Benchrest Shooting

Cleaning. This gets hashed over and over and over. From I do not clean, to I only clean when needed, to cleaning after every 7 to 10 shots like a majority of BR shooters do. You hear I never use a bronze brush. Etc etc etc....

Factory barrels okay, clean how you wish. Aftermarket custom barrel I treat with a lot of respect. I do though clean all my rifles the same.

My routine is, 3 wet patches with First Choice water based solvent. No need for smelly solvents like Butch's or Montana Extreme. Your significant other will love you as well. Then I hit it with my brush and a stroke for every shot X's 2 with Bore Tech Copper remover. It sits and soaks while I load ammo for my next target. Maybe 15 minutes. Then it is 3 wet patches with First Choice. 2 or 3 to dry chamber and bore. I always caring compressed air. I give a blast into the chamber to make sure there are no broken bristles from the brush. I hate the brush creases on my case shoulders. Finish of with a patch with about 10 drops of Eezox. Push it thru, flip patch, and thru again. Wipe muzzle end and to the line.

After a yardage which is about 50 rounds, with the same cleaning routine i add one more step. This is the step that cuts the Carbon if it is starting to build up. After the brushing with the bronze brush I change brushes and use the Iosso brush loaded with Iosso. This I short stroke the first 4 to 6 inches of the barrel and then full length stroke the barrel. I also spin the brush in the throat area. Iosso is aggressive enough it will chip away at any carbon. I then use the First Choice on the same brush to help speed up the removal of the paste. That is the only other step in cleaning. My Borescope has shown it works. I will tell you just as you have heard if you watched Eric Cortinas interview with Jack Neary, you feel the difference in bore smoothness after using Iosso.

So that is what I do to keep carbon in check. Carbon is bad if let to build up and bake on especially in the throat area. For me I trim with a PMA quick trim after every firing so I never have to worry if the carbon does build up a bit. The neck never grows enough to reach it.

So my take on what works for eliminating or limiting carbon.
 
sharp shooter said:
I can’t see it being the scope Jerry, I think it’s me for now. Will keep everybody updated.
Click to expand...

The combined value of the scopes we have seen go down within our small group of F class shooters would buy a very nice car... and this includes all the biggest names in optics.

Assume nothing... test everything. Scopes wear out and/or break. This is the first place we check now cause it is not something you can readily see.

Obvious and visible things like fouling or a loose widget, you would have dealt with (I assume)... wind is a no brainer. Things like neck clearance/turning, annealing, load charge consistency, seating depth consistency, etc, etc.. assume you have already addressed. If not, plenty of areas to check.

for the rds it takes to confirm, swap scopes from another rifle and see what happens.

then the barrel gets a serious look. For true benchrest shooting, barrels will 'wear out' pretty quick... think hundreds of rds... not thousands of rds.

finally, firing pin spring and lube. With the cold, gunked up firing pins can cause all manner of woes. check the trigger too.

If the obvious visible parts work, move to the stuff that is hard to see....

when shooters put in the effort to shoot well, I don't see them having wild swings in shooting form and follow through... now if you have a physical disability, work with what you got. If you regularly shoot 1/3 MOA with a combo, then suddenly you are at 3/4 MOA... and then back to 1/3 MOA.. and then... You will know you have shot poorly. Asking this question here leads me to believe, stuff is happening that doesn't make any sense.

I have diagnosed a very expensive scope in 6 rds that was sent back for a complete over haul. I know the rifle, shot it before and it was superbly accurate. In those 6 rds, I couldn't tell you if the next shot was going up, down, left or right. Same load, low rd count on the barrel... wild on the target. Scope swap and it was driving inside the V bull on demand wind and all.

Eventually, something like $15,000 worth of scopes were sent back for a refresh/rebuild. We now treat scopes as a wear item.

YMMV

Jerry
 
I use older Llupolds on the three guns as they are classic guns. Vari X Iic 4-12, M8 16x and M8 24x. If the scopes are out of whack, I'm assuming Korth can correct this?

I use Boretech Copper solvent, I do have butches as well. Will Butches take out the carbon?
 
Korth does good work... makes Leupold scopes happy happy. Just put one of those M8's on and go shoot a couple of days. If the groups are consistent, then you know the other scope needs TLC

If the groups continue to be irratic, look for a new barrel.

