Barrel cleaning question!

Evil_Dark

Evil_Dark

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Hey guys, I've heard that to obtain good acuracy it takes consistency. All small parameters can influence that, as the barrel cleanliness. A fresh clean barrel may not shoot correctly the first "X" amounts of shots... And I've heard also that removing all copper fouling is not necessary the good thing to do... So first things first, when do we know that is time to clean the barrel? And how to clean it properly? What do you use as chemical to clean it? (Copper remover or anything else?)
Now that I improve my grouping, I start to shoot more, a lot more... It's been a couples of hundreds rounds untils my last barrel cleanup, but i'm a bit afraid to do it again as now I achieve sub MOA precision...

Thanks !

Evil_Dark
 
If you are not competing, just shooting, I would keep shooting it. If you shoot paper, you will notice when it starts to open up. If you are shooting steel, check it on paper semi regularly. Assuming you are keeping a decent log of rounds fired. You will know how many rounds you fired before it started to affect grouping size. I would then knock 15-25% off that number and use that number as a cleaning guide.
It may be 300 or 500 rounds, or more or less.
Also depending on you caliber you may find that as the barrel wears out, it needs to be cleaned more often.
Take good notes, pay attention to what the rifle is telling you and you shouldn't run into any nasty problems.
 
CanuckR said:
If you are not competing, just shooting, I would keep shooting it. If you shoot paper, you will notice when it starts to open up. If you are shooting steel, check it on paper semi regularly. Assuming you are keeping a decent log of rounds fired. You will know how many rounds you fired before it started to affect grouping size. I would then knock 15-25% off that number and use that number as a cleaning guide.
It may be 300 or 500 rounds, or more or less.
Also depending on you caliber you may find that as the barrel wears out, it needs to be cleaned more often.
Take good notes, pay attention to what the rifle is telling you and you shouldn't run into any nasty problems.
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This, and I also use Wipeout.
 
I have a good friend who cleans his hunting rifle after every time he shoots it... it's a crappy old Ruger 77 30-06... he shoots groups under an inch with it all the time from his cold clean barrel. He has shot and cleaned it enough that copper fouling is not a problem.

There is no advantage to a dirty barrel, especially if accuracy is affected. The only way to find out what is best for you is to experiment with your rifle...

I don't clean my hunting/varmint rifles that often but usually every 40 or 50 rounds. Multiple hundreds of rounds is way too many in my opinion.
 
Wipe out is a good choice. Followed up with a swab of g96. My precision rig's barrels get cleaned about every 300 rounds or so. Give or take. I wait until I see a change in groups. Your mileage may vary, every rifle is different. This is how I do things, yours will/may be different.
 
I clean by barrel after every time I go out. I believe it makes the barrel life better. I really cannot prove this though. I use only patches and otis copper solvent. After i shoot it once it starts grouping but the first one is always low and a little right.
 
I use Butches choice bore cleaner 3 or four wet patches to remove carbon and leave for half hour or longer, patch out then another wet patch and use copper brush 5 or 8 times, patch out till patches come out clean. then leave wipeout overnight and patch clean no more copper fouling.

manitou
 
If it's a hunting gun I foul it, sight in and then leave it as is...if a number of months are going to go by I'll put an oily patch down it and then dry patch and confirm zero before the next hunt with it. If it's a plinking gun I clean it after each use...maybe a completely barrel clean out, maybe not. If I were competing I would clean completely after each match and then foul the bore before competing.

Practice as you're going to use it.

Butches bore shine (good general), sweets (great copper), barnes (great copper), shooter choice (good all around), mpro7 copper (mild copper), rem bore cleaner (good all around...but it's a very mild abrasive vs chemical reaction), CLP (ok...but I don't use it for copper remover). As said...letting a mild cleaner sit 10-15 min before brushing will clean better than quickly pushing strong solvent patches through one after another. I try not to let Sweets/Barnes sit in the barrel for long. You'll get a feel for how badly a given barrel is fouling after whatever number of shots and what cleaning stuff/process works for you.
 
The head sniper trainer guy at Accuracy First (Texas?) recommends NOT cleaning out the copper, assuming you have a good quality barrel. He is the guy that developed the ballistics range cards for troops, trains snipers, develops new techniques etc. yes, clean out the carbon regularly, but a deep clean to remove all copper is not needed and as other have pointed out can negatively impact accuracy.

I know there is a lot of disagreement on forums about this. I tend to trust the guy who has done the actual testing rather than opinions from people who have 'just always done it that way'.
 
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CostcoSamples said:
The head sniper trainer guy at Accuracy First (Texas?) recommends NOT cleaning out the copper, assuming you have a good quality barrel. He is the guy that developed the ballistics range cards for troops, trains snipers, develops new techniques etc. yes, clean out the carbon regularly, but a deep clean to remove all copper is not needed and as other have pointed out can negatively impact accuracy.

I know there is a lot of disagreement on forums about this. I tend to trust the guy who has done the actual testing rather than opinions from people who have 'just always done it that way'.
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The guy from "sniper 101" series of videos on Youtube (TiborasaurusRex) just explained why we should'nt try to remove all the copper too much, so I tend to believe that carbon / debris removal is the key, until the groups are opening up... But I wanted to have more differents opinions on the subjects!

Regards,

Evil Dark
 
Evil_Dark said:
The guy from "sniper 101" series of videos on Youtube (TiborasaurusRex) just explained why we should'nt try to remove all the copper too much, so I tend to believe that carbon / debris removal is the key, until the groups are opening up... But I wanted to have more differents opinions on the subjects!
Click to expand...

Wait until the benchrest guys show up and tell us we are all crazy for not doing a complete cleaning after every 5 rounds.
 
There is different barrel cleaning regiments for different shooting disiplines. Benchrest shooter clean way more often that the F class guys. Why you ask. It is because the benchrest guys ultimate goal is to shoot groups that measure as close to .0000" as posible which is something that is impossible to do with a dirty barrel. As far as the coment about Benchrest guys cleaning every 5 rounds goes , totally missinformed info. Bemchrest gus will start with a clean barrel then fire some fouling shots (how many depends on the barrel really), then they will shoot there groups until they reach the number of rounds that they know (from experiance with that barrel and load)that there accuracy will start to fall off. Then they will clean again anc continue as before.
 
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You said it the best with consistant, what ever you chose with the many different ideas here. Stay consistant and listen to your gun. I personally recommend cleaning your gun after each use. (if you're worried about CCB shots in what you use your gun for, learn what your gun does and adjust / or after cleaning put a round through your rifle and you'll be very close to your mean). Always clean your gun the same way each time, chose the cleaning solvent that you like.
 
A bit late to the party.

There are only three reasons to clean any gun. Function, accuracy and/or preservation. If you do not need any of these then don't do it.
 
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