It’s August, and here in NC it’s been an interesting summer. It’s been too brutally hot to step outside for most of the year, followed immediately by so much rain, that owning a boat was helping your insurance premiums. There’s no shortage of reasons that we might not have been outside shooting for the past few weeks. But, what have we been doing with our guns in the meantime? Whether you have them properly stored for the long term, or whether you’re just realizing while you read this sentence that you’ve left them dirty in your range bag since April, here’s four things you should go and do to your guns right now to make sure they’re ready for the rest of the year’s activities.
1. Cleaning!
Basic Cleaning. Of course this was going to be the first one. Don’t skip! If you haven’t touched your guns in awhile, in any condition, there is a lot to be learned from this sort of cleaning. First of all, it’s your chance to safety check the guns in your bags or safe. Surely you’ve stored them empty (if they’re not your quick-access piece), but.. In the event that some sort of gremlin came into your home and placed a round in your chamber, now is the safest and most appropriate time to figure that out. Additionally, how confident were you in the cleaning solvents and oils you treated your guns with when you put them away? Well… check in! When you pull your gun out of storage, it’s the perfect opportunity to know if the solvents you’re using are keeping the rust off! Lastly, if you did run them hard and stored them dirty… well, clean them. Why not? Today is the day.
Clean guns for clean fun…
2. Respec / Retighten
While you have your table full of hard-earned investments out for a cleaning, why not get your wrenches out and run through your kit and make sure everything is correctly installed? Whether it’s just a scope and rings, or a fully-fledged battle-rig with red-dot, magnifier, light, IR laser, suppressor, and cheek riser, you should take out your torque wrench, give everything a good visual inspection to see if it’s all lined up, and make sure all your fasteners are still tightened down. It’s a good maintenance habit to get into, and it will 100% save you headache when that perfect 70 something degree range day pops up soon.
3. Inventory Ammo / Record Usage
Some of us keep a meticulous log of how many rounds we’ve put through each of our guns. Some of us don’t! But either way, if you enjoy having SOME sort of log, even a general one, it’s not a bad idea to take this time to look through your ammo stock, and try and make a quick note of how much shooting you’ve done. With precision/ hunting rifles especially, it helps to know how many rounds you’ve had go down the tube!
Pro tip.. If you take note of how many empty ammo boxes pile up on your range trips, you’ll have a rough idea of how many rounds you put down range.
4. Batteries!
Lastly, for some of us, our guns use more batteries than bullets (an exaggeration, but only slightly). Whether they’re rechargeable, replaceable, or disposable, not having fresh ones in your lights, lasers, scopes, dots, or beam cannons can lead to frustration next time you’re out. I mean, imagine getting all the way to a range only to have to shelve your favorite new sub-gun because the dot is out, I mean, yeah… there’s back-up irons… and we WILL train with them… some day.
If you should so happen to remember that you have an entire barrel-swap to do through this process… even better!
So there it is, just a couple ways to fill the time while you wait for this unpredictable weather to… well, continue, because it’s always like this here. But you can still participate in your favorite hobby while you wait for that Goldilocks day to come. In my opinion, making a day out of the maintenance instead of worrying about it while you should be worrying about shooting makes for a more enjoyable experience. Plus, you may even discover that you like working on your guns as much as shooting them.. Maybe more! Either way, you’re bound to build up your work bench and expand the designated space that you have for your firearms, further into your home.
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