Barrel cleaning - Don't drag the brush back over the crown! Or ?

U

upandcoming

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I am just confused when it comes to cleaning the barrel. Some say do not drag the brush back, some say it MUST leave the barrel just slightly before it is draged back.

But what do you BR-people really do? I want to clean my HV-rifle as quick as possible and twisting on and off that brush takes some time.... :confused:

Barrel performance has its priority of course.
 
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Well...there is more than one opinion on cleaning to avoid damage to the crown...If you want to avoid removing the brush make sure you push the brush out from the muzzle just enough to allow the bristles to come out of the bore before pulling it back thru the bore...
The one thing to avoid is reversing the brush while the bristles are at the crown.. it causes the bristles of the brush to stand up and dig into the delicate crown...
Another opinion is use patches only starting with a carbon remover then follow up with a copper removing agent...and in any case don't push the cleaning rod out past the muzzle any more than it takes to get the brush or patch past the crown...
Some shooters place the muzzle of the rifle about 1-2 inches from a stop of some type to avoid the rod going far enough out of the muzzle to ride on the crown...
 
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Up and Coming

I attend a lot of matches. I shoot thousands of rounds a year. I can say that I do not know one Competitive Shooter that removes the brush after each stroke.

In my opinion, this is the biggest piece of miss information floating around concerning cleaning. I inspect my crowns with a 10x glass, and when I set barrels back, I check the crowns for any wear. I never find any of the so called damage that reversing the brush is supposed to cause.

Cleaning a barrel is really quite simple, if you use the proper tools. First is a good set of straight coated rods. Next, is a bore guide that fits the rod close enough so that it cannot contact the bore while pushing it through. The only rods that do this, to my knowledge, are the Lucus, and the TK Nolan.

Those guides that you buy that have a 1/4 inch+ hole in them, with no support insert, are useless.

But, the single most important factor in cleaning is to STOP that rod the instant the patch, or the brush, clears the muzzle. Then slowly bring it back. That way, the rod will not lay on the crown while moving at a high rate of speed..

You can ruin a barrel if you use those long strokes, allowing the rod to lay on that barrels ID while moving at a rapid pace.

Here is how I clean my barrels. When I first come from the line, I will run three wet patches with Butches Bore Shine. I then saturate the bronze brush with butches, and give it about ten strokes. I then patch the barrel out with wet patches, (there will be a lot of "brush blue"on the first couple), untill they come out white. I then let it soak while I am loading for the next relay, and I patch it out just before I go to the line. I use enough clean patches to where the bore is reasonably dry.

That is it. No ISSO, no Sweets, no JB, just Butches.

This works, and gets a premium barrel as clean as it needs to be.

Remember, the most important thing in cleaning is to avoid that rod ever contacting the ID while in motion.

Of course, shooters can do any thing they want. If you think a bronze brush will hurt a crown, then by all means remove it. If you think you have to get a barrel down to "bare steel" after every group, then by all means scrub it with what ever means nessessary so every molecule of residue is gone.

Of course, after the first round, it's all right back again. Keepin mind, we don't shoot aggregates with clean barrels, we shoot aggregates with dirty barrels.........jackie
 
upandcoming said:
I am just confused when it comes to cleaning the barrel. Some say do not drag the brush back, some say it MUST leave the barrel just slightly before it is draged back.

But what do you BR-people really do? I want to clean my HV-rifle as quick as possible and twisting on and off that brush takes some time.... :confused:

Barrel performance has its priority of course.