It is, to an extent. Some shooters scrub their bore after each event. Others will only when accuracy drops off.
Our take is we want to showcase how Eley will outshoot their current ammo (which has also been Eley in some cases). If their bore is conditioned to shoot the best with their control ammo, we want to test with this bore condition. The test will be of little value if we change the bore condition, which may alter how their control ammo functions (for accuracy).
We did have one rifle arrive with a heavy amount of oil in the bore (had been freshly cleaned). Fortunately, we caught this before testing... we do not want to send rifles back with a ring in the barrel. LOL
KGL
What goes into getting a bore to be "conditioned" to a certain variety of ammo? Is a conditioned bore something other than one that has only the lubricant and fouling of a particular variety of ammo?
Many shooters would contend that a clean bore can be easily conditioned to a particular ammo -- its lubricant and fouling -- by shooting foulers before testing for accuracy. How many foulers are needed? Some say five to ten will do the job, while others insist that more are needed, as many as one fouler for every inch of barrel. In any case, a barrel can shoot accurately soon after cleaning.
At the Eley facility and customer range in Texas the recommendation is to clean the bore regularly to maintain good accuracy. Dan Killough, head of Eley's customer test range in Texas, says the following:
"At ELEY, when testing a rifle we note when it is cleaned and data is collected on the fouling shots. Our engineers have crunched the numbers and come to the conclusion that cleaning is good for rimfire barrels. I’ve also drawn the same conclusion from my experience shooting Benchrest. Every barrel loses accuracy once it becomes dirty, although the point at which it loses accuracy is different for each barrel. In almost all rimfire competitions, somewhere between 25 – 100 shots are required before a competitor can easily clean their rifle. I also have not personally seen a rifle that could not shoot at least 100 rounds before losing accuracy due to fouling. So, we settled on 90-100 rounds in between cleanings."
At the Texas facility they clean prior to testing because a clean gun shoots better than a dirty gun. According to Killough, "If you’re testing your rifle with us and have a preferred cleaning routine, we will be happy to follow it. Your rifle is yours, and we will do everything we can to accommodate you."
For more details on what the Texas facility does when testing customer rifles, see h t t p s://eley.co.uk/barrel-cleaning-for-improving-your-shot/
As a result there they prefer clean barrels to those that are previously "conditioned".
Of course it is understandable that at the Okotoks facility they do not wish to spend time cleaning customer rifles, nor would they want to risk clients' concern that their barrels might be damaged by someone else cleaning them or that they should only be cleaned according to their own particular methods, some of which can be quite ritualistic.
