IMHO, I thinks it's tough for the 'average' hunter/shooter to shoot a rifle out. Average being the key word here. I'll go along with Roskoe, a much more common 'problem' with CF rifles is they get dirty. I've seen it in my own rifles where they start to fall off and need a good copper cleaning. Sweets has always worked well although it can be dirty and VERY time consuming. I started using the Outers Foul Out and it works terrific! Nice thig is I now copper-clean every rifle I have about once or twice a year. No fuss, no muss.

highpower, did you have to resight your rifle after cleaning it?

If its dirty enough. That caliber you have is tough on barrels. You might errosion if its that old. You might not. Most guns I see like that are damaged due to 3 piece cleaning rods.

MrBowhunt, no I did not. The rifle in question above, was my .243. For several years it was a tack driver. One day it started falling off and just got worse and worse. I had read an article about copper build up doing that, so, I cleaned it with Sweets. Took an entire day of cleaning to get all the copper out. When I was done, it was back to as good as new. Like I stated above, I've gone to the Outers Foul Out, and now I clean the copper out at least once a year.

Those Outers Foul Out type cleaners are great - and will save you tons of time. One little warning, though: they will get a barrel so clean that, if it is an older gun that has never had a really good thorough copper cleaning, the cleaning may actually expose rough metal in the barrel that has been coated with copper fouling for years.

The barrel will suddenly shoot really bad. After a hundred rounds or so, it will come back around - as the copper fills in all the voids. Not a problem with smooth premium barrels that have been kept clean all along - but then these barrels really don't need the Foul Out treatment to clean them anyway. The ones that really seem to benefit from the Foul Out are regular factory barrels, like Remingtons and Rugers, that are a little rough but shoot pretty well. Particularly with the Barnes X bullets . . . . .

This is more pure baloney.....Further the barrel life can exceed 5,000 rounds (still shooting 1/2 MOA) from even a .220 Swift.....and that's a statement by Layne Simpson, not me.....The key is keeping the barrel clean and not shooting the barrel until it gets hot!!!

Even a .270-.30-06 class rifle will burn out a barrel in 500 rounds on full auto and no water jacket.