muddywater

When yall sigt in your hunting rifles, do yall clean the barrel after every shot or keep it dirty. I' ve allways believed in a dirty barrel. They just seem to group better for me. But it seems like a clean barrel would be more consistent. Any body have any thoughts on this?

Also, when your shooting various loads for group, how long do you wait between each shot to let the barrel cool?

bigcountry

If you look at a chrono, some barrels shoot good low std dev. velocities with a clean barrel and dirty. Some barrels, mostly factory barrels, need 2 or so rounds for the velocity to start settling down. The problem is the oil we put down the barrels. If I go somewhere where long shots are possible, I like to have a dirty barrel with 2 shots thru it. As for sighting in, I say go to the range and shoot a box thru it. Find the zero. And don' t worry about it.

Ballistictip

My gun seems to shoot the same clean or dirty although I do clean after every 5 shots when sighting in. I' m with Bigcountry on the oil. I always run a patch wet with rubbing alcohol and then a few dry patches before I shoot if I had previously oiled the barrel. With an oiled barrel my rifle will generally put the first shot high and to the left. I can' t explain why but I have checked it several times and it' s always the same.

Scooter59

When at the range I clean every 5 to 10 rounds. Once I finish brushing and patching I run two tight fitting patches with Gun Scrubber through the barrel to remove the oil and residue left by the solvent. If you can' t find Gun Scrubber rubbing alcohol or brake cleaner (yeah you heard right) works just as well. I have found that if I completely remove all the oil etc from my barrel my POI is the same as a dirty bore.

As a ritual on my last visit to the range prior to deer season (usually the Friday afternoon before ) after checking my zero for the hundreth time I clean my rifle as normal, and de-oil the bore as I described. I then fire two " fouler shots" followed with a run through with a dry bore snake. It' s pure superstition but it works for me.

skeeter 7MM

Oil in your bore will increase the pressure and shift the POI. It should be noted that increasing your pressure in your barrel can not only cause damage to the rifle but injury and thus a gun shouldn' t be fired with a oiled barrel! Best practice is to remove all oils prior to firing. In most cases rifles with a clean bore will not alter your POI, however this may not be the case with all rifles. Best way to tell is trial and error. I have 5 Cf' s that don' t alter POI with a clean bore and 2 that do only slightly, as such I clean mine as per usual before the hunt and final sight in session, but skip the oiled barrel part for long term storage.

I usually take 3 shot groups and let my rifles cool while I go down range to check my target. I would say anywhere from 3-5 shots depending on the loads and barrel, just make a note of what each gun does after you reach a certain heating point. However my best advice is make sure that guns is on cool, as most of us shoot the first shot with a cool barrel.

Vapodog

I usually check my " zero" a couple weeks prior to a hunt. I clean the barrel at the end of the season so at the start I mop the bore with a dry mop. I go to the range and take three sighting shots, wait a while till the barrel cools and then sight the gun in for the season. The only time I clean the barrel again during the sight in or during the season is if I know something got in the barrel.....mud, snow etc.

I believe one can get carried away with cleaning a smokeless powder hunting rifle.

A benchrest rifle is different.

noway

I' m with Vapo dog.

During the summer I clean my rifles after each session.

After my final sight in session I leave it dirty and don' t clean it again until the season is over. Unless I think rain or snow got in the barrel then I will clean it when I get home and shoot it 3 or 4 times to check the sight in and to get it dirty again before taking it back out hunting.

I am lucky enought to have two hunting rifles which don' t normally change their point of impact after cleaning but I don' t want to take a chance on it.

When sighting in I normally shoot 3 shot strings about 1 minute between shots.
I want to see what the rifle is going to do in the field. I also shoot a couple groups with only enough time in between to work the bolt and get back on target.
Both of my hunting rifles shoot the same size groups whether I wait for the barrel to cool or if I shoot one after the other, so there is not much point in letting it cool anyway.

You need to shoot at least a few groups one shot right after the other to see what your rifle is going to do if you get into one of those unfortunate situations where you need to take more than one shot at an animal at any distance (it happens) to see if your bullet impact shifts as the barrel heats up.