22 chamber care?

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boxhitch

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Speaking of cleaning, is it important to pay more attention to the actual chamber fouling than the carbon ring or bore fouling
when does the chamber get dirty enough to impact accuracy?
without a match chamber is there a void between the brass and the start of the barrel? where lube and residue can accumulate?
 
The chamber is only going to foul starting at the end of the brass casing, which is where the carbon ring forms. When the carbon rings grows enough to negatively affect accuracy depends, as a general guideline the tighter the chamber dimensions (match chambers), the less rounds can be shot before fouling becomes an issue. You'll just need to get to know your individual rifle's accuracy window.
 
I'm sure you know this already, but since we're talking about accuracy, it's worth mentioning that 22lr headspaces off the rim, not the case mouth. Apart from powder charge and bullet weight, really good ammo has a much more consistent rim thickness (similar to the way a benchrest shooter controls the headspace with shoulder bump for pressure and bullet jump consistency.

Lube and carbon do build up in my Aschutz, and after about half a brick, I need to give it a good soak and scrub. I "feel" this in the bolt close as the extractor grabs the rim, but so far haven't noticed one bit of impact to overall accuracy.

Others may have a different experience, but for me, generally speaking, the less I clean my rimfire target rifle, the more consistently it shoots, so I'm not convinced that fouling around the throat and the end of the chamber affects shot-to-shot repeatablity on the paper. In fact, after I give it a good cleaning, it can take a box of ammo before it settles down again.

My 2cents for what they're worth.
 
Canuck65 said:
I'm sure you know this already, but since we're talking about accuracy, it's worth mentioning that 22lr headspaces off the rim, not the case mouth. Apart from powder charge and bullet weight, really good ammo has a much more consistent rim thickness (similar to the way a benchrest shooter controls the headspace with shoulder bump for pressure and bullet jump consistency.

Lube and carbon do build up in my Aschutz, and after about half a brick, I need to give it a good soak and scrub. I "feel" this in the bolt close as the extractor grabs the rim, but so far haven't noticed one bit of impact to overall accuracy.

Others may have a different experience, but for me, generally speaking, the less I clean my rimfire target rifle, the more consistently it shoots, so I'm not convinced that fouling around the throat and the end of the chamber affects shot-to-shot repeatablity on the paper. In fact, after I give it a good cleaning, it can take a box of ammo before it settles down again.

My 2cents for what they're worth.
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I concur... I feel the current trend with rimfires leads to over cleaning. Know your rifle and what it needs to shoots its best and stay that way.

If you are needing more then 30rds to foul the bore, you are overcleaning. 10rds would be a nice min to get a barrel back up to speed.

If you are running a semi, the operation of the rifle will tell you when you need to scrub the CHAMBER and action. This is a separate need vs the throat. I will clean the chamber regularly.... but clean the bore very rarely.

Some rifles will have functioning issues if the chamber gums up.... but that is not the same as having a bore/throat foul up.

Jerry
 
boxhitch said:
Speaking of cleaning, is it important to pay more attention to the actual chamber fouling than the carbon ring or bore fouling
when does the chamber get dirty enough to impact accuracy?
without a match chamber is there a void between the brass and the start of the barrel? where lube and residue can accumulate?
Click to expand...

After multiple Rimfire PRS seasons, I still only swab the chamber with a wet patch after each match, purely to avoid lubricant buildup and subsequently sticky extraction. There's no need to clean the bore/barrel until you notice accuracy fall off. A lot of people tend to over clean, which can be far more detrimental to accuracy than cleaning it only when the accuracy drops off.
 
Twan said:
After multiple Rimfire PRS seasons, I still only swab the chamber with a wet patch after each match, purely to avoid lubricant buildup and subsequently sticky extraction. There's no need to clean the bore/barrel until you notice accuracy fall off. A lot of people tend to over clean, which can be far more detrimental to accuracy than cleaning it only when the accuracy drops off.
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I can see where keeping on top of that would make it easier, removing fresh material should lead to consistency also
Regular cleaning products would work on fresh carbon also?
 
I know it's sacrilege however I have nearly 6500 rounds through my Savage MKII TR and I cannot see any fall off in accuracy or any change for that matter.

I don't think I've pushed through the barrel since 2014. It's duracoated so there's really not much to do in the form of maintenance, I just lube the bolt occasionally and maybe once in a while wipe off the muzzle with a dry patch.

However I never let it become wet and I store it in a dry room temperature environment.
 
*lawrence said:
I know it's sacrilege however I have nearly 6500 rounds through my Savage MKII TR and I cannot see any fall off in accuracy or any change for that matter.

I don't think I've pushed through the barrel since 2014. It's duracoated so there's really not much to do in the form of maintenance, I just lube the bolt occasionally and maybe once in a while wipe off the muzzle with a dry patch.
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There's an explanation for the experience described.

When a .22LR rifle is shooting rounds by the brick without any cleaning and there's no noticeable impact on accuracy performance, one or both of two things may be occurring.

The first is that the rifle used is achieving its potential. The second is that the ammo used is achieving its potential. When both occur, it's as good as it gets with that rifle and the ammo used.

As it is, there's no room for improvement and that's a satisfying result for shooters. When there's no reason to be disatisfied with the results, there's no need to clean or to use better ammo.
 
big boar said:
I wonder how often top INTERNATIONAL shooters clean?
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In position shooting, shooters clean regularly, which means after every time they practice or shoot in competition. I recall reading an observation by one recognized shooter that he would be relieved if some of his fellow competitors didn't clean. In BR shooting, cleaning is often done between cards. Of course in some disciplines, many rounds may be shot and cleaning during a match isn't possible.

Match rifle makers recommend regular cleaning. While some ammo makers don't comment much on the topic, Eley recommends regular cleaning. No serious international shooters or rifle or ammo makers recommend against regular cleaning.

It's important to keep in mind that in many cases shooters aren't using rifles and ammo with which it's possible to tell the difference between results produced with regular cleaning and little or no cleaning. For those who are shooting rifles with good potential and match ammo, it may well be worth considering how a cleaning regimen may impact performance and results.
 
There’s a big difference between hitting steel as in CRPS or ORPS and in high score,high X count in BR shooting. Therefore cleaning requirements differ vastly. My single shot bench guns are cleaned everytime I shoot them. My prs guns both semi and bolt will go 500 rounds or where they aren’t shooting to potential. As Jerry mentioned, keeping the chamber clean is important as well as muzzle devices!
 
"as well as muzzle devices"... definitely something to clean often. I would suggest cleaning as often as the chamber. I don't care if spotless but I will remove the major layer of crud that builds up.

Jerry
 
I know a odd old farm 22 bolt action that the owners never owned a cleaning rod.
But those may shoot 10-15 rounds per year , and spiders are easy to shoot out.
Semi auto usually will stop feeding extracting, from chamber build up, but can't say I have seen accuracy fall off
I worked on many HI-Standard pistols and some used muzzle brakes ,I have seen where the bullet was making contact on the build up.
101 series are built in ,milled into the barrel ,a pita when let the crud built up
 
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Mystic Precision said:
"as well as muzzle devices"... definitely something to clean often. I would suggest cleaning as often as the chamber. I don't care if spotless but I will remove the major layer of crud that builds up.

Jerry
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I had a rimfire semi with a muzzle device that I didn't clean for around 2000 rounds. That thing was caked. I had a small pick I was peeling gunk off with and ended up with a good pile by the end of it. I don't use the muzzle device anymore but I'll never forget how clogged that thing was.
 
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