Bore cleaning

[Mistered]

Because of the frequency of which I shoot IF I were to COMPLETELY clean my guns after shooting I would be spending more time cleaning THAN shooting - so, I tend to accomplish minor cleaning between sessions, wipe downs, compressed air blow off when dusty and occasional 'lite' bore swabs & oiling along with occasional bore inspections.

My cleaning tends to be more 'maintenance' than full on cleaning and I stay on top of it.

The only guns of mine that get complete cleaning after use are muzzleloaders but that goes without saying.

While a complete lack of maintenance or cleaning can ruin a gun it is suprising how some 'survive' long periods of time without it.

A good example is my 1899 Winchester. It had been in a closet for 50 years when I got it and the owner jacked a green shell out of it when he got it! When I went to look at it I brought my 'tackle box' and gave it good bore cleaning as I could not see through it. The only other thing I did was to remove and clean the load tube and spring, some minimal cleaning of the internals and shot it quite a bit and it is very accurate. A few who looked at it said it had probably never been disassembled due to the condition of the screws. After three years I finally got around to a complete disassembly and was pretty impressed with the condition of the frame and internals and there was essentially no rust (other than a very little surface rust on a few of the parts) but nothing major - and this was 50 years in San Francisco - which initially worried me due to the environment.

[RanchRoper]

I clean when I think it needs it. Works for me.

[dasmoeturhead]

Guess I've ruined all my barrels since 1967, and was taught wrong by Gunny (the old man). Seem to remember he won lots of competition's, and he always cleaned the bores afterwards. I do as well. To each his own.

[leverjc]

The amount of bore cleaning that I do depends on the gun. I don't believe any one way of cleaning works for all guns. I have a two 336's in 30-30 and one cleans up very easy with just a wet patch and a tight patch on a jag. The other one needs to be scrubbed clean with a brush and many patches to maintain accuracy. What ever it takes is what I do.

[Team Roper]

Depends, if and when I shoot " J " bullets,I generally just run a wet patch through it to remove any copper build up if it is to bad,but never any brushes as I got away from them a long time ago, just because it's easier and I got lazy . However, shooting lead cast requires a different approach and that is when the brush, chor boy, bronze wool or JB bore cleaner come out.At 74 years old, I have been my own research scientist on the subject and my conclusion is. You will not ruin a bore by overcleaning it with or without a brush. Just do what works for you and be happy.

[Conax]

I use Ballistol on lead bullet jobs and Wipe-Out on copper fouled barrels.
The Wipe Out works without any scrubbing and the bore looks like a mirror. You spray it, it lays there for a couple hours, you wipe it out, done. I didn't stop scrubbing because of accuracy, I stopped because I'm old and lazy. Anyway, my guns shoot more accurately than I do and look fine. So...

[Team Roper]

I've used Ballistol for many years on black powder guns and it does a fine job on them but on lead removal o pistols and rifles, na, I was never impressed. It does clean up the powder residue pretty good though.

[Steve51]

Wish someone could have convinced the Army armorers that bores should not be cleaned. Don't know how many hours I spent trying to get the bore clean on an M16 back in the early 70's.

[Team Roper]

Wish someone could have convinced the Army armorers that bores should not be cleaned. Don't know how many hours I spent trying to get the bore clean on an M16 back in the early 70's.

And fail inspection too...