cleaning your rifle?
11-13-2006, 12:20 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location:
Posts: 22
cleaning your rifle?
i was wondering if i should clean my rifle after shooting it to sight it in or wait until after rifle season is over? i had sighted it in today after shooting about 8 shots, should i clean the inside of the barrel or is it ok to wait till rifle season is over? thanks
11-13-2006, 03:50 PM
#7
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Jackson, Michigan
Posts: 381
RE: cleaning your rifle?
My father used to say about car engine maintenance that you can never do too many oil changes. The analogy here is that a clean barrel will out live and out performa dirty barrelover time.Copper fouling from the bullet does more to affect accuracy than most people realize. Sub MOA rifle barrels would loose their accuracy if the copper and foulingwas not removed frequently after just a few shots (around 10 shots), and so these barrels are frequently cleaned with solvents down to a bare metal. It takes several shots to first heat then "foul" a cold clean barrel so velocities stabilize and optimum accuracy can be achieved. This is because initial shots through a clean barrel produces different frictional energy until lube is blown out and the bore is coated with powder residue and/or copper so bullet friction begins to stabilize. Soft metals gall and stick to similar metal. Each round fired through the barrel will deposit a little more copper until eventually accuracy deteriorates. Once a barrel is fouled successive shots will not remove the copper.Copper fouling is usually deposited in patches and lumps resulting in a rough bore which promotes the tearing of the tail portion of the bullet jacket as it passes through the bore. This adds air turbulence at the base of the bullet so it does not fly as true. All barrels foul. It is simply a matter of how many shots are needed to first stabilize velocity then how quickly it fouls so severely the gun starts "tossing flyers". Obviously, if it takes nearly 10 shots for velocities to stabilize and at that point the barrel is fouled so severely accuracy is impossible, you have a problem. The barrel is called a "fouler". So, "to clean or not to clean, that is the question". I'll leave the answer to you, but for me, the ole adage and analogy that my father gave me about oil changes when I was a kid still rings true today!
11-13-2006, 06:28 PM
#8
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cornwall, Pa.
Posts: 1,720
RE: cleaning your rifle?
I agree with Jackson. Depending on the moisture in the air copper fouling can start to damage a barrel in very short notice. When at the range I will clean the barrel immediately after shooting whilethe barrelis still hot. In a hunting situation I will clean it when I get back to camp leaving some Shooters Choice in the barrel overnight. The next morning it gets another shot ofsolvent and a brushing before a light coat of oil.
11-13-2006, 08:55 PM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Sierra Nevadas., Ca
Posts: 1,050
RE: cleaning your rifle?
I believe everyone is correct. Shooting with a fouled barrel is inherently more accurate due to the fact that you zero with a fouled barrel.
Leaving it dirty all the time is not great for the barrel either.
Solution? I clean my rifles after every hunt and range day. Just before the hunt, I foul the barrel either at the range the day before, or in the field if I can shoot far from where I'll be hunting. It does not take many rounds to foul a barrel sufficiently
Leaving it dirty all the time is not great for the barrel either.
Solution? I clean my rifles after every hunt and range day. Just before the hunt, I foul the barrel either at the range the day before, or in the field if I can shoot far from where I'll be hunting. It does not take many rounds to foul a barrel sufficiently
11-13-2006, 09:14 PM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 2,862
RE: cleaning your rifle?
I've never cleaned a rifle barrel after I initially clean the grease/cosmelene out of them from the factory and all my rifles shoot sub MOA after 1,000 + rounds thru all of them.