Is It Ok To Clean Guns With Water

My Dirty Little Cloak-and-dagger for Cleaning Guns

No ane can OVERestimate the importance of cleaning their firearms. However, I discovered the importance of properly maintaining my Glock firearms the hard way—and it was nigh equally painful of a lesson every bit it was when I discovered at the age of 19 that I was really supposed to be changing the oil in my automobile. (I can assure you that driving all solitary, cross country, in the centre of snow storm well-nigh Vail, Colorado in a piffling Volkswagon Rabbit is NOT the time to figure out that a car needs oil!) Bottom line, cleaning your firearms is significantly more critical than cleaning your room considering, I assure you, such a habit WILL make the difference between life and death someday.

So, how does "the laziest prepper you will always know" make clean her favorite firearms? I'll tell you in a moment… but first…

Scott teaches young student firearm safety on the range Firearm Safety First

The ONLY rule related to cleaning your firearms is to do and then with rubber in mind! Far too many foolish and tragic accidents have occurred considering folks got careless in their rubber checks prior to cleaning their guns. In the name of safe, yous should always conduct a 3-bespeak cheque of your handgun before cleaning.

Cheque #1: cheque the chamber/mag well for cartridges;

Check #2: in forepart of the primer pin; and

Check #3: check down the barrel—looking down from the action port—non from the front of the barrel. All three of these checks should be visible past opening the action. You should NEVER await down the barrel of a gun that's attached to ANY other function of the firearm. (Past the style, this is a necessary three-point check that I E'er do prior to handling a firearm in the classroom. I exercise my three-point check, hand the firearm to my banana who besides does a three-indicate check, and then when they return the firearm to me I do the three-signal check again—WITHOUT exception. The moment I let the firearm out of my possession (other than to verify the Iii Point Check, of form) so the three-signal check is done Over again when I take possession of information technology.

Please remember that when yous're checking your firearm, all other rules of safety still utilise—the more important of which is that you however treat the firearm as if it's loaded. Every bit such you never indicate it at someone/thing that y'all do not intend to destroy! I don't care if it's fully stripped and you personally checked information technology three hundred times—you never point information technology at something you don't intend to destroy or impale. It's NEVER a bad thing to practice that addiction of prophylactic, but if you go lax in an area at a casual fourth dimension, then you'll exist lax virtually condom at a critical time. Recall that's "overkill"? (Pun intended) Think again. I tin can tell you with absolute certainty that at that place has never been an adventitious shooting that didn't consequence directly from violating one of the standard prophylactic rules of handling a firearm. And equally an example, you can have a look at one of the more famous occurrence of a firearms instructor shooting himself in the leg while education elementary school kids about gun safety that would certainly NEVER have happened if he had done the iii-point check. (See it here: http://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?five=yjVOTjg1rm4 )

OK. Rubber rules out of the mode, now continuing on.

Every Firearm Is Dissimilar

Other than the standard safety rules, there really aren't any other hard and fast rules on cleaning your guns. The bottom line is you've got to consult with your possessor's manual to decide the all-time way to clean it. For example, you lot can actually gum up an AR fifteen or an M 16 if you clean it too often. Besides, if you clean firearms that take softer metallic, such as the older Kimber 1911 models, then you will do some "wearing" harm too. Some firearms should be cleaned after every couple of uses, some rifles should be cleaned subsequently 20-50 rounds during the breaking in period. It really does depend on the type of gun it is AND the type of environment in which they are used and stored. Humidity will eat away at them a heck of a lot faster than a dry environment. And heat beats upwardly on the stocks over fourth dimension also. So delight, please reference your owner's manual or the internet for the all-time way to care for your firearm. Of course there's not a Glock buying manual anywhere that tells me "Dishwasher condom", I confess. Merely I'm sticking with this method.

WHY Should Y'all Clean Your Firearms?

Just as y'all take to have your oil inverse, you must make clean your firearms in lodge for them to operate properly. Dust, wear and tear, storage rot, rust, toxin degradation, etc. are all enemies of a properly operation firearm.

For the same reasons as y'all would never effort to brand whipped cream in your Kitchen Aid mixer that hasn't been cleaned afterward making a batch of chocolate scrap cookies, your gun must be clean. Simply as the smallest amount of oil in that mixer volition cause your whipped cream to FLOP, so likewise tin can backlog oils in your firearm crusade it to malfunction.

Just as you would never rely on a dirty diaper to last four hours, yous should never entrust your life to a dirty gun. (Dads…you do know that a dirty diaper should last that long, right? *grin*)

To put it simply, the oils, gases, and gunpowder builds up in the action portion of the gun with each employ. The butt can even dorsum up into the magazine as well and forestall proper cycling of your cartridges. Combine that with the oils from your hands every bit well equally the dust and moisture and other components of your shooting and storing environment, and you've got the makings of a useless tool when yous need information technology most for self-defense force. A dirty gun is useless in a crunch—unless y'all're Jason Bourne, of course. Nosotros can all agree that Bourne would nevertheless be able to use a firearm equally a deadly weapon in a firearm, right? Typically, most handguns should be cleaned later on each use and ALL firearms should exist properly cleaned prior to putting them in long-term storage.

For the same reasons why you actually accept to make clean the hair out of the drain trap, you lot must clean your firearm. In the midst of a crunch you've already got So many other things that brand your self-defense challenging. Fine motor skills delay, shortage of oxygen, not to mention the deportment of your assailant. Then let's exist sure that we don't do anything that will compromise our success of surviving a crisis. OK??

