What's your rimfire cleaning protocol?

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EugeneM

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Hi people,

Being new~ish to firearms, one of the challenges is to understand what rifle cleaning protocol to follow.

With all my love to my rifles, and joy of shooting them, I was very adamant about the barrel cleaning..
After each range session I would run a patch with CLP, let the barrel soak for a few minutes, then run a nylon brush followed by a few dry patches.

For a new shooter this seems like a logical thing to do.

However, recent conversation with folks from IBI proved my cleaning protocol is wrong.
And that my rifle would not group as well as I hoped, because of the always clean bore :) which is not obvious at all to a new shooter

Please share, what is your rimfire rifle cleaning protocol
 
Williwaw said:
What did IBI say?
Click to expand...

After a shooting session, run a dry patch to clear out the mess from the primer, clean chamber from the carbon ring once in a while, that's it.
Though it's worth mentioning that this cleaning protocol was recommended with a caveat that there is no copper plated rounds go through a bore at all.
 
Another vote for Womfat’s video. Eugene, he is a very high level rimfire PRS competitor and he focuses on cleaning the carbon ring every 250-300 rounds. Then really only a patch or two through the bore. He’s always looking for new techniques, but that’s what he was doing last I saw.

Good luck on Sat!
 
One Tipton Felt Plug, pushed through the bore so quickly after shooting the smoke is coming out the muzzle.

After cleaning the carbon ring, the re-coating of the bore sometime takes more rounds than is reasonable.
 
horseman2 said:
One Tipton Felt Plug, pushed through the bore so quickly after shooting the smoke is coming out the muzzle.

After cleaning the carbon ring, the re-coating of the bore sometime takes more rounds than is reasonable.
Click to expand...

I saw you using these felt pellets. Though I wasn't able to find a jag for those to use with
 
I let the rifle tell me what cleaning routine it likes.
In a tight match chamber like a Vudoo, cleaning up the carbon ring every 200 rounds or so seems to work best.
Something like a T1X I will go around 1,000 rounds before I can determine any loss of accuracy.
The barrel only gets one dry patch after every session, in any event.
 
Last edited:
An Anschutz rep at a SHOT show (years ago) told my friend . . . every case (5000 rounds).
That may sound extreme but the Remington with the Lilja barrel is probably over that.
 
I did not think that I was causing my shooting issues by improper cleaning - until I was!

I contacted the folks at Vudoo about my new rifle and was happy to see that they get asked about this enough to make a video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJo-alPfFIk

I noticed the improvement in my benchrest scores after doing what Greg Roman at Vudoo outlines in video. The cleaner is available from site sponsors.

The two big things were getting the carbon ring out, and leaving in the 'good fouling'.

What I like best about the 'Vudoo way' is that it is straightforward and not very 'invasive' - no scrubbing required.

Good luck.


.
 
Despite what many think. Your gun will tell you when it needs to be cleaned. For the most precise shooters in the world it will be much sooner than a PRS shooter and more so for the average pop can /rabbit/upland bird shooter. The ammo also will dictate the cleaning regime. No shooter looking for super small consistent groups will ever shoot hyper velocity copper washed ammo. So this will dictate different cleaning techniques than shooting sub sonic target grade ammo. Each has its intended purpose but both very different characteristics in barrel cleaning.
 
For the CZ 455 bolt hunting rifle, somewhere between never and almost never. I'd have to let you know when it happens - hasn't yet and it's been 10 years.

On my Anschutz benchrest rifle, I clean at about 6 months or half a brick. Wipe out soak for 15 mins, nylon brush, another wipe out soak for 15 mins, then patch dry. It takes about 25ish shots before the rifle settles down and consistent accuracy returns.

For the Ruger and Marlin semi-autos, a half-ass clean when they start to act up (jams, flyers, etc).

Do what works for you, but there really isn't any need to clean a 22 more than once or twice a year, and that's if you're shooting it a lot.
 
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