[Adam Helmer]

I hang around my local gun club and gunshop and hear folks lament about the "terrible" chore about cleaning guns. I cannot fathom the lament. Smokeless powder handguns, rifles or shotguns will take 10 minutes to clean, if one is slow. Muzzleloaders take about 20 minutes to do a thorough job.

A neighbor came by last week with a Glock 9mm M19 and a 4-inch M19 .357S&W. He had fired them both and asked for a cleaning seminar. He recently bought both and, naturally, did not read the instructional booklets provided by both manufacturers.

It amazes me how new gun buyers will pay $400 or $600 for a firearm and neglect to pay $10 for a set of ear muffs or $15 for a cleaning kit to preserve their firearms. My neighbor had neither muffs or cleaning kit. We need to get the word out to these "Pilgrims."

I showed my neighbor how to properly clean his pistols and sent him off to the store for muffs and cleaning kit. Game Over! I have a sad story about a new owner of a S&W M29 .44 Magnum sans muffs, but that is for another day.

Adam