New rifle cleaning

[mpayne]

My HMR 300wn must love a dirty barrel, I'm not going to clean the barrel again until my groups open up to over 1/2". The rest of the gun will keep clean!

 

[DJ Fergus]

My last Savage barrel was filthy from the factory. Cleaned like it had fifty rounds through it. Barrel is rougher than a cob and fouls quickly, but hey, it shoots well. I imagine much of it is from the manufacturing process and coupled with the preservatives they use. You could fire lap this thing till its worn out and there would still be tool marks. LOL

A lot of savages are like that, course tooling marks and still shoots good. I would love to hear feedback from someone who thinks they have a good explanation for this.

 

[DJ Fergus]

If you're worried about blue patches - stop using bronze brushes - they will Always turn your patches blue, even on a squeaky clean barrel. Boretech and Dewey both have non-bronze brushes and jags for that very reason.

I've got the boretech jags that won't show false readings. They are a well made and designed jag aside from not showing false readings. I highly recommend them.

 

[shootski]

djfergus wrote: "A lot of savages are like that, course tooling marks and still shoots good. I would love to hear feedback from someone who thinks they have a good explanation for this."

Rifling is Tool Marks!

As long as a bullet obturates properly, as far as consistency, why should the resulting accuracy be any different just because of some "scratches?" Each bullet sees the same ones every time from the barrel; that you deem accurate.

Accurate is accurate...even if UGLY! Reminds me of a song that talks about you being happy for the rest of your life...

shootski

 

[barneyb]

I bought a new Bergara Ridge Wilderness about a month ago. I cleaned it before taking it to the range and found it not only to be dirty but also a lot of blue on the patches so decided to see what the bore looked like. UGH! About a 4" section of the middle of the barrel showed significant coppering of the grooves and Boretech could not get them out. I made a video of this before shooting it. After following Bergara's break-in instructions and shooting a total of 14 rounds, I cleaned the barrel again with Boretech Copper remover and again used the borescope. Yep, still copper. I showed the borescope video to the dealer and he agreed it was copper and replied "well, they have an accuracy guarantee if it won't shoot". Not happy! I had a local rifle maker look at the video and he said that section of barrel has quite a few low spots that fill with copper. I could soak the barrel with (?) and I would be able to get it clean but they would fill right back up again.

 

[Archer357]

I was getting a little blue on patches. That did not concern me as much as all the black patches and my brush coming out black. As I cleaned my brush off onto cardboard you can see the black residue. The barrel is mostly clean, I say that because I still get patches that are a bit dirty( brownish color). I'm waiting for scope to come in and then do barrel break in. See how that goes.

 

[25WSM]

Manufacturers don't clean the barrels before they pack them up and ship them out. The most copper your going to get in your barrel is the first few shots. Tooling like reamers don't like to cut on an interrupted cut like the rifling. So the edges of the rifling on the throat have burrs on the edges. You can't really sand them out but a few bullets down the bore get those burrs smoothed out. But the burrs cut the jacket material and it sticks in the bore. I think the first 5 shots are some of the most important shots on a barrel. Clean real good between them because if there is copper on a rough spot it will not smooth out with more shots unless cleaned. The copper in your barrel is like a lube of sorts and you need the bullets hitting bare metal to help it break in. But I know plenty of benchrest guys who shoot them like they stole them and they are good shooters. And their barrels seem to be just fine with no break in at all. I do 20 break in shots. I clean between the first 5 then between each 3 for 5 groups. Then I just clean it when accuacy drops off. If accuracy drops of at 50 shots I will clean before 50 shot from then on. If a relay is going to put me past the 50 I clean regardless of how many is on it as to not exceed 50. All barrels behave different as to how many it likes. One of my barrels shoots better after 40 rounds are on it and quits when it has 80. So I do alot of practice with that barrel to get the 40 back on it before a match. My big game rifles get cleaned after season is over. They get shot some before season and left dirty throughout the season. Basically your barrel will tell you it wants to be cleaned.
Shep