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Hi,

Newbie shooter here, looking at getting some sort of carbine, and I'm wondering what the practical aspects are in terms of cleaning. From what I've read it seems cleaning a carbine requires a full day, the ability to track a million tiny parts, and the patience of Job. Is it actually that hard?

Are certain types of carbines: AR-15, SIG 556, FS2000, PS90, SCAR, ACR, XCR, AK47, etc.. easier to clean than others?

I keep my pistol clean, but cleaning is not my favorite part of the sport. Something easy to clean would be nice.

Thanks!

I can only speak directly to the AK and the AR.

Of those two, the AK is muuch easier to clean. Simple break down, simple to clean, and lets be honest, you shouldn't have to clean it all that much.

AR is not bad either...certainly shouldn't take a full day to clean any of the guns you mentioned. I'm fairly inexperienced with ARs but I can clean one thoroughly in less than an hour.

I only clean my AR's on a semi-annual basis (approximately) and she runs just fine. I would estimate somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000-2000 rounds between cleanings. The better your parts, the more likely you will not encounter malfunctions even without frequent cleaning.

Gas piston AR's inherently run a bit cleaner. A couple of friends have Sig 556's and they also tend to run pretty clean. I have no experience with AK's.

AK is EASY

I clean my Aks every thousand rnds or so. My AR I try and clean it after every trip to range but usually it's not that way. I'm not worried bc my bump in the night gun a the Siaga 12 guage

I clean my AK when it gets dirty(every 500 or so rounds) and my AR after every range trip. The AR just b/c its performance can be affected by its cleanliness, the AK not at all.

I have found the AK to be very simple to clean, even with the corrosive Yugo M67 I shoot. Hot or warm water mixed with Ballistol, scrub, lube with Aeroshell Fluid 18. Done.

I don't own an AK, but I own a couple of ARs, and one is a carbine. It's a piece of cake to clean. I probably spend more time on parts like the bolt/carrier assembly than I do on the bore. I disassemble the bolt/carrier and give it a thorough cleaning. Once in a while I'll spray a little degreaser on the trigger/hammer assembly and then lightly relube it. I occasionally remove the buffer and spring and clean it. And I'll usually run a wet patch down the bore 2 or 3 times to remove the loose fouling and then I'll run an oil patch down it; but I don't really get after it and scrub it out, and I pay no attention to copper fouling at all. She's a pretty accurate little carbine as is and I'd like to keep it that way, but it took running a lot of rounds down the barrel to make her accuracy consistent, so I don't try to return the bore to like new condition. I leave the gas tube and block alone - unless they've been removed from the rifle. I don't want to run a pipe cleaner down the gas tube and unintentionally push any dirt down into the gas block thereby stopping up the gas port in the barrel. As long as it's working, I don't touch it.

I use the SLiP2000 line of products.

The thing about this category of weapon system is to remember that they have been designed for serviceability in the field by troops who don't necessarily bring any gunsmithing skills to the table; so there is a "lowest common denominator" factored into their designs. I've heard that the AK's design is simpler to maintain than the AR's but I have no personal experience with that. All I can say is that the AR's maintenance is easy and very straightforward.

The AK is so easy to clean. The AR has a few more parts but not any more complicated if you do ten minutes of reading or twenty minutes of watching a how to video on youtube. Do yourself a favor and watch a video or two before you decide on which one you might want.

On a second note another easy carbine to clean is the Beretta CX4 Storm. I had one for a long time, want it back of course, but never had any problem getting it cleaned and ready to rock in less than 1/2 hour or so start to finish. Its also one of the most fun plinkers that has reasonable defense capability. Unlike a .22 archangel or Ruger 10/22.

I don't know how you got 'all day' but my Saiga carbine (based on an AK) takes me about 20-30 minutes to clean completely. About 30 seconds to dissasemble and about a minute to reassemble (I always fight with the dust cover). I even did a detail strip of my M1 Garand in less than a day.