Just wanted to know if copper foiling in ur barrel affects your shooting patters or if its bad to shoot with copper build up in your barrel......thanks

Yes and no. Little fouling is good and may promote uniform patterns. To much, it affects your groups negativly.

If you leave it in teh barrel, it will pit the barrel.

I remove it after each day at the range. Before I start testing loads, I shoot 2 fouler shots. Before I go hunting, I shoot fouler shots.

How does copper fouiling cause pitting? I wasnt aware that copper was hydroscopic.

Copper oxidizes before the steel will

welcome 7600 rem, i also fire a few foulin shots on a clean barrel, but i leave my hunting guns fouled throughout the season[:-], may not be the thing to do but its what i have been doin for 20+ years, at the end of the season, when i put them up they get a serious cleaning

best of luck and oh yea!! a bunch of fouling will ruin your grouping or as some folks say your pattern[:-]

MT me too. I usually leave em fouled for a month. I am not saying you will get damage for a month. What I am saying is the guy that goes shooting and then 2 years from now takes his gun out. I buy up alot of estate guns, and you won't believe how many people put away guns for years without looking at em.

Most of the pitting I have seen is on pistols. People usually shoot alot and don't clean.

I hunt with some guys who have left their barrels fouled foryearson end. Doesn't seem to matter much though, as they generally shoot at moderate ranges and kill deer just about every year.

I personally can't do that myself.I do generally leave my barrels alone during hunting season, butthey get cleaned after every shooting session the rest of the year. I think the aforementioned example, though, is evidence that some of us, myself included, fret too much about barrel cleanliness I think.

I know I do. I ruined a throat with those cheap three piece rods when I was a kid. It would have been better to just leave it alone.

I too am a cleaning freak. During the season as a rule the only cleaning I do is preventative, oil & lube, run a oil patch after wet conditions, etc. All other times I strip it down after each shooting session. Meaning copper removal. IME somerifles require some copper fouling while others do not, so I let the firearm/past experiencedictate the procedure for the hunting season.

Only exception is a ML I clean it thoroughly after ever outing.