Cleaning routine

[chester]

Silent

 

More of your PM's as requested

 

"shooting in the barrel, well their are many thoughts as to this topic but what I will tell you is yes I used to use break in and then discovered its not worth it and proberbly more harmfull in doing so on factory guns for reasons I will explain below in just a mo but I dont even bother on custom rigs these days and have monitered them carefully to see if any harm is done and it isnt but I do clean my 300 after each outing but not the others (she's a little different)

 

well now for the cleaning thing, custom bbl's are drilled and cut or buttoned slightly undersized, say 306 to 307 for a 308, then when they are hand lapped they are lapped using a casting moulded to that bore so the cast plug has female lands and grooves so the "wear " the plug creates to open the bore out to just under 308 follows the lands and grooves evenly

 

they are made slightly undersize so that they can be honed out to the right size removing any machining or button ringing marks to give a smooth sharp bore ( a guy using JB to polish the bore is just ruining the bbl makers hard work and just decrease the bores life

 

factory bores are normally hammer forged so metal is beaten around a mandrel that has the lands and grooves formed on it so the lands and grooves in a factory bore are an imprint from this, this offers long bbl life and means that the bore is fairly smooth and shiny and the right bore dia and this means its cost effective for mass production

 

now the factory bbl is the right size from banging it round a mandrel, doesnt require hand lapping as its the right size any way and if you did so, wouldnt it make the bore over sized???? yes

 

gale mcmillan ( a top bbl maker ) hated breaking in bbl's and said it was a waste of time along with his hate for JB paste and voided the warrantee on any of his match winning bbl's if they came back to the shop after being polished out with JB

 

think about this, your bore isnt round and smooth, it has lands and grooves so when somebody pushes a spear tip jag (which is round) and cotton patch down the bore with JB or similar about 70% wear is taking place on the lands and only 30% in the grooves..... does it make sense????

 

just shoot that stick and enjoy thats the advise of mr mac and a whole bunch of top shots now and the JB thing, well more bbl makers are saying no to it

 

afetr all my testing etc etc I can promise you this, modern powders, primers etc are far less corrosive these days and if you were to use a bore snake after shooting, to remove excess burnt powder fouling and keep the bore dry you can go 100's of rounds before cleaning on a factory bore, I have gone 400+ but keep an eye on the bore thats all

 

I beleive that if you look down a bore after storing for a day or two from shooting and see green streaks then use a snake to remove the oxidised copper and burnt powder

 

if it re-appears the next day then clean the bore as there will be trapped moisture and the reaction in the bore is the most likely cause of pitting if left alone for a while

 

I gotta friend is SA and we use his musgrave 308 for hunting over there, its bloody accurate but the only time it gets cleaned is once a year when I do it when visiting, every year I fear seeing pitting but that bore cleans up like new every year after a year of hunting (he does use a dry snake from time to time)

 

the other day I cleaned my 223 after several hundred rounds then examined the bore and it was emaculate as it always is so what I am trying to say is dont over do the cleaning as its not needed and many a bbl's have been ruined through over cleaning than not cleaning

 

make sure the chamber is cleaned out the same way you would clean the bbl example: you use a copper solvent in the bore and wash it out with say 009, the copper solvent is bound to have dripped into the chamber so after using copper solvent in the bore, remove the bore guide and clean out the chamber with dry patches and then wet the chamber with say 009 (the pear drop smelling one) and clean out the bore guide the insert the guide over a wet chamber, push wet patches with 009 down the bore to wash out copper solvent, remove guide, dry chamber, dry guide separrately, insert in rifle and push dry patches through to dry out the bore

 

009 leaves a rust preventitive film even when it is pushed out till dry and its great for washing out "

 

Cheers

 

Chester

[Middlestead]

My 260 has had +200 rounds scince last being cleaned, I shot with it at a BDS shoot last weekend, 5 small tomatoes @ 100m(no sighters) in a 15-25m.p.h. 2 o'clock crosswind 4mil windage and shot my 5 for 8 shots in 1 minut 37secs of the 2mins allowed (1 tom got shot twice as it was spinning on the nail from the first strike just cliping it) We then went on to shoot green grapes, toms, satsumas and asrin tablets for practice once the comp part of the day was over.

 

Of course Vermincinorator will tell me thats impossable to do with a dirty barrel..........

[Middlestead]

............or worse still on that has been shot with molly coated bullets!!!

[col48]

My 260 has had +200 rounds scince last being cleaned, I shot with it at a BDS shoot last weekend, 5 small tomatoes @ 100m(no sighters) in a 15-25m.p.h. 2 o'clock crosswind 4mil windage and shot my 5 for 8 shots in 1 minut 37secs of the 2mins allowed (1 tom got shot twice as it was spinning on the nail from the first strike just cliping it) We then went on to shoot green grapes, toms, satsumas and asrin tablets for practice once the comp part of the day was over.

 

Of course Vermincinorator will tell me thats impossable to do with a dirty barrel..........

 

 

well thats it then,never ever clean your barrel again.

 

what a top class scientific study you have done there, best copy the in depth test and post it on the hide,

better still send your findings to 6mmBR.com i bet they will post your absolute definitive findings.

 

ATB

Colin

[Middlestead]

...........still not cleaned, still shooting sub 1/2"

[Middlestead]

......mates factory 223 sps remmy HATES to be clean, shoots like a bag of s**t for the first half dozen round till the barrel calms down then holds 1/2" for 350-400 rounds then loses the plot and needs cleaned.

[Middlestead]

.........as for "never ever cleaning again", have you been listening??? It will tell me it needs cleaned.......then I'll clean it.

[Andrew]

This was sighter was shot with my .22 Hornet after perhaps 400 rounds and no cleaning. My latest .222 will shoot similarly and since I bought it and recrowned it, it has only had a single patch with some Hoppes on it to remove the cutting oils from crowning. It has never had a detailed cleaning. Obviously there are some rifles that benefit from constant cleaning but I haven't owned one yet.~Andrew

[Ronin]

Andrew

 

 

respect

[skany]

i did the shoot clean thing for about 15 shots then after say a heavy seasion 30 plus shots or so!

 

tetra copper solvent on a patch & leave for 10misn patchout with 2-3 patches on aspear tip another wet patch give it 5mins check following patches for copper job done!

 

may brush it once in a while for kicks but not often!

 

seems to be working fine & worked fine on my 22-250 to

 

Andy

[charly hunter]

My rifles get wipeded down with a squirt ofg Sheath if it has been raining other than that my rifles are work tools and I clean the barrels maybe once every 6 months if I think about it. I have always said that a barrel will be polished out before it is shot out.