How often do you clean a rifle bore?

[bobnob]

Just read Ridge Runner's 270 thread and his discussion about clean bore accuracy got me thinking; just how often should a bore be thoroughly cleaned?

For my part, I give my hunting rifles a good Sweets 7.62 treatment about every 30 to 40 shots on average. What are you guys doing?

 

[SJB358]

Bob, I rarely scrub the bores down before 30-40 shots through the barrel. It seems like most all of my rifles except my 270WSM shoot better with a few rounds the tube.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

If the rifle keeps shooting consistent....I let it ride....sometimes up to a couple hundred rounds between cleanings.

I posted some good videos on this yesterday...not my videos...but I fully agree with everything he says in them where barrel maintenance is concerned.

Well worth the time spent watching these videos...
viewtopic.php?t=28537

For long term storage...a couple of passes with CLP on a patch and put it in the safe.

 

[Ridgerunner665]

In a nutshell....the rifle will tell you when it needs to be cleaned.

Things to watch for....

Deteriorating accuracy...
Missing long shots high....excessive fouling increases pressure/muzzle velocity...and flattens trajectory.

 

[Guy Miner]

Yup. I used to clean too often.

In competition, we were shooting 80 round matches, with NO opportunity to clean, and sometimes a match the very next day.

I was fretting about cleaning my barrel and a very seasoned competitor told me not to worry, that I'd paid Krieger for a barrel that didn't need to be cleaned much. That slowly sank in. I gulped, ignored the barrel, paid attention to the wind and shot good scores on the first and second days of a 600 yard match. Never did clean the barrel during that match. Accuracy at the end was just as good as at the beginning of those two days of shooting, nearly 200 rounds since the last cleaning. Still shooting 10's & X's at 600...

Learned something that weekend. Ridge is right, a barrel will tell you when it needs cleaning.

My .25-06 has a fairly rough Remington barrel. Accurate, but rough. When I was using the all-copper Barnes bullets, it needed a cleaning BEFORE hitting 20 rounds! If I pushed it to 20 or 25 rounds without a cleaning, accuracy went bad, real bad, real fast. Kind of soured me on soft copper bullets at high velocity through a rough barrel...

So, one Remington goes 200+ rounds between cleanings. The other at about 20 rounds, depending on ammo. Rifles are different, and need to be treated differently.

Regards, Guy

 

[bobnob]

Hmm, thought provoking stuff.

 

[LD375]

Yup. I used to clean too often.

In competition, we were shooting 80 round matches, with NO opportunity to clean, and sometimes a match the very next day.

I was fretting about cleaning my barrel and a very seasoned competitor told me not to worry, that I'd paid Krieger for a barrel that didn't need to be cleaned much. That slowly sank in. I gulped, ignored the barrel, paid attention to the wind and shot good scores on the first and second days of a 600 yard match. Never did clean the barrel during that match. Accuracy at the end was just as good as at the beginning of those two days of shooting, nearly 200 rounds since the last cleaning. Still shooting 10's & X's at 600...

Learned something that weekend. Ridge is right, a barrel will tell you when it needs cleaning.

My .25-06 has a fairly rough Remington barrel. Accurate, but rough. When I was using the all-copper Barnes bullets, it needed a cleaning BEFORE hitting 20 rounds! If I pushed it to 20 or 25 rounds without a cleaning, accuracy went bad, real bad, real fast. Kind of soured me on soft copper bullets at high velocity through a rough barrel...

So, one Remington goes 200+ rounds between cleanings. The other at about 20 rounds, depending on ammo. Rifles are different, and need to be treated differently.

Regards, Guy

+1 Guy..I used to clean my rifles after even 10-20 shots, but now I do the same as you,and the rifle seems to shoot much tighter groups with alittle fouling in the bore.I just run a clean bore snake through a few times, and just clean the ouside of the rifle as normal, after the hunting season they get a complete cleaning though. I've found that with a super clean bore, the first 3 or so shots go astray, then start to shoot good groups, and back on target (POI)..
Lou

 

[Alderman]

I'm still swabbing them out after 20 shots and more often if they've been out in the rain.

 

[Tobey284]

Shooting jacketed bullets, most of my rifles can go a long time between cleaning. My 700's in particular seem to need to be filthy in order to act right, the exception being the 338. I shoot barnes bullets in the big guy and need to scrub the heck out of it every 15-20 rounds to keep it tight on paper.

 

[Darkhorse]

My .300 Browning needs at least 3 fouling shots to close the group. After this all cold bore shots goes to point of aim retaining accuracy. I don't know when it starts to lose accuracy as I haven't found that number yet. My regimen is to check zero on a clean bore and fire 5 or so rounds. The rifle is not cleaned until after the season.
My M700 7mag. shoots to POI and into the group with the first shot from a clean bore. My best group has come on shots 18,19,20, with no visible loss of accuracy beyond this.
Basically the same hunting regimen as the .300.
Can't say yet about the Tikka .308 as I haven't put in the time on that rifle yet. Next year will be it's turn and then I'll have the data to show.

 

[Vince]

You're supposed to clean a rifle?
OK, where is the dishwasher?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

You're supposed to clean a rifle?
OK, where is the dishwasher?

Fits in the bathtub better....

 

[double_d]

Do you run a patch of rem oil or butch's oil thru it, or just wipe down the outside and put it back in the safe?

 

[Ridgerunner665]

Do you run a patch of rem oil or butch's oil thru it, or just wipe down the outside and put it back in the safe?

Rem oil, Clp, whatever lite gun oil you prefer...

For long term storage,
Oily patch, dry patch, oily patch...put it in the safe...you can do more patches if it makes you sleep easier...powder residue is replaced with only 1 round fired...just don't remove the copper...use oil only, nothing that is even mildly harsh to the copper.

During the several weeks I'm off work and hunting....I don't touch the bore unless it gets wet or something.

The outside of the rifle...wipe down as needed, whenever needed.

 

[double_d]

Do you run a patch of rem oil or butch's oil thru it, or just wipe down the outside and put it back in the safe?

Rem oil, Clp, whatever lite gun oil you prefer...

For long term storage,
Oily patch, dry patch, oily patch...put it in the safe...you can do more patches if it makes you sleep easier...powder residue is replaced with only 1 round fired...just don't remove the copper...use oil only, nothing that is even mildly harsh to the copper.

During the several weeks I'm off work and hunting....I don't touch the bore unless it gets wet or something.

The outside of the rifle...wipe down as needed, whenever needed.

Thanks for the reply

 

[ScreaminEagle]

Depends on the rifle. My 280 needs to be bare metal clean to shoot a decent group. My 22-250 will go hundreds of rounds before accuracy fails. My 7mm-08 needs to have 11 rounds down the tube, after a cleaning, to shoot at all. My 30-06 and 257 Ackley shoot whether the barrel is clean or not.

 

[DrMike]

Each rifle is an entity unto itself. As has been stated several times in this thread, each rifle will tell you when it needs attention.

 

[Anonymous]

I must not shoot enough... I deep clean mine once a year whether they need it or not. Usually just before I sight it in.

I will run a bore snake through it now and again to some of the bigger gunk but otherwise I just hunt with them.

 

[bobnob]

What are the thoughts on the utility of Bore Snakes? Mentioned above; where do they fit in in the cleaning regime?

 

[Guy Miner]

For me, they're fine for a quick cleaning. Particularly after a day afield when dust & whatever may have gotten into the bore.