If you shoot lead bullets only through your rimfire .22, there' s really no reason at all to ever clean it, unless you get it wet.

I' m not really a gun cleaning fanatic, so I' m probably way on the far end of the spectrum of some people here. For centerfire rifles I clean when:

1. I shoot corrosive ammo -clean right away, and clean often.
2. The rifle gets wet.
3. the barrel gets heavily fouled with copper and accuracy drops off- usually between 20-50 rounds.
4. At the end of a season if I used it for hunting and won' t be shooting for several months.


Clean the bore, the chamber, and the bolt face any you should be ok. A little bit of rem oil put down the barrel followed by a dry patch to remove everything but the fine residues afterward.