AR-15 Cleaning & Maintenance - A Complete Guide

8/24/2018 Shooting Illustrated | AR-15 Cleaning & Maintenance: A Complete Guide
AR-15 Cleaning & Maintenance: A Complete

Guide
by Steve Adelmann - Saturday, August 4, 2018
Working on other people’s guns over the past decade has taught me that we all approach
cleaning and maintaining our rearms di erently. If the AR-15 ri es coming into my shop
are any indication, some folks are confusing the unloading and clearing of their rearms
with actually cleaning the guns. I nd myself appreciating what the armorers and
gunsmiths who supported me in the Army su ered through on a daily basis.
The truth of the matter is that, just like any other mechanical device, our AR-15s need to
be maintained to work well when needed and outlast us in the long run. While
revolutionary new parts coatings, materials and lubricants can extend the time between
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major cleanings and inspections, they still do not a maintenance-free AR-15 make. Metal
parts that rely on close tolerances to work in concert with each other—especially under
high pressure and heat—are happiest when free of heavy gunk, corrosion and debris.
While you are cleaning, you can also perform a few simple inspections to catch potential
problems before they cause you grief during trigger time.
A good bore scrubbing after use should be standard practice. Use a one-piece rod or bore
snake if possible and if not, avoid segmented rods made of steel to prevent the lips at each
joint from prematurely wearing inside the barrel. Bronze or bronze-coated bore brushes
are abrasive enough to remove most fouling without damaging the bore. They work best
in conjunction with a good copper solvent like Hoppe’s Number 9 or Shooter’s Choice.
These cleaners are safe for barrel steels and coatings, so you can let them soak in the bore
while you work on other parts.
If possible, use a bore guide in your receiver to help keep the rod aligned. Your bore
brushes should be tight but not so much that they cause you to bend the cleaning rod on
the push stroke. Replace your bore brushes once they wear to the point where they seem
loose in the barrel. Once the solvent has had a few minutes to work I swab the bore with
clean, lint-free patches and then follow up with a solvent-soaked patch. I leave this second
dose of solvent in the bore for at least 20 minutes before swabbing the barrel until dry
patches come out clean. If you keep getting signs of carbon or copper, repeat the process
as needed. Whenever my gun will be stored, I run a lightly oiled patch through the bore to
help prevent corrosion.
AR-15 chambers need cleaning, too, particularly if you shoot lacquer-coated, steel-cased
ammunition. Even regular brass-cased ammo fouls a chamber and can cause a buildup on
the inner walls over time. I use an old bore brush, wrapped in a shotgun-sized patch which
has been wetted with solvent to scrub out my chambers. After letting the solvent soak for
a few minutes, I follow up with clean patches. Use a rag to wipe out the inside of the upper
receiver to remove the major gunk and carbon deposits. A few cotton swabs will help you
clean out the locking lug recesses in the barrel extension (just aft of the chamber).
Inspection Point No. 1: Check the locking-lug recesses for any large debris that would
impede the bolt’s locking lugs fully engaging. Large pieces of brass, blown primers or
environmental junk all need to be removed.
When I am cleaning an AR-15 at the range or in the eld, I just wipe excess gunk o the
outside of the bolt carrier group (BCG) with a clean rag. But any other time I “ eld strip”
the BCG down to its basic components for a more detailed cleaning. An old toothbrush is
helpful to scrub carbon and fouling o the parts, again using solvent to help break things
up. I use a clean rag to wipe down all BCG components, then a few cotton swabs to get into
the tight spots. When cleaning direct impingement system parts, focus on the inside of the
gas key, the cam pin slot, the inner bore of the bolt carrier, locking lugs, bolt face, the
extractor and extractor cutout in the bolt.
A scraper of some sort (I use my old G.I. demolition knife) will make removal of carbon
aking from the rear “horn” area of the bolt body much easier. A light coating of oil on
each of the BCG parts prior to reassembly will help them get along better during ring. A
drop of oil on a sticky ejection port cover’s spring-loaded detent will help it snap in and
out of the upper receiver smoothly. Likewise, a few drops of oil along the sides and top of
the charging handle and also at the latch will help prevent binding.
Inspection Point No. 2: The entire BCG needs to be checked for wear periodically. Look at
your bolt’s locking lugs to ensure none are chipped, cracked or missing. Check the bolt body
at the cam pin hole to ensure it is not cracked. Inspect the ring pin tip for pitting or
erosion—it should be well rounded and smooth. The extractor groove should be clean and
not chipped or burred and the extractor spring (and bu er, if present) should be in place
and not bent or mashed out of shape. The ring pin retaining pin should not be excessively
bent and both legs/tines need to be intact. Verify that the carrier gas-key screws are in
place and tight. Gas ring gaps should be mis-aligned prior to reassembly. Once the BCG has
been assembled, the bolt’s gas rings should apply enough tension that you feel resistance
when sliding the bolt back and forth inside the carrier.
I clean my AR-15 gas systems approximately every 1,000 rounds. Direct-impingement gas
tubes are easily maintained by inserting a long [purpose-made] pipe cleaner wet with
solvent into the tube, then following it up with a fresh pipe cleaner. The portion that
extends through the upper receiver is easily cleaned with a couple cotton swabs. Carbon
build-up on the inner surface of adjustable gas-block screws can be cleaned o with a wire
