For those who NEVER clean their bore, or almost never
- Thread starter Tac-O
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misterc01
Well-Known Member
Interesting thread. I do not shoot a lot over my season, so I clean at the end of that season. I do run a bore snake or patch through before I shoot to make sure no critters or other lose gunk , but normally they are clean.
thwatson2
Well-Known Member
Never clean my bore, per season, after sighting in. Then the following season I'll give it a hoppes rinse, brush it and Run a snake. Then I sight it in and wont touch it again till next season. Been doing that way for 27 years. Of course in my 45-110 and 45-70 with black powder, I'm cleaning every shot and spending 45 minutes that night cleaning it.
Couldn't have said it better myself
ndking1126
Well-Known Member
Haha, best statement on the thread in my opinion. I've been there.. I usually clean probably every 200 rounds (I don't keep count, just every few range trips), but every once in a while I"ll open my safe and think "wow, I been shooting that rifle, but haven't cleaned it in a long time.. I guess I better take care of it." If the gun is still shooting accurately, it can be hard to get motivated. Of course I don't neglect my rifles. I clean them and inspect them at least yearly. I just don't see the point in cleaning after every trip like my dad taught me to do.
I bought a "well loved" Savage 10 in 243 that had a disgusting barrel. I mean, there was stuff hanging out of the rifling blocking your view as you looked down the barrel, I had never seen anything like it. It took a long time to clean, but once I got it back in shape, it was one of the most accurate, consistent rifles I had owned to that point. I recently sold it to fund another project, but it never game me a problem. I guess the take away is that neglecting them isn't a guaranteed death sentence, but as others have mentioned does increase the likelihood of an unnecessary mechanical failure such as the trigger.
Yes very true on that guilty statement!
THE single most thing i worry about is the chamber and throat area. That's why I can't not clean it. I read an article about a guy who went down the no clean path and while the gun still shot bugholes, he ended up with pitting in the chamber. When he fired a round the case expanded to fill the pit and then he had really a hard time extracting the case.
And my 22lr
I clean my anschutz silhouette rifle at around 1000 rounds .i clean my 6creedmoor when I put it in the safe and before a match I clean and check everything. anschutz is 22lr and it shoots better at around 500 plus rounds so I leave it to do it's thing
seattleman1969
Well-Known Member
I shoot mostly Barnes. Most of my rifles like a slightly fouled barrel to shoot Barnes bullets well. However, I have noticed that they do build up a lot of copper fouling. That's why I said, I wait until the rifle tells me, then clean and shoot several fouling shots. I do clean chamber and I do run a dry patch or two down the barrel after shooting, but I don't do a full cleaning with solvents until the rifle says to.
You may have different results, listen to the rifle.
Well Said JE!
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 clean because I hunt !
I visualize what affect blasting through an overly fouled bore has on the bullet.
Raises the questions:
Is most of the jacket scraped off in the bore?
Will the bullet fly properly ?
On emerging from that hard carbon crud in the fouled bore, is there enough of the bullet and/or jacket left to properly aid in penetrating the animal and provide a Quick Clean Kill ?
I don't know of any value to judge the degree a bore is fouled, but there sure are a lot of implements available to indicate when it is clean.
Rflshootr
Well-Known Member
By the time I spend almost $400 with shipping for a barrel plus do all the work to install it, I'll keep mine clean. I pay the high price to get bench rest accuracy, and that's what I want out of any rifle I own. If the barrel will only shoot 3/4 or 1 inch, it goes in the trash. Only accurate rifles are interesting. I'll keep mine clean and pristine as possible, thank you. After all, how hard is it when you're finished shooting to put the rifle in a cradle and shoot some foam in it, once or twice a day until it's clean? Personally, when I have $3000-$4000 hard earned bucks in a rifle, I'm going to take care of it.......but that's just me.
TXAoudadKlr
Well-Known Member
I clean a new barrel a little more frequently just to see how it breaking in after that only do it if I start seeing bad groups or feel guilty about not cleaning it. I clean the carbon out with Butches bore **** I leave the copper alone for the most part
Tex_Hunter
Well-Known Member
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The problem with that line of reasoning is that too many people conflate obsessive cleaning with the notion of that you are somehow taking better care of their rifle than someone who doesn't. Every time you put something in the bore that isnt a bullet you run the risk of damaging the crown or causing other issues. Just because someone doesn't put patches down the bore doesn't mean they aren't taking care of their rifle. There's a clear distinction between that and some neanderthal that puts the gun away with carbon/grease/dirt/mud/water all over moving parts, or doesn't periodically oil and inspect critical points on their rifle.
That'd be like saying the guy who takes his car to one of those drive through machine washes every week somehow "cares" more about his car because he cleans it more often than the guy who meticulously washes his car using mild detergent, microfiber towels, two buckets with dirt traps etc etc but he only does it every six months. Never mind the fact that after a year or two the first guy's car is going to look like he strapped a scotchbrite pad to an orbital sander and ran it all over the surface of the car when you take out into bright sunlight. The inside of a lot of people's barrels probably looks the same.
This is only made worse by all the $50 bore scopes that you can now buy right off of Amazon... people are out their scrubbing their bores down to bare metal without even knowing why they are doing it.
