Cleaning a .22

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Bill2e

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So I walk into a gun shop looking for a new .22 target pistol.

The owner & I start talking & he says that you NEVER clean tha barrel of a .22.

You clean everything else, but leave the barrel dirty so the gun will be more accurate.

I am not saying he is wrong, but I just never herd such a thing.

What do you guys think?
 
I've always cleaned my 22's, both rifles and pistols, and never had any accuracy problems as a result of the cleaning. I can't think of any manufacturer that doesn't have that in the owners manual.
 
There are no absolutes in cleaning, shooting, etc.

The answer is a little more complex than "never" cleaning. .22s do get dirty, but the bullets are lubed, are traveling at a pretty low velocity, and generally the barrel is probably okay without a major scrubbing.

As a Bullseye shooter, I very rarely take apart my HS Victor to clean it. The barrel lock-up gets tighter as you shoot it because of the way it is designed. I do clean it, however, whenever it gets just too gunky and I notice a build-up in the mag well. And I will run a patch down it to check the bore and see what's what.

My Marvel, however, is a different matter. I just did a major cleaning after 2K rounds because it was really, really gunky. The barrel was actually okay and all I did was run a patch down it.

It does not hurt the accuracy to clean a .22, but you don't have to overdo it.
 
If you go over to rimfirecentral.com, you'll see this is an oft-discussed topic.

Yes, many rimfire aficionados, including some competitive shooters, don't often clean the barrel and many feel pretty strongly about it. Some seem to feel the round and the barrel get "matched" in some way, and others feel that unless group size starts opening up, cleaning the barrel of an otherwise superbly accurate rifle isn't worth risking damage to the barrel and/or crown.
 
Anschutz recommends cleaning every 1000 rounds for the first 10000, and then every 5000 after that.

Personally I only clean the bore when I notice an accuracy drop.
 
As a bullseye shooter, I only clean my match pistols every 500 rounds, or so, and even then I seldom swab the barrel.

On the other hand, if it's a .22 I'm not going to shoot again in the near future, I'll clean the action before I put the gun away. Just pride of ownership. Kinda like washing the car. It won't run any better, but I'll feel better.
 
I dont bother cleaning the barrel unless I have atleast 1000 or so down.. or am switching from something like CCI to Tenex or Lapua ammo. In any case it takes about 10 spoilers to settle the barrel back down.
 
If you clean the bore of a .22, do it gently, with a patch soaked in solvent and not too tight. I don't use bore brushes. More .22s have been ruined by vigorous scrubbing than by being left alone.

I tend to clean the action without disassembling unless there's a real problem -- a good solvent and a toothbrush will do wonders for most gunked-up .22s.
 
I only have one rifle in .22LR. I give it a quick patch down the bore and a light lube just about every time i shoot it.

the bullets are lubed
Click to expand...

Is this all .22 ammo? I shoot the Federal Bulk pack FMJ (or is it plated?) and it doesn't appear to be lubed. Am I missing something.
 
If this is true for a 22, why wouldn't it be true for other calibers? Should all barrels remain dirty? (non-corrosive, of course)
 
.22's are kinda special in many respects, and I believe cleaning is one of them. Unlike almost all other bullets, most .22 ammo has a lubricant on the bullet and it does not tend to build up in the barrel. The bullets rarely if ever will lead up a barrel like shooting lead in centerfires will.

The residue from shooting does build up in the chamber and in the nooks and crannies of the breech. Cleaning a .22 barrel isn't bad for it, but it isn't necessarily good for it either. It has been found that leaving a little lube in the barrel does help in most cases as opposed to having a squeaky clean barrel after each shooting session.

I tend to not clean my .22's. I do clean out the action, breech, extractor groove, etc. on a regular basis. After about every 200 to 500 rounds, I run a bore snake through the barrel two times, maybe three. That leaves enough beneficial residue to not affect the next shooting session's accuracy.

In short, I tend to agree with the gun shop owner more than I disagree with him. (Never say NEVER.)
 
Huh?

I clean mine. I own several 22LR handguns and rifles along with my other caliber firearms.

I agree to disagree with the person who told you that you don't or should not clean them.

A clean gun is a happy gun! A firearm should be cleaned, lubricated and cared for as any other OBJECT. YOU take care of IT and IT will take care of YOU when you need to use it!

Catherine
 
i was a small-bore shooter back in high school and the ROTC instructor taught us not to clean the barrel to maintain accuracy...of course we didn't switch between ammo either
 
"More guns, cameras, small boys, and coffeepots have been ruined by excessive cleaning than any other single cause."

-230RN ca 1967
 
I think that there is 'cleaning' and then there is excessive cleaning.

I am NO expert or claim to be one.

Catherine
 
I clean my 22 barrels because I don't want the lead build up in them causing lead poisoning in any animals I shoot! :rolleyes:
 
I clean my 22's about every couple thousand rounds. I rarely take them apart to clean but I routinely clean around the chamber in an semi-auto with a smallish tooth brush soaked in solvent. I keep one handy when I'm shooting at the range and if I notice any unexplainable accuracy drops, I clean. The semi-autos tend to function better if you clean around the chamber and get what you can with solvent.

The only 22 semi-auto that has forced me to clean it more often has been a Colt Ace. They start to jam when they get dirty in my experience.

I would suggest you buy a good non metal cleaning rod and use that to clean the bore when you do. If you use traditional metal cleaning rods, be careful not to drag them on the rifling and if possible clean from the chamber end of the gun rather than the end of the barrel.

I'm no expert and I do what makes sense to me. Everyone on the forums talk about disassembling their guns and cleaning them real good. I have not found that to be necessary for the most part. I literally have guns I have not cleaned in years but I wipe them down often with a light oil if I shoot them. Wax for long term storage.
 
Oh by the way, Marlin manuals recommend seldom cleaning their micro-groove 22 barrels as I recall.
 
I try to shoot at least one of my .22s every week.
Most weeks, I have some help :)

I never put any gun away dirty. That's just the way I was brought up.

I have not "ruined" any guns yet (so far as I know).

Of course, I've only been "trying" for thirty years or so... :)
 
Personally I only clean the bore when I notice an accuracy drop.
Click to expand...
Smart shooter. If you're not seeing a benefit from cleaning, why are you cleaning?
 
when I grew up I shot thousands of rounds out of my 10/22 without ever cleaning it. Only if it started jamming did I clean it.

Now I clean them after every range session. I have to ask why, but it just doesn't feel quite right if they go to bed dirty.
 
I have put many thousands through my model 60 and it's accuracy only gets better. At fifty yards using a rest bulk pack rems will fit under a fifty cent piece all day long. I clean the action and breech occasionally, but the chamber and barrel get left alone.
 
With all due respect to the posters who disagree. I'd like to see some evidence that would suggest that a 22 is different from a .223 or any other caliber.
 
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