Bore cleaning question

[JCalhoun]

I didn't want to hijack this thread http://www.savageshooters.com/showthread.php?17020-barrel-break-in&p=143467#post143467 but it got me to wondering.

So here are my questions;

All bores have tooling marks. Aftermarket barrels will normally have these reduced to a certain extent. When we clean the bore with copper & carbon remover we tend to take a lot of the fouling away from the tooling marks. It seems to me that a barrel will be most accurate after several shots have put down be bore again. Since we have to re-foul the bore, is it logical to remove all traces copper, etc when we clean it? How clean does it really need to be?

I would like for the posters to use real life experiences (your own or talking to an barrel makers, gunsmith, etc). I can read all the speculation myself. :confused:

[M.O.A.]

well how this my grandpa had a rem 270 for forty years or so and i dont think it ever had a patch ran through it ever !!!!! and it probly still shoots just as good as the day he bought it.

now for me i shoot my guns more so im more inclined to clean them but ill run the bore snake through here and there till i can see the accuracy drop off then ill clean it with brush, patch, and mop ;-}

[82boy]

I say there is a point where it gets to a point where it is clean enough. I take my experince from benchrest shooting, where in a registered match componets get 1/2 hour from when they lesft the line to be back up to the line. In the half hour time period, competotors clean their rifles, load rounds and get a bit of taling into the mix. Sounds like a big amount of time, but in all reality it is a hussel to get everything done. Most competotors will push a couple of wet patches down the bore run a wet brush through with about 10 passes, then patch everything out. most of this is done in 5 minutes. You will never seen any competive shooter go right to the record target without shooting at least 2 fowler shots, to one put a bit of heat into the barrel, and 2 to put some fowling in, to make the barrel shoot at its top. Thes gun have high end hand lapped cut rifles barrels, and are cleaned after every 7 to 10 rounds.

Long range benchrest is a bit diferent as many competators shoot moly coated bullets, they dont clean after rounds/matchs but when the barrel gets to a certain round count. They then try not to strip all the moley out, but just the copper, and carbon fowling. They want the moly in the barrel, and want to leave as much in it as possible. They will also shoot fowler/sighters before shooting a record target. These guys usualy use the same barrels as the short range guys, high end hand lapped cut rifled barrels.

Last is rimfire benchrest, these guys get scared to ever clean a barrel, if it is shooting good, they leave it alone, and the only rare time they will clean is when they switch ammo brands, or maybe lots. They believe that each ammo maker has its owne different coating on the bullets, and they believe that their is a seasoning period that is usualy around 20 rounds, that this lube will not be properly distributed throught the barrel. They want the barrel season or foweld before they would even consider shooting a match.

Out of all three disiplines of benchrest mentioned above, do any of them worry about getting the barrel spotless clean, they only want the barrel clean enough that it has ts highest accuracy potential. If you was to bore scope these barrels you would find that there is some fowling left in all of them.


When it comes to factory savage barrels in all my experince i have found that they all generaly shooter better when they have had several rounds down the tube in a season or fowling. I have found that cleaning then that they do not shoot as good untill several rounds have been fired, they go though a period where they shoot big groups untill they get about 20 rounds, then they shoot small groups untill they get the the point that they are too dirty and the groups open back up, the cycle repetes its self over and over. As the barrel ages, (Amount of rounds down the tube.) the amount of bullets it takes for the barrel to settle down, and the amount of bullets it takes for accuracy suffers starts going down. For example if a barrel starts shooting well after 20 rounds, as it gets older it will start shooting better after 10 rounds, and if accuracy fell off at 100 rounds, as the barrel ages it might fall off at say 75 rounds.

With that said I say every barrel has its own personality but for a benchrest standard all barrels need some fowling before they will preform at ther peek.