Borescope blues

I’ve just stopped cleaning rifle barrels. I think they shoot better dirty
 
I have some pitting in the barrel of my Weatherby Marx V. It still shoots great, so I don't worry about it. I usually only clean the rifle if it gets rained on, which is several times a season.
 
I have heard the same from some competitive shooters; no cleaning, shoot it until it does shoot like it used to, replace barrel. Then someone will chime in with something about cleaning the carbon out of the throat, brushes, chemicals and the debate rages on.
I clean mine frequently, mainly just to keep the copper fouling in check, especially on new a new barrel that may not be lapped. I did have a rifle at a qualification shoot that was blowing primers. Not your normal primer pucker, but literally obliterating the primers. The person responsible for the gun said they were not sure it had ever been cleaned. I told them you better spend the next week getting all the copper out of it, or find a 6.5mm cartridge that will chamber in that 7mm.

I have a .300 SAUM barrel that looks like alligator skin on the inside. Still shoots great.
 
I found it interesting about this cleaning deal.

My brother is a devout black powder shooter.

He was told it was a bad deal as you had to clean em after use.

He told me “ Why wouldn’t you clean one after use?”

I couldn’t give him a reply.
 
I’ve just stopped cleaning rifle barrels. I think they shoot better dirty
Copper fouling occurs mostly in the last few to several inches of the barrel. They say that this is where you start getting a lot of gas sneaking around the bullet. So maybe if it stays a bit fouled it chokes the bore and checks the gas?
 
Copper fouling occurs mostly in the last few to several inches of the barrel.
Or where it gets stripped off by pitting/rust, which can be anywhere... or everywhere. I bought several of those recently. 🙄

As for cleaning, I have rifles that get cleaned every time they're fired. I also have ones that I know have never been cleaned in my lifetime. And everything in between. lol
 
What harm does the ammonia solvents do if left in the barrel too long?
 
What harm does the ammonia solvents do if left in the barrel too long?
I wonder that too. So far my testing says nothing. In fact, just going out to the garage now to wipe out a barrel that's been sitting overnight with some gel type bore cleaner. It doesn't smell like ammonia, and doesn't seem to work all that great either.
 
I believe it's supposed to etch / frost the metal.

Other controversial bore cleaning methods for removing carbon is using CLR.
I have not and don't think I will. Lots of division on that one.


...shoot it until it does shoot like it used to,

Did it used to shoot 1/4 MOA or MOD (minute of deer)? 😄 Yeah that's one of those non-quantitative statement gun people to like use, like "shoots better than I do."

Gun stuff, shooting, reloading, you have to take all the info you get from the perspective of the person giving it for it to have any value. And that's tough to do most of the time. Everyone has different standards, but also tend to dismiss anyone who's standards are above or below theirs. A PRS guy for example may scoff at what a regular hunter does and the accuracy level he accepts. But will also scoff at the accuracy level a benchrest shooter will accept and write it off as silly and "unrealistic". You kind of see it all all levels and all disciplines. "What these people on this side of me are doing is dumb. What the people on the other side of me are doing is just silly. What I do is right."

Ruger single actions, a common modification to improve the action and trigger is to put in a reduced power main spring. And for years I would preach to people not to, that it slowed down lock time and was detrimental to accuracy. And so many people would argue with me that it wasn't true and they had no issues with them. The delicate part was, there was no way for me to argue without sounding like an @-hole. Because the blunt truth was "if you can't tell any difference, that just means you can't shoot well enough to notice the difference." That wasn't a huge slight, fact is most people can't (I sure can't anymore, those days are gone). But I had to learn a way to share the information in a more technical way, to not hurt feelings, not make it personal, not challenge or question anyone's abilities, so they wouldn't naturally turn defensive and just dismiss the information.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top