How often do you clean your chambers in a cylinder?

[vlavalle]

When it gets hard to insert a new round. That can be during a session (I use a bore snake) and when I clean a revolver/pistol after a session (or two). Cylinder and barrel.

There is no cylinder on a pistol! Only revolvers have cylinders. I clean my revolvers after shooting them each and every time. It only takes 5-10 minutes. Iclean the cylinder and barrel first with a steel brush with a small paper wad and oil, replacing the cloth till it shows no dirt when running thru all the cylinders (one Ruger is a Convertible, so it has 2 cylinders). I then run just a clean swab thru all holes to pick up any possible residue. I check all by using my fingernail as the reflector, and shinning light onto my finger (often just the room lighting), which then lights up all the holes and barrels nicely, making it very easy to see if it is completely clean or not.

My .357 Ruger Blackhaek is 58 years old and it looks new, apart from some of the blue worn on the left outside of the tip of the barrel, from my quick drawing days from a Western style holster. Too bad I hadn't bought a SS model back in 1965! I also have a 1993 Ruger GP100 SS, that does look new, and a Ruger SS 45LC Convertible that is new (2015). I clean them all after shooting.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Really generally and vague, open-ended question. Are you asking the daily shooters or those with collectibles they don't shoot?

 

[akmania]

Shooters

Really generally and vague, open-ended question. Are you asking the daily shooters or those with collectibles they don't shoot?

Shooters

 

[Jeepnik]

Here we go again with the revolvers aren't pistols thing. An early Colt ad called them pistols. Various dictionaries call revolvers "pistols". Pistols are handguns regardless of the mechanism they use.

Then add in things like the Webley Fosbery and it gets even more interesting.

 

[akmania]

Clip and magazine

 

[wproct]

I clean mine after each usage. I know that it isn't really necessary, but I can't help myself. This is probably one of the several reasons that I shoot my semi-autos more often than my revolvers, they are simply easier to clean.

 

[steveodtw]

I always figured cleaning a six-gun is just always cleaning 7 barrels.

 

[Snake45]

I was talking about rimfires, I've polished some of mine.After cleaning them they load easy then after about 2 or 3 cylinders they get harder to load the shell in the cylinder.

This.

I have five different .22LR DA revolvers of two different makes. They ALL require the chambers to be brushed out and the extractor stars brushed under every 50-100 rounds or they start getting hard to load and hard to shoot DA. So every 8 to 10 cylinders full, I give each chamber one stab with a USGI M16 bore brush, and quickly brush out under the extractor star with an old stiff toothbrush. This keeps things running smoothly.

 

[MHtractorguy]

My Wrangler is self-cleaning, just like the rest of my rimfires.

 

[Johnnu2]

Here I thought that I was anal.......

p.s. I call all handguns (notice I didn't say 'guns') PISTOLS......... 'cause that's what my mother called'em.

J.

 

[vlavalle]

I clean mine after each usage. I know that it isn't really necessary, but I can't help myself. This is probably one of the several reasons that I shoot my semi-autos more often than my revolvers, they are simply easier to clean.

Well, I have 3 revolvers and it takes me 5-10 min to clean all three, but I do not own any pistols. So, how to you go about cleaning your semi-auto handguns, and how long does it take?

 

[vlavalle]

Here we go again with the revolvers aren't pistols thing. An early Colt ad called them pistols. Various dictionaries call revolvers "pistols". Pistols are handguns regardless of the mechanism they use.

Then add in things like the Webley Fosbery and it gets even more interesting.

If you look up the definition of 'pistol', you will often get the laymans definition, where they use nd interchange the term pistol for handgun. This has a lot to do with the term has been misued for over 100 years, especially in the movies and TV shows. But if you really research the term you will find that it is a handgun that shoots the projectile from the barrel, and stems from way back when all guns (handguns as were as long guns) were all muzzle loaded. Furthermore, ALL handgun and ammo manufacturers in the US never call revolvers with the term pistol or list revolvers or revolver ammo under the pistol category. They know what the terms really mean and their origin, and use them 'correctly'.

Also, unfortunately, to add to this misconception, a lot of retailers of guns AND ammo use the term 'pistol' loosely, to mean handgun. But there are two separate terms for a reason, which a lot of people tend to ignore. I have a ballistics file that covers 35 handgun calibers of ammo (and 25 rifle ones also), and in trying to keep it 'up-to-date' (each of the over 3,500 entries in this file, each which is a link to ammo to buy online) I get a lot of email from many online retailers everyday (10-15). I am constantly emailing them when they use the term 'pistol' in their website to mean handgun, which is a very simple change for them to make for their website to be more 'correct'.

Some of them respond and make their website correction(s), and others just ignore my comment, thinking either that they 'know' better, or that they simply do not care.. But when I go online, looking either for a particular type of gun or ammo, I DO care, and I have zero interest in looking at their long listing of pistols when I am looking for a revolver or revolver ammo (I am on the lookout for a Ruger Redhawk DA revolver in the .45 caliber, which includes a .454 revolver.) This is just poor website management on their part, and also shows their ignorance. Again, all handgun and ammo manufacturers in the US do not make this mistake/confusion.

By the way, for the past 5 years or so, 85% of all handguns manufactured in the US are pistols, and the other 15% are revolvers, so comments often made about revolvers dying out are simply not true. This percentage has been steady across all five years. I did not research prior to the past 5 years. I suspect that the manufacture of handguns outside the US will have a much higher pistol manufacturing percentage. This US level of revolver manufacturing has been steady, and I contend that this is due to several fators, of which one main one is that is you want power in a handgun, it needs to essentially be a revolver (with the excpetion of the Desert Eagle pistols chambered in revolver calibers).

 

[hittman]

Handguns were called pistols long before any semi auto was invented.

 

[powder smoke]

Only clean them when they're dirty which is every time they're fired.

Bingo we got a winner!!

 

[Snake45]

Handguns were called pistols long before any semi auto was invented.

 

[BULL'S-EYE]

Handguns were called pistols LONG before the revolver was invented...

 

[vlavalle]

Handguns were called pistols long before any semi auto was invented.

That is essential what I said about the term 'pistol' - that it referred to handguns that were muzzle loaded (centuries ago) and therefore fired the bullet from the barrel. So, people kept on using that term, even when referring to revolvers, which DO NOT shoot the bullet from the barrel. And semi-auto handguns do fire the bullet from the barrel, so they truly are pistols.

 

[GasGuzzler]

Still need some to take multi-quote training.

 

[mirglip]

I don't relate to cleaning after each shooting session because a shooting session might be a dozen rounds or a few bricks. I usually clean them after 2 or 3 bricks.

 

[noahmercy]

That is essential what I said about the term 'pistol' - that it referred to handguns that were muzzle loaded (centuries ago) and therefore fired the bullet from the barrel. So, people kept on using that term, even when referring to revolvers, which DO NOT shoot the bullet from the barrel. And semi-auto handguns do fire the bullet from the barrel, so they truly are pistols.

No, sir, you are wrong, unless you believe the firearm and ammunition manufacturers were "laymen". Handguns were marketed as "pistols" regardless of whether they were single shots or revolvers, muzzleloaders or cartridge firing for many years after the advent of repeaters. The uptight insistence on separating "revolver" from "pistol" is a relatively recent phenomenon.