Dirty vs clean barrel

powdergun

powdergun

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Although the gun is a sporter weight ruger Mk II I thought the precision forum would be the right place to ask. I was at the range with the rifle. i started with a clean barrel and it shot 2" groups at 100M. after about 10 shots the groups started shrinking dramaticall to .75". I then shot a groups at 300M and I got a 3" group. With the hold over determined I went at the Pigs. One after another they went down.

I couldn't believe it. The dirtier the barrel the better it shot. I'm almost scared to clean it. have any of you had the same occur ? If so what would the cleaning procedure be to keep the gun in "The zone " I know eventually the accuracy will drop off without cleaning.

NB: I'm usually not in the habit of letting guns go uncleaned
 
I, too have experienced this before. Here's what I do...clean the chamber, throat, and bolt lug recesses. Clean the bolt, lube the bolt lugs, and you're good to go. When accuracy falls off or you get guilty then you clean the barrel.
 
Some barrels shoot better clean and some shoot better dirty. I have a friend who cleans his one F-Class barrel once every 300 or so rounds. My Savage LRPV .223 likes to shoot clean, 5 or 6 foulers and she's ready to go.
 
i've found that actually firing a "fouling" shot or two always seems to improve my accuracy, so much to the point that i don't even count the first 1 or 2 rounds - i don't know whether it's getting used to the sound of the bang, recoil, or whatever, but there it is-probably more of a settling down than anything else- esp with a new box of ammo- fire 2 shots and you can be pretty sure the rest are going to work- i've had a couple of dud factory boxes over the years too
 
This is exactly the reason why we pressed for a 2 minute "blow-off" period before the start of f-class matches.

Finally there's some recognition to the fact that when a barrel is cleaned some take an x number of shots to settle down.

This is kind of transparent for TR shootrs because who knows when was the last time they cleaned! Their barrels seem to go for ever. Still the option is now there for them to take a few shots. Most of them don't...

A good number of f-class shooters are using this new feature to their benefit...

I used to have to make a special trip to the range prior to matches just to foul a cleaned barrel. Now I and many others don't have to do this. The two minutes doesn't unduly delay anything during a match day.

It was a great thing to institute.
 
I only clean my barrels when accuracy drops off. More often then not, it is well over 50rds. I don't clean to bare metal as I would need a whack of fouling shots to settle the pipe down again. Just clean enough to get rid of the major crud and regain accuracy.

I have found that is alot less cleaning then you would expect.

Factory barrels in general enjoy shooting dirty. Several rifles never get cleaned.

Jerry
 
When I have a barrel which won't shoot well clean, or which changes point of impact as it's fired, I class the barrel as "no d--- good". I expect the first shot from a clean barrel to land in the middle of where the group is going to form. I have had barrels which did not settle down until they had seen a half dozen shots. I still have those barrels and they reside under my bench where they will probably stay. Regards, Bill.
 
I shot Ottawa this year, not cleaning once. Shot a 75 15V (perfect score) near the end of the week. A quality barrel does not foul much, so cleaning may do more harm than good.

Every rifle is unique. Pay attention to what it trys to tell you.
 
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