Bore Cleaning and Accuracy

[ditto1958]

+1, Bandit. I had forgotten about that article. Pretty interesting stuff.

Still... unlike my center fire guns, when I clean a rimfire with solvent and patches, it usually does not seem that I'm accomplishing much.

[bandit1250]

+1, Bandit. I had forgotten about that article. Pretty interesting stuff.

Still... unlike my center fire guns, when I clean a rimfire with solvent and patches, it usually does not seem that I'm accomplishing much.

I still believe your are doing what you can do to prevent a early death to your barrel. It just seems right to clean them to me and mine honestly shoot better when cleaned and I have some that will put the first round down the tube so very close to where the rest go that it makes for a great squirrel rifle. A few times this summer I would be shooting from my porch and my wife reading a book while I was shooting. I would say "this rifle is just not doing it this evening. She would say "Maybe it needs cleaned." I would go in my room and clean it with a brush and a little solvent and dry the bore good and go right back out and shoot a fouler or two at some tacks and then go to the target and shoot groups better by quite a bit than before cleaning it. Then sit there talking to her and wait on a bug to get on the target and shoot them off. One day I walked down and brought it back to show her the splatter of the bug on the target and she said "I didn't need to see that."

[ditto1958]

Lol. That's a classic!

[clovishound]

+1, Bandit. I had forgotten about that article. Pretty interesting stuff.

Still... unlike my center fire guns, when I clean a rimfire with solvent and patches, it usually does not seem that I'm accomplishing much.

I did a thorough cleaning of my Ruger Mark I the other day. I got a bunch of lead out of the barrel. I may give it another go prior to next range visit to see if I missed any. Last range visit we used up some of the last of a box of lead round nosed bulk target rounds. The gun was very dirty, both in the barrel, and in the action. My bet is that accuracy will improve next visit after getting the barrel clean.

[1911ly]

Some fowling in the groove helps keep the breach pressure up. Fouling of the lands (most contact area) can really screw with the ballistics. I always shoot a couple fowling shots before I start putting something on paper that counts.

Never cleaning your barrel, well that's just silly. Depending on which gun I am shooting I clean the barrel every 50-150 shots. When I say clean, I mean I run the bore snake threw it 3-4 times. About every 500 or so I like to get the cleaning rod out and do a more thorough cleaning. My high power & higher dollar stuff gets cleaned with copper removing solvent every 50 to 100 rounds. YMMV, to each his own, it's your gun and your $$.

[Henry88]

This is a good read for anyone that thinks cleaning rim fires is not required to keep accuracy. A little long but a lot of information.
http://www.rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html

I liked the part about not having to remove the brush/jag before pulling it back through the barrel. That saves a lot of time.

[ditto1958]

I recently shot some Remington Thunderduds in my CZ rifle, and didn't clean it afterwards. The next time out, my shots were all over the place. Thunderduds are not only very dirty, but are also reputed to use soft projectiles. I cleaned the bore, and the accuracy was back.

[Les]

I used Remington Golden Bullet once with the same result. It looked liked I'd emptied the trash can down the barrel.

[JEBar]

considering the fact that I started shooting over 60 years ago, when it comes to firing lead bullets, I'm little more than a newbie .... I have seen one revolver that had so many hot loads pushing lead bullets fired through it that the barrel had become a smoothbore .... its safe to say that it grouped its shots much tighter after an extensive cleaning .... with centerfire rifles I've always fired high quality, jacketed bullets .... after every outing I make it a practice to clean the firearms I've taken whether they have been fired or not ... example, I've carried a rifle and/or revolver for several consecutive days on hunting trips and never fired a shot .... I clean them out of habit based on paranoia .. .. on the other extreme, I've spent several consecutive days firing hundreds of rounds per day on various ranges .... I've never found a need to clean a barrel during such outings .... I haven't developed a routine for my Henry rifles firing lead bullets .... guess that's an area where I'm going to have to do some thinking

[ditto1958]

I used Remington Golden Bullet once with the same result. It looked liked I'd emptied the trash can down the barrel.

Lol. I have quite a bit of the Thunderdud ammo. I use it in my .22 revolver, and it's kind of comical sometimes to see all the crud that comes out of my gun after shooting that stuff. Usually, I finish up with some cleaner ammo, as it actually seems to clean the gun out a bit after shooting the Remington ammo.

[Henry88]

And yet on any website, Thunderbolts are the first to sell out.

[Tape]

This is a good read for anyone that thinks cleaning rim fires is not required to keep accuracy. A little long but a lot of information.
http://www.rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html

of course he's going to collect all that using a suppressor, that's what a suppressor does. Look at your air conditioning/heating unit inlet air filter in your home, if you never changed that it would be 1" thick of dust but if you carried the filter outside and gave it only "one" good swing after a days use it would never collect an inch worth of dust. I know if I clean my firearms very well after a range session they will not be as accurate and when I just run a oiled patch through them after a range session, it does in fact do a minor barrel lapping job. I'm not going to get into all the facts because I hate typing.... and thinking. If you want to believe that guys findings then great, I still like all you guys

[1911ly]

I recently shot some Remington Thunderduds in my CZ rifle, and didn't clean it afterwards. The next time out, my shots were all over the place. Thunderduds are not only very dirty, but are also reputed to use soft projectiles. I cleaned the bore, and the accuracy was back.

That stuff is some really crap ammo. I bought a tub of it to try a few years back. It was all over the paper. And so dirty. I gave it to one of the local guys back during the ammo crunch days of 2012 so he could take his grand kids to the range. He was a happy camper. I was glad to give him some range time with the kiddo's

[ditto1958]

Most Remington 22 LR is looked upon with scorn. Sometimes for good reason. The Thunderduds, however, did shoot accurately in my CZ 452.

For plinking with my 10/22 or my Henry, Remington Golden Boogers work just fine.