Cleaning a very dirty barrel

[LoggerDan]

High humidity is not the same as living in coastal areas. I have nothing to say either way on cleaning regimen, but, I can say that high humidity and coastal rainy saltwater marine climates are not the same

 

[Ernie]

I clean when my barrel tells me too.
It also depends on the level of accuracy you are wanting/needing.
For a lot of hunting situations, given the typical max distance, you could go a long time without cleaning.

 

[SDHNTR]

I care what my stuff looks like and I don’t want it rusting. I will continue to do what works for me.

 

[wnelson14]

I’m not trying to be a douche, I understand that the moment people get borescope they obsess over things that do not matter. The o my thing I care about is how the rifle shoots- how the fire looks is immaterial. As I stated above I have lived, hunted and shot in very high humidity and temperature environments with blued barrels, and an oil patch ran through the bore keeps rust from forming.

What is your barrel break in process? Do you recommend anything or just shoot and go on with it?

 

[Ernie]

I don't break in barrels.
For a comp rig (1K Bench or F-Class), I might lightly break in the throat

 

[SDHNTR]

Pretty sure this is his break in process.

 

[Ernie]

Pretty sure this is his break in process.

Erik is a good guy!
He no longer uses a NEO rest...Now he uses the NEO-X

 

[Formidilosus]

What is your barrel break in process? Do you recommend anything or just shoot and go on with it?

Load mags, shoot.

 

[49ereric]

Losso will get it all the quickest.

 

[Coyote Assassin]

I’ve lived a significant portion of my life in some of the highest humidity and highest temperature areas in the US. I do not clean barrels ever, and do not have an issue with rifles not shooting because they weren’t cleaned in a high humidity environment. When I use standard chrome moly barrels with no lining or treatment, and I am not going to shoot them for months at a time (though it’s rare), I will put oil on a patch and run it through the barrel, knowing that rifle isn’t ready until it’s been shot 5-10 times afterwards.

It has nothing to do with copper or carbon spots in a barrel.

LOL. You don't "clean barrels ever?" How would you know if your barrels are not shooting at their best if you've never cleaned them? I've seen barrels that have never been cleaned so powder fouled that they would key hole because the rifling wouldn't grip the bullet enough to stabilize it. But hey, as long as you're satisfied with the performance you get then carry on.

 

[sram9102]

LOL. You don't "clean barrels ever?" How would you know if your barrels are not shooting at their best if you've never cleaned them? I've seen barrels that have never been cleaned so powder fouled that they would key hole because the rifling wouldn't grip the bullet enough to stabilize it. But hey, as long as you're satisfied with the performance you get then carry on.

This should go well...

 

[49ereric]

LOL. You don't "clean barrels ever?" How would you know if your barrels are not shooting at their best if you've never cleaned them? I've seen barrels that have never been cleaned so powder fouled that they would key hole because the rifling wouldn't grip the bullet enough to stabilize it. But hey, as long as you're satisfied with the performance you get then carry on.

We shoot the rifle until groups open up duh…

 

[Formidilosus]

LOL. You don't "clean barrels ever?" How would you know if your barrels are not shooting at their best if you've never cleaned them?

Logic would state that you don’t know how well your barrel shoots, or could shoot, until you’ve tried every combination and the barrel is worn out. After it is “shot out”, then you could look back and say “at x round count with x load, it shot the best”. At any point in the middle you have no idea if it’s shooting it’s best.

Every person determines their level of acceptable precision, and nearly everyone is doing so with ridiculous ideas about probability. I can state with absolute certainty, that the 30 shot extreme spread for more than a dozen rifles I currently have with at least 500 rounds with no cleaning, has not changed in average from round 100 on. I’ve shot out and cleaned more barrels than most can fathom. There have been several points in my life where barrels lasted less than a week- new barrel on Friday, shot until the next Friday and replaced. Week after week.

I've seen barrels that have never been cleaned so powder fouled that they would key hole because the rifling wouldn't grip the bullet enough to stabilize it. But hey, as long as you're satisfied with the performance you get then carry on.

Please expound on the barrels that had so much powder fouling that the rifle couldn’t grip the bullet. Interesting how that works….



How many rounds do you suppose are on this barrel that hasn’t been cleaned. They’re all 10 round groups or larger unless stated, with multiple different scopes and different lots of ammo.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Logic would state that you don’t know how well your barrel shoots, or could shoot, until you’ve tried every combination and the barrel is worn out. After it is “shot out”, then you could look back and say “at x round count with x load, it shot the best”. At any point in the middle you have no idea if it’s shooting it’s best.

Every person determines their level of acceptable precision, and nearly everyone is doing so with ridiculous ideas about probability. I can state with absolute certainty, that the 30 shot extreme spread for more than a dozen rifles I currently have with at least 500 rounds with no cleaning, has not changed in average from round 100 on. I’ve shot out and cleaned more barrels than most can fathom. There have been several points in my life where barrels lasted less than a week- new barrel on Friday, shot until the next Friday and replaced. Week after week.








Please expound on the barrels that had so much powder fouling that the rifle couldn’t grip the bullet. Interesting how that works….



How many rounds do you suppose are on this barrel that hasn’t been cleaned. They’re all 10 round groups or larger unless stated, with multiple different scopes and different lots of ammo.

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Maybe they’d last longer than a week if you cleaned them!!

Just kidding!!!

 

[Formidilosus]

Maybe they’d last longer than a week if you cleaned them!!

Just kidding!!!

Haha. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

 

[Coyote Assassin]

Logic would state that you don’t know how well your barrel shoots, or could shoot, until you’ve tried every combination and the barrel is worn out. After it is “shot out”, then you could look back and say “at x round count with x load, it shot the best”. At any point in the middle you have no idea if it’s shooting it’s best.

Every person determines their level of acceptable precision, and nearly everyone is doing so with ridiculous ideas about probability. I can state with absolute certainty, that the 30 shot extreme spread for more than a dozen rifles I currently have with at least 500 rounds with no cleaning, has not changed in average from round 100 on. I’ve shot out and cleaned more barrels than most can fathom. There have been several points in my life where barrels lasted less than a week- new barrel on Friday, shot until the next Friday and replaced. Week after week.








Please expound on the barrels that had so much powder fouling that the rifle couldn’t grip the bullet. Interesting how that works….



How many rounds do you suppose are on this barrel that hasn’t been cleaned. They’re all 10 round groups or larger unless stated, with multiple different scopes and different lots of ammo.

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Excellent 1 inch groups. Like I said, if that's what satisfies you then you probably don't need to clean.

 

[Wrench]

A one inch gun in a rifleman's hands is a lot more dangerous than a .25" gun in an average guy's hands.

We shooting for agg or we shooting stuff?

 

[Formidilosus]

Excellent 1 inch groups. Like I said, if that's what satisfies you then you probably don't need to clean.

Can you show a single field rifle with 7 different groups spanning several years with 8 to 20 rounds between .8-1.1 MOA?

 

[SloppyJ]

This thread reminds me, I have some kroil and JB bore paste in my kit ready to work on my copper mine of a 30-06 model 70. I have only found a couple loads it likes and I'm wondering if it's because it's not cleaned that well. Time to find out. Any tips on Kroil and JB? I got some of those tipton pellets to try out too.

 

[Wrench]

The tip on jb is to leave it at the store. Wear your gun out by shooting it, not scrubbing it.