Ritual

One of the things I love about firearms is the repetitive care. I love cleaning my weapons. Tonight... out on the front porch... amonst the blowing wind and chilly night air, I cleaned three handguns.

I'm interested in knowing y'all routine here.

Over the years I've tried lots of this and thats.. but I've settled into the following groove.

1) Drop clip, lockback slide. Check that the chamber is clear.

2) Check that the chamber is clear, and field strip the weapon.

3) Spray down the inards of the weapon with gun scrubber and wipe down.

4) Scrub with bore brush and Hoppes #9.

5) Clean inside the barrel with bore brush and Hoppes.

6) Swab inside the barrel with Hoppes.

7) Run 1 dry swab through the barrel to check clean.

8) Apply RemOil to clean pad, and run through barrel one time.

9) RemOil the entire weapon liberally, then wipe down well.

10) Re-assemble weapon and reload weapon.

It took about 45 minutes to apply this system to 3 weapons tonight, including setup and cleanup. I'm a huge fan of RemOil, GunScrubber and Hoppes. Y'all can say what ya want about BoreCleaner... that stuff don't smell right.

Its funny how such a routine reminds you how much you love one gun or another... I cleaned my PT101 last. Man do I love that gun. Everything about it is solid. Sure... it's a big gun. But it just exudes confidence. It feels right in your hand. When you hit the slide release it snaps forward with astonishing ease. As if misfeeds had never been invented.

The mechanism is so familar... everything about it is predictable to me. The way the RemOil runs... the shine after the deep penetrating oil is rubbed off...

And yes... I mean it to sound that intimate. Its pure bliss... right up to the point where she slides into the Fobus... and rests happily on my hip.

Hey... We're gun guys. This is what we do.