TargetTalk

I haven’t seen any specific thread about this, so I’ll stir up the SH**. I shoot both rifle (sb position/prone, some HP) and pistol (Int incl FP & NRA), have for 40+ years. One theme I keep seeing on this site is the lack of need or desire to clean free pistol barrels. Of all the pistols, these tend to be the most accurate of the bunch, yet for some reason we’re to believe that cleaning them will adversely affect their accuracy. Yet show me any competent, accomplished smallbore rifle shooter that doesn’t regularly clean their rifle bore. So we’re to believe Free Pistol barrels are immune to fouling?

No precision rifle shooter would ever overlook the need for proper and timely cleaning of their barrels. My father wrote extensively for Precision Shooting Magazine as well as various Cast Bullet journals. He proved various acceptable methods of cleaning bench rest (lead bullets) as well as BR50 rifles (among others). It is a science, not to be taken lightly for those wanting any kind of accuracy. It was a real education the number of methods used by various champions. Each their own "science".

I’d love to hear from accomplished FP shooters or gunsmiths on the difference between FP barrels and rifle barrels. And why we dare not attend to their cleaning.

George

I'm not defending the supposed usefulness of cleaning FP barrels, but for your question the first answer that comes to my mind is that any medal-aspiring International Prone Rifle shooter must have a barrel/ammo combination that MECHANICALLY stays 24/7 into the ten-ring of the ISSF target, which measures (at 50 meters) the equivalent of less than 1 MOA, and hit it more than 90% of the times, preferably into the X ring, which is 1/2 MOA wide, and those parameters are not easy to fulfill, let alone the personal dexterity of the shooter who is to blame for all those 9's.

On the other side (and believe me, I've done extensive tests at the national state ammo factory in my country with dozen of brands and types) the 10-ring in the FP target is around 3 1/2 MOA wide, and almost ANY decent target ammo will keep all the shots into it. Having said that, when you grip the FP you begin to realize that you've got yourself in knee-deep s**t, because only the truly gifted can stay into the 9-ring ( 7 MOA wide).

I clean my pistol every 200-250 shots but mainly to remove carbon deposits in the chamber, which makes extraction sometimes troublesome. I understand that those shooters using compensators have to clean them more often because of the buildup of residue, but I'd bet that accuracy-wise my barrel wouldn't notice if I let a thousand or more good quality rounds thru it without cleaning.

And even if it did (closing my argument) I severely doubt that I could - even during my long past best years of 540 + scores - attribute a 9 instead of a 10 on a fouled barrel.

Of course, many will digress, but that what's a forum for.

Probably the most in-depth look at cleaning a rimfire firearm I've ever seen:

http://www.rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html

The short version is that rimfires will have a large window of accuracy that after X rounds will begin, and after Y rounds will fall off. Cleaning your pistol or rifle regularly will let you figure out when this window occurs, and ensure you are in that window during competitions.

-Jenrick