So I'm on my 3rd AR now and I've pretty much got past that "I have to clean the living sh*t out of my rifle after every range trip!" phase. While I DO still clean after every outting it's more of a wipe down, re-lube (my lube of choice is Slip 2000 EWL), and quick inspect of parts kinda thing rather than a meticulous scrub down. However, the one area I'm still torn about is the barrel. While I've lightened up about it since my first AR, I still can't decide if I should/want to do a squeaky clean with solvent soaked patches, bronze brush, and a bajillion passes of patches, the whole 9 yards until it's practically brand new clean or continue to do what I've been doing here lately and that is ONE patch soaked in EWL followed by ONE dry patch and back into the safe. Is that okay? I want to use whatever method increases barrel life while maximizing accuracy (although I suppose that's what everyone wants). A part of me feels like I should do more. Another part of me feels like it's not necessary. And I'm blaming ALL OF YOU for my indecisiveness haha. Because you hear so many conflicting answers on this issue and each side has their reasoning as to why their way is best for the weapon. It almost leads me to believe I can just do whatever I want. So maybe there's my answer, I don't know. That's why I'm asking. I can't make up my mind so maybe you guys can. Should I stay the course or make that sumbitch shine? I want to do what's best for the rifle. Thanks.

Hoppe's on a patch once a month, no matter what use it gets.  All but 5 minutes.

I was curious about this so just tested it.  Somewhere between 300-400 rounds my accuracy degrades so the barrel gets cleaned with solvent, patches, and brushed til clean.  

That's also with my barrel and my handloads.  Your best bet is just to test and see what the gun and your targets tell you.

Use something like carbon cutter to get powder residue, but don't worry about removing copper fouling until accuracy drops off.

I went to the range today and went through 280 rounds or so. Got home and went ahead and put some solvent soaked patches down the tube and passed a brush through ONCE. I think I'll just do whatever now haha. Sometimes I'll give it a good cleaning and every once in a while I'll just run some lube down the bore and put it away. I guess I was looking for a "do it the same way everytime" and just couldn't choose so I'll just do whatever feels right. Thanks guys.

meercrob462,

If your barrel is chromed then all you need is to use solvent like I do to get powder fouling out and desolved. (Hoppe's). Non-chromed barrels in my battery needs a good soaking of solvent for a quicky cleaning and longer soakings for long term periods. For those I use a stronger solvent like Birchwood Casey's Bore Scrubber for my non-chromed bores.

Impala

Usually when I clean the bore (as opposed to just running a single patch with clp through folloed by a dry one) I use Otis' O12-AR solvent and run two soaked patches through, followed by one pass of a brush, another wet patch, let sit 5-10 min and then run 2-3 dry patches. Thats basically the instructions on the bottle of the O-12 cleaner. I used to do this after every outting and I shoot no less than 4 mags (120 rounds) each time. But the community seems split about cleaning. And honestly, I feel better putting the weapon away clean and closer to base condition than not whether I shoot 120 rounds or 1000. Whether I'm going the very next weekend or not for another month. But I hear talk about how using brushes and even solvents can be bad for the bore (my gut feeling is thats a bunch of crap) but it scared me enougtoget away from my old cleaning procedure. But, like I said, I feel better putting a clean barrel away as opposed to not.

Nylon brushes will not hurt your bore unless you are seriously doing it wrong. In my experience, clean barrels shoot better.

I'm at the point now where I just run a boresnake through it, wipe off the bolt/carrier and relube with Mobile 1. If there is significant carbon build up (highly unlikely with my round count) then I'll scrape (which is about, oh, never). Otherwise... the before mentioned. The AR has gotten a bad rep for needing to be spotless (not true), and as a result many owners are obsessed with keeping it so. To each their own....but I like my rifle CLEAN, but no need them to be spotless (no white glove shit here!).
Yes, I clean them after range trip. NO, I do not do a detailed cleaning every range trip.

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I agree but I use CLP if it has not been fired otherwise yes...Hoppe's.

I put a squirt of CLP through the bore and run the boresnake through it a couple times and call it good for the bore if I shot brass case. If I shoot steel I also scrub the chamber with a chamber brush and CLP.

Boresnake. One run with mpro 7 on the front, let it dry, and then after it dries off the snake, I squirt some oil on the end of the boresnake and run it through again to coat the barrel.

A bronze brush (which CANNOT hurt a barrel (unless you are doing it unimaginably wrong)) down the barrel after an outing, then inspect.  Usually, it needs a few patches to look "showroom new" and that's all for the barrel.  I wipe down stuff here and there to get soot and crud off of it while inspecting the rifle thoroughly.  I do this if I fired 200 or 20 rounds.  This way, the rifle always starts out clean and I don't have to count rounds or chart anything.

This, when used with a bore guide and preferably a coated rod and while the barrel is still hot.

If you run a patch or brush or whatever is your favorite or proscribed cleaning method and do it while the barrel is still freshly hot, it will come very clean very easily with minimal effort and wear. Do it at the range or wherever you shoot, Once it cools and hardens it takes much more work and wear to get it clean.

If you have copper fouling, that takes more work. A little JB non embedding bore paste might be called for to smooth it up a bit.

I put a little over 13K through a Colt SOCOM barrel and it got cleaned twice.  Once at about 5K, and once right before I sold it.  

No accuracy or wear issues.  I couldn't even see a degradation of accuracy.