How often to clean
- Thread starter BernieL
- Start date
.22 being soft lead tend to shoot better with some leading in the groves.
At 150 rounds your gun was not yet dirty. Depending on your OCDness dirty tends to come around the 1000 round mark for plinkers. Me personally if it still goes bang when I pull the trigger its not dirty yet LOL
What gun are we talking about as well? A semi auto plinker, bolt action, etc? What are you going for as well want to shoot 1/2 at 500m or random plinking?
Shawn
At 150 rounds your gun was not yet dirty. Depending on your OCDness dirty tends to come around the 1000 round mark for plinkers. Me personally if it still goes bang when I pull the trigger its not dirty yet LOL
What gun are we talking about as well? A semi auto plinker, bolt action, etc? What are you going for as well want to shoot 1/2 at 500m or random plinking?
Shawn
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- Location
- British Canuckistan
I never clean my .22LR rifles and only every now and then do a minor touch up for my .22LR pistols. 
you will find this tends to be the same for many .22LR shooters.
you will find this tends to be the same for many .22LR shooters.
Let the gun tell you when it is time, that is when you notice accuracy fall off. You want to keep the leade area clean though and should short stroke that area after every session at the range. Withdraw back from the breech and push a loose patch through out the muzzle for rough fouling and call it good. Now you know your rifle doesn't shoot it's best squeaky clean so pay attention to the round count needed to bring back accuracy and then how many shots until you lose accuracy.
- Location
- West Quebec
Clean when the accuracy falls off on rifles and around 500 on pistols
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A squeaky clean bore is often not accurate right off the bat. It is usually necessary to foul a newly-cleaned bore with the same ammo that is going to be used. Shoot ten shots or so before checking for accuracy.
heavyBullet
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Just off the island of MTL
What he said.
hometownhero
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Toon Town, Sk
Haven't cleaned a 22lr rifle barrel in years accuracy is still great for me. Never had a 22lr pistol so I can't comment on there.
If it's shooting fine, the bore does not need to be cleaned. Given that many barrels need to be fouled before shooting to their potential, frequent cleaning can mean more work for worse results.
Most .22s with most ammunition rarely need bore cleaning.
Most .22s with most ammunition rarely need bore cleaning.
Haven't really cleaned the bore, but had to clean out the bolts. Had a couple of fail to eject, crud built up under the extractor, ejector claws. Will also brush the chamber with some solvent followed by a one time pull of the snake. Guess the bore does get some cleaning with this but not too excessive.
- Location
- West Quebec
The quote relates to an Anschutz representative at the SHOT show a few years ago:
Every 5000 rounds!
I clean my rifles more often.
A Ruger Mk II with the ten inch bull barrel was cleaned three times in nine years. It was so tight and such a pain to get back together that it was cleaned when it started to fail to eject. Fail to fire was never a problem.
Every 5000 rounds!
I clean my rifles more often.
A Ruger Mk II with the ten inch bull barrel was cleaned three times in nine years. It was so tight and such a pain to get back together that it was cleaned when it started to fail to eject. Fail to fire was never a problem.
smokeater40
CGN Regular
- Location
- Southern, Ontario
No point in making any other comments, it's all been said. I HATE a clean gun, but cannot abide a filthy gun, ???? Contradiction, but I think you know what I mean.
Interesting comments.
Moisture...
A byproduct of combustion is water. Think about it.
Have a look at what goes on inside your barrel. Pay close attention to the various stages of pitting in the first few inches of the bore.
Quote from the excellent article written by Steven Boelter from Rim Fire Research and Development on rimfire cleaning. Well worth the read.
(Prone, 3-Position, & Silhouette)
Position shooters have a bit of a tricky situation to deal with. In some events, the competitor is shooting hundreds of rounds before they have a chance to clean their barrel, and like other old habits which die hard, many traditional prone shooters are reluctant to ever clean their barrel.
This may have been a trend in years past, but just about every top prone shooter cleans their rifle. At the AMU, it's about 100% who clean their prone rifle often. What is interesting is that while Olympian Eric Uptagrafft cleans his rifle with bronze brushes, cleaning rods, and solvent, and it seems to not keep him from shooting a 628.1 and 632.2 (new final qualification record). I asked Eric if there are any shooters at his level who don't clean, and his answer was simply; "No." "Well, those who place top three and win with any consistency clean their rifles. I don't know what last place does, and for obvious reasons I don't particularly care."
Take it for what its worth, its your investment and money.
Moisture...
A byproduct of combustion is water. Think about it.
Have a look at what goes on inside your barrel. Pay close attention to the various stages of pitting in the first few inches of the bore.
Quote from the excellent article written by Steven Boelter from Rim Fire Research and Development on rimfire cleaning. Well worth the read.
(Prone, 3-Position, & Silhouette)
Position shooters have a bit of a tricky situation to deal with. In some events, the competitor is shooting hundreds of rounds before they have a chance to clean their barrel, and like other old habits which die hard, many traditional prone shooters are reluctant to ever clean their barrel.
This may have been a trend in years past, but just about every top prone shooter cleans their rifle. At the AMU, it's about 100% who clean their prone rifle often. What is interesting is that while Olympian Eric Uptagrafft cleans his rifle with bronze brushes, cleaning rods, and solvent, and it seems to not keep him from shooting a 628.1 and 632.2 (new final qualification record). I asked Eric if there are any shooters at his level who don't clean, and his answer was simply; "No." "Well, those who place top three and win with any consistency clean their rifles. I don't know what last place does, and for obvious reasons I don't particularly care."
Take it for what its worth, its your investment and money.
