Clean, Fouled, or Filthy?

The majority of my cleaning is rather casual. I always run a patch sprayed with WD40 after I shoot, followed by a patch on which I spray a little RemOil. Generally, my hunting rifles have stayed reliably within one MOA. If groups open up, I get a tad more religious, using a copper removing solvent.

Just clean your barrel once accuracy starts to drop off. For example, if your rifle is a reliable .5 MOA rifle, when it starts opening up to 1 - 1.5 MOA, its time for a barrel cleaning.

Or if the rifle will be in storage for a while I'd run a oiled patch through the bore and call it good.

I ALWAYS hunt on a dirty barrel.I don't let my guns rust,and I do keep them wiped down externally,but my barrel seldom sees a brush..

In my experience, for "normal" use with a decent quality barrel, cleaning is a waste of time.

I run a patch with Tetra or Break Free CLP down the bore after shooting to ensure the prevention of rust and shoot for years and hundreds to thousands of rounds with nothing more.

I rarely clean 22 rimfires. My Schuetzen rifle gets a wet patch and a couple dry patches once in awhile. Semi autos get meticulously cleaned each outing, as do any bolt rifles through which I shoot jacketed bullets.

My CCW cleaned every time its shot, and periodically function checked and wiped down.

Clean it. Don`t it. Why change oil in your car? Why go to the dentist?
Why take showers? Why pay your bills. Excluding those that still live with their parents .In the basement ,next to the furnace.

For my take ,it`s just being lazy. Guys who are vets........ know the value of cleaning! My weapon was as clean as a hounds tooth! Or else.

Plus, I`ll bet a lot of guys crowing about never cleaning their weapon or maybe every 10-15 years aren`t active members of the NRA. I`m guessing of course but you know!

It has nothing to do with being lazy for me. It has to do with consistancy. My main rifles are both old Savages,one 222,and one 250-3000,and they both need a few rounds down the pipe after cleaning to be back on track,I have had them long enough to know them.I like to hunt,and always get enough deer for us,and I give a lot away too.I work all my deer myself,and anyone that kills a lot of deer knows that the the real work begins AFTER you pull the trigger,so it's not an issue of laziness.

Sav .250 said:

Clean it. Don`t it. Why change oil in your car? Why go to the dentist?
Why take showers? Why pay your bills. Excluding those that still live with their parents .In the basement ,next to the furnace.

For my take ,it`s just being lazy. Guys who are vets........ know the value of cleaning! My weapon was as clean as a hounds tooth! Or else.

Plus, I`ll bet a lot of guys crowing about never cleaning their weapon or maybe every 10-15 years aren`t active members of the NRA. I`m guessing of course but you know!

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How is NRA membership tied into gun maintenance?

Do you change the oil in your car every time you drive it? Do you go to the dentist every time you eat or drink something? Do you pay each bill every day or wait until it is due?

Depending upon your location, the use of modern powders makes it unnecessary to clean your rifle after every shooting session. I keep the external finish of my hunting rifles clean but do not mess with the bore until accuracy has begun to degrade. I also believe people can do more harm than good when it comes to cleaning rifle barrels.

I've been cleaning after about every outing lately and in the two rifles I shoot most often, I've noticed very little difference in POI on a clean bore. If I run a couple dry patches through before shooting, POI on the first rd is ~ .75 low at 100 yds and groups well after that. Before I was letting them go, sometimes several hundred rds before cleaning. Sample size of two, so take it for what it's worth.

Clean it. Don`t it. Why change oil in your car? Why go to the dentist?
Why take showers? Why pay your bills. Excluding those that still live with their parents .In the basement ,next to the furnace.

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Equating those needs to cleaning your firearm indicates that you do not understand firearms very well, and/or that you are not interested in making or able to make clear comparison and contrast assessments of dissimilar concepts.

For my take ,it`s just being lazy. Guys who are vets........ know the value of cleaning! My weapon was as clean as a hounds tooth! Or else.

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Or ELSE! Yes. Or else your superiors would thrash you as part of instilling military discipline. Nothing really to do with weapon readiness and durability, in fact military firearms bores are legendarily damaged more by vigorous and frequent cleaning (usually with the piss poor cleaning tools the military provides in its wisdom) than through corrosion or being just too dirty. Ever note how the intense level of spotlessness required drops off significantly as soldiers move out of training and "the rear" and actually have to rely on their weapons?

