your handgun is squeaky clean and lubricated it’s time to reassemble it.  Again reference the owner’s manual for your handgun or a reputable YouTube video for steps to reassemble.  It’s always wise to do a function check on your handgun anytime it has been disassembled and reassembled, no matter the reason.  Make sure the slide racks smoothly and goes fully forward on the frame (in battery).  Test the slide lock lever.  You can accomplish this by inserting an empty magazine and rack the slide back.  It should trigger the slide lock to hold the slide open without having to manipulate the slide lock lever.  Insert and remove the magazine a few times to ensure the magazine release is functioning properly.  If your handgun can be safely dry fired, do a safety check and dry fire testing the trigger multiple times, and rack the slide to check the trigger resets each time.  Also do checks on your safety if your handgun has one and verify your optic is still working.

The Million Dollar Question

So how often do you need to clean your firearms?  Well, it depends.  As we stated above, just like how to clean is a personal preference, how often you clean is a preference as well.  A good point of reference would be following what the manufacturer recommends for cleaning, usually via a round count, in the manual for the handgun.  There are many people who run thousands of rounds through their firearms before cleaning, and on the other side are people who clean each and every time they shoot a gun.

Let’s use a car as an analogy.  Does your car stop running if you do not get the oil changed after 3,000 or 5,000 miles?  Probably not.  But what about after 20,000 miles with no oil change?  That’s probably causing some major wear and tear on the engine, but it would still run in theory, right?  But what if you ran over a curb and cut a hole in your oil pan and kept driving for hundreds or thousands of miles?  The engine would eventually seize up, meaning that the metal against metal has broken down all of the lubrication and with heat expansion, it would no longer be able to run smoothly.

A handgun is very similar.  As an instructor I have seen some pretty filthy guns that run well because they have lubrication and I have seen clean guns with no lubrication cause malfunction after malfunction.  It’s a delicate balance.  You have to decide what works best for you, but always ensure that your gun has proper lubrication before going to the range to shoot.  Your range bag should have a small container of oil just in case you encounter some issues with a dry gun.

Gun cleaning has a lot of debate and personal opinion around it, which means you have to research and formulate what cleaners and processes work best for your firearms.  There are no 100% right or wrong answers, but don’t just assume you can own firearms without caring for them by cleaning from time to time depending on how much you shoot.  A well cared for firearm is an investment and can last for generations.