bump

Just found this, thanks for the useful info

God made dirt. Dirt don't hurt.

-Mickey

Good post! Thanks for bringing this back up.

Bore snake and a lightly oiled patch at the end of each season is about all I do.

Run a few rounds through it before season to make sure I'm still accurate.

I read about this when I was younger and have always had it in the back of my mind, but I was under the impression one 'fouling' shot would be enough after a good cleaning.

Thanks for the tip!

Love my bore snake. I usually run it through three times a year. And I prefer graphite to oil on my action.

Thanks for the reminder... Need ta oil mine so they dont rust up...

Great reminder from Chad. Here is a photo from last week to illustrate the point. CCBS is Cold Clean Bore Shot. The shots are numbered in firing sequence. Rifle is a Montana Rifle Company 308.Two dry patchs are pushed through to remove oil prior to the first shot.

First deer rifle was a .45 Kentucky... Learned all about maintanance years ago... good thread... With todays modern guns ya can get by with little more... While not & expert like most of ya'll on here... Just look at differance in GOAX powder & modern ourpowder used in in-line mussleloaders... dayshavew think my first post was in mussleloader form, right away... leave it ta the expeerts.... i got cheap posts... Just remember, even experts dont hit perfect bullseye every shot & their is a difference in shooting at still target & live target & groups get wider @ greater distance... shooting threw a pipe take a 1/2" pipe, hold up ta shooting eye.. Look threw... Think they still trying ta decode my thread, De-fun-de-mentals of Choot-en spelling might be wrong... They took thtead down... As pappy once said: i gotta be me, no one else wants the job ...

Good photo, jeffbird.

The proof is right there, and I'm proud for you that it takes so few rounds to get the rifle shooting again.

Haven't read all the pages, but Id hope people clean their muzzle loaders more often than what Im seeing yall posting about regular center fire rifles. Those are some nasty guns and corrode easy. Not to mention trying to push a sabot with a rod down a dirty, rusty bore. I use bore butter to keep the rust to a low in muzzle loaders. I had a guy hand me a muzzle loader one time to look at and I handed it back to him and said whats up with the rusty stalactites in the boar, and he said uhhhh? I never clean it. I like to clean my rifles after a hunt that may include rain or being around a lot of sand. I always fowl my barrel and sometimes just shoot it into the ground one time. Ive been in some soaking rainfall while hunting and I don't like water for lubrication. Ive seen rust building up at the end of the muzzle after one evening sit in the rain. No thanks. Don't want to blow that rust out with a shot, would rather clean it out with proper gun cleaning equipment. I walk a lot and my guns are introduced to all the harmful elements. If I slightly bump my guns against something I check the zero every time.

If the shooter takes good notes on each firearm they shoot it really doesn't matter if the bore is clean or dirty when hunting. I keep data for every rifle I shoot on where the 1st shot will hit whether it's clean or dirty. I make data cards for each load/rifle,and tape copy's on the stocks each time I take them out in the field.
None of my rifles have over 1.5" of difference between the POI of a cold clean bore or a cold dirty bore.Unless you're trying to shoot a deer at 400+ yards in the wind,it'll be hard not to hit the kill zone.

I do try to keep one rifle with a fouled barrel,but I do a lot of load testing when it starts cooling off outside,and if that rifle was used for load testing it will have a clean bore when it goes to the lease and I'll have no problem with knowing where it will shoot with my hunting load on the first shot.

That's cool, mine are normally about an inch off with a freshly cleaned bore. Ive noticed that solvent doesn't throw the bullets like a oil sheen in the bore does. And for the auto shooters, you better keep those as clean as possible, unless you like non cycling guns. I shot a lot of .22 short out of my marlin 39m one time, and with the shorter case on the shorts compared to the longs it had a build up further back in the chamber that made cycling long rifle shells almost impossible. Had to break out the bore solvent and brushes to get it back to cycling long rifle shells. That cleaning kit does have its very important uses.

Yes, correct, were're talking about normal centerfire rifles, not muzzle loaders. Totally different ball game there, for sure.



Yes, this happens with almost any firearm that shares a longer and shorter caliber fired out of the same chamber. You will have the same issue with a 357 Mag after firing a bunch of 38's. You will have to clean the chamber(s) to get the full length rounds into the chamber.

I bought a rem 788 that im guessing the previous owner never cleaned. When I got it I cleaned it inside and out, but didn't know that it needed more of an industrial style cleaning. When I fired store bought ammo out of the .308 the shells didn't want to come out of the chamber after shot. After the cases expanded the gunk in the neck increased the tolerances and wouldn't let the case freely come out. I could barely pull the bolt up much less out. Took it to the gun doctor and he said that I probably has a really dirty chamber that needed some serious cleaning. I took it home and soaked some patches with bore solvent and pushed them into the chamber and let it sit for a day to soak the gunk. Then I used brushes to brush out the junk. The shells would always have that green penny color around the neck after fired. It took several soakings and brushings to finally clean up the chamber. I learned a lot about maintaining your weapon with that very gun.

bump for a reminder!!

First rifle was a Kentucky .45 it teaches ya maintanence... Have ta admitt i've been slacking over the years... Good thread

Bump for opening weekend!

Good write up Chad, I see and hear all the time people doing what you just wrote and wonder why they missed, I run 1 patch of Lockez through mine and call it good only takes 1-2 rounds and it's back on track.

another bump for deer season!

What if you barely use your rifles anyway, and when you do, it's for less than 50 shots, with the average being 5 per outing, and don't clean them unless after a vigorous range day?

this needs to be read by many. up for monday

If cleaning the barrel was not a good idea, why do benchrest target shooters clean their barrels frequently between shots??
Those fellas can shoot rings around most of the deer hunters on this forum.
They are regularly shooting sub M.O.A. groups from CLEAN barrels.

You got some splaining to do, Lucy!