Proper Care and Maintenance of your handgun?

[ArcadiaGP]

I'm looking for advice on taking proper care of a handgun. I understand cleaning after shooting is essential.. but what about just regular maintenance?

Part of carrying can sometimes bring your gun into the elements... rain, cold/hot weather, sweat, etc...

Personally, I own a Colt 1911 and an H&K USP40. I'd consider these two unique and different guns. I think I've got cleaning down on the USP, but since the 1911 is new to me, I'm not sure how to properly maintain it. Do you regularly oil it down? Should you? What do you use? How often and how much? Anything other than oiling? How can I be absolutely sure not to rust or scratch it?

Any advice would be absolutely appreciated!

Thanks

 

[cosermann]

. . . How can I be absolutely sure not ... to scratch it? ...

Put it in the safe. Maybe a display case. Never use them. Handle only with clean cotton gloves.

Seriously, are these collector's items for you or serious defensive pieces?

If the former, see above.

If the latter, then cultivate the attitude that these are tools. Don't abuse them, sure. Use them responsibly, fine. Train with them, absolutely.

Normal wear, and tear, scratches, etc. - that's called character.

 

[snowrs]

one of the things my dad always taught me is that guns are tools and meant to be used, so some amount of scratches and dings are going to happen, like the previous poster said the only way to avoid them is put it in a safe and never take it out. As far as take down and cleaning go, I have found heading to youtube and doing a seach for your gun can work. There will be lots of videos on how to take it down and what to clean. Use just a bit of caution and watch more than one and you will get a very good idea of what you need to do.

 

[IndyGunner]

This is all I do. My 19 is showing some wear from the half leather holster I carry it in. I think it looks cool. My 27 is newer and has only seen kydex, she is still mint. If its not an old browning or something extremely valuable, I dont see the point in keep it pretty. If its a work gun, treat it as such. If its a collectors item, then keep it in a safe.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZf4mUM10Vc[/ame]

How can I be absolutely sure not to rust or scratch it?

Buy a Glock Kidding... im not that much of a fanboy. I clean my mossberg every time im done shooting. Keep it oiled. I usually skip every other cleanings with my ak.... because... its an ak, and im lazy If you dont see signs of wear or rust, you must be doing something right.

Surface hardening of steel and iron (to improve wear resistance) can be done by either allowing the surface of metals to react with either Nitrogen (nitriding), Carbon (carburizing), Boron (boriding), etc. TENIFER is termed for a chemical bath nitriding process whereby nitrogen is chemically released and introduced into the surface at a suitable high temperature to allow the chemical process to take place.

Using the liquid bath techniques, the temperature requires to activate the reaction is about 550 to 580 Celsius. The bath is performed in a molten, nitrogen-bearing liquid containing either cyanides or cyanates. However, cyanide-free liquid has also been used to release Nitrogen and then allow it to react chemically with steel (iron)at the surface (modern techniques).

Interestingly, when using the cyanide-free liquid, Tenifer is actually the salt bath nitro-carburing technique because it starts (first reaction) with Carbon-Nitride (CN) and allows it to react with Oxygen (0)to produce Nitro-carbon-dioxide byproduct plus Nitrogen. The simultaneous second reaction takes place when nitrogen (N) is in contact with Iron (Fe) to form FeN (iron-nidride).

The tenifer coating "composition" of Glock's steel slide is essentially that of FeN.

It is interesting to note that FeN coating is used mainly to increase the surface wear resistance to against galling and wear. The corrosion resistance is also better for iron and conventional steel that are NOT stainless steel. Most stainless steels need not to be nitrided. The reason is stainless steel has chromium to fight against corrosion and rust (this is why we call these material stainless). However, nitriding a stainless steel will almost always lower the corrosion resistance of the stainless steel. This is because the nitrogen will also react with some of the chrominum (Cr) at the surface of stainless steel to form Chrominum-nitride (CrN).

Obviously, gas-nitriding is a simpler process (but not necessary cheaper) to form a tough wear resistance coating. In this case, pure Nitrogen gas is chemically reacted with the metal such as iron (Fe) by holding the metal in the Nitrogen gas environment at high temperature allowing the chemical reaction to take place.

The true FeN (tenifer) coating has a dull-gray color surface. Definitely, never black. In some applications, FeN coatings can also be polished to give a bright metal finish appearance.

 

[Rob377]

Shoot often. Clean with CLP or equivalent. Repeat.

After a few thousand rounds, swap out springs.

That's pretty much it.

If a bit of wear on the finish is going to bother you, leave it in a safe or get it refinished as necessary. Personally, I'd opt for the latter because shooting guns is a heckuva lot more fun than looking at them in a safe.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

I was taught weekly inspection of the carry guns.

After unloading (into my sand barrel which everyone should have), I inspect it, tighten stock screws, ensure the springs are O.K. and then wipe down with a Birchwood Casey Barricade.

When I do not shoot it, maybe 3 or 4 times a year I strip it and lube (I carry a 1911 which likes more lube, if you carry a Glock or XD likely different).

Remember, in case you find someone wrong with your carry gun(s) you should another copy of the same gun. Have a deep bench.

Oh, change your carry ammo. I do it every 90-120 days.

How can I be absolutely sure not to rust or scratch it?

I kick my guns to the car after I buy them. This way there will be no heartbreak when I do scratch them.

 

[rockhopper46038]

I kick my guns to the car after I buy them. This way there will be no heartbreak when I do scratch them.

Ha! I think I oughta try this...

 

[451_Detonics]

Yer supposed t'clean yer guns af'er shootin' them? Well dang it all...I ain't been doing it right!

Most of the time I do a wipe down with a field strip cleaning every couple thousand rounds. Only exceptions are my 22s, that stuff is just flat dirty, and of course any time I shoot corrosive ammo. The military taught me that yes...you can over clean a firearm and most of the time it is unneeded. I simply avoid over lubing and use a dry lube when possible so oil in the gun doesn't attract dirt.

 

[shoot the radio]

Field strip & wipe down my g19 after every trip shooting...mainly cuz its so damn easy...lol!

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I field strip my pistols after a trip to the range. I do not use heavy grease or oil, only dry lube. I clean my carry gun more often to get any lent, etc. I do not field strip my .22's, I just swab the barrel and clean the feed ramp.

 

[Yukon227]

I kick my guns to the car after I buy them. This way there will be no heartbreak when I do scratch them.

That's classic! No joke my dad has a friend who left a dodge dealership in the 80's...got home and beat the pi** out of the bedsides of his new truck with a bat so he'd be the first to put a scratch on it!

 

[NDgolfer13]

All guns should be stripped and cleaned on a regular basis except for any Ruger MK .22 that gun is the devil. Shoots great and I love mine but I think it may hate me.

 

[NovemberKilo]

All guns should be stripped and cleaned on a regular basis except for any Ruger MK .22 that gun is the devil. Shoots great and I love mine but I think it may hate me.

No kidding. I've owned mine for almost a decade and it still takes me 3 or 4 tries to get it reassembled.

It's one of my absolute favorite guns except for that feature.

 

[SEIndSAM]

I guess it's different strokes for different folks. I detail strip and clean all of my handguns after every trip to the range. But then again, I'm one of those guys that likes things clean and like new. I have an eight year old car that's as clean as the day it rolled off of the dealers lot.