TargetTalk

How often and what is the best approach. Brushes or no brush in barrel?? Have heard to many story's would like to know the right way. Without hurting rifling or crown

There is no one perfect way to clean a barrel. Most shooters have their own approach based on their own preference, and how their individual barrel reacts. Some barrels need to be kept very clean to shoot at their best, and some will tolerate a lot of fouling. There are also some barrels which don't shoot well when very clean; it's quite common for the first few shots to be erratic, until a sufficient layer of bullet lubricant has built up in the bore, but some barrels need dozens of fouling shots can be needed for accuracy to stabilize. Sometimes these are older barrels that need the fouling to fill in any wear at the throat, but some need it from new.

Rifle and ammunition manufacturers also disagree about the best way to clean, although all recommend regular cleaning. Anschutz recommend dry patching the barrel after shooting, and a thorough clean at least every 5,000 rounds (reduced to every 1,000 for the first 5,00 rounds). Bleiker and Eley recommend wet patching after shooting, and brushing every few hundred.

I prefer to clean my barrels regularly, and they shoot acceptably, and I hope will maintain accuracy for longer (the priming compound is mildly abrasive, and is a major factor in barrel wear). I clean with patches and solvent after shooting, and brush every few hundred rounds to ensure there is no lead in the throat and grooves. Others brush more frequently (say every time they shoot), others less frequently (every thousand rounds, or once a year), and some even not at all. Bronze brushes won't harm the bore, but many shooters get acceptable accuracy without their use. Don't scrub back and forth with a brush, as this damages the wires; if the wires collapse on one side the metal core can rub the bore, which is damaging.

When cleaning, use a good single piece steel cleaning rod; I like the nylon-coated Dewey rods, but these aren't the only ones. I won't use 3-piece aluminium and brass rods, as these bend too easily, and the joints may not line up straight. A ball-bearing handle is good too, so the patch or brush follows the rifling grooves, rather than skipping over. I always use a close fitting rod guide, to support the rod and keep it centred in the bore. This minimises the chance of the rod rubbing the bore. The guide also keeps oil and solvent out of the bedding (wood and epoxy will be softened by prolonged exposure) and the trigger. Many shooters take the precaution of removing the jag or brush when pulling the rod back through the muzzle, but you don't have to do this, so long as you take care that the rod and ferrule don't rub the crown.

http://www.eley.co.uk/en/the-bulletin/c ... -eley-way/

Straight from Eley.
Matt

Great article.
I do however wonder why push a dry patch/felt thru the gun first? ... I've always taught my kids to get something wet in the bore before trying to push crud down the barrel. Other than that, it's pretty much what I teach.

Anyone know?

jhmartin wrote:Great article.
I do however wonder why push a dry patch/felt thru the gun first? ... I've always taught my kids to get something wet in the bore before trying to push crud down the barrel. Other than that, it's pretty much what I teach.

Anyone know?

Because many of us leave the bore damp with Hoppes after the last shooting session to loosen the crud deep in the grooves. A dry patch before the next shooting session removes the Hoppes and insures a clear bore as well.

Bob,

That's a dry patch through a dirty barrel.

If you're cleaning straight after shooting, the dry patch/felt will remove most of the loose fouling. I sometimes run a dry patch through when I don't have time to clean normally.

I have an Anschutz 1913 Supermatch. I clean after every time I shoot, using a Dewey one piece rod and a bore guide. I only use a light oil (Butch's Bore Oil) and no solvent. I feel this does not remove the lead "seasoning" but does remove the crud. Every once in a long while (maybe once a year if that frequently, just because...) I'll run a few patches with a mild solvent (Gunzilla), then make sure the bore is thoroughly dry before running oily patches through. I've been following this practice for 7 years and have never had any reliability or accuracy issues. I generally give myself three sighters to settle down when I start to shoot, and have found that the barrel does not need to "re-season" before settling down.

I prefer carbon fiber rods with ball bearings in the handle. The steel or aluminum rods can get bent slightly enough to be hard to detect with the eye without very close inspection and can rub the bore with steel. A carbon fiber rod is either straight or broken, and from my experience it generally takes more force to break a carbon fiber rod than bend a steel rod. In this case, a broken carbon fiber rod is better than a bent steel rod. My current favorites are Tipton deluxe carbon fiber gun cleaning rods. You can get them at MidwayUSA, Amazon, and dozens of other places. Here's a link to them on the MidwayUSA site.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/190314 ... uctFinding

I usually try to keep at least a few different lengths around, as I like to have a rod that's long enough to have the cleaning jag/brush exit the muzzle but not so long that it makes using it awkward. I also like to use cleaning rod stops that can be set to prevent the jag/brush from exiting the rifle and making the rod rub on the crown. Here is what I'm talking about, also on the MidwayUSA site, but these can be found lots of places.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/744854 ... uctFinding

Keep in mind that the cleaning rod stops are really more markers than actual stops. They're not really designed to completely stop a hard push. To do that, they'd have to be made out of harder material and would damage the carbon fiber cleaning rods when tightened down hard enough to do the job. I also don't like the brass "twist together" cleaning rod stops on carbon fiber cleaning rods, as they can damage the fibers.

I use club equipment. Dewey rod & guide, Shooters Choice solvent, Nylon brush (once in awhile bronze), q-tips, dental picks, Tetra gun grease, Tetra gun clear oil, and a few other things but I can't remember.

I'll clean my gun every 2 weeks or so, then yearly I give it a complete cleaning. Remove the bullet tray and extractor and clean everything spotless. This year I even cleaned between the action and trigger group frame. (make sure to time the trigger after)

A clean gun is a happy gun, just don't go crazy on the barrel. If you use a tuner, clean the tuner every few weeks or the extra weight will ruin your tune.

Bleiker's Cleaning Guide:

Interestingly (or not!) VFG themselves recommend a slightly different way of using their products: They tell you to put TWO felts onto their adapter, push through the rifle until the first felt comes out of the muzzle, then pull back to cause that one to drop off the adapter, then scrub your way back up to the breech with the second felt still attached!

Also interesting that Bleiker advocate the use of short movements, whereas most schools of thought advocate one smooth, continuous motion through the barrel to ensure you don't leave any rings of fouling that could act as a collecting point for more fouling (which in theory could ultimately result in a bulged barrel if you left them long enough).