On the whole a relative easy weapon to clean. My concern is inside the bolt carrier. Some scrape. Others clean with cleaner on a patch only. Still others say leave it alone. I'm sorry I forgot where I read it but on another forum a guy copied info he got from Armalite. They said leave it alone. Pressure and heat will take care of most of it. They said in the very back of the carrier is some kind of relief that scraping can damage. If anyone has scraped have you experienced any damage down the line? What do you guys do? Thanks.
ar maint question
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Field strip the bolt and carrier, cover in CLP, leave for a bit, wipe clean and leave a thin layer of CLP for lubrication. That's how the taught us in the army. For dry/dusty environments, minimize the CLP and wipe it almost completely dry after cleaning, as the CLP might attract dust. For wet/damp/soggy environments, leave more CLP coating the parts.
Yes the bolt is out. Inside the back of the carrier can get some carbon build up.
I'll send mine over. HOHOHO.We let our daughter clean ours. A couple of years of Army ROTC training makes her much better at it than either of us. It's kind of dirty right now, so she'll have a busy Christmas visit.
I never saw an infantry unit that had enough time (or enough CLP to waste) to 'soak'
carriers in it.
IIRC, the TM mentioned running a chamber brush into carrier...but carbon
build-up won't be a problem, from my experience.
The gas tube & carrier key get a +20,000 PSI gas pulse with each round, so
you don't need to worry about that, either.
The tail end of the bolt (tapered area behind gas rings) and flanged area of
firing pin will build up carbon crusts. I used a safety pin from bandoliers to clean off firing pin...the flange on the firing pin works pretty good for scraping the bolt taper.
Q tips and a t-shirt rag work good for wiping out the receivers. Use the q-tips thru the t-shirt or plan on using a few dozen of em!
carriers in it.
IIRC, the TM mentioned running a chamber brush into carrier...but carbon
build-up won't be a problem, from my experience.
The gas tube & carrier key get a +20,000 PSI gas pulse with each round, so
you don't need to worry about that, either.
The tail end of the bolt (tapered area behind gas rings) and flanged area of
firing pin will build up carbon crusts. I used a safety pin from bandoliers to clean off firing pin...the flange on the firing pin works pretty good for scraping the bolt taper.
Q tips and a t-shirt rag work good for wiping out the receivers. Use the q-tips thru the t-shirt or plan on using a few dozen of em!
I found that Armalite tutorial:
"Ignoring Carbon Build-up - per Armalite
There are frequent posts asking about cleaning carbon from the AR. We've decided to post our answer as a separate topic for your reading amusement:
Hold off on removing the carbon. Leave it.
Now that we've got your attention, we'll explain.
Deep inside the AR-10 or AR-15/M-16 bolt carrier is a groove at the end of the chromed cylinder that the gas rings slide in. That groove is GRIND RELIEF. It's a production artifact. It prevents a ledge from being left where the grinding for that cylinder ends.
Carbon can build up in the groove and the rear surface of the carrier. It is harmless. The high pressure/temperature operating gas keeps it from building up too much. About the time it gets too bulky, it gets blown out.
Don't confuse instincts for cleanliness that you learned in the military with common sense. It's easy for an inspector to know when there isn't a speck of dirt. It's harder to know what's important.
Any scraper that'll get to it can damage the ground surface inside the carrier. Bad deal.
Clean out what you can with patches or Q-tips, but white-glove cleaning damages more guns than all the shooting we do."
"Ignoring Carbon Build-up - per Armalite
There are frequent posts asking about cleaning carbon from the AR. We've decided to post our answer as a separate topic for your reading amusement:
Hold off on removing the carbon. Leave it.
Now that we've got your attention, we'll explain.
Deep inside the AR-10 or AR-15/M-16 bolt carrier is a groove at the end of the chromed cylinder that the gas rings slide in. That groove is GRIND RELIEF. It's a production artifact. It prevents a ledge from being left where the grinding for that cylinder ends.
Carbon can build up in the groove and the rear surface of the carrier. It is harmless. The high pressure/temperature operating gas keeps it from building up too much. About the time it gets too bulky, it gets blown out.
Don't confuse instincts for cleanliness that you learned in the military with common sense. It's easy for an inspector to know when there isn't a speck of dirt. It's harder to know what's important.
Any scraper that'll get to it can damage the ground surface inside the carrier. Bad deal.
Clean out what you can with patches or Q-tips, but white-glove cleaning damages more guns than all the shooting we do."
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