As we head into the colder months of the year and most of us are going to be shooting less than we normally do because of snow, ice, and frigid cold there are some things we can look to still do to keep honing our craft. While not everyone has access to indoor ranges to keep sending lead down range, one thing you can do this winter is to take maintenance and preventative care into your own two hands. When most people talk about maintenance in regards to their firearms they typically think of their fathers and grandfathers pushing patches down a bore that have been coated with Hoppes No. 9 cleaning oil. While traditional cleaning is indeed very important, as we have moved into the 21st century and the advent of YouTube tutorials coupled with online learning there is so much more we can do to maintain, groom, and improve our firearms.
With a single CLICK of a mouse you can watch hundreds of videos descriptively outlining how to field strip your firearm, look at parts for potential hazardous wear, clean it while it is dis-assembled, and then properly re-assemble your weapon. All within an hour or less! In order to do that 20 – 30 years ago you would either need to have owned a specific firearm for many years and learned the hard way through repeated trial and error, or be an actual gunsmith. We need to take full advantage of our advances in technology, knowledge sharing, and apply it to our firearms.
Many manufacturers offer armorer courses to get their customers better informed on the firearms they own, or sometimes local gun stores will offer cleaning-maintenance classes so their consumers are better informed as well. Sometimes there is a prompt to replenish your inventory of cleaning supplies after the class, but that is only logical to do; like checking items off your grocery list.
As a veteran gun owner it can be invaluable to have a good set of punches, a torque wrench, Loc-Tite adhesive, and a large collection of Torx, flat-head, Phillips, and Allen head bits for ensuring all the bits and pieces on your firearms are always tight and secure as they should be. The last thing you want during a competition or on your everyday carry gun is to have something minor, but important fall off during the moment of truth that could have been easily prevented.
So, instead of relegating your upgrades, improvements, and seasonal cleaning to a local gun store or gunsmith try to grab that task by the haunches and complete it yourself. Many things like installing new iron sights or adding a new Tyrant Designs magazine floorplate are easier than you think and will empower you to try other things to maintain your fleet of arms. As always, let us know all of your thoughts in the Comments below. We love it when you participate in our articles and keep the conversation going!
