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First thing I do when I go shooting is dump both of my EDC mags and have never had a hiccup with either gun I carry.

I can't imagine going a year much less 6 months without some shooting but really 3 months is a long time to go without shooting for me so my carry guns get rotated and shot often.




I also keep my EDC on me at all times, minus the shower but even then it's in the bedroom with my phone and keys.

My defense guns (EDC's, bump in the night gun and a shotgun) always stay loaded with a shell in the chamber, except the shoty which stays loaded but not chambered.

I never use any of the manual safety's on any of my guns so a loaded shotgun in a locked closet doesn't seem safe. The pistols are all in quick access safes except the one on me.




My kid is technically an adult now and there were lots of years (an eternity at the time but it feels like 18 years flew by now:() where I did things far differently then I do now as a compromise with my wife (she's a Vancouver native and a city girl to the core - I'm the small town nitty gritty play in the dirt boy, opposites certainly attracted in our relationship haha:p). No loaded guns in the house or even loaded mags in safes - all guns and ammo were stored in different safes. Baseball bats were plentiful though:D.

Had a full time plus overtime job that I would loose becasue of company policy. Wasn't a big deal at the time, 9/11 and Katrina hadn't happened yet so gang violence in Portland was minimal and I was young, large and full of myself.

My long winded point is just that everyone's life is unique so you have to adjust and just do the best you can with what you have at the time.

Yep, good points Joe. I've got a young daughter at home, so having a gun sitting next to me on the end table or on a night stand is a no go for me. I have two loaded guns pretty readily available in two different locations on opposite ends of the house, behind a lock, just for her safety. We also keep 2 cans of pepper spray, out of reach/sight, near the front door and the back door. Anything else is in the safe. Once she's out of the home, I'll go back to having them more readily available. When I'm away from the house, it's on my person.
 
When I received my first official LEO 9mm in 1995, my department suggested breaking it down every two weeks for a light lube. Before that I carried a Smith Mod 10 since 1969. Now retired I'm carrying a 9 Shield which I shoot weekly. I always clean a handgun after shooting it. Since this one is polymer I feel I don't want to break it down weekly so I give it a decent "field cleaning" using a bore snake, tooth brush, Q-tips, and a wipe inside with rag or paper towel, then lube with Hoppes oil or BreakFree CLP. After several shootings I break it down and clean it regular style.
 
My trusty Old Colt New Detective looks like a WW2 hand me down. No blueing and lots of shinny parts around the edges. Much of that is holster wear and lots of practice. As it has gotten like this, I noticed it would get a touch of rust on the slide and the grip safety. I found out that those areas were seeing body sweat more then other areas and would show just a hint of rust. I forced my self to inspect it more often and lightly lube when done. As a matter of safety, I always have had a ritual of function checking and loading every day when I go to put it on. It is not my home carry piece so it gets un loaded every night when it comes out of its holster before going in the pistol safe in the night stand! In the morning when I go to load and put it on, I give it a blast of canned air and a quick wipe with an oiled cloth, then chamber a round and I am good to go! In short, I clean/ inspect every day!
 
A firearm kept out of the "storm" with weather it. Your babying your handgun is great. After I Tefloned my J-Frame the parts that "wore" which was mostly the barrel end and some of the cylinder would never rust, even in use because the Telfon also coated that portion by bleeding over on the micron level. I also removed my Smith Model 10 service gun after each tour of duty from its holster and placed it on a rug pad inside my locker. Both guns were in really good condition until I retired and had both of them deactivated by removing the internals, installing a steel rod from muzzle to breech plate and having it welded into place to keep the guns as trophies. Each gun now weighs about four pounds. Actually they are no longer "firearms." Colt used to have a beautiful Royal Blue finish on their revolvers. Maybe you can have you gun reblued by a capable gunsmith and have your "trophy."
 
After every time I carry or practice.
If I did not shoot , then just a wipe down , a patch / boresnake through the bore and a function check.
If I did shoot , then field strip , full clean and a function check.
That old adage of "Take care of your rifle and it will take care of you" , applies to all guns in my mind.
Andy
 
This is true. I've been less pampering my new 9 Shield over the past months. I've pampered some other firearms and in the last three years I had three pistols fail due to certain flaws in them. I clean after each use with a bore snake, quick solvent, tooth brush as mentioned and we're both doing well.
 
Used air compressor on CL is 40-$50.

Will save you a lot of money on canned air and it blows lint out and oil into crevasses you can't normally reach without a total strip down.
 
Yeah. I use canned air. I would love to have a compressor. Problem is I live in a condo apartment building without much garage space which is already occupied with a portable air tank for the tires, a pressure washer in my building's hall closed, and no room at all in my storage bin.
 
Yeah. I use canned air. I would love to have a compressor. Problem is I live in a condo apartment building without much garage space which is already occupied with a portable air tank for the tires, a pressure washer in my building's hall closed, and no room at all in my storage bin.

Ah forgot about NYC...
 
We actually have houses in NYC. I don't live in Manhattan. We owned a home here and upstate which I took down some time ago. Now just 85 acres of .......TREES!
 
Laundry day, which is typically Sunday. I carry a Sig P230 or a S&W Airweight .38 most days and a tiny NAA mini revolver in my pocket in a homemade holster. Invariably lint ends up in the barrels and a quick run with the bore snake is all that is needed every few weeks. I think some people over clean their guns but I suggest just doing whatever works for you. If I have been out playing in the dust/mud/barn/rain then normally I switch weapons until I can give it a good inspection and probably a cleaning. I probably only fully clean every 200+ for normal guns and 500+ for my glocks..
 
After every range trip, when I'm bored and when it's random inspection time.

That nails down rather frequent inspections.
 
I believe I read in one of the many gun magazines that someone put their Glocks in the dishwasher. I know you can clean your keyboards in the dishwasher, and way back on The Tonight Show Vincent Price steamed a fish in the dishwasher, but I think you have to dry those Glocks pretty well after such enterprise.
 

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