Jerry
 
Mystic Precision said:
Korth does good work... makes Leupold scopes happy happy. Just put one of those M8's on and go shoot a couple of days. If the groups are consistent, then you know the other scope needs TLC

If the groups continue to be irratic, look for a new barrel.

Jerry
Click to expand...

Jerry,
You have expensive suggestions here. Who could re-barrel an old browning and put a barrel on the would match contour and bluing? Maybe I should look into getting a timney or canjar?
 
sharp shooter said:
Jerry,
You have expensive suggestions here. Who could re-barrel an old browning and put a barrel on the would match contour and bluing? Maybe I should look into getting a timney or canjar?
Click to expand...

Which browning? What cal? How many rds fired?

many actions can be rebarreled. I can offer CM barrels so bluing to match is possible as well. Many will just use a SS barrel and leave it in the 'white'... they don't last long enough to worry about fancy finishes.

Accuracy starts with a quality barrel and if your barrel has seen better days, it gets real expensive pushing components and hoping it might get better... it never will.

If the overall costs is more then you want invest in this rifle, there are plenty of used newer production rifles that are 1/2 the price of rebarreling and will shoot MOA or better

If you have a friend that can lend you a good shooting rifle, spend a day or two shooting it and confirm you are not the weak link. From there, decide what you are going to fix and/or replace.

Sooner or later, it all wears out... but start with a scope swap and eliminate that.

Jerry
 
Jerry,

I shoot a few different guns regularly. I have shot many nice groups with them. I'm going to spend the weekend playing with them, all 60's Browning HW's in 222, 22-250, 243 and a 527 Varmint in 204. The 204 has a light Timney, laminate stock and low round count barrel. I just shot really well with all of them a couple weeks ago, hopefully I do well this weekend.
 
You do have what I consider to be a couple of barrel burner calibers there. The .22-250 and the .243 would likely loose their competitive edge around the 1200-1500 round range with a stainless match barrel.
 
sharp shooter said:
Jerry,

I shoot a few different guns regularly. I have shot many nice groups with them. I'm going to spend the weekend playing with them, all 60's Browning HW's in 222, 22-250, 243 and a 527 Varmint in 204. The 204 has a light Timney, laminate stock and low round count barrel. I just shot really well with all of them a couple weeks ago, hopefully I do well this weekend.
Click to expand...

22-250, 243 and 204 are going to degrade the barrel noticeably past 1k rds fired. If you got the barrel nice and toasty, wear will increase dramatically... ie burn out fast.

Definitely be thinking on new pipes

Jerry

PS.. for reference, many National level FTR shooters are going to retire their 308Win barrels once they get much over 1500rds. These become practise or local match barrels. Yeah, things wear out fast
 
Consistency is paramount in precision shooting, ammo, rifle, sighting system, rests and shooter form. It could be the off days you experience is due to a few extra coffee hits to ward off the cold.
 
Standardvel said:
Consistency is paramount in precision shooting, ammo, rifle, sighting system, rests and shooter form. It could be the off days you experience is due to a few extra coffee hits to ward off the cold.
Click to expand...

Even if the barrels are a bit burnt out, I'd imagine they'd still be capable of shooting better than I have been. I believe it has been the consistency in my form. And after watching Kirsten Joy Weiss shooting videos on trigger pull, all I can think about is her when I pull the trigger ;)
 
sharp shooter said:
I’m not sure if I should post this here but I did anyways. I’ve noticed this year that my shooting is on and off. Some range days are fantastic, some suck. Some days at my buddies house on his plastic floppy table I shoot awesome. Others I shoot like crap. Some days at my house i on my solid table i shoot great, some days not as good. I think I’m done shooting off the plastic floppy table as I feel like I’m wasting ammo.

You guys have any rules you follow when trying to shoot groups? I have been playing with my trigger position on my finger this year and I think that has something to do with it. Where do you put your front test, how much do you lean in, etc.

I’ve been reloading for 10 years and shooting for much longer. My reloads are very capable I’m just in a funk right now.

Oh shooting 100 yards mostly and out to 300 when I’m on.
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Ds3YCJhWI
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom