All this cleaning "voodoo" I read about, never ceases to amaze me. I'm also a regular at the "Glock Talk" forum and you see all kinds of crazy cleaning techniques there as well. Pistols in the dishwashers, AR15's in the shower, what ever happened to bore cleaner and gun oil?

Every article I've seen written by esteemed barrel maker's and gun makers (McMillan, Bushmaster, Armalite, as some examples) all state pretty much the same thing. Forget the voodoo. Don't over-clean your weapon, use traditional cleaning products, etc, etc...

Would you wash your car with CLP? Why clean your rifle in soapy water then? I'm confused. I've been a gun owner for over 30 yrs, and in my personal experience have found that traditional methods will clean, and make your weapon last a couple lifetimes.

What's your view?

I agree.
For some, cleaning a weapon is a chore. I happen to enjoy it. Magic solvents and instant clean methods are not a substitute for elbow grease. When I am finished, I want to have viewed, cleaned and lubricated every critical area. Then next time I shoot, I know it will go bang.

Seriously... those who try to over clean end up doing damage, or removing 'too much' fouling from the barrel, and need to fire a few shots to get the poi to settle...  I run my patches, use primarily CLP (only in a K or 2 rounds do I go for copper solvents...)...  Rifle functions flawlessly.  Keep excess grit off and out of the bolt and carrier, and you are good to go... works for all weapons... so far.

=)

I hear you. It's scary some of the "hooks" and things people use to scrape carbon off parts...that can't be a good thing. I use 2 chemicals:

CLP-For cleaning/lubricating
Gun Scrubber-For hard to reach areas

..and the [i]only[/i] tool you'll see near my AR is the GI nylon brush.

I know better than to make a posting on a rant, in particular when I have to agree using "expermental" cleaning products can easly be over done.

That said, there are areas where one runs into a near need for alternate clean products, depending on what and how much shooting one does.

When a couple of use go shooing on a very good day outing, the ammo has neared 10K per person, which tends to generate some serious cleaning.

These are the times one needs to have a little stronger copper removal and/or mechanical effort (aka scraping) to remove the "dirt".

In the case of shooting the full auto 1919A4, the miliary system included scraping the muzzle bearing (which gets carbon / copper build up that you can chip off with a screw driver ;-).  In this case found a non-gun rated cleaner worked much better than any "gun" cleaner (i.e. use carb cleaner for the worst area like the muzzle bearing).

After spot cleaning with gun cleaners (i.e. Hoppies and/or MPro7), like to do a full flush of the 19194 receiver, and for this I did not really wish to buy the two plus gallons of Hoppies to rinse out the receiver in the five gallon pail, as mineral sprits with a little ATF did well (for the bolt etc. flushed with off brand Gun Scruber) and at the end used CLP.

Regards
John

P.S. Have had good luck with some of the long term film gun oils inside my truck tail gate where the last one rusted out with "standard" car type rust prevention chemcials ...

I think I probably get a little more aggressive than most, I use shooters choice bore cleaner after every shooting session, for the locking lugs, chamber, and bore.  I run a bronze bore brush down the bore every time, and a chamber brush most times.  I also use it on swabs for the inside of the bolt carrier where it gets fouled.  (I know that area doesn't matter, but it irritates me that it is dirty.)  For everything else, CLP, as previously stated.  I also use steel wool to clean the tail of the bolt, and I use a tiny pick/scraper to get gack out of the extractor lip.

I don't use non firearms solvents for anything, and I typically dry off all of the areas cleaned with shooters choice, then re-oil down with CLP, as I don't want ammonia sitting long term on any piece of my weapon.

I agree. I clean all firearms immediately after shooting. For my AR's, I bought a coated Dewey one piece rod, with all the goodies, and a cleaning rod guide. Using these, and a bronze bore brush on a chrome lined barrel, I don't see how you can damage a barrel from too much cleaning. I use shooters choice bore cleaner, and hoppes on everything else. Break free for lubeing, and a citrus based degreaser on the plastic parts. (makes them smell nice too!!). AK's get cleaned with brake cleaner (DO NOT GET IT ON THE WOOD), and a high temp grease on the bolt assembly. Glocks get cleaned normally, but if you want to make them look nice, finish up with a coat of armorall on the entire gun, slide and all. If used on the mags and mag well, you'll notice how much smoother they work. on my stainless guns, mineral spirits work great. I disassemble the gun and let it soak in a coffee can. Seems to work great...I'm also experimenting using Mobil 1 synthetic oil as a lube, the jury is still out on that though...