Cleaning your firearms is a MUST. Got information technology?

At that place'due south ALWAYS Time To Clean a Firearm

I don't use my lazy method to make clean all of my firearms this fashion, just I DO definitely clean them. It's not a bother. It doesn't feel like information technology'southward taking up precious time because there are so many other things I tin can be doing while cleaning my firearms—such as when your daughter introduces you to her new swain, right? Hee hee Just kidding. What I mean to say is that you lot can clean your firearms while watching a movie with the family or while yous and your sweetie are talking virtually your solar day. Or peradventure while you're on a sales telephone call and your customer is trying to decide whether or not they desire to purchase an insurance policy from you. Hee hee. Over again, just kidding!

Ok. I call back we've sufficiently covered that.

I of my favorite cleaning kits is the Otis cleaning kits. I but say that because I KNOW that some of you lot volition inevitably ask me.

Sure, cleaning your room may non be a life or expiry event—in spite of how many times my poor mother would accept liked me to believe otherwise—but taking care of that firearm IS!

And Now For My Muddy Piffling Secret…

So what's my dirty trivial secret about cleaning my preferred handgun, the Glock?

I keep telling people that I'm the laziest prepper they will always meet. It's all most Like shooting fish in a barrel-PEEZY in my household. If you give a lazy homo an piece of cake job, they will ever find an easier way to practise it—particularly when I have twenty Glocks to clean after a firearms preparation class. I put them in the dishwasher—why? Because I CAN! Yup. You read that correct. I put them in, all by themselves, with no soap or detergent of any kind other than some vinegar and soft h2o salt to soften the water a bit so it'south not then abrasive. I allow them run through a consummate bicycle, including the drying cycle, and then oil them up subsequently while I'm watching "Shark Tank" or reruns of "Frasier". I do this because I value my fourth dimension AND because I don't want to handle the nasty cleaning solvents any more than than I absolutely accept to. The dishwasher approach solves that problem.

OK. Have a moment to shut your oral fissure from your jaw dropping open up. I'll wait. Compose yourself. Are ya good now? Thank goodness I can't hear some of the swear words I KNOW are being hurled at my direction in front end of computers all over the world as people read that statement. But it's truthful. I unabashedly clean my Glock firearms this way, followed by appropriate polishing and oiling where/when necessary.

Now before you lot go nuts on me wondering in the annotate section of this article, freaked out about the "yuck factor" or additional wear and tear on the firearms, I'll address those concerns now.

Question: Aren't at that place unprotected steel parts on the gun that will rust?

Answer: No, the metal won't rust. I don't keep them wet, of course. Yous dry them and so oil them properly afterwards. (When I originally introduced this notion on my firearms related blog, I had several readers who employ similar methods. One of our readers is a black powder revolver shooter and uses a big tub of hot boiling h2o to clean hers. The bluing finishes practise need to be dry and then coated properly with oil. She likewise fires some jacket bullets through her firearms to get out some of the residue before washing. Some other reader shared that he uses the dishwasher for his HK USP with no problems, he but is certain to remove the springs start with another military man who uses this same method for his Berettas. Many of the handguns out there accept finishes that are rated for continuous salt water immersion. Most polymer frames should exist fine using this method.

Did you know you can even shoot a Glock underwater?? Yep. Tried it. It was pretty cool and however i more than reason why I rely on Glocks as my preferred handgun to relieve my life.

Question: Is that a spare dishwasher? If non, you lot're killing your kids with mercury and lead poisoning no matter how many loads y'all run through it afterward!

Answer: This notion is just one more indicator of how little people understand about firearms and their proper functioning.

A very small minority of obstetricians have advised pregnant women not to shoot or be at a gun range in their concluding trimester, but that'south about the hard reverberation that the baby is exposed to, Not considering of any lead or mercury poisoning risks. Ironically, such doctors advise pregnant women not to handle whatever of the firearm cleaning solvents.

Identify your recently fired GLOCK in a bowl of hot water for well-nigh twenty minutes. Then remove it. Then do one of those handy dandy tests and measure the lead and mercury levels in the water. Now, do that SAME test on only obviously tap h2o from your sink. You will meet virtually NO difference. I know. Crusade I DID it!

Also, mercury is typically just seen in the balance if one uses mercury-fulminant based primers which may be found in ammunition manufactured in Eastern Europe and used in the Middle Due east.

And here's another thought on that. If cleaning your handgun was so unsafe, then wouldn't ALL faithful gun-cleaners accept lead and mercury poisoning from cleaning them past hand? I know very few people who use gloves when they clean their guns. I wearable gloves when cleaning them, but that's more about protecting the gun than protecting me—though I am particular most protecting the manicure. Hee hee

This is something that I practise occasionally when I have more than a couple of GLOCKS to make clean, so far. (I take several of them because we need that many when we exercise firearm grooming classes. Insurance says I have to provide the firearms used in lodge to control the environment.) I use this method because of the make-upward and materials used in the Glocks. I also NEVER shoot lead ammo or frangible ammo through my firearms either. Furthermore, since I'm an instructor, I get tested every twelvemonth in my physical for atomic number 82 levels in my blood AND I take good intendance of my liver and adrenals all throughout the year with a daily liver cleanse regimen. *wink* I'm good.

And that, my friends, is my dirty petty secret. *grin* Stay condom. Keep on prepping. And may you find all the peace that you need in this crazy world as a outcome.

CAUTION: The dishwasher method is Non appropriate for whatever other firearms that I know of.