Cleaning a tight hardball gun

I just received my first match built pistol (Accuracy-X Pro-Plus). Obviously It is tightly fitted in all the appropriate areas. The gun has about 350 rds on it now and I lube the hell out of it while I am shooting. 

I am shooting 45acp hand loaded coated lead SWC and Zero JHP with WST and Bullseye powders. 

What are the cleaning requirements for a tightly fitting 1911? 

Pull the barrel out of the slide and give it a detailed scrubbing and wipe down every so many rds, if so how many? 

A bullseye shooter I know said he never takes his gun apart to clean it because he thought it would loosen up some of the fitting such as barrel bushing to slide and barrel. Is this a real problem or just a perceived problem?

Thanks,

-The New Guy

Here's their video.

https://youtu.be/jXU3YR3PwAU

I generally don’t pull the barrel.
Remove slide, spray the crap off with something appropriate.
Lube on lower lugs.

Spray all the crap outta the receiver. Oil appropriately

Reassemble and oil accordingly

+1

For most well built (quality barrel) 1911's, it ain't the barrel that needs cleaning as much as the extractor and its channel.  Be sure to pull it and clean out the hook and hole every few times you shoot.

For the barrel with jacketed or wadcutter loads, a few simple passes with a brush and Kroil and a follow up patch is generally enough for me until my semi-annual full clean.  

I've seen LOTS of bullseye 1911's on the line with pristine barrels and innards.  But they also have extractors so full of crap that the gun quit functioning and they can't figure out what's wrong.  And some of it was packed so hard the extractor was not able flex very well.  

CR

CR10X wrote:For most well built (quality barrel) 1911's, it ain't the barrel that needs cleaning as much as the extractor and its channel.  Be sure to pull it and clean out the hook and hole every few times you shoot.

For the barrel with jacketed or wadcutter loads, a few simple passes with a brush and Kroil and a follow up patch is generally enough for me until my semi-annual full clean.  

I've seen LOTS of bullseye 1911's on the line with pristine barrels and innards.  But they also have extractors so full of crap that the gun quit functioning and they can't figure out what's wrong.  And some of it was packed so hard the extractor was not able flex very well.  

CR

Thanks for the explanation about the extractor cleaning. I was not aware that this is a problematic area. I will be sure to pay attention to it. Thanks

My metric on cleaning, after a shooting session, I look at it, if it is starting to accumulate excessive amounts of dirt on any of the moving surfaces (slide/frame, barrel, extractor, ect.), it probably is close to time to clean it to some degree. Depending on how much I am shooting, I will completely strip and clean, in my case usually once  or twice a year.

As a test, I once took a gun to 2000 rounds before cleaning.  It was a CZ-75 and it looked like it had been recovered from a coal mine.  But it ran and accuracy was not adversely affected.  

So how often to clean your pistol?  If you’re shooting lubed buckets, eVery 500 an “assembled cleaning” should do and disassemble at 1000.  Keep it oiled EVERY session.  Every 6 months I’d toss it in to an ultrasonic bath after removing the grips and disassembling.  Re-oil accordingly.

I clean most of my CF guns every 300-400 rounds, mostly a full top end disassembly, clean and oil. You can shoot longer between cleanings if you really oil the crap out of them. Oil till it weeps from the moving parts, wipe down then keep shooting.

zanemoseley wrote:I clean most of my CF guns every 300-400 rounds, mostly a full top end disassembly, clean and oil. You can shoot longer between cleanings if you really oil the crap out of them.  Oil till it weeps from the moving parts, wipe down then keep shooting.

That is pretty much what I am doing. About every 10-20 rds I put a drop of lube in all the areas that Accuracy-X recommended.

Wobbley wrote:As a test, I once took a gun to 2000 rounds before cleaning.  It was a CZ-75 and it looked like it had been recovered from a coal mine.  But it ran and accuracy was not adversely affected.  

So how often to clean your pistol?  If you’re shooting lubed buckets, eVery 500 an “assembled cleaning” should do and disassemble at 1000.  Keep it oiled EVERY session.  Every 6 months I’d toss it in to an ultrasonic bath after removing the grips and disassembling.  Re-oil accordingly.

I'm also a HUGE fan of ultrasonic cleaners! Do a great job and can't beat the convenience.

My Service Pistol seems to just go, and go and go, so at some point I have to decide to break it down and clean it. But my wadcutter gun for example, I’ll shoot it until the gun starts to feel like it’s cycling slower than normal. Then it’s time to clean that one. 

When I clean, I pull the slide off the frame, pull the barrel and bushing off, pull the extractor, firing pin, and firing pin stop off, hose out the slide, and slide parts, brush them, hose again and wipe clean. I clean the barrel well to make sure copper build up is removed. I wipe the frame rails down, then it’s ready for oil. I oil the frame rails and rail recesses in the slide, the upper lugs and its recesses, the lower lug, the barrel bushing (inside and out), barrel where the bushing makes contact, and the slide stop pin. It’s not heavy. A light coating will do. I add oil to rails and barrel locations like in the X video sometimes while I shoot now and then, but often when the gun is clean and oiled up right it’s fine for a two or three hundred rounds before I start adding oil. Between 400 and 500 rounds the gun is slowing down and is due for a strip and clean.

I get it stripped after shooting, I pull the barrel and remove the slide for a proper clean up .

I think it was Gil Hebard who said that if guns functioned better dirty, the manufacturers would figure out a way to put gunk in them at the factory. Since my hardball gun never was fired that much, I didn't feel the need to clean it after every match. I don't believe in the extremes. One can clean a match gun too much, I suppose, or let it go until it clogs with crud. Find what works best for you.

Do you guys who oil every couple strings get scorch marks on your primers? I shot a generous gentleman's loaned service pistol for an EIC recently. He gave it the extra oil treatment. I was surprised when I looked at a spent case that didn't make the catcher to notice they had black, splatter like marks where the firing pin hit the primer. Had to take a moment to make sure it wasn't some kind of failure like a punctured primer. I believe it was just so much oil in the gun that oil was getting on the primer and then that oil getting scorched through the cup from the heat of primer ignition.

I've just never seen or heard of black primers before. I use a liberal amount of TW25b which doesn't move around much; everything still smoothe after 180 shots.

IMHO TW25 is best used for Sears and lower lugs and barrel/bushing contact, and oil for slides, upper lugs and areas subjected to powder fouling.

As taught to me by my coach/mentor:

"The 1911 Service Pistol has been properly oiled if, when you come up on target, a single drop of oil falls from the magazine to the bench."

When I was regularly competing, I would detail strip my 1911s the night before a match and coat each internal part with oil when reassembling.  I'm not quite as disciplined now, and I use moly lube for the sear & hammer.