Suppressors How many rounds before cleaning suppressed rifle

shax2lex

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Feb 27, 2013
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I have a TBAC 556 Takedown suppressor inbound and it’s going on a Seekins 3G2 with an adjustable gas block and probably a JP SCS H2. Typically, how many rounds is everyone running before cleaning the rifle to prevent malfunctions with the gas system?
 
Depends on how much shooting you are doing. A few hundred rounds of a suppressed gas gun will get very dirty. I found mine needed cleaning every 300 rounds-ish. Some go way longer, some less. I suggest taking oil/grease with you at the very least to keep it running. When you start running into issues, then its time to clean.
 
1-2000 depending on how motivated I am. Lube every 200 or so. 16" 223 ultra 7, no adjustable gas block. An adjustable gas block can help more.
 
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My suppressed gas guns get fouled fast. They are all direct impingement so all the back pressure and crap comes into the action.

I take out the BCG to clean it and the upper receiver after every session because it gets cruddy quite fast. Similarly, I try to wipe / brush out the lower as best as I can. And if the lower is too bad, I’ll spray it out with a cleaner and then use compressed air to dry it and then relube as necessary.

I try to not over-clean the bore to avoid damage and keep things shooting consistent. I’ll typically pull a bore snake or patch through the bore once or twice with a very light amount of Super QCG or Break-Free CLP.

During sessions, I always have my kit with me and a few drops of Super QCG or Break-Free on the bolt and BCG will keep it going.
 
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1-2000 depending on how motivated I am. Lube every 200 or so. 16" 223 ultra 7, no adjustable gas block. An adjustable gas block can help more.


This. Ran a suppressed gas gun hard for multiple 3-4 day carbine courses. Never cleaned, just dropped EWL on BCG. No malfunctions up to approx 2.2k rounds.

Granted environment was ideal, not dusty/Sandy.

When I did clean, it was wiping the bolt and cleaning chamber and that's it.
 
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Theres definitely a big difference between how long I normally wait to clean my suppressed AR's, and how long I CAN wait lol...

I'm sure theres guys who have tested this, I've also seen some wild photos of the BCG's and upper receiver after multiple thousands of rounds were ran through a suppressed gun. I think most would be surprised how long you can wait, just depends on preference as to how long you actually wait.
 
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I like my nitrided bcg’s because even when they are dry you can pretty much wipe all the crud away and hit it with a little aerosol lube and keep running. I never really run into malfunctions with my guns because i try to keep them a little wet. But most my malfunctions end up coming from mags. I usually hit the bore and chambers just when i feel like it.
 
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Most people are going to be running a different suppressor/rifle/ammo combo which can result in different experiences.

I run a few short barrel AR15 uppers, and I first started off wiping down the outside of the bolt carrier group, the upper receiver, and the receiver extension between 200-360 rounds. Things get grittier as more rounds get fired. I have gone longer intervals without cleaning, and adding lubrication keeps thing running, but things become nasty, and I hate the smell.

I have had only one strange issue manifest in my suppressed Colt 11.5” upper. I replaced the original bolt with an LMT enhanced bolt. Although I wiped down the outside of the bolt carrier group, upper receiver, and extension, I hadn’t inspected the extractor. After approximately 700 suppressed rounds I experienced a bizarre failure to extract where the extractor “dog-eared” the rim of a 223-case leaving the empty case stuck in the chamber. Cycling the bolt would not extract the case. I had to borrow a cleaning rod, and the round popped out without any effort.

I found that the extractor of the LMT enhanced bolt was filled with carbon, and gunk. More carbon than ordinary mil spec bolts with similar suppressed, and unsuppressed round count.

So yeah, clean when you can, and keep an eye on potential failure points!