New gun owner, looking for advice

I recently picked up a couple of firearms for home defense and am looking for advice on initial cleaning and maintenance. i didn’t grow up around firearms and I want to learn how to do things the right way the first time.

I bought:

M&P 2.0 full size 9
Maverick 88 security, 20”

I’ve taken a few self defense style shooting courses at a place near me, but I don't see anyone offering anything around cleaning, maintenance, etc.

I don’t want to overthink it, but I think good initial practice and brain to hand memory is especially important in this context.

I’ve watched some YT videos and I keep seeing “influencers” break the rules they just told you not to break it, or rules that I’m already aware of, or say oops, don’t do that.

The last one I watched, an NRA certified instructor picked up his firearm and as he was talking about how you treat every firearm as it’s loaded, he has the muzzle buried into palm of his hand, then racks the slide before dropping the mag. He then proceeds to use solvent when he tells you to use oil?

Any suggestions for a newb to learn things the right way?

 

Honestly, if you don’t clean them for a bit while you finish your research I wouldn’t stress it. Like most communities it’s majority the gross opinionated folks online so look for some universally simple and accepted ideas and try them out. Having tried a few things yourself will allow you to form your own opinions from experience. Cleaning a modern 9mm or shotty is important in the sense that eventually getting to that maintenance on your old Toyota or old dual sport are. Have fun, be safe, and don’t listen to any of the gung ho hooyah crazies about doing acrobatics to clear your house haha. Cheers.

 

Practice, practice practice. "In the moment" is a bad time to find that you still need to mentally check off 20 steps in preparing to fire. Practice "pick up from the table", "draw from a holster", "reload quickly" ... at a range or open field of course in case you are still not graceful.

No ... I am not preaching from the ivory tower ... I am one who should probably put more rounds down-range.

 

Grab a 12 gauge and 9mm bore snake, a bottle of Breakthrough “military grade solvent” and their “Battle Born” lube, and some nylon tooth brush style brushes and you’re good to go. Basic cleaning and maintenance should be in owners manual. Just don’t over oil anything and you’ll be fine with those two firearms, they both have very basic operation.

 

Your guns are super easy to clean and as long as you make sure to unload them it should become pretty easily if you read the instructions or go online.

Finding a good firearms instructor is hard.

There are a lot of clowns out there with dubious credentials teaching some really bad stuff.

 

As mentioned above^^ owners manual. What oils etc will come down to preference. Only thing i wont put on my guns is WD 40.

Me personally i like Rem-oil.

 

https://youtu.be/zGKyhilGZWA

 

My 2cents as a relatively new shooter is to use your brain lol. Cleaning is pretty basic, and so are safe firearm behaviors. I personally just watched some videos on how to clean my firearms and then went it gave it a shot, lubed the gun back up and went back to the range.

I now have a few thousand rounds through my Beretta and have had no issues so long as I keep it lubed.

I'd also look into competitive shooting events in your area (USPSA, PCSL, etc.) if you really want to train and spend money on ammo lol.

 

Never in my life have I got a bore snake stuck. I’ve pulled a snake through countless barrels thousands of times. Never had one stuck. As far as rods go, if your gonna get them, get a Dewey one piece coated rod. Those screw together ones pretty much all suck

 

Thank you everyone for advice and feedback!

I’ve read the manual and am comfortable with their field strip procedure for both firearms. Pretty straightforward, just wasn’t sure what I didn’t know, but it sounds like I know enough to get myself onto the range with an instructor.

The courses I’ve done so far I thought were high quality, but my next training will be with my firearms and a new shooter instructor.

Looking forward to getting things cleaned up tomorrow, I bought cleaning stuff and equipment, bore snake and bore rods as well.

Thanks for the advice on the snake, sounds like maybe not my starting point.

 

OP,

Glad you are set up for training.

You've reminded me, I need to clean my Remington 870 that I recently fired for the first time!

 

No shortage of this nonsense from “experts” on YT, horrifying

 

When you're cleaning or smithing or whatever at a bench, never, ever have a live cartridge or shell within arms length.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyZSrcuuOf0

 

Be safe. Barrel down range. My slides or bolts are always open when not being fired while at the range. Don't trust anyone else with your safety. Some of the most dangerous people I've seen are the "experts". Don't overthink the cleaning. Guns run a long time dirty and modern ammo is not corrosive. Clean it as much as you want, but they don't have to be cleaned as often as some make you think.

Again, be safe and watch your back around people with guns. I instructed basic and advanced shooting for the Army and M9 quals for the Air Force and have been around guns for 50 years. It's the old timers with all the experience that scare the hell out of me.

 

Others can comment if this post is useless, but gives a "skills drill" in post #3089 ...
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/glock-owners-united-mega-thread.479238/page-155

 

Just look for videos explaining how to takedown, or strip, disassemble/reassemble the guns you have
Take them apart when you get em, then take em apart after you shoot em. You will see where they get dirty, and where they have wear marks where you should lube

get you some hoppes #9, and some break free clp

use the hoppes to clean the barrel and a little dab under the collar when you go out on a date. Ladies can’t resist
Use the clp on internals