TargetTalk

Hi all,

Some members of my club clean their rifles after every time that they shoot. However, I am now hearing that the rifle should only be cleaned about four times a year. I need some guidance in this regard.

Louis

I try to remember to clean my rifle every time I shoot it. It is a Winchester 52E with a Lilja barrel. Lilja recommends running a dry patch throught the barrel every 100 rounds. If you can get a hold of the Shooting Sports USA article about rifle cleaning, it is quite enlightening. Many of the top shooters clean there rifle a lot, many don't clean that often (if the last shot was an X, why mess with it!). I guess it just depends. I wouldn't suggest cleaning your rifle right before a match. It will take too long to get the barrel "fouled" correctly.

Just my two cents.

Jim B

How often you clean it can depend upon HOW you clean the barrel. I run an oiled patch and then a couple of dry through after every few boxes. This flushes out the crud and residue from the powder charge and primer. I can't honestly say that my groups are any tighter, but I am happier for it.

I also thoroughly scrub out the barrel two or three times a year to remove any deep seated fouling.

Cleaning regularly shouldn't harm your barrel, if you are cleaning properly. Litlle and often can be better; although if your barrel still shootes well if cleaned once a year, you could affford to be lazy!

Tim S

Exeter UK

I find it's just as important to clean the bolt face. Even if you don't clean the barrel "often", take a look at the bolt to see how much crud is accumulating at the face and around the extractors. While you're at it cleaning off the bolt, clean the barrel too!

I'll clean my Win 52B every 2-3 months - but cleaning for me is a Bore Snake with a few dabs of oil on the tail, once through. I have found that my rifle shoots better when it is a little dirty, so I don't like to excessively clean it.

BTW - the Bore Snake is the greatest invention ever made.

it depends on the barrel. smoother barrels dont need to be cleaned as often because they dont accumulate as much junk in them.

I have a friend who is a rifle builder as well as a past World Champion at Benchrest 22. I think his sport requires more accuracy from a rifle than any other. He says that it is not necessary to clean a 22 after you shoot it as the compounds coating the projectile will protect the barrel for a reasonable length of time. Those same compounds do dry out and become hard and in fact abrasive with time so it is necessary to clean before you shoot the next time. If you shoot through a dirty barrel the first shot is pushing all that dry abrasive compound out ahead of it.

I just clean with a pull through for the barrel and Q-tips and a tooth brush for the rest every time I shoot. It doesn't seem to hurt the gun and it makes me feel good.

Doug in Virginia

I mentioned this earlier, but this is directly from the Lilja Precision Rifle Barrels Website.

Rimfire Maintenance
Cleaning Rimfire Barrels
Rimfire rifle barrels are different from centerfire barrels in that they require very little cleaning and essentially no break-in procedure. We have asked several of the top rimfire shooters and gunsmiths that use our barrels about their procedures and based on our own experience, have come up with our recommendation for cleaning.

In a match-grade stainless steel hand-lapped barrel, leading is an almost nonexistent problem. Powder fouling is minimal too. It is possible however to have an accumulation of fouling in the leade area in front of the chamber. A build up here is detrimental to top accuracy.

We suggest cleaning in the following manner. After approximately 100 rounds push a dry loose patch through the barrel from the breach end. This pushes out loose fouling. Then take a tighter dry patch and work it back and forth about 10 times in the leade area, pushing it out of the barrel at the muzzle end when finished.

Every 200-300 rounds a loose (worn out) 22 caliber bronze brush, wet with solvent, should be worked back and forth in the leade area with short strokes and withdrawn from the chamber end. If there is any evidence of lead in the barrel then brushing the full length of the barrel with solvent is suggested.

Match quality bullets have a wax coating on them that aids accuracy. It may take 10-50 shots to "lay" a good coating of it down in the barrel and using solvents will only remove this desirable wax coating.

Users of the 10/22-type semi-auto barrels may have to remove the accumulated powder fouling buildup that forms on the breach end of the barrel. Extraction problems may result eventually unless solvent is used on this type of fouling.

The 22 WMR and 17 HMR cartridges are rimfires but they fire a jacketed bullet and therefore centerfire cleaning and break-in instructions apply.

The solvent we use and recommend for our barrels is Butch's Bore Shine from BBS Industries (www.bbsindustries.com, 406-652-2495).

This only applies to lead bullets! If for some reason you are using copper jacketed bullets (I don't know why you would for precision .22 shooting), then you need to clean your barrel like a highpower rifle barrel. Check out the Lilja Website at www.riflebarrels.com.

Jim

You should clean your rifle when it tells you it needs it (preferrably a little earlier once you know when that is). Some ammo is known to lead more than others. Some doesn't seem to at all. I only clean the bolt on mine.

I've been shooting smallbore prone matches with Lones Wigger for many years. His feelings on cleaning rimfire barrels is to do it every 50 or so shots. He cleans after each 40-shot or 60-shot match. He's used all the best ammo from Winchester (years ago when it was great) Eley, RWS and Federal. And after each cleaning job he doesn't shoot more than ten or so sighters/foulers before going for record.

My own experiences my Anschutz 1911 factory barrel will go about 100 to 150 shots before I notice shots not quite going to call. There's always the issue of what is the cause; me loosing faith or the barrel's accuracy has degraded. Whatever the reason, I have better scores when I clean often.

I don't know if anyone has made a realistic test of how many shots a best-quality barrel can take before accuracy degrades (10%, 20% how much is too much?) and cleaning is required. Most of the information published on this is opinions. These opinions range from 'never' to 'often.' It's usually a good idea to do what the best shooters (record setters, big match winners) do. But even amongst these folks there's different opinions.

It would be great if someone made some valid tests, then published the results.