Fouler same powder and bullet as real load?

[busse fan]

Is there any truth to the claim that your fouler shots must be the same as your real loads? As in if I'm using retumbo and 200gr nabs I should use the same for foulers to run through my barrel after cleaning for example? Is using something like managed recoil (cheap and gives me brass) for fouling shots not as good as I'm laying down different copper and powder residue? Any negative effect in using managed recoil for example on subsequent accuracy of my retumbo/nab loads?

I am very curious about this since it pains me somewhat to load up a nab with retumbo only to foul the barrel. Thoughts?

[Johnboy]

my question to you is,just how bad of a shoot is the first shot.for me I do not clean the bore till it needs it.have all rifels just waiteing to be shoot again.then when accuracy falls clean.


and if the bore is new just keep running some rounds down the bore.it will clean up a some point in time.

but will add that I only shoot one powder at a time.when testing I clean between powders no matter what the round count is with that one powder.

if the jackets are the same i wouldn't worry about it.I would think a J4 jacket is a J4 jacket.thats if it isnt the case of who made the jackets.say one from one mixing of metals to another.but say shooting a NBT to a SMK then no I would clean.the two jackets are really different from one another.one is harder than the other.which means more copper from the NBT will be in the bore.or at least this is what have run into.

[Reloader]

Yes, use the same load as a fouler. Diff powders and diff bullets will leave the bore in diff conditions. IE firing your test loads for groups right after firing a diff load will very often cause a 1st shot flyer with the loads you intend to group check. This happens to me all the time, which is one good reason 3 shot groups are useless to some extent during testing. 4-5 shot groups are far more useful when developing loads. It doesn't happen all of the time, but more often than not.

[busse fan]

Well thanks guys. At least I can go with a lighter load and save 10gr of powder or so.

[T3-OleMan]

au contraire

Yea...you can save some powder but the copper left in the barrel may not be the same Qty at a slower speed. If you going hunting....burn 2 or 3 of the real thing and don't look back. The cost to benefit ratio is off the charts!
Good Luck.