I've read from several reputable websites that many people do more damage over-cleaning their ARs than they do from shooting them.  What exactly causes the damage?  Is it just bad cleaning practices, like changing brush direction mid-bore, cleaning from the muzzle and damaging the crown, etc, or will over-use of GOOD cleaning practices harm anything?  How much cleaning is too much?

From the context clues, I gather they are actually talking about damage from over-cleaning using "correct" methods.
But I'm still not sure how.
Maybe if you were too zealous about scraping carbon off of metal and you damaged the metal, but wouldn't that full under "incorrect" technique?

Some people undoubtedly damage their weapons.
Seems like a lot of rhetoric about how prevalent it might be.
A lot of people here don’t seem to get too excited about cleaning.

If you use the correct method for cleaning your barrels, combined with the correct cleaning rod, bore guide, brushes and jag, it will not hurt your barrel. There is only so much carbon and copper fouling in your barrel, so once that is out, it's clean. I reckon you could continue to run a brush through it but it will take you a while to wear out the barrel,  especially with nylon brushes. My guess is bad cleaning practices will hurt your barrel more.

If your grouping isnt starting to suffer, or your not starting to have malfunctions, theirs no reason to clean it.

I have personally put weapons through 2000+ rounds without a single cleaning, and they managed to hold 1 MOA just fine.

Cleaning should be performed only when necessary on an AR. If it is starting to carbon foul in the chamber thats one thing, but if its still shooting just fine, don't sweat it.

People use that as an excuse to not clean.

I agree (search filthy 14) that they don't need to be clean to function, just HAVE to be lubed.

If you think a brush damages your bore, what did that last bullet do considering that it is oversized and getting swaged down the barrel over any prior carbon/copper etc.
People get shocked about running a patch twice, or not cleaning a bore snake every use, yet every bullet you fire at the range is pushing through all that carbon and debris that entually gets on the patch.  It really makes no sense if you look at it logically.

Only legitimate concern would be something like a steel, segmented rod that could scratch the crown if pushed in from the muzzle.  If you use brass/carbon/coated rods and nylon/brass brushes etc it would really be impossible to do any more "damage" than you do pushing a bullet down the barrel.

Somebody had a post on here about people being afraid they might accidently use a rat-tail file for a cleaning rod, or steel wool instead of a patch.  It was funny, I wish I saved it

I've always wanted to watch one of the "you do more damage cleaning it" people clean a gun and see just what the hell they are doing!

OP, I think a lot of that stems from military units cleaning firearms weekly in the garrison, whether they have been used or not.  Some get overzealous to the point where they remove the finish off of parts.  Some civilian AR owners are also prone to this urge to get things "shiny".  So, mostly, when people say that, it's because of overcleaning.




Not sure if serious.

I go to the range and shoot 100 rounds, after I've finished my rifle get's a complete cleaning, I just feel better having clean weapons in the safe

Over cleaning should be changed to negligent cleaning.

Over cleaning to me would be cleaning your weapon to the point of unnecessary ware causing the rifle to break or ware out prematurely causing it to fail.

Then we would be back to negligence.

Good Lord.  When I was in the Marines we cleaned our rifles every Thursday morning.  Whether they had been fired or not.  99% of the time they had not.  Some of those guns were scrubbed clean of their anodizing.  We took those same rifles to the range and qualified with them.  Speaking only for myself, they could still yield Expert scores on the range (and in case you don't know, we shot for score out to 500 yards).  I think it is pretty hard to harm a rifle's function from over-cleaning.  It takes a toll on appearance though.

This pretty much sums it all up.

I once got in an argument here with a member tried to prove to me that over cleaning does ruin the functioning of a  firearm. I had asked him to show me some proof. All he could come up with was a pic of a lower receiver that the finish had been scrubbed off of, but like this poster above me said here it did not interfere with the functioning of the rifle.

What is this "cleaning" you speak of?  Just keep adding lube, and shooting.

Heard a funny story on how a Drill Instructor made his platoon (or whatever its called) clean their BCG's with steel wool...for a period of 4 weeks.

I honestly think its just a cover for when his girlfriend went shooting while he was gone and tried to clean it but whatever.