Or do you blast em out with brake cleaner and then make sure they're lubed thoroughly with clp?

Thanks

I take apart the bolt everytine but not the extractor

 I just clean the exterior with Ed's Red, wipe on a thin coat of synthetic ATF and a light, thin, almost not there film of grease on the locking and cam lug bearing surfaces.  Shake it to hear the firing pin rattle, move the extractor back and forth and that's it.
 Usually flush it out every few months, mix a drop of oil with some mineral spirits and let that creep inside and evaporate.

I take everything apart except the gas rings and ejector. I only takes a minute, so why not?

I take off the extractor everytime and clean it real good and also the area on the bolt that the extractor sits.  Then run a pipe cleaner thru the center and swab it out good and wipe it down and lube it real good. Then put a few drops of clp on the top around the ejector and take a shell case and work the ejector up and down to lube it good.

You should remove the extractor and clean every time, per the manual. Why would you skip a 2 minute step that can affect reliability so drastically?

Bob

Take it apart, clean it according to the manual. After all I'm a sheeple, why wouldn't I do what I was told?

Not on my AKs. Just the occasional (twice per case) WD40 hosing. Otherwise I just wipe off and relube.
My AR is another animal entirely.

Thanks for the replies, fellas.  I appreciate it since I'm a FNG with AKs.  As stated above, "my AR is another animal entirely". Bear in mind that I've only put two mags through my son's new gun and it was cleaned thoroughly afterwards - cleaned it thoroughly before firing it too.

Looks like some do, and some don't.

After our first real range trip, I think what I'll do is blast it with break cleaner and then break it down to see if it really got cleaned out.

It seems to me that even with the generous clearances designed into the AK series of weapons, and assuming the use of non-corrosive ammo, the bolt would still need to be cleaned of the primer sealant found on most ammo.  Man, that stuff really accumulates.

Another yes over here.

Yes.

We are talking AK bolts and not AR bolts.

There is no ned to strip an AK bolt unless it's broken.  No AK field manual reccomends the disasembly of the bolt for normal cleaning.

Blast it or soak it in solvent and re-lube.

The AK bolt is not part of the gas system like in the AR and does not foul as badly.