For those who NEVER clean their bore, or almost never

[the blur]

I'm not big on cleaning. But I do clean & lube if I get rained on. Otherwise once a year. Most of my rifles shoot well enough for hunting. The one that doesn't shoot well doesn't shoot well before & after cleaning...

 

[Braunschweiger]

I'm in the fan club of not cleaning until I notice accuracy fall off. This is in regards to the barrel/chamber area. I do however keep my action/raceways/bolt/bolt head/lugs clean and lubricated at all times. More than likely not everyone buys bore guides and uses proper technique (opinions vary) when cleaning their barrels and likely cause more harm than good, OR, don't really even get the barrel clean. It takes some work to completely clean a barrel (carbon and copper fouling) - of course some barrels can be easier to clean than others depending on how the barrel was lapped and "broken in"

 

[Shadowwalker]

There's a few people around who absolutely never clean their bore. There's a member on another forum who apparently works at some ballistics facility that fires hundreds of thousands of rounds annually during testing. They test barrels in some type of mechanical rest and find the true accuracy of barrels through thousands of rounds through those barrels. He says that he stopped cleaning the bores and found that there is no change in accuracy of the barrel through it's life. On his own rifles, he'll have fired upwards of 5,000 rounds through the bore of his Tikka without every having put a patch through it and it still shoots small groups. This all applies to functional field rifles... rifles for hunting or military applications. This is not in reference (I don't think) to benchrest competition barrels where you're trying to put every bullet in the same hole. So of course, there's the issue with pitting, etc. Well, if it still shoots then why worry about it? The whole point of doing this is to have a barrel that is consistent and reliable,, being able to put that first shot in the kill zone without worrying about fouling your bore, not having to put a lot of rounds through the bore to refoul it, etc. You're not worried about maintaining sub half moa groups, you just want the rifle to shoot roughly MOA so you can put the bullet into a 6" zone at 600 yards. I've started to embark on this journey, after having been in the habit of cleaning my bore every 20 rounds. Why? Because my gun is primarily for hunting and the enjoyment of shooting and handloading, and worrying about my bore isn't fun! Sure, if I had my gun shooting 1/4 moa that would be nice. But, I don't plan to shoot at game passed 500 yards, so 1" groups are fine with me. I do still worry about pitting and rust, even though my barrel is stainless.

Is there anyone here that NEVER cleans their bore? If you enjoy the life of neglecting your bore, do you do anything at all to protect the bore between shooting sessions to put your mind at ease? What are your experiences with the consistency of your barrel if you subscribe to this kind of madness?

I used to be in the camp of not cleaning.
I would always clean my chambers and lube the lugs every shooting, but that was it.

Then I bought a Teslong bore scope......

I found carbon rings at the throat of multiple rifles and what I thought was fire cracking was actually more carbon.
I also found a ton of copper in the rifling for about 4 inches near the crown.

Now I take a look with the Teslong every 50 rounds to learn each rifle's tendencies.
I record these results in my round count log.

Boy, the benchrest shooters, those that shoot the smallest groups in the world, are going to be thrilled about not cleaning from you experts.

 

[seattleman1969]

I am with the "let your rifle tell you when it needs to be cleaned" crowd. Accuracy changes, clean, then fire 2-3 fouling shots before accuracy testing again. All my rifles do not like a 100% clean bore.

I have only one that is not finicky at all about clean/dirty, and that is my .25-06.

 

[Baker Alvin]

22lr very seldom only if in rain wipe bore not a true clean just moisture.
Hunting rifles I clean after every shot first 50 rounds then every string of three 3 times then 5 strings of 5 3 times and call it good. The barrel is cooled between each shot and after each string. Yes it is time consuming but I have had good results with accuracy. Then after hunting season if it rained and in time when accuracy drops off.

 

[J E Custom]

This makes me shudder. I'd hate to be the guy that would have to clean their carbon ring out.

It really doesn't matter how often you clean, because you will Pay for the neglect one way or the other. A rifle has two accuracy nodes, clean and fouled. My opinion, based on many years of shooting Matches and hunting, doing both cleaning and not cleaning has directed me to cleaning often. when I first started my apprenticeship as a gun smith, I mostly worked on rifles that had problems hitting anything and the owners had bad luck on expensive hunting trips. they would bring in rifles that had never been cleaned and described the problems they were having and wanted to see if i could improve or fix their favorite hunting rifle that once shot great.

This is the results of what I normally found.

1 = Badly fouled barrels.
2 = Extractor issues from not cleaning the bolt.
3 = Chambering issues with dirty and fouled chambers. (Some were fouled so badly that chambering a round became very difficult because of carbon build up)
4 = Action screws were loose, (No Torque)
5 = barrels were setting in filth and barrel was rusty and pitted.
6 = scope mounting screws were not tight.
7 = Stocks were pushing on the barrels on one side.
8 = triggers were dirty and needed cleaning to function properly.

This was generally what I found wrong with every rifle that was brought in with problems, and was a direct result of not being taken care of. In my mind Not Cleaning the bore is one of the signs of neglect. When cleaning a rifle, you often find other problems that could be corrected and would have led to failures At an inopportune time.

