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At the gun store I worked at, I got to clean a large number of 1911's for customers. One customer was a personal friend of mine, and used a Vickers NH. When he first got it, he didn't know how to take it apart...he just let us clean it for him. All he did was lock the slide back and apply lube (CLP). It went it's first 5k rounds without even being field stripped. Ammo was an assortment of FMJ reloads and commercial ball 230gr. He had 1 or 2 magazine related malfunctions, and that was it.
When he handed it over to us...it looked like it'd been pulled out of a swamp. Everything but the sights got pulled off and run through a ultra-sonic tank. It still required scrubbing to get the remaining gunk off, after it was run through the tank.
I surely would have thought a 1911 fit that tightly would have choked long before 5k rounds...but it always ran wet. It's my belief that the crud being relatively damp allowed it to flow into areas that didn't negatively affect the mechanism. Were it dry, it probably would have clogged up, and slowed down the moving parts, IMO.
Another responsibility of mine was to maintain rental pistols. Glocks, Sigs, XD's, 1911's, BHP's, S&W revolvers, HK's, and Beretta's. All ran 10,000-100,000 rounds/ year....non were ever broken down and detail cleaned unless a part broke and needed replacement, but they all ran wet, also. They were field stripped and cleaned/ lubed about once a week. If a gun started to have stoppages, a simple wipe-down and re-lube got it running, every time.
I now detail clean my pistols aprox every 1k rounds, and do a basic cleaning after each usage, and a relube every 2 weeks even if not used.
These were pistols used on an indoor range at room temperature...I can't offer much help with keeping pistols running in alternate environments.
Feel free to PM me if you'd like to compare notes.
JD
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