What Kind Of Gun Is Clean Enough?

If you are owning a gun, here is a simple rule for you: If you fired a gun, you were to wipe it down before you put it away. Even once, you were to clean the gun thoroughly, then wipe it down before you put it away. But some people may don’t wipe it down at the end of each day. Sometimes they don’t even clean it after they shoot it!

So here comes the question: How dirty is too dirty? How clean is clean enough?

Actually, a gun in a holster will pick up its share of daily dirt. How dirty the gun gets is largely a matter of the holster material, the location of the holster on your body, and the amount of dust and dirt you are subjected to during the day. For instance, a revolver carried in a leather ankle rig will pick up more dirt than the same gun in a leather hip holster. If you happen to be walking around lots of dusty parking areas with your gun in an ankle holster, you can count on even more dirt. On the opposite, a handgun carried inside-the-waistband holster will stay pretty clean because pretty much anything that gets inside the holster will fall right out the bottom. Still, after about a week of knocking around, it might be time to pull your gun out of the holster, unload it, and give it a quick once-over. On a revolver, make sure there is no dust or lint clinging to the ratchet, hand, or locking mechanism. Also, check the hammer travel and take a look at the firing pin area. Most of the time, the daily dirt will not get in the way of firing pin travel, but who knows?

When dealing with an auto-loading pistol, you have other areas to keep track of. If the gun has an exposed hammer and you carry it cocked and locked, you’ll need to clean that entire area. Also, if you notice a fair amount of dust and such along the slide rails where they mate to the frame, they also need cleaning.

If you do the quick gun cleaning weekly, you may want to field strip the pistol and conduct a more thorough cleaning monthly. The goal here is to do this regularly so as to not let dirt build up. Built up dirt can negatively affect the function of your pistol. That would be a bad thing.