Hello, I'm Chuck, with Alien Gear Holsters, and welcome to the next episode in
Concealed Carry Training Videos.
Today's topic: how to clean a handgun.
Ok, today we'll be cleaning my Springfield XD Tactical 45,
and number one thing you want to remember is always make sure
that weapon is pointed in a safe direction, and make sure it is unloaded
So you want to drop your magazine out, open the action, inspect it,
and we're just gonna do a basic minimum cleaning on this.
This is your take down right here, on this particular weapon, you push it up.
This is your slide release. You're gonna hang onto the slide as you release this,
lets the slide go forward, remove it from the receiver.
So you can take this down a little farther, taking the barrel out to do a little deeper cleaning just a
quick feel cleaning, a basic cleaning. Couple different things you can use on
them, you got some liquid solvents, available your local gun store. You've got some
spray solvents also available. I prefer a particular one by Winchester, simply because
this is a solvent and lubricant all at one. You can clean the gun with this and
leave it on there. So, you wanna good basic cleaning kit. This is a more
advanced cleaning kit, this is a pretty simple portable cleaning kit. Use your spray
cleaner, your solvent, get it in there leaving it together, get your barrel swabbed out
real good. Cleaned out. Take your q-tips, and clean on those slide rails in here,
get those cleaned up good, and any spot that's going to contact the receiver
that could cause the weapon to hang up when you're firing it, get those cleaned out
Get it wiped down good.
and if you're using a regular solvent, you get it wiped down good. Take some of your oil once again
on a Q-tip get in there and oil things down or in case you're using the spray
cleaner combination lubricant you're basically done there.
Finish cleaning the slide out, give it a spray down.
Sorry, the receiver, not the slide.
Want to pay particular attention to your slide guides here on both sides,
make sure those are good and clean and wiped out. Once again that's a potential
for the gun to misfire or hang up on you. Got those cleaned out, get in there with q-tips, go down deep into
the magazine wall on both sides, get that wiped down good. Basically ready to
reassemble the weapon at that point, you was a slide back on the receiver,
lock it back, reengage the takedown tool, slide goes forward.
Make sure its functioning. And you're good to go with a clean weapon.
Now let's go through a thorough cleaning. So we'll start with just cleaning the slide and
the barrel. So you got a spring in here with the two - that's the action that operates the
slide when the gas is released, when the weapon is fired. You want to take to spring
out, you want to be careful with these because the springs are really powerful, smaller
calibers like a .380 or a nine millimeter, it's pretty easy, .45's a little tougher.
Once you're inside, most all the autoloaders are the same. Pull the barrel out, separate
the slide from the barrel. You look down there and see your lands and grooves which are
the twists that makes the bullet spin, that keeps it accurate.
The dirtier those are, the less accurate the weapon. That's one important reason to
keep that clean. Another important reason to keep the weapon clean is longevity of
the weapon, as well. So we'll get into the cleaning here now. One thing you wanna
have on hand, most of the time, is some basic q-tips
so you're getting the nooks and crannies, if you got a partcularly dirty gun, you gotta get some of that
stuff out of there. So we'll our spray cleaner and shoot it down the barrel a little bit here. Get some in there,
and get it clean. And you want to make sure you use the right cleaner for the caliber
that you got, that one is. You get a cleaning rod from your kit, attach to the
brush or rod, heavily felled, you want to use your brass to clean it thoroughly
clean, maybe just a few shots, been shooting some clean ammunition, nothing
that's lead, something kind of jacketed. Gonna run your rod through it a few times, clean it off.
Get the stuff out of there. You can run a patch through, to take the rest of the residue off, if you're
using a plain old solvent. As I stated before, this particular cleaner's a
cleaner/solvent/protector, if you
oil so you don't have to do that. One that's clean, you can spray your slide down a little bit, get in there
with your q-tip and get in those spots that might be particularly dirty or hard to get to.
Then you get a good basic cleaning on these, get them wiped down, and you can move on to your
receiver. Once again, give it a light spraying, give it a good wiping down, get in there with
a q-tip, clean it off, get it cleaned up. Get inside where your magazine goes. Speaking of magazines,
that's one thing you can't neglect. You have to address your magazines as well.
Most magazines take down basically the same way,
there's a button on the bottom. They get dirty, and your ammunition won't feed fully, and
those can cause misfires as well.
Most of the time, you've got a button on these things, you just push down and slide this
forward. You want to be careful, there's a spring in here, so keep your thumb over it.
Might wanna wear safety glasses when you're using the sprays and playing with
the springs. You disassemble it, pretty simple, you just cleaned that out with a rag, wipe
it out. Plastic magazine, just wipe it off; metal magazines, I would probably use the
spray cleaner on, clean them off, get that lubricant on there. Reassemble these, just
the opposite of what you did, taking it apart. Once again, that's back together. So
we got everything wiped down pretty good, got some lubrication on it. So we'll go ahead and
reassemble it back, basically in reverse, grab your slide, put your barrel back in, paying attention to
orientation, run that forward, put the spring back in, lock it back into the barrel. Once
again, the .45 caliber has a really tough spring, so make sure you're careful with that. Visually
inspect, make sure that's good, that's good. I'm gonna reassemble it, bring it back, lock it back.
Drop it back down.
Weapon's locked, slide it, inspect it, rack it a few times, make sure everything's good to go.
And that concludes the cleaning portion, the pistol.
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