Dry patch for barrel ?

[Geno1112]

I dry patch hunting rifles after using any solvent - because I suspect many animals can smell the solvent at a fair distance. My competition barrels take 4 - 10 rounds to settle down after this cleaning, until accuracy returns.

 

[RH300UM]

ALL my hunting rifles are used with a clean bore.
As was stated in this thread earlier a fouled barrel is inconsistent.
A clean cold barrel is what a load should be developed from for a hunting rifle.
In my opinion.

 

[jaybirdjtski]

I strongly recommend buying this book.
He goes into cleaning in detail
Long Range Precision Rifle
By
Anthony Ciricione II

 

[hrnhntr]

Sounds like your barrels might be going. Unusual for most people's hunting rifles as most don't put that many rounds through them. I know some high level PRS shooters who will make it through a match, clean their gun, then realize accuracy is gone and the barrel is shot. The fouling helps hide the issue during the match. From my experience a couple fouling shots should be all that's needed.

 

[jaybirdjtski]

Yep. Plus you want to know exactly where your first cold bore shot lands in relation to following shots.
Accuracy should return after a well cleaned bore has a fouling shot or three down it.
But you really don't want to take your cold bore shot from a grunged up powder fouled barrel. It wears out the barrel faster or so I've been told.
So between major cleanings for copper I'll just remove the fouling with Hoppes

 

[Pdvdh]

I hunt with a fouled bore.

Most every rifle I've ever chronographed and fired on paper throws the first clean bore shot differently than the following shots.
The very first shot show the biggest variation. To the point that two fouling shots prior to the hunting shot is plenty. Actually, one fouling shot is normally sufficient.
I don't patch anything down the bore during hunting season unless it gets wet. And then I fire another fouling shot before hunting long range.

 

[Rich Coyle]

Does the foaming cleaner "Wipe out" clean barrels? What is a better product or process?

 

[Wolf76]

Personally I shoot through a clean barrel instead of a fouled barrel because when I work up accuracy loads, They are fired in a cleaned barrel for each group

If you work up a load in a fouled barrel you must let the barrel foul before it will shoot your load accurately.

Fouling is by nature inconsistent because it is not uniform in it's placement. A clean barrel buy its nature is very consistent because the bore is clean and free of uneven deposits.

If you don't clean, after some point the bore will foul and settle in with some degree of accuracy and this is the way you will have to shoot to keep the accuracy you achieved with your load because that was the condition it was in when "The " load was found.

In some matches we were forced to fire 100+ rounds without cleaning and this was the reason we worked up loads for a fouled barrel. This match rifle was capable of 1/2 MOA groups with iron sites, But when the barrel was striped of all fouling, it would consistently shoot 1/4 Moa until it had enough fouling shots pushed through it.

Dry patching will work some of the time on some barrels that are pristine (No fouling) but others need one fouling shot and a dry patch to remove any oils or residuals before shooting consistent groups.

Ether way (Clean or fouled)is good if it gives you the accuracy you want But I prefer a clean barrel for best and most consistent accuracy.

Different strokes for different folks.

J E CUSTOM

I do the opposite. My handloads dont start shooting great until i get 12-15 rounds through a clean barrel. It will hold its accuracy for ~200 rounds. When groups start to open up, I repeat the process. I believe the barrel changes so much in the first dozen shots and then starts to equalize. Have watched many guns not shoot worth garbage right after they've been cleaned. Then they start to really throw darts after a dozen shots.

 

[Greyfox]

I struggle to imagine competing or hunting exclusively from a cold clean bore. I have typically found a change in POI after the first cold/clean bore shot. This has not been the case with cold/warmbore shots fired from a well developed load and good barrel that has been fouled with 2-10 shots. From my experiences, whether in competition or hunting rifle accuracy, zero, and consistent velocity can be achieved from a fouled bore. For PRS it is a must given as many as 100 rounds can be fired in the course of a match, many at sub 1 MOA targets at Long range(+700 yards). For hunting, I have had several occasions that multiple tags(antelope and whitetail) resulted in sequential shots. Also, coyote hunting can require multiple opportunities in short order. Yes, most of my hame is taken with 1 cold bore shot, but it's great comfort to know the next shot(or 50th for that matter) will go in the same spot. IMO.

