Being a semi-automatic shooter, cleaning my gun is a very important process that should not be taken lightly. When your shotgun is operating and cycling at a high level due to being clean, it enables you to have confidence in your equipment and is strong for your mental game. You never want to fire a shot in practice or competition wondering if the gun is going to go off or even worse….hoping that it will. 

The basic overall steps on taking apart and cleaning my Beretta A400 are fairly simple. I like to start by making sure the chamber is empty and safe and then closing the action. An average cleaning consists of spinning off the cap on the end of the fore-end, sliding the for-end off, then sliding the barrel out of the receiver and placing it down, removing the gas piston from the barrel and placing it separately by itself on the table or work bench. Next, push down lightly on the locking bolt where the firing pin is and take out the bolt handle, after doing this you can slide the entire action right out of the receiver. Lastly, take a small allen wrench or push pin and knock out the pin that holds the trigger in place (it will look like a little black circle right above the safety if you’re looking at either side of the receiver). Once the trigger is out, you have completed the main steps of disassembly. There are other intricacies you can dive into with disassembly but these main steps will take you as far as you need on a regular basis. 

When it comes to actually cleaning the gun itself, it is certainly important to have gun cleaning oil or a lubricant of some sort to break up the compacted dirt, powder residue, and gunk that have built up inside of your gun. Once you have properly sprayed down or squirted oil on your gun, take a wire brush of some sorts and brush off/scrape away all of the black dirt from off of your parts, once this is done it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to have a rag or paper towel to completely wipe off all of your parts until they are completely dry. Especially the gas piston (this is arguably the most important part of a gas operated semi-automatic shotgun for strong cycling). There is a misconception that it is best to drench your firearm in oil to where it is very wet before you go out to shoot because it will help the gun operate and cycle better, this may temporarily help but in the long run the extra oil acts as a glue to gather and collect the dirt and nasty gun power residue packing it together and ultimately making your gun much dirtier especially clogging the holes where the gas piston is attached to the barrel which is bad. Therefore, do not spray a lot of oil on your semi-automatic before going out to shoot, spray the oil before you clean your parts and then dry them off and wipe away the junk to where your parts are shiny clean. 

Lastly, if you are having any trouble or are confused while cleaning your semi-automatic, never hesitate to use the internet as a tool and resource to your benefit by watching instructional videos on YouTube or other platforms that will walk you through this process step by step. It can be a great help to watch the videos and stop them by pausing at the point you are in your disassembly process as well as assembly once you have cleaned your parts. 

A lot of how often you need to clean your gun is a direct result of what kind of ammunition you are shooting. If you are shooting an ammo with a clean burning power you will not need to clean it as often as you would if you are shooting a dirty shell with powder that doesn’t burn as clean. There is no exact number on the amount of rounds between cleaning sessions. The more often you clean your gun, the better, and the more often you clean your gun, the easier, because there will be less build up. You don’t want to wait until it gets out of hand and then really having your work cut out for you. If you are waiting until your gun starts jamming to clean it, you have waited too long. It’s always better to be preventative rather than reactive to a poor cycling gun. 

Best of luck with your shooting and shoot em straight!