how to foul your barrel
 

how do most of you guys foul your barrel. i did notice that my beartooth does shoot better with a dirty barrel. the first shot seems to always be just a little low and to the right. from then on it shoots right on again. i always thought it was just me on the first shot because after that it lays them right in there. will the 209 primer alone be enough to foul it. i shot tonight for about two hours just tring differant loads with a clean and fouled barrel. but i forgot to try just a primer for fouling. :)

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

an easy way is dump 30 grains down the barrel and then push a cleaning patch or two on top of that. Step outside and fire it off. You are now fowled.

Also some people pop three or four primers and consider themselves fowled...

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

What excactly is the purpose of fouling your barrel is it because you don't want the first shot to be a flyer!

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

i guess you'll call it a flyer. the first shot everytime i cleaned it shot out about inch and half and a bit low.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

I clean between shots at the range with most of my inlines so every shot is like a first shot. When m/l season starts this year I will have fired my rifle once cleaned with my usual range type cleaning and then go hunting. I want to make sure I have no oil in the bore.

Sidelocks I will just clean the oil out real good before loading for hunting. If I am up at camp I will load before I leave so moisture is not a problem.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

Ihave heard of people swabbing their barrels out between every shot but I havent done it I have also heard of people swabbing bore butter between shots but I don't do that either. When I go target practice I usually shoot 6-8 times and then I clean, my groups start to open up but they are still fairlytight from 150.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

i did notice the that the groups with a dirty barrel were much tigher groups than with a clean barrel. at 80 yards with the dirty barrel some holes were touching. never had any holes touch with a clean barrel. i was shooting goex clear shot off sand bags on my rear deck.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

With that goex clear shot how many shots could you take before you could tell that your groupsstarted to open up.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

Some rifles, not all rifles, shoot a tighter group when the barrel is fowled. Consider that when you shoot a barrel that is not fowled. Your first shot on a clean barrel reacts differently in the barrel to every shot after. No matter how well you swab the barrel, there will always be a little fowling left in the barrel. Not much sometimes depending on the powder you shoot, but always a little something. If not, cleaning these would be a snap.

Some rifles will shoot as much as six inches different. I have one rifle, the first shot is always 2" higher on a clean barrel then a fowled barrel. It does not seem so apparent on roundball shooting barrels then the modern inlines, although I do have a Hawkins that will shoot an inch to the right on a clean barrel.

Some people just sight there rifle in on a clean barrel and take for granted that they will hit and connect all they need with the first and only shot. They then practice and adjust for any following shots... The option is up to you. Since my rifles are not that much different, I shoot on a clean barrel, but am sighted in for a fowled barrel.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

this may sound dumb...but if you foul with even a small charge of powder it STILL GOES BANG!!!!! last year my gun shot better with the particular load i shot fouled......so id pour a small charge down and prime and fire it.....the first time i almost needed new pants....i wasnt expecting a bang......but i got a louddddddd on!....and once me and my buddy pulled in my other buddys driveway(farm country...noone around) we woke him up(its 11am lol) ...and me and the other buddy went outside to load our guns for the days hunt(we hunted right from his house...farm country...woods..noone around) we were opposite sides of the truck and my buddy really couldnt see me but knew i was loading my rifle...he was doing the same........well i poured a small charge down...primed it...BOOM.....my friend about died......he ran over there so quick witha OH $hit oh my look on his face....maaaan he about died...he thought somehow i shot myself.....or my gun went off accidently somehow........i explained to him why i did it....appologized for doing it without telling him...though i did it as a joke kinda....but needed to foul the bore either way....he was MAD......hated me that day......and we rode in silence after we got in the truck later that day......once in a while hed look at me and call me some choice words....he got over it....and was my best friend at the time and we were always together and best buds you know...so he got over it and told me do it again and scare him like that and he will shoot me himself! lol.........i felt bad that day....i didnt think id scare him THAT bad......but didnt really think id scare him in that way at all......figured hed hear a boom and jump......but i guess loading a gun....hearing a boom....he thought i died.....i felt bad and should have thought....i wasnt doing anything careless with a gun...dont even try it.......noone or nothing was around to be harmed...perfectly safe fouling shot.....just scared my unknowing friend....

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

patchholder.... i usually getsix and sometime eight good shots before thing start to go haywire.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

That clean first shot that strays away from the following shots also has another difference - the barrel is completely cold at that point. My White .45 doesn't seem to care at all whether the first shot is from a fouled bore, but that first shot will strike just a tad lower than the rest due to the cold barrel. Keep up a rhythm and it just lays 'em in there but let it cool completely and it will hit a bit low again even though it's still fouled. The difference isn't enough to cause a miss on a large game animal though, at least not at reasonable range.

Just an observation, may be relevant to some and not to others.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

Underclocked.. that is an interesting point and one that I never considered before. I guess I never looked at it from that standpoint. I have to do some testing now to see if it holds true on any of my rifles.

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

I'm lucky not to experience this first shot/following shotsituation...I use TC and GM barrels, Natural Lube 1000, Goex BP, and patched balls...45/.50/.54/.58 calibers...temperatures I shoot in are from the teens to the high 90's with % humidity from the 40's to the high 90's.

I always sight inwith a clean dry cold barrel like I'll be hunting, but to be honest, apparently it doesn't matter using what I use above...which is good...becausethe last thing in the world I would want to do is intentionally foul a ML bore then go sit in the woods with it that way for hours on end...my two cents.
;)

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

I have never ever intentionally fouled a bore to achive best POI accuracy or fouled a bore and then went hunting for the day.

I have always cleaned inbetween shots and recorded the best POI from a clean bore. That is the only way to abtain the best consistancy and grouping. From a clean bore. Reason is fouling characteristicsfrom shot to shot varies and obviously increases as you shoot which creates more fouling.

To take a rifle from storage and prepare for hunting with sabot's.
I remove the rust protection lube from the bore with alcohol/windex and dry patches. Then run a natural lubed patch in the bore followed by a dry patch to control any flash rust(Idon't usethe dry patch after the natural lubed patchif shooting conical or PRB). Then load as desired with powder and projectile.

Regards,

Tahquamenon

RE: how to foul your barrel
 

That is my exact thinking. You might get better groups after 2 shots in one rifle or 1 in another. But you never know what it will do a week from now or later. But I do know how a swabbed bore should shoot.