 

[WildRose]

Yep. Plus you want to know exactly where your first cold bore shot lands in relation to following shots.
Accuracy should return after a well cleaned bore has a fouling shot or three down it.
But you really don't want to take your cold bore shot from a grunged up powder fouled barrel. It wears out the barrel faster or so I've been told.
So between major cleanings for copper I'll just remove the fouling with Hoppes

I try to clean all my guns once every couple of years whether they need it or not. If accuracy starts to suffer like you I'll clean then fire two or three fouling shots, check my zero and go on.

They AR's and mini's I run as varmint/predator guns that ride in the truck all of the time may get cleaned every 200-300 Rounds. The 10-22 often goes much longer than that.

If I were a benchrest shooter I'd probably do things differently but my guns are just tools that I carry every day and use as needed.

 

[Doug Herold]

Thanx Greyfox. Virtually all my hunts are with a fouled bore anyway. When I get to my hunting ground, I have to recheck zero....therefore my "kill shot" will always be done with a fouled bore. Know how many rounds you can put through the pipe before it starts to lose accuracy.
I know a Seal who, after each deployment, take apart his entire rifle and cleans each part....except the bore.

 

[lancetkenyon]

There is no "off season". I shoot year round. So I don't worry about "storing" a gun. I never leave oil in the bore. I shoot until the groups start to open, the thoroughly clean and start again. Anywhere from 100 to 600+ rounds.

 

[Greyfox]

Thanx Greyfox. Virtually all my hunts are with a fouled bore anyway. When I get to my hunting ground, I have to recheck zero....therefore my "kill shot" will always be done with a fouled bore. Know how many rounds you can put through the pipe before it starts to lose accuracy.
I know a Seal who, after each deployment, take apart his entire rifle and cleans each part....except the bore.

I generally don't know how many shots I can get down the core before accuracy degrades with either my hunting or Competition/PRS rifles. Whether my experience is correct or not, I believe that an accuracy fall off(and/or velocity change) ican be the development of excessive carbon build-up or "ring" that can developes in the throat area of the rifle. I have arbitrarily chosen 100 rounds for my hunting rifles, and 200 rounds for my competition rifles between cleaning. Using these counts, I can get through a full hunting season with my hunting rifles, and a couple of matches with my competition rifles without an accuracy or velocity change. I can then do a quick clean with BoreTech Eliminator, foul for a few shots and restore original accuracy/zero. If I wait for an accuracy fall off, a change in the barrel has occurred that I have to worry about "restoring" my original state of performance and may have to deal with a more aggressive cleaning process that can otherwise be avoided. If I can't achieve this requirement, I question my load or barrel and go back to the drawing boards. I have run barrels through their useful life using this approach with consistent performance over the barrels lifespan. I determine when a barrel needs to be replaced by monitoring the seating depth to the lands every 500 rounds or so over the life of the barrel. A change here usually coincides with an accuracy or velocity indicating that I'm probably ready for a new barrel. I have been fortunate in that the barre lives I have experienced were within expectations or better for a given cartridge. Different shooters have different approaches which they are happy with, but this approach has worked very well for me.

 

[LDHunter]

I've noticed two things that beg for comment in this thread.

1. Someone mentioned using Rem Oil in his bore and that's an invitation for the Teflon in the Rem Oil to lay down a layer of Teflon that will be almost impossible to remove. It's probably the very LAST gun oil you want to use in your rifle bore.

2. There are a few others that seem to be seem to be saying that they don't dry patch out any oil in the barrel before firing. How it affects accuracy is just a minor consideration to the effects of a bullet traveling down the bore at well over a thousand feet per second and pushing the oil to the side as it does it causing micro bulges in the barrel.

Just sayin'....