Should You Clean Your Gun After Every Use?

We all know that cleaning is an important part of maintaining a gun, but how often should you clean your gun? In fact it depends on what you use it for and how often you use it.

In general, it is recommended that you do a basic cleaning of the gun after about 300 rounds of shooting, and a thorough deep cleaning after about 3,000 rounds.

Clean your guns after target practice and range time. If you go to practice or recreation a lot, chances are you'll get more bullets going through your gun than you would when you were hunting. For this reason, it's usually a good idea to clean your gun after every practice session at the range.

Clean your guns after hunting. Even if you have a very successful hunt, you are unlikely to get anywhere near the same amount of ammo as you would at a range. On a more modest or possibly unsuccessful hunt, you can only shoot 5-10 times, or maybe less.

However, hunting expeditions often expose your firearm to dirt and possible corrosion from other environmental sources. Outdoor humidity, grass, dust, mud, and rain can quickly affect your gun, which means it might be a good idea to clean it after every outing, whether you're successful or not.

Of course, you can alleviate most of these problems by properly storing the gun. For example, when you're hiking to see deer blinds, or getting ready to wait for some wild boars, you can reduce the contamination of your firearm by keeping it closed or possibly storing it in a protective carrying case.

Clean seldom used firearms. Sometimes we have guns that we haven't used in a while - maybe they're part of a collection that you don't want to use often, or maybe you don't have time to visit the range. Regardless, it's still a good idea to do some cleaning every now and then. Dust, moisture, and other contaminants can collect over time, even if you store it in a safe. For this reason, it's a good idea to clean your firearm with gun cleaning kits at least once a year or quarterly.