There is definitely and accuracy loss that many cant afford to give up. A 1 MOA rifle off a bench is no where near the same as a 1 MOA offhand shot with no rest and a rifle capable of 1 MOA with the combined with the shooter skills and the conditions can add up to 2 or 3 MOA fast, so the reason to get the most accuracy from your weapon is very important when you consider the expense and trouble we go through to have a successful hunt.

To me, Cleaning a barrel is a good chance to find and get ahead of any other problem and resolve it before they bite you.

As a side note: many of the guys that though there rifles were the problem, though I was some kind of wizard because their rifles had never shot that good sense they bought it. and when I explained that all I did was to thoroughly cleaned it, and reminded them that if they did a little maintenance it would stay that way.

A weapon that is cleaned and maintained will not let you down.

To me there is no reason not to clean any weapon, the frequency is up to the conditions and the person.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[30BR]

This makes me shudder. I'd hate to be the guy that would have to clean their carbon ring out.

I'd rather rebarrel!

 

[Tac-O]

Boy, the benchrest shooters, those that shoot the smallest groups in the world, are going to be thrilled about not cleaning from you experts.

I never claimed to be an expert.

 

[ButterBean]

I clean the bolt and chamber but that,s all until accuracy starts falling off ( Which I haven't seen yet) or I get feeling guilty, My 308 has 450 + on it and is still Sub .5 although I do agree with J E as I'm sure there is a downside to not cleaning , I will say this, I had 560 rounds down range on my 308 when guilt got me and I scrubbed it, It never went stupid but it took about 60 rounds for it to settle back down.

 

[30BR]

I never claimed to be an expert.

I don't think he meant it in any derogatory way.

 

[Tac-O]

It really doesn't matter how often you clean, because you will Pay for the neglect one way or the other. A rifle has two accuracy nodes, clean and fouled. My opinion, based on many years of shooting Matches and hunting, doing both cleaning and not cleaning has directed me to cleaning often. when I first started my apprenticeship as a gun smith, I mostly worked on rifles that had problems hitting anything and the owners had bad luck own expensive hunting trips. they would bring in rifles that had never been cleaned and described the problems they were having and wanted to see if i could improve or fix their favorite hunting rifle that once shot great.

This is the results of what I normally found.

1 = Badly fouled barrels.
2 = Extractor issues from not cleaning the bolt.
3 = Chambering issues with dirty and fouled chambers. (Some were fouled so badly that chambering a round became very difficult because of carbon build up)
4 = Action screws were loose, (No Torque)
5 = barrels were setting in filth and barrel was rusty and pitted.
6 = scope mounting screws were not tight.
7 = Stocks were pushing on the barrels on one side.
8 = triggers were dirty and needed cleaning to function properly.

This was generally what I found wrong with every rifle that was brought in with problems, and was a direct result of not being taken care of. In my mind Not Cleaning the bore is one of the signs of neglect. When cleaning a rifle, you often find other problems that could be corrected and would have led to failures At an inopportune time.

There is definitely and accuracy loss that many cant afford to give up. A 1 MOA rifle off a bench is no where near the same as a 1 MOA offhand shot with no rest and a rifle capable of 1 MOA with the combined with the shooter skills and the conditions can add up to 2 or 3 MOA fast, so the reason to get the most accuracy from your weapon is very important when you consider the expense and trouble we go through to have a successful hunt.

To me, Cleaning a barrel is a good chance to find and get ahead of any other problem and resolve it before they bite you.

As a side note: many of the guys that though there rifles were the problem, though I was some kind of wizard because their rifles had never shot that good sense they bought it. and when I explained that all I did was to thoroughly cleaned it, and reminded them that if they did a little maintenance it would stay that way.

A weapon that is cleaned and maintained will not let you down.

To me there is no reason not to clean any weapon, the frequency is up to the conditions and the person.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

I totally agree.... complete neglect is bound to end up with some sort of failure. I am cleaning the chamber every session as well as the bolt and action. Not cleaning the bore at all also doesn't sit well with me! It's really just an experiment to see how it goes. I may not make it all that long!

 

[krinkansas]

I shoot a lot of Barnes bullets.....thoughts on cleaning with monolithic bullets? More often? less often? same?

 

[30BR]

I totally agree.... complete neglect is bound to end up with some sort of failure. I am cleaning the chamber every session as well as the bolt and action. Not cleaning the bore at all also doesn't sit well with me! It's really just an experiment to see how it goes. I may not make it all that long!

Its a lot easier to see the effect from a bench. Offhand shooting has so many more variables that a half moa loss may not get detected. But for us sedentary types, could double our group size.

 

[jvr]

A patch of hoppes until clp came along and wipe down. Carburetor cleaner on ar and duck guns after they stop Functioning properly. All my rifles shoot sub moa with the right Ammo. On a hunting rifle I would be more worried about the wind and obstructions in the bullet flight path (twigs) than a clean bore. I don't shoot benchrest. I do shoot a little precision rifle competition. To each his own