Plus, I`ll bet a lot of guys crowing about never cleaning their weapon or maybe every 10-15 years aren`t active members of the NRA. I`m guessing of course but you know!

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Ok, meaning no disrespect, that's just a grossly prejudiced and ignorant statement to make. You've no idea who cleans what when -- every 10-15 years? Who ever said THAT? -- and trying to lump people who don't agree with your particular way of using your cleaning rod with people who don't support the NRA is utterly specious and can only be meant as a half-baked insult.

Never let the sun set on a dirty gun.

I always use a quality coated cleaning road and a quality bore guide. I remove powder fouling with Ed's Red from a rifle barrel after every range trip and about every 4-5 cleanings I use something like Butch's Bore Shine to remove copper. I will let the Butch's soak overnight and the patches are usually a nice teal green/aqua/turquoise color the next day. Patch it until dry and clean, then an oil soaked patch, followed by a dry patch, and I am done.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

Depends on the rifle. My Rem 700 .223 shoots best after a thorough cleaning and 3-4 fowling rounds. I clean it after 300-400 rounds. My Anschutz 1517 MPR shoots really well after a thorough cleaning. The accuracy falls off slightly after 200 or so rounds, but not much. If I was shooting competition with it, I would clean it frequently. My Kimber .204 shoots the same, dirty or clean....mayby need one fowling round; same with my Rem 700 .243.

My G3 likes to be cleaned up to prevent jamming, so I clean him every time. Doesn't help that I shoot super cheap Tulammo through him!!

"The sun never sets on a dirty gun."
--Greg's dad

Greg

"Equating those needs to cleaning your firearm indicates that you do not understand firearms very well, and/or that you are not interested in making or able to make clear comparison and contrast assessments of dissimilar concepts."

Kind of harsh, isn't it? Seems like a step away from a flame.

Which did? His or mine?

A clean barrel just doesn't shoot as well as a fouled one. You can clean it to bare metal every time if you like. But you'll be shooting fouling shots at the beginning of every range trip.

Guns and ammo do vary but measured accuracy does fall off on precise rifles after a certain number of rounds. 150 or so seems average. Also most like 1-5 fouling shots. I don't know if you can over clean them. But I know for sure you can under clean them.
I am really sceptical that you can shoot hundreds of rounds in a 7 MM mag and never clean it and still get cloverleaves. Maybe if you shoot 3 rounds a year at sight in, maybe once or twice hunting I can see that being true.

I don't know if it is the teflon bearing oils I use exclusively, or that the barrels on my guns are of particularly good quality and/or are chrome lined, but I just don't seem to ever get significant copper fouling in my bores. When I get a new gun I swab the unfired barrel generously and vigorously with Tetra Lube. As mentioned earlier, after each shooting session I also pass an oily patch down the bore before putting the gun away to eliminate the chance of rust - I live in one of the wettest areas of the lower 48.

Over the years I have periodically tried using copper removers on some guns, simply because I thought it was supposed to be a good idea. However the amount of copper contamination that came out was always negligible so I gave up on the concept.

Most of mine shoot better than me, cleaned or fouled. The 1 exception is my TC Omega black powder rifle.The 1st shot out of a clean barrel is about 8"high and left at 100 yds. 2nd shot is closer and 3rd shot is right on. Then I'm good to go until the end of hunting season.

I don't know - but what works for me is after every range outing (except for my 22LR, which is every couple of outings), I run a patch through the bores with Hoppes #9, then a couple of dry patches, then a patch with a little Rem Oil on it, wipe the bolt head off and put 'em away. It works for me and only takes a few minutes. My rifles shoot fantastic out to 600 meters, which is the furthest I've taken them to date. I don't use bronze brushes, nylon brushes either - only a patch on a jag. This is my story and I'm sticking to it!
YMMV of course.

Apparently Sav is a little OCD or doesn't shoot much. I have many rifles that will send that first shot from a cold clean barrel someplace else and a few that simply won't group at all until the bore is filthy so I leave'm alone if I'm going to use them in the next few months. Shotguns however, are different. That barrel gets a good scrubbing before it sees the safe again.

I run a bore snake through my barrels after every range trip. It takes about 10 rounds for the gun to settle back in after the bore snake.

On my AR, I'll field strip it every 500 rounds, clean it and lube it really well. Its been rock solid reliable using this regimen.