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?