How many time should you clean your rifle?

Answer 1

The purpose of cleaning any firearm is to remove residue deposits of the byproducts of the combustion of the propellant. Barrel fouling can also be due to residual bullet jacket material (usually copper) or residual lead from a bullet being deposited along the bore of a firearm.

With modern commercial ammunition prevalent in US firearms use today, periodic cleaning is needed. Wipe down external soot, and run a few powder solvent saturated patches thru the bore. Modern ammunition is considered to be "non corrosive", meaning that there are no combustion byproducts that will react with atmospheric moisture to cause damage from rusting, pitting or corrosion.

It is not uncommon for competitive shooters, who shoot on a regular basis throughout a season, to only clean their competition firearm seasonally.

Actually, there can be as much damage caused from too much cleaning as too little cleaning. Excess wear can happen when a cleaning rod wears against the muzzle of a firearm, and this will adversely affect accuracy, as will general wear from disassembling a firearm too frequently. Evidence of excessive muzzle wear is often found in older European military surplus rifles, where soldiers spent a lot of idle time cleaning and recleaning their issue weapons, and often the rifles were not cleaned using a muzzle protector that centers a cleaning rod to prevent it from rubbing on the muzzle crown area.

There is only really one condition where mandatory cleaning be done EVERY time following firing a firearm. When corrosively-primed ammunition is used, a firearm MUST be cleaned to remove the residual corrosive salts. These residual salts draw moisture form air and will very quickly rust, corrode or pit a barrel.

If you or a friend fire any of the old Russian, German or European surplus WW I or WW II type rifles, and are using surplus ammunition for it (typically made in Russia, Turkey, or any of the Eastern European countries, or China) it is essential to clean as soon as you can after you are done shooting. Corrosive clean-up is simple, merely using soapy water or even Windex on several cleaning patches thru the bore, then on to your regular bore solvent & you're good.

For seasonal or long-term storage, it's a good idea to thoroughly clean and wipe down any firearm, and also give it a light protective coat of oil or grease.