Shoots Better Dirty???

[FullCurlHunter]

I have a Weatherby mk v ULW in 300 weatherby.

I usually shoot 5 - 8 rounds through this before cleaning. My cleaning process is a jag with patch and sweets 7.62, nylon brush with sweets and a jag with patch until clean.

The gun has never shot to my standards 1.5" at 100 yards. I took it out to the range yesterday and and didnt clean it from the last time i was out. The groups seemed tighter than normal.

Has anybody found that some of their rifles shoot better with 10 plus rounds through them (dirty)?

My dad was telling me that a very well known handloader and shooter tracked all of his shooting and groups and found that there is no link to a clean vs a dirty gun when it comes to accuracy and grouping...

Any thoughts?

[ICANHITHIMMAN]

That is normal you are cleaning to much IMO.

[steve smith]

Typically I will shoot as many rounds as it takes to make group sizes open up to determine the frequency at which I should clean. Usually it will be somewhere between 25-50 rounds.Although, I will clean each rifle after every shooting session whether or not I shoot 1 round or 50.

[lerch]

IMOP you are cleaning to much.

once i clean my rifle i will shot 1-3 shot through it to foul the bbl and then it is money, first one or two shots always get thrown in my rifles. I dont have any that take 10 shots to foul up good but i guess it could happen.


steve

[JeffVN]

Yep too much cleaning. My 7WSM Rig prefers to have at least 25-30 down the pipe before she tightens up into her true accuracy zone.

JeffVN

[magicofmt]

My 270 AM likes 5 or 6 shots before it starts to group at 300 yds. Might be me, but I won't clean it until at least 25-30 rounds down the tube.

[eddybo]

I would think it would depend on the state of your barrel when you worked your load up. If you work your load up using a clean but slightly fouled barrel that is where it should shoot would be my estimation. If your barrel was fouled well when you found that magic combo seems like dirty would be better. That said, I often shoot 30 or 40 rounds at BR matches w/o cleaning and never clean at f-class matches where I shoot 60 plus rounds. I would guess that 5 foulers would be the magic number for most of my rifles to really settle down, but have one kreiger that will shoot well after one shot to rid the barrel of any cleaning residue.