Technical gun cleaning discussion

[LRRPF52]

With AR-15s, I’m of the opinion that lubrication is far more important than cleaning.

Shooting suppressed might require you to clean more due to the amount of soot that accumulates in the action, but for standard AR-15s, I just keep adding thick lubrication when needed, and rarely clean them.

Chamber brushes for the AR-15 are good to run thought every once and a while, depending on your shoot schedule.

On mine, any steel surface that is exposed is usually Cerakoted before I assemble them, so I don’t have to scrub rust off those like we did in the Army.

I even prefer to have my fasteners Cerakoted, to include those for scope rings.

I have found that the NightForce ring fasteners have not corroded on me, and I don’t think any of my LaRue fasteners have either.

I’m a fair and bad weather shooter, so I usually schedule courses in the dead middle of winter in the mountains here in Utah.







I have found that if you live in the Southern US, PNW, and New England, you have to be more concerned about corrosion due to the precipitation.

The next harsher climates are where we experience extreme cold with any moisture.

Hot/dry climates are easy on guns, except for dust and sand getting in the actions.

One of the most overlooked set of components on modern rifles are the little steel fasteners though, especially with modern handguards.

I have seen those turn orange overnight on high-end guns, so I recommend Cerakoting the heads of those fasteners when you drop them off with a coater.

The method I used was poking holes in pie tins, then inserting the fasteners in the holes before spraying and then baking them.

Keep Bolt Carriers wet with thick lube, whether you use motor oil, CLP, or Slip2000. The thinner oils are fine on other rifle designs, but not the Stoner Internal Expansion AR-15 and AR-10. The thin oils cook-off quickly due to gas system heat. Thick oils stay and continue to lubricate. If you ever compare CLP to RemOil for example, you can see a big difference in thickness.