Rifle cleaning - a lost art?

Aye.
Take my fav small bore pistol: the Ruger .22 Mark series. Seemingly designed by a Japanese Origami master. I've had people come to me at the range when I'm exercising one, and they ask if I can assist putting it back together.
Same goes for any fire arm. Who can take the AR BCG apart, and reassemble without a guide?
I personally like to simmer all the small bits in a serious solvent via ultrasonic while cleaning the bigger parts, and reassemble with a quality running lube unless long term storage is in the picture, then it's old fashioned cosmoline.

 

All you guys missed the meaning of reason for buying a new gun .
wife says ,"do you really need another AK 47?
And the answer is, the barrel is all rusted out from sitting in the closet. that's why I need another Ak47 and a gun safe .
And she says My shoes are scuffed and mixed up. and I need a shoe closet.

 

Been doing that since I was18..

 

Could probably do it behind my back. For sure blindfolded. @Tully Mars, what was the standard drill? Disassembly of the complete rifle and reassembly and function check in under 60 seconds? That sounds right, but it's been 20 years or more. We used to practice with all the MG's in the armory, and I thought I was fast until I saw an 0331 do it.

 

No chit, I make the kids do that drill. The wife can do it with her AK as well.
I love that woman, but really? An AK???

 

Taking the wood off the AK upper handguard looks like some sort of magic trick. I bet less than one in a hundred AK owners will ever learn how.

 

The owner of a indoor firing range and gun store in Post Falls, Idaho has a PWS 5.56 which is built on the same premise as the old AK (long bolt gas piston) but 21st century materials/metals and much, much strong bolt assembly and he was testing it for PWS (Primary Weapons Systems, based out of Boise, Idaho). He was doing the same thing and last I heard had over 25,000 rounds (some say 30,000 rounds) through it without cleaning it. It was still going strong. It convinced me and I bought one myself...but I clean it after every shooting. LOL!

 

We used to do the "Bucket drill" take a M-2, M-60, M-16, a 1911, an AK, and an M1A apart, toss all the parts in a big bin, put on the blind fold and then have to re assemble and function test them all! I dont remember the record, but i did mine in under 5 min! My Lovely Bride can still do an AK blindfolded in under a min, and can do a 1911 in less then 45 seconds!

There are some tricks to the Ruger MK series pistols, one big one is to re assemble it vertically ( like in shooting position), especially when installing the damn mainspring to bolt retainer lock! I have several of them, and the stainless MK-2 is the only one that is a bugger, but with a bit of fidgiting, can be done pretty quick, the MK-1 almost falls together by its self! Go figure!