What guns require the least maintenance?

[kalash]

What guns require the least attention and maintenance? There are definitely times when I am packing for range and decide not to bring a particular gun because I don't want to clean it when I get home.

I love that I can put my Glock or my 10/22 away filthy after 1000 rounds in foul weather, come back six months later, and they are just fine. Same for my Mossberg 500 - beat around the field all day, get home, and just stick it back in the safe - it'll still work after a few months, no problem.

Meanwhile, I've had to mortar an AR that sat dirty for a couple of months and the bolt wouldn't open. My Mosin will rust after milsurp ammo so I clean that after each outing. My Garand doesn't get shot all that often so I try to lightly oil it before putting it away. Jury is still out on my Henry Big Boy but I think it's too pretty not to clean religiously.

So what do you have that's worry-free and needs minimal maintenance?

 

[allen-1]

My friends' guns. I never clean them.

My Glocks, my shotguns, my GP100, my AR's, (except for the "AR-22").

I always clean my .22's after shooting them, even if it's nothing more than a quick boresnake and wipe of the action - rimfires are just dirty.

 

[Fishfinder]

Glock

Glock 17 Survives 18-Year Torture Test Including 6 Months in Ocean

 

[dcmdon]

Glocks and 10/22s are certainly in the top few.
I've got one 10/22 that my kids use that other than pulling a bore snake through it when I remember and changing the extractor gets essentially no maintenance other than the addition of oil every once in a while.

I had a Glock 34 that I used for IDPA for a decade. When I retired it, it had ~35,000 rounds through it. For the next 5 years I did a little study. Every time I took someone shooting or ran a NRA Basic Pistol class, I used that gun as an example of a striker fired 9mm. I never cleaned it. I wanted to see how long it would go. All I did was add grease to the rails.

After roughly 10,000 rounds it failed in a perfect way. I was giving a woman a full day private intro to self defense class. As she knelt behind cover to engage an aggressive bowling pin, the gun went click. She tapped the mag, racked the slide and squeezed off a perfect shot to "kill" the pin.

I looked at the round and it had a light primer strike. So I pulled the striker spring assembly out and it was covered in sludge. I wiped the assembly off with a paper towel, put it back in the gun and we finished the day without incident.

When I got home, I completely disassembled the gun, right down to the mag release. Amazingly it wasn't really that dirty other than in the striker channel in the slide. It seems that every other part reaches a level of filth and then just kind of reaches a point of stasis.

I did a 2 day reflexive shooting class at Sig. I shot 1600 rounds in 2 days through my G19. No cleanings, just lubed it at the end of the first day. No issues. Not a single malfunction of any kind.

 

[45collector]

Definitely NOT a 1911. LOL.

 

[hminsky]

My personal experiences:

I had a Beretta 92 that was pretty good without much attention to cleaning. Maybe loose tolerances on sliding
surfaces or something.

m1 carbine, I have a beat up one that I rarely clean but works reliably. Again maybe due to loose tolerances, and in this case
the gas piston keeping the bolt relatively clean...


Worst trouble i had was with a Sig 1911XO, it was very tight, and would not reliably chamber after it got a little dirty.
Also had trouble with a Bushmaster AR15 and that russian ammo with the steel case and lacquer, got round stuck
in chamber pretty tight. I no longer have either gun.

 

[45collector]

During one of the Excruciathlons, my Colt 1911 jammed up with that fine, gritty Monadnock mud to the point it wouldn't even chamber a round. That sucked. I'm betting my G19 would have kept on ticking in that situation.
You'd think I would stop carrying 1911's and opt for the G19 but I shoot the former so much better than the latter. If I ever plan on getting into a gun fight in a mud pit I'll leave the Colt at home and rock the Glock. Haha.

 

[not new guy]

HK pistols. Probably at least some of their rifles too. My HK91 just works regardless of how I treat it.

