How necessary is cleaning a .22LR?
- Thread starter Alpheus
- Start date
Cleaning a 22 seems to really be all over the place.
I wish I had taken pictures of the patches that came out of a cz I cleaned There was fine little shards of lead that came out, about 1/2 long and paper thin. This was lead build up that I scraped out of the grooves.
A barrel when it leaves the factory has a finish on the inside. Depending on the fineness or courseness of the finish lead will stick to it differently. A hammer forged barrel will scrape less lead off a bullet being squeezed through the barrel than a button or cut rifle will attract. Some barrels are simply rougher inside than others. Because of that a little lead will or will not be deposited inside the barrel. Some barrels get to a point where only so much lead builds up and that's it, others keep building up lead to the point of really affecting the shape of the bullet on exit so each bullet travels through the air differently impacting the target in a different place.
Target shooters typically have smooth barrels which have been hand lapped, or hand polished to a mirror finish inside, they then use waxed bullets that lay down a layer of wax on the surface of the bore. After cleaning this wax is removed so they need to season the barrel by shooting several rounds to get the wax built up to a balanced level where each passing bullet then slides on down the barrel leaving behind as much wax as it picks up. This is when a target rifle shoot the best as each bullet is doing the same thing inside the bore of the barrel. In these rifles very little lead is deposited on the rifling.
Many 22 bullets are copper washed. The reason is to keep the lead from the bullet from contacting the bore surface. Lead is like a wax crayon. Wen you write on paper with a wax crayon the imperfections in the paper create bumps and valleys and as the wax crayon slides over them more wax is deposited on the bumps than valleys as the wax is softer than the paper and the paper is pealing off the wax. The same thing happens in a bore with lead. As the lead is passing over the irregular surface of the metal it peels off lead on the bumps of the bore and skips the valleys, ad heat and pressure and the lead then gets pushed around filling the valleys and smoothing out. At some point the bore can become smooth enough so no more lead gets pulled of or if the surface of the barrel is too rough it never smooths out and keeps pulling off lead to the point of building up so bad a bullet can't pass through any longer without being totally conformed to a new shape fully destroying accuracy.
Copper is harder than lead and therefore aids in 'lubricating' the bore, or another way of saying it, keeps the lead from getting pulled off on the bumps and valleys in the bore. It's like putting a hard tip on a soft wax crayon. It just wouldn't write the same on paper.
Every 22 bore is different some better than others and 22 ammo varies widely, which is why there are so many differing schools of thought on how to clean a 22. Everyone can't be wrong, yet they do things so differently.
In the end you clean a 22 bore when it needs it. Lead builds up badly in some and not in others. It all depends on YOUR rifle.
I wish I had taken pictures of the patches that came out of a cz I cleaned There was fine little shards of lead that came out, about 1/2 long and paper thin. This was lead build up that I scraped out of the grooves.
A barrel when it leaves the factory has a finish on the inside. Depending on the fineness or courseness of the finish lead will stick to it differently. A hammer forged barrel will scrape less lead off a bullet being squeezed through the barrel than a button or cut rifle will attract. Some barrels are simply rougher inside than others. Because of that a little lead will or will not be deposited inside the barrel. Some barrels get to a point where only so much lead builds up and that's it, others keep building up lead to the point of really affecting the shape of the bullet on exit so each bullet travels through the air differently impacting the target in a different place.
Target shooters typically have smooth barrels which have been hand lapped, or hand polished to a mirror finish inside, they then use waxed bullets that lay down a layer of wax on the surface of the bore. After cleaning this wax is removed so they need to season the barrel by shooting several rounds to get the wax built up to a balanced level where each passing bullet then slides on down the barrel leaving behind as much wax as it picks up. This is when a target rifle shoot the best as each bullet is doing the same thing inside the bore of the barrel. In these rifles very little lead is deposited on the rifling.
Many 22 bullets are copper washed. The reason is to keep the lead from the bullet from contacting the bore surface. Lead is like a wax crayon. Wen you write on paper with a wax crayon the imperfections in the paper create bumps and valleys and as the wax crayon slides over them more wax is deposited on the bumps than valleys as the wax is softer than the paper and the paper is pealing off the wax. The same thing happens in a bore with lead. As the lead is passing over the irregular surface of the metal it peels off lead on the bumps of the bore and skips the valleys, ad heat and pressure and the lead then gets pushed around filling the valleys and smoothing out. At some point the bore can become smooth enough so no more lead gets pulled of or if the surface of the barrel is too rough it never smooths out and keeps pulling off lead to the point of building up so bad a bullet can't pass through any longer without being totally conformed to a new shape fully destroying accuracy.
Copper is harder than lead and therefore aids in 'lubricating' the bore, or another way of saying it, keeps the lead from getting pulled off on the bumps and valleys in the bore. It's like putting a hard tip on a soft wax crayon. It just wouldn't write the same on paper.
Every 22 bore is different some better than others and 22 ammo varies widely, which is why there are so many differing schools of thought on how to clean a 22. Everyone can't be wrong, yet they do things so differently.
In the end you clean a 22 bore when it needs it. Lead builds up badly in some and not in others. It all depends on YOUR rifle.
My brother in law's 10/22 has never seen a cleaning. Its his truck/tractor gun. 7 years old and seen 35k-38k rounds. Its just starting to give him a little low/left grief! On the other hand my Saavage 93R17 Mako needed a good cleaning after 100-120 rounds. Do what works for your gun!
I strongly disagree with this statement.
Want to know what leads to good accuracy? Look at what competitive bench rest shooters do. They clean their barrels. Fouling is not good for accuracy as far as I know.
That being said, I only clean my 10/22 when enough grit builds up in the action to start causing misfeeds after 500 rounds or so, but it's just a plinker to me.
