To clean or not to clean?

[HTRN]

That, primarily being, people who aren't pushing 4000 fps or shooting several thousand rounds per year.

Before the era of Moly and Danzac, 17 Remingtons used to start blowing groups in as little as 25 rounds. Now, you can get well over a hundred out the bore before cleaning is required.

[randy]

My duty pistol, a Glock 22, gets cleaned monthly or after a range session. Yeah, I know that Glocks are supposed to be indestructible, but I'm not going to carry a dirty handgun. I want to be absolutely-positively-without-a-doubt certain that it goes POP every time I pull the trigger, and cleaning can't hurt it.

Back in the early 90's I shot with a Hawaiian Maritime Cop (Harbor Patrol) who was carrying a Glock 17 for evaluation for possible replacement of the S&W Model 66's they were then carrying.

He carried it daily (usually getting soaked with salt water at least once a shift), shot a couple of hundred rounds every Sunday at our Combat Pistol shoots, plus at least once a week or so on the PD range. All he did was swab the barrel out, no other cleaning or maintenance.

He had his first failure at about 1,500 to 2,000 rounds. The ejector was shaving small pieces of brass from the cartridges as it kicked them out and the shavings had built up in the firing pin channel to the point he was getting light strikes. All he had to do was blow the the brass out, put the slide back on and press on. But it did become something he started checking for.

[Glenn Bartley]

I clean my guns after I shoot them, if not being lazy. I also clean them about 4 times per year, every quarter as a maintenance schedule, regardless of whether or not I have shot them. I have not yet seen it in one of my firearms but I have seen a spider web balled up inside of a barrel once. While I have never seen or heard of one causing a barrel to burst, I did turn on my grill a couple or few years back and it went bang after a few seconds. The gas burner inside it burst and was partly turned into shrapnel. It had a spider web inside of it, remnants of it were still in the section of it that did not burst. Spider webs are the number one reason for a gas burner on a grill to burst. Amazing how strong a spider web can be that at least part of it remained after that little blast. I would imagine one being inside a rifle barrel could really turn things all sorts of FUBAR. I keep my rifles in my basement, there are a few spiders down there. So, I like to check on the barrels now and again. Of course, besides that, it is humid enough where I am for that to be a concern and to keep me old fashioned and living by the mantra that: A clean gun is a happy gun.