22 Oct 13
From a friend with a large agency on the East Coast:
âMany departments don’t like their officers cleaning their own pistols and rifles. In one in particular, guns are periodically turned-over for âdip-tank cleaning.â
Guns are âdippedâ into a tank containing some sort of solvent. Often, there is no follow-up! Iâve recently seen four serious stoppages on the training range, all caused when âdip-cleaningâ failed to get built-up gunk out of tight spots. And, there was little follow-up. No re-lubrication in most cases.
>SIG 226 in 40S&W, gunk build-up behind the extractor causing failures to feed
>Glock 22 in 40 S&W, gunk build-up in the extractor cut causing soft extraction
>M4, non-functional, due to gunk build-up within the gas-spigot (carrier key), preventing the bolt from closing completely
>AR15, non-functional, due to blocked gas-tube, from âdunkingâ the entire barrel assembly, and then failing to subsequently clean-out/blow-out the gas-tube. Solvent loosened crud inside the tube, but the slurry was not then flushed out. Instead, it eventually âset-up,â like wet cement.
In all four cases, a few minutes of correct maintenance and cleaning, and the gun was back up running as designed.â
Comment and Lesson: When your gun doesnât run, you get to die, not the armorer, not the gunsmith, not the chief of police!
User-level maintenance neednât be obsessive, but you have to keep after it, testing your personal weapons constantly. When it doesnât run on the range, it wonât run in your next gunfight! Donât casually brush-off reliability issues.
Clean it. Fix it. Or, replace it. Youâve bet your life on it, and getting killed is no fun, particularly for stupid reasons!
/John