Cleaning M14 and dumb Armorers

When at end of ROTC summer camp, the mandatory requirement per the Armorer for end of training , return of M14 rifle was it had to be bone dry and clean. I cleaned my weapon meticulously, lightly lubed it and rubbed all surfaces with issue gun oil.

My rifle was rejected. Those who took their M14 into the shower , scrubbed it with a tooth brush and used Bon Ami cleaner on bore brush down bore...and water down bore . Dried their weapons , patched bores bone dry and Guess What....their rifles passed inspection by the Armorer.

Great Scott...can anyone imagine the condition of those M14 after six weeks bone dry in storage till next training cycle ? Did I go back to the shower and "clean" my M14...well, what choice did I have.

Years later, as a secondary duty as a 2Lt. in B/1/504, 82nd Abn Division, I was assigned Arms Room officer and death on maintenance of all weapons, they were clean but cleaned properly and I never forgot that knucklehead armor demanding weapons bone dry. Come time for 82nd Abn Div IG inspection, the E6 who was the inspector commented our weapons were not bone dry and ready for inspection, I did not hesitate to make it known they will never be so, and took him to task. Well truth be told, the E6 was tasked to be an inspector, he was not Armorer qualified and he backed off. He inspected to see if all weapons were operational and we got a Satisfactory as Arms Room Evaluation.

Point: Armorers and Weapons Inspectors.....some can't pass the IQ test of wet rag.

I suppose "bone dry" would be OK in a desert, sandy area? I cleaned my M1A same as I cleaned my Garands except the M1A's roller bearing on the bolt got a bit of grease too.

many many years ago, I was a young man and traveled with my Father (Warrant, and a Civilian USAR employee) to various bases in Central VA,

I never served, he worked as a Civilian for the USAR as well as he weekend active duty

however I would walk in with him, chat a bit with whoever was in charge , and go in the arms rooms with him, (dad)

one visit to inspect firearms or drop something off, (been 35+ yrs) a young private and a LT were doing what I guess was an inventory, checking each firearm, checking it off a list by serial number,

the LT was sitting at a makeshift desk, and had a 1911 in a shoulder holster on, the private was picking up the rifles and reading the serial numbers


there was a short rack (in length) with some 22lr training or comp rifles, (again, don't remember if they were mossbergs or winchesters, been too long ago) but the Private could not find a serail number,

I' felt sorry for the guys, since neither seemed sure which end of the rifle was which, and neither could figure out what it was,
so I stopped, showed the guys where the make, model, and serial were on that 22,, pardoned my self and went back to what I was doing,


this was maybe 85 or 86, or maybe earlier,

Interestingly the hot water method mentioned in the OP was used in WWII, in fact guys would sometimes take the weapon into the shower with them. I have that on the authority of some old boys who had been there and done that. But, and its a big but, after the weapons were cleaned and dried they were lubricated. Apparently somewhere over the years the lubricating part was forgotten by some folks.

When I was in the Army small unit armorers all had some level of competence. Usually in small units like the one I was in in Korea (a detached company) a soldier who knew something about firearms and firearms maintenance was given the job as an "other duty as assigned." For reasons unknown to me, in Korea, even though I wasn't the armorer or the machine gunner the powers that be decided that I should be the one to take care of the M60s so after a crash course on "the pig" I became the person who had to check them out before issue (which was seldom.)