Modern guns need way less cleaning than old ones

Donnie · Feb 14, 2026

My old rifles needed constant attention. My newer stuff goes thousands of rounds without issues. Has gun technology made obsessive cleaning unnecessary?

RjHawk · Feb 14, 2026

I think a lot of it has to do with better barrels, better bullet and of course cleaner burning powder

Tabby · Feb 15, 2026

Cleaner burning powder and primer do help with keeping things clean, but the barrels still either lead or get copper fouled just as often as during years ago. Unless you don't care about keeping your firearms in tip top condition. Crud accumulates and holds moisture like it always has and while it may not be as corrosive moisture on metal is never a good thing, especially when held up against it for long periods of time. Crud in the barrel is an abrasive, and unless removed will cause barrel wear. Doing a quick clean after every range or hunting session will prolong you firearms life almost indefinitely. A clean gun, is a happy gun.

Jon · Feb 17, 2026

New coatings and powders have changed things a lot. My newer rifles last longer before I have to clean them. I still take care of them, but I'm not worrying about making them look brand new inside.

Tabby · Feb 18, 2026

I know that few, if any of you take part in any forms of competition, so perhaps you don't care about lessons learned in competition. If that is the case, then move on. This post is not for you. For anyone else, this is simply relating a few things that I learned during the ten years I was shooting competitively. To begin with the X ring is the holy grail in NRA across the national match course and long range shooting. The more shots you could get into that little circle with the X in it the higher your score and if there is a tie the person with the most shots in the X ring would be declared the winner. We were all shooting National Match versions of the M-14 service rifle. The differences between a standard M-14 and a National Match M-14 are as follows:. The actions were glass bedded to the stock. The barrels were National Match heavy barrels, although to look at them you would not guess they were heavy barrels. In our case, our armorer air gauged the barrels he selected for our rifles, thus guaranteeing their consistency. The barrels were floated as much as the design of the rifle would allow. The rifling was fine tuned to a twist rate in tune with 168 to 175 gr match type ammo instead of the 147 to 150 gr ball ammo. Triggers were two stage with the second stage set to 4.5 to 5.0 pounds, most to 4.5 pounds. The higher trigger pull weight is due to the semi auto action. National Match sights are installed, the only difference is that the elevation is adjustable to 1/2 moa instead of 1 moa adjustments. The bolts used in match rifles were the ball bearing type to reduce friction during bolt operation.

Shooting across the national match course differs only in the time limits for the rapid fire sequences. Military match standing to sitting at 200 yards is reduced to 50 seconds to include a reloading sequence from the 60 seconds in civilian matches. The 300 yard standing to prone time limit for military matches is 60 seconds, civilian matches again longer at 70 seconds.

The conduct of the shooting is 2 sighters and 20 shots for record standing at 100 yards. This is followed by two strings of standing to sitting, rapid fire, with a reloading sequence within the time limits mentioned above. Then we move back to 300 yards for the standing to prone, again in the time limits mentioned above. The last sequence was the 600 yard long range match. This consisted of 2 sighting shots and 20 shots for record within a 20 minute time limit. This was a total of 80 shots for record, possible score 800 points plus X counts.

Most of us chose to run a bore brush and dry patch through the barrel prior to shooting the 600 yard sequence. This loosened up any fouling, powder or copper that had accumulated during the previous 60 rounds fired. We found that this simple bit of cleaning prior to shooting 600 gave us a 5 to 10 point advantage over those who chose not to brush the barrel.

The lessons learned during competition led most of us to treat all of our rifles (and pistols) like match rifles and pistols. A clean firearm is a happy as well as accurate firearm. While most of you are happy to keep your shots in that magical 10 inch circle just above the shoulder of big game animals, for the most part wandering outside a 10 inch group even at 600 yards will cost points, more or less the equivalent of missing your shot on your trophy buck.

NRA 600-Yard High Power Target (MR-1) Dimensions