Breakdown & Cleaning

The kit

Striker-fired pistol (Glock-pattern and friends)

1. Field strip per your manual — for most striker guns: verify the chamber and magazine well are empty, both visually and physically, muzzle pointed in a safe direction, then pull the trigger if your design requires it to remove the slide (Glock-pattern pistols do), and take the barrel and recoil spring out of the slide. Four parts on the mat. No further disassembly needed for routine cleaning.
2. Bore: solvent-wet patch through, let it sit, brush a few passes, then dry patches until they come out clean-ish. Perfectly white patches are a myth; stop when fouling stops transferring.
3. Slide & frame: nylon brush and rag on the breech face, rails, and extractor area. You're removing carbon and grit, not refinishing.
4. Lube light, lube right: a drop on each rail contact point, one on the barrel hood and lug areas, thin wipe on the outside of the barrel. Striker channel stays DRY — oil there collects gunk and kills primer strikes.
5. Reassemble and function check: slide cycles, trigger resets, safeties work. Wipe exterior.

AR-15 / M&P 15-22 pattern

1. Separate the halves: verify clear, push takedown and pivot pins, split upper from lower. Pull the charging handle and bolt carrier group (BCG) from the upper.
2. BCG is where the party is: this is the dirtiest part of the gun. Wipe carbon off the bolt, carrier, and cam pin; scrub the bolt tail and inside the carrier. (On the 15-22 the bolt assembly is simpler — same idea: carbon off, inspect, light lube.)
3. Bore: clean from the chamber end. Solvent patch, brush, dry patches — same rhythm as the pistol. A chamber brush earns its keep on ARs.
4. Upper/lower housekeeping: brush the locking lug recess, wipe the buffer and spring, rag out the magwell and trigger area. Compressed air helps; solvent baths in the lower do not.
5. Lube: ARs like a wetter BCG than pistols — oil on the carrier rails and bolt rings, a drop at the cam pin, charging handle channel light. Reassemble, function check.

How often, honestly

Wipe-down and bore snake after range trips; the full routine every few hundred rounds or after rain/dust/sweat exposure; deep inspection (springs, extractor, gas rings) a couple times a year based on round count. Carry guns get inspected more often than they get shot — lint and dry rails are their real enemies. And rimfires like the 15-22 foul faster than centerfires — .22LR is filthy ammo; clean accordingly.