 

[greencobra]

 

[Rat187]

 

[PATRON]

That's a hard one for me,I was always trained to keep my firearm clean at all times.So I don't think I have ever had that problem.

 

[drgrant]

Glocks and 10/22s are certainly in the top few.
I've got one 10/22 that my kids use that other than pulling a bore snake through it when I remember and changing the extractor gets essentially no maintenance other than the addition of oil every once in a while.

I had a Glock 34 that I used for IDPA for a decade. When I retired it, it had ~35,000 rounds through it. For the next 5 years I did a little study. Every time I took someone shooting or ran a NRA Basic Pistol class, I used that gun as an example of a striker fired 9mm. I never cleaned it. I wanted to see how long it would go. All I did was add grease to the rails.

After roughly 10,000 rounds it failed in a perfect way. I was giving a woman a full day private intro to self defense class. As she knelt behind cover to engage an aggressive bowling pin, the gun went click. She tapped the mag, racked the slide and squeezed off a perfect shot to "kill" the pin.

I looked at the round and it had a light primer strike. So I pulled the striker spring assembly out and it was covered in sludge. I wiped the assembly off with a paper towel, put it back in the gun and we finished the day without incident.

When I got home, I completely disassembled the gun, right down to the mag release. Amazingly it wasn't really that dirty other than in the striker channel in the slide. It seems that every other part reaches a level of filth and then just kind of reaches a point of stasis.

I did a 2 day reflexive shooting class at Sig. I shot 1600 rounds in 2 days through my G19. No cleanings, just lubed it at the end of the first day. No issues. Not a single malfunction of any kind.

My Gen3 G34 went about 2800 rounds or so with no attention at all, then it stopped working, although I honestly believe if it wasn't freezing outside when it stopped, it would have easily gone another 500-600 more rounds. When I say "no attention" I mean no lube, no wiping, no nothing. I've had my Gen4 G17 go for far longer than that, I eventually gave up trying to get it to stop and just cleaned it.

I also ran my G21SF an entire season and a half of bowling pin shooting, lost track of the round count. I only cleaned it after one match where it lapsed into a 3
shot burst... I suspect because of something to do with dirt.... but it never actually stopped functioning. I think it took me over 20 minutes and I had a pile of dirty patches on the desk for that one...

-Mike

 

[drgrant]

Definitely NOT a 1911. LOL.

Oh jesus christ if I did not clean my old 1911s at least every other match, or at least boresnake and throw lube in them, that would come back to bite me in the ass
pretty quickly. That said my DW specialist could probably go awhile without it (I've never actually run that gun to failure) but I like it too much to let it get too crusty.

-Mike

 

[dcmdon]

Glock

Glock 17 Survives 18-Year Torture Test Including 6 Months in Ocean

This is bogus. He claims he bought the gun in 1988. But the gun in the photos is a Gen 3 gun. Which came out in 1998.

So either he's full of crap. Or these aren't real photos.

**Update - well the photos aren't real. The EXIF data shows "Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II". Which came out in 2004.

 

[ThePreBanMan]

 

[Dennis in MA]

This is bogus. He claims he bought the gun in 1988. But the gun in the photos is a Gen 3 gun. Which came out in 1998.

So either he's full of crap. Or these aren't real photos.

**Update - well the photos aren't real. The EXIF data shows "Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II". Which came out in 2004.

Those aren't the author's pictures. Look at the slide finish - that thing is brandy-new.


As far as which gun is best - zip gun of various home-made manf. Shoot once and move on. No cleaning necessary.

 

[qqac]

I don't know how truthful the article itself is, but the pics are probably just for the purposes of the republication, i.e. not taken in real time of the actual gun. Notice the pics are artfully arranged with props like starfish and fake snow.

 

[Shark_Cage]

I cleaned my 22/45 a few times but I decided to say F-it and let it stay dirty. It’s a Ruger so I don’t care that much (fine gun just a shitty founder).

 

[Jason m]

SKS, with the wolf ammo. I have put that thing away dirty more times than clean and it always goes bang.

