ORIGINAL: Solitary Man
ORIGINAL: Rammer
I just never clean the bores on my rifles and they all shoot extremely well! hehehe
My 7mag Browning I have owned since I was 12 years old, I will turn 24 in 29 days or so, and I have cleaned the bore on it once, and it will put 3 shots under .5" using handloads. The rifle has around 1,000rds put thru it. It is to the point though where I think I will give it a good scrubbing, just for good measure.
You sound like most of the guys I hunt with. And to be quite honest I find nothing wrong with it.My buddiesaren't into rifles, handloading and such.Some go years and years withoutputting a cleaning patch down a rifle bore.Yet they go out every year and shoot deer just as well if not better than I do. My own priorities have changed somewhat over the last few years too and although Iprefer having a clean rifle,I don't obsess overit like I once did.
The routine I mentioned above is one I developed after a good bit of trial and error. It's second nature to me now, so it doesn't really require a lot of my time. Most of the time involvesletting the chemicals do their job and that doesn'ttake any input from me. The actual time I spend during the process is probably no more than 15 to 20 minutes per gun. I'm just not going to spend hours on end cleaning my guns. I got better things to do.
Ya, I just don't figure to mess with a good thing, until something starts acting up. I shoot my rifles alot more than most guys in my area, and during the season you will still find me shooting groups. Until my groups start to open up I don't bother. I recently had to give my Tikka T3 in 243 a good cleaning, and that didn't help much. I think I might have some throat errosion starting with it. I've put roughly 4600rds thru that gun in abouta 5 year period, so I'm guessing it is time to re-barrel or trade.