brush after removing the screw(s). Operating-rod systems with removable gas regulators
also bene t from occasional removal of carbon deposits. Follow the manufacturers’
instructions for cleaning them, as they tend to be unique. If your AR-15 has an operating
rod that moves through a bushing in the upper receiver, a bit of lubrication on the rod
where it passes through the bushing helps to prevent binding.
AR-15 lower receivers can often simply be blown out with compressed air or even swabbed
out with Q-Tips to remove debris. If you use a sound suppressor regularly or shoot
subsonic center re-ri e ammunition, the lower receiver may need a more-detailed
cleaning. Removing the trigger and hammer assemblies will provide easy access in this
case but be sure to pay attention to how they come out so they can be reinstalled
correctly.
Use a swab to clean gunk o the sear and disconnector surfaces, then apply a good trigger
grease like Shooter’s Choice High Temp Grease sparingly to the contact surfaces to help
them interact smoothly. Place a drop of oil in the front and rear takedown pin detent
channels to keep them sliding in and out smoothly. If your selector lever is hard to rotate,
remove your pistol grip, selector detent spring and detent pin so the selector lever can be
removed from the lower receiver. You may need to cock the hammer and apply downward
pressure on it to free up the selector body enough to come all the way out. Clean out the
selector detent pin’s groove and apply a drop or two of lube there, too. Clean the detent
pin’s head before reassembling. Remember that many large-frame ARs also have their rear
takedown pin’s detent and spring held captive by the pistol grip. Pay attention so the pins
and springs go back into their proper holes when reinstalling the grip.
Inspection Point No. 3: Be sure to remove anything from the lower receiver that could get
caught under the trigger assembly or that may interfere with proper sear operation. Brass
akes, dirt and primers can all cause problems here.
Remove the bu er and spring from the receiver extension and wipe them down. If the
spring has a lot of black, oily gunk on it, use a dowel to push a rag or large patch into the
receiver extension/bu er tube to clean it out, too. Oil the spring and bu er before
reinserting them.
Inspection Point No. 4: Check the bu er retaining pin for damage. If it is slightly rough,
you can smooth it with a small round le or some abrasive cloth. If it is heavily worn or if
the tip is broken, it should be replaced.
AR-15 buttstocks, pistol grips and fore-ends do not usually require maintenance except to
ensure their hardware remains fully tightened. Muzzle devices need a little attention from
time to time, too. Suppressor QD mounts or threads should be scraped or wire brushed to
remove heavy carbon deposits so that suppressors do not seize in place. Steel muzzle
devices will keep rust at bay longer if they get an occasional light coat of oil. The same
goes for any other phosphated/parkerized components on the AR-15.
Last and far from least, do not neglect your magazines. These critical components often
get abused and ignored but wiping o excess carbon from the follower helps them
function. An occasional disassembly and wipe-down of the inner mag body and spring
also go a long way towards extending its life. I have a pair of G.I. Colt 20-round 5.56 NATO
mags that have been serving me without fail for over 30 years—and I was not their rst
owner.
Each of the following spots on the bolt-carrier group should receive a touch of lube. Avoid the temptation to drown your
AR-15 in lubricant.
Avoid lubes that tend to gum up over time, like WD-40 and some of the fancier organics.
My personal approach to AR-15 lubrication is pretty sparse. In addition to those points
already mentioned, the ends of each rail on the outside of your bolt carrier, the cam pin,
locking lugs and gas-key opening all can bene t from a drop of oil. As a rule, I do not
lubricate the insides of my magazines. The exception is when I will be working in a wet
environment.
Frequency of AR-15 cleaning depends on how fouled it gets during use and how soon you
plan to use it again. Although I test AR-15s every week, I seldom shoot my own. So
whether or not my guns are heavily fouled, I clean the bore, chamber and BCG each time I
come back from shooting. If I do a lot of suppressor work or have a particularly heavy
range session, I go in deeper. Shooters practicing several times a week can get away with a
quick wipe-down of the major components and a brief barrel scrub each day, followed by
adding some lubrication to moving parts. A good cleaning at the end of the week will keep
fouling from snowballing into a problem.
I am not a big fan of hosing down my guns with oil to the point where it runs out of every
ori ce. If you have no time to clean because of the pace of your shooting, heavy oil will
probably help for a while, but it also adds to the sludge and draws additional debris into
the mix. Regardless of your level of use, a thorough cleaning every few hundred rounds is
good for your AR-15.
I recently spent a solid hour removing large, hard chunks of carbon from the chamber
area of a customer’s AR-15. This was not a detailed cleaning. I simply chipped, scraped and
picked my way through the big stu until I could verify that the ramps, raceways and
barrel were still there. The rest of the ri e took another hour to clean. Unless you are
keeping your rebase from being overrun in some distant land, your AR-15 should not be
that funky. Even in that predicament, starting the event with a well-maintained rearm
will give you one less thing to worry about.
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8/24/2018 Shooting Illustrated | AR-15 Cleaning & Maintenance: A Complete Guide

AR-15 Cleaning & Maintenance: A Complete

Privacy Policy • Contact Us • Warnings • FAQs • © 2018 National Ri e Association of America

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