Cleaning tools for rimfires

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canoetrpr

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My rimfires have not gotten the adequate love they need recently and since I'm not shooting them much anymore I figure I ought to do a decent cleaning job.

I have a CZ452 American rifle and a High Standard Trophy pistol. I've decided I want dedicated rods for them. Dewey? What would you recommend? I can't seem to find a rod guide / bore guide on Dewey's website.

I'd like to know what the rest of you have ended up with.

I don't clean the barrel after every shoot bit I think I should once in 6months since they have been sitting in the safe for a while. My centerfires get cleaned after every shoot.
 
i moved away from cleaning rode's a couple years back, i use the bore snakes.
once pass and done.
plus i dont have to worry about wrecking the crown and such.

in fact i use bore snakes for all my rifles now.
the initial investment hurts a bit but once you get past that there is no more messing around with swatches and patches or even chemicals if you dont want.
 
oh, keep in mind that every time you clean your barrel you will need to put 50-100 rounds down it to 'season the barrel' again.
so rather then just doing the barrels on a 6 month loop you may just wanna leave it until you notice a build up or notice some fluctuation in your accuracy.
 
Be careful with the snakes. If you don't keep them clean, dirt/grit embedded in the snake can cause damage to the crown if it is pulled out on an angle.

If you keep it clean, like in a baggie in your cleaning kit, and not in the bottom of your range bag or in coat pocket getting full of dirt, and you're CAREFUL feeding it through and make sure to pull it through/out straight, you won't have any problems. Similar to the dangers of using an aluminum rod or a rod with a soft/plastic coating that can have grit embedded into it and not using a bore guide.

I use brass rods with a bore guide personally, as they're less likely (but not impervious) to pick up embedded grit. Don't buy into the whole "Why would you push dirt back in to your gun?" shtick. Apparently Otis assumes people brush out their bore and don't bother cleaning the action of their firearms :)
 
I don't clean my rimfires often; but when I do, I use a quality one piece rod, and a boreguide, with cotton patches. I never let a boresnake in any of my rifle barrels.
 
I'm sure there are a pile of opinions on this. I ask you not to judge as I discover what is right for me :). I've been using a boresnake on nearly all of mine. Can't find one for my .22 rimfire. That said, I'm moving away from snakes for my centerfires anyway as I've found it takes quite a thorough cleaning there with patches and often a brush to get the fouling out form using solid copper bullets. I have the various patchworm type contraptions but they just don't seem as convenient or maybe unjust don't trust them enough. I like the snakes for my hunting rifles in the field and will always use one for my shotgun.
 
Boresnake, boresnake and more boresnake! They work amazingly well, plus you dont have to take chances on damaging the barrel with those cheap 3-piece cleaning rods that tend to grind on the rifling. Buy once, cry once.
 
Do you folks use the same boresnake for the 22 as you have for 223.

I think I'm going to get some Dewey rods from Sinclair. They have a Sinclair bore guide for my CZ too. Figure I need to have one on had to dislodge a stuck projectile some day.
 
wayupnorth said:
oh, keep in mind that every time you clean your barrel you will need to put 50-100 rounds down it to 'season the barrel' again.
so rather then just doing the barrels on a 6 month loop you may just wanna leave it until you notice a build up or notice some fluctuation in your accuracy.
Click to expand...

Never thought to ask before but what about pistols?
 
I like the idea of a CLEAN bore snake. But it's too hard to keep them that way. One pull through a grotty barrel and you need to clean the boresnake before you can do any other barrels. Otherwise you're simply spreading the grunge around.

Would you use a dirty patch again on another pass or another barrel? I didn't think so. Which leaves me totally puzzled at how easily we accept the idea of many passes with a dirty bore snake being acceptable.

After trying a bunch of options I'm now a big convert to the hardened steel one piece rods that use a plastic or brass crown protector. The hardened steel won't let grit become embedded in the surface like the softer brass, aluminium or plastic coated rods. The trick is to use these with a crown protector or to clean from the breech end to avoid burnishing the rifling at the crown and opening up the rifling.

I've also started using a good quality jag and far less with the brushes. I'll only use a brush if I suspect some leading. Otherwise it's just a few solvent patches, an oil patch and a dry patch and it's done.
 
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