 

[SgtHal75]

Squirt gunz

 

[StevieP]

Rem 870. Pretty hard to make the thing NOT work when called upon.

 

[TrashcanDan]

Any bolt .22
Pretty much any wheel gun.

 

[whacko]

Definitely NOT a 1911. LOL.

I love my 1911. Had it since September......And I concur with this statamemt. My m and p 45 I cleaned once a year and it ran. My Sig 1911 has not failed ever......But the last time I shot it....About 500 rounds since last cleaning it felt sluggish......Like the slide was cycling slower than usual. Still functioned fine. Cleaned it....Back to normal.

Yes you have to clean your 1911.

 

[gscott]

I got a bolt action .22 I cleaned in the late 60's

 

[whacko]

Ruger single 10......
Ruger 10-22
Ruger sp101 357 mag
Ruger mark iii
M And p 45
Mossberg 500
Browning auto5
Henry 22 lever

I run these dirty as hell and they just run.

Guns I feel the need to clean more often.....Sig 1911, Henry 410 shotgun (not for function...too pretty to put away dirty) norinko SKS , all three of my muzzle loaders,

 

[308rifleman]

What guns require the least attention and maintenance? There are definitely times when I am packing for range and decide not to bring a particular gun because I don't want to clean it when I get home.

I love that I can put my Glock or my 10/22 away filthy after 1000 rounds in foul weather, come back six months later, and they are just fine. Same for my Mossberg 500 - beat around the field all day, get home, and just stick it back in the safe - it'll still work after a few months, no problem.

Meanwhile, I've had to mortar an AR that sat dirty for a couple of months and the bolt wouldn't open. My Mosin will rust after milsurp ammo so I clean that after each outing. My Garand doesn't get shot all that often so I try to lightly oil it before putting it away. Jury is still out on my Henry Big Boy but I think it's too pretty not to clean religiously.

So what do you have that's worry-free and needs minimal maintenance?

I would say a synthetic-stocked bolt-action or single-shot rifle with stainless barrel and action would probably come as close as possible to being the lowest-maintenance firearms available. Such simple guns, as a rule, tend to be less expensive as well.

 

[Cuz]

Any Glock, and my S&W 625 Revo. I haven’t cleaned my revolver in about 8 years and it still runs fine.

I’m surprised to hear that you all consider the Ruger 10/22 reliable. We have two of them and neither runs well after a few hundred rounds if they are not cleaned.

 

[kalash]

I’m surprised to hear that you all consider the Ruger 10/22 reliable. We have two of them and neither runs well after a few hundred rounds if they are not cleaned.

Mine is very sensitive to ammo and prefers Remington. I shot ~1300 rounds in two days during Appleseed and my only issues were ammo-related.

 

[whacko]

Any Glock, and my S&W 625 Revo. I haven’t cleaned my revolver in about 8 years and it still runs fine.

I’m surprised to hear that you all consider the Ruger 10/22 reliable. We have two of them and neither runs well after a few hundred rounds if they are not cleaned.

I have 2 ruger 10-22s.....Shoot em slot.....Clean em once a year maybe. Rarely a malfunction except for of course the odd dud but that's 22 ammo.

Do you run cheapest 22 ammo you can find? I gave up on thunderbolt And golden bullets a long time ago.......That ammo is just nasty. 90% of the time I'm running federal auto match the rest of the time CCI standard or mini mag and find that ammo much cleaner

 

[kalash]

I have 2 ruger 10-22s.....Shoot em slot.....Clean em once a year maybe. Rarely a malfunction except for of course the odd dud but that's 22 ammo.

Do you run cheapest 22 ammo you can find? I gave up on thunderbolt And golden bullets a long time ago.......That ammo is just nasty. 90% of the time I'm running federal auto match the rest of the time CCI standard or mini mag and find that ammo much cleaner

Goldies are flawless in my 10/22, way better than Federal match. Go figure.