Clean barrel

magnum1966

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Went shooting today put 400 rds through my .22 and when I came home and started to clean the barrel had no residue at all.It was as clean as before I shot it !Anyone else ever experienced this?
 
Which ammo where you shooting??
I run some lead free bullets every 15 to 20 rounds when I'm shooting lots of 22 lr lead bullets .. .. keeps the lead fowling to a minimum, works well with pistol cast bullets also....
Going to try the new CCI Clean this weekend.. powder coated..
 
Went shooting today put 400 rds through my .22 and when I came home and started to clean the barrel had no residue at all.It was as clean as before I shot it !Anyone else ever experienced this?

Are you sure you shot that particular rifle? The only kind of rifle that won't have visible residue is an air rifle.
 
I was using winchester wildcats like I always do.I know it sounds ridiculous in my 30 plus years of shooting I have never seen anything like it.It's not like there was no bullets leaving the barrel,there was a pile of empty brass on the ground...
 
I was using winchester wildcats like I always do.I know it sounds ridiculous in my 30 plus years of shooting I have never seen anything like it.It's not like there was no bullets leaving the barrel,there was a pile of empty brass on the ground...

Odd, because I find wildcats dirty.

Are you sure you shot that particular rifle? The only kind of rifle that won't have visible residue is an air rifle.

Airguns leave visible residue.
 
You have a one of kind barrel then. See how many rounds you can put through it before it does need cleaning. Personally, I wouldn't clean a 22lr barrel after 400rnds. But to each his own.
 
The powder used for 22LR has a very fast burn rate and therefore burns so efficiently that powder residue / carbon build up should be minimal.
 
Airguns leave visible residue.

Not to be impudent, but can you elaborate?

Other than air and lead pellets, some of which are coated with a lubricant, I'm at a loss to understand what else there is to see in an air rifle bore after air forces the pellet through it. When I shot air rifles regularly, both spring piston and PCP's (pre-charged pneumatic) and even a few SSP's (single stroke pneumatic) and CO2 air pistols, I didn't see any visible debris or residue in the bore. To be sure running a pull through with a patch and Ballistol resulted in a dirty patch (from the leading and the lubricant, depending on the pellet), but there was no visible residue as one would always see after shooting a powder burner (except perhaps in the unique circumstances of the OP).
 
If you have ever seen a 22 barrel with 100,000 plus rounds through it, you will see wear/erosion for about 6 inches from the chamber at the bottom of the barrel... that's from firing bullet after bullet over the very minimum residue left from firing.
 
You have a one of kind barrel then. See how many rounds you can put through it before it does need cleaning. Personally, I wouldn't clean a 22lr barrel after 400rnds. But to each his own.

The really strange part is the 1st time I shot it it WAS heavily fouled..took the better part of the afternoon to get it clean!
 
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I have noted on more than one occasion that firing a single round in a 22lr will produce a bore that looks like a wood burning chimney whereas firing a number of rounds will result in a bore that just has a bit of loose powder flakes in it.

As for cleaning, I see no need to scrub a 22lr bore unless there is caked on fouling that will not come clean with a patch soaked in solvent. On the other hand I will never put a gun back in storage with a bore that has been fired. I have seen a 22lr bore ruined with pitting without being cleaned and put back in storage for a couple weeks during humid summer weather. [The guy was going to shoot it again in a day or so and then plans got changed and the rifle forgotten about. He was quite upset with the resulting pitting in the bore.] That fouling will attract moisture and cause corrosion - no two ways about it. Therefore I always run a patch with solvent through the bore after shooting followed by some dry patches until wiped clean and then a patch with oil to leave the bore "wet" before putting away.
 
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