While I respect your right to your opinion, kombayotch, it's just that and I wish you'd state so... 'cleaning the barrel on a .22 is counter-productive, in my opinion." would have been a much more acceptable response.
While it's true, many people, including target shooters, don't clean their .22's - there is a large and growing crowd who do. As I once heard it so perfectly stated:
"...I don't claim to be an expert gunsmith, but I've been a machinist for over 15 years and in those years, I've never once seen a piece of machinery that performs better dirty."
Some Smallbore Benchrest shooters will clean their barrel every 30 rounds, as the unburned powder that collects in the barrel will affect internal pressures and thus trajectories. Granted, for the average plinker these minimal changes in trajectory are much less of a concern, but it's a little rash to say that cleaning is "counter-productive."
In my opinion, a more accurate statement would be -
One should take care in cleaning a barrel, as more damage has been done with a slightly bent steel cleaning rod and a burred up jag than any amount of shooting.
For the most part, a copper-wire brush is unnecessary, but a quick bore snaking with a very small amount of oil on the tail end, every 200-300 shots is perfectly acceptable. As well, lead and copper remover is generally unnecessary for a .22LR barrel.
Ideally, you'd like to use a flexible, carbon fibre cleaning rod with some dry and lightly oiled patches - but this approach can be a serious PITA on a semi-auto like the 10/22, where you can't get into the back of the receiver.
Hope this helps,
bcode
