ORIGINAL: NVMIKE
I've gotm a few questions. QUESTION 1) I also heard the "season your barrel thing" My barrel is stainless, so do I need any of the bore butter type prducts? the guy who told me about this has been M.L. for decades, BUT....he got his first inline just last year, he used a sidelock. is his advice outdated?I was going to just put some dry lube (moly or graphite) on the trigger mechanism and keep the barrel CLEAN. QUESTION 2) the first 3 shots out of my new savage grouped 1 1/2" at 100yds. W/ 250gr power belts and 120gr of ffg pioneer. W/ open sites(all that nev allows for hunting) I thought that that was pretty fair, I was told to try loads w/ less powder...Does anyone know why? Isnt that good accuracy w/ open sites?
I read an article by Ross Seyfried in Rifle Magazine several years ago about this "seasoning" idea. I tried it (should have known better, since I have been shooting BP rifles since 1954, and knew methods of cleaning, etc., which worked O.K.), and the result was the rusted bore I mentioned above. Well, "seasoning" did not work worth a damn!! My opinion is that "seasoning" is for cast-iron cookware, not rifle barrels! Additionally, any barrel used with BP or BP substitutes must be totally cleaned of any and all powder and bullet residue after shooting, leaving nothing in the bore at all that could cause rust! Forget "seasoning"!!
A stainless barrel will resist rust and corrosion a lot better than other steels or iron, BUT STAINLESS CAN CORRODE from BP fouling if it is not cleaned well. IT JUST TAKES LONGER. So, with a stainless barrel, you can wait a day or two longer before cleaning it, BUT YOU STILL NEED TO CLEAN IT of all powderresidue before any long-term storage!
I clean ALL my BP barrels by pouring 2 quarts of boiling water through the bore, followed immediately by swabbing with four or five clean dry patches. Then, when the bore is cooler, I swab it with a patch saturated with Birchwood-Casey Sheath. This treatment absolutely prevents any bore rust. And, you don't have to swab the preservative out of the bore before you can load & shoot again-the Sheathdries up, leaving a dry protective coating in the bore.