Maintenance, cleaning question
- Thread starter dml822
- Start date
Ever did much shooting in dusty/wind blow sandy conditions? I won't bring up mud and gunk from the areas I served in.
This guy is talking about range trips not combat tours. Chill
GunnyGene
Hawkeye
Rarely. I'll usually open up a new mag just to check things out. Sometimes there will be burrs or bits of trash in them from the factory, or the follower hangs up on something. It pays to buy quality mags instead of el cheapos, especially for your carry gun.
I use Wilson Combat 8rnd mags in my 1911's (.45acp).
I use Wilson Combat 8rnd mags in my 1911's (.45acp).
If you don't make a habit of letting your mags hit the ground on changes there is not likely any reason for cleaning. Debris is the culprit of mag failures. I will take a narrow stick and press the follower to the bottom and "feel" for debris. If there is grit, I take them down. You gotta send a whole lotta lead before carbon and fouling from shooting will affect a magazine. Well, except for perhaps some 22LR....
Hertervillian
Saluki
I will clean a new mag thoroughly. I’ve found factory preservatives are many times like a glue. I’m saying I never clean them again but it’s not a routine service. If my OCD needs something to do.
Yaworski
Hawkeye
Cleaning? What is this "cleaning" of which you speak?
Seriously, I'll only clean a mag if it is getting gunky.
Seriously, I'll only clean a mag if it is getting gunky.
Newguy, You Have Been On Here ONE DAY. And Your Telling A 20 Yr. Member To CHILL Over A Coment : And We See Your From Ill. Maybe You Shoud Leave Your Ill. Mind Set In Ill. I Didn't See Anyone On Here Asking YOU For YOUR Opinion. And JeepNik THANK YOU For Your Service. Clearly Newguy Has NEVER SERVED In The MILITARY...
Iroc
Bearcat
I break down and clean a mag when I first get it, load it and function check it. After that unless it’s having issues I might not look at it for years. Mark your magazines so you can tell them apart that way it’s easier to identify a mag that starts having a repeated problem.
NikA
Hunter
I clean powder residue from the top of the mag after heavy shooting sessions with an oily rag in the follower/feed lip area. Might disassemble magazines for thorough cleaning once every 1-2 years.
Ok, then never spent much time in the SoCal High Desert. It's my happy place and I seem to accumulate stuff if the wind blows, which it always does.
While most all mags are made of metal, you do need to look for rust as even if it's made of stainless, it will rust if it's low quality or those mags that look to be coated steels. Mags are getting expensive for them to be considered a replaceable item since springs and followers is usually all they need.
I've only found 2 magazines, from 2 different manufacturers that gave me a problem. One was/is my EDC S&W SD9VE magazine, which was shipped with 2 mags, but only one had problems. I pushed a dowel down on the follower and saw the follower tilt and bind up some about 1/2 way down. Torn down the mag and found that where they had welded the magazine along the back side had a weld wire burr sticking out ever-so-slightly on the mag's interior. Removed it with one of my jeweler's flat file and corrected problem. Re-greased ever so slightly and works perfectly to this day.
Another mag I found to give some problems, but only occasionly was an older magazine from Hi-Point JCP40. The magazine's follower when looking at it while still inside magazine, I noticed the follower had plastic flashing on it. Took apart and cut flashing off, and also used my knife to give the bottom edge of follower a slight chamfer to eliminate the sharp edge. Works great to this day.
I especially watch carefully on my S&W I mentioned above as this is my concealed weapon, so dirt, lint and just everyday sweat get on everything, so I do very close maintenance of cleaning, oiling and greasing of it to make it work for those JIC situations that nobody wants to have, but never knows from day to day.
I've only found 2 magazines, from 2 different manufacturers that gave me a problem. One was/is my EDC S&W SD9VE magazine, which was shipped with 2 mags, but only one had problems. I pushed a dowel down on the follower and saw the follower tilt and bind up some about 1/2 way down. Torn down the mag and found that where they had welded the magazine along the back side had a weld wire burr sticking out ever-so-slightly on the mag's interior. Removed it with one of my jeweler's flat file and corrected problem. Re-greased ever so slightly and works perfectly to this day.
Another mag I found to give some problems, but only occasionly was an older magazine from Hi-Point JCP40. The magazine's follower when looking at it while still inside magazine, I noticed the follower had plastic flashing on it. Took apart and cut flashing off, and also used my knife to give the bottom edge of follower a slight chamfer to eliminate the sharp edge. Works great to this day.
I especially watch carefully on my S&W I mentioned above as this is my concealed weapon, so dirt, lint and just everyday sweat get on everything, so I do very close maintenance of cleaning, oiling and greasing of it to make it work for those JIC situations that nobody wants to have, but never knows from day to day.
I honestly can't ever remember cleaning a magazine... back at the beginning of my gun acquiring adventure I would have problems with some magazines functioning but quickly learned the solution... only buy factory magazines... well except for an AR.... Pmags are the ones for me.
Most of my guns are used so I clean them when I get them and then after a range trip I'd be sure to whip them down but not really take them apart. For stored items I do keep an eye out for rust etc. and may clean things a bit more by taking them apart but it is rare. The way a mag is inside a pistol doesn't expose it to a lot of dirt but some. You will develop your own "schedule" of cleaning based on your useage.
Welcome to the forum. Lots of good people here.
Welcome to the forum. Lots of good people here.
Magazine cleaning takes but a couple of minutes. Maybe it makes no difference. Then again it would suck to have a failure to feed at an important moment just because a magazine was dirty.
Not a reason to not have clean functioning magazines... but the handgun class I took numerous times had several malfunction drills for semi-autos and the last 3 you needed a spare magazine to do.... point being .... I've been trained to have a spare on hand.
DGW1949
Hawkeye
Depending on "which gun" and which brand of mag, I might disassemble, clean and inspect a new magazine....or I might not...I do however, test-fire each mag that I buy before putting it into service. Other than that, I don't have any sort of routine for when I may clean and inspect any certain magazine. Mostly, if they don't get dropped or rained on, I purty-much leave them alone....I've got 1911 mags that are 30+ years old, and some of those might stay fully loaded for 8-10 years at a time. They all work as good today as when new....Same for my Mini-14 mags too. Some of those were bought from Ruger with a check that got mailed with an order written on my department's letter head long before Ruger would sell high-cap mags to the public. And yep, those still work like new too....just sayin' that some people make too much fuss about fiddling with their magazines. And I've seen 'em sometimes do more harm than good.
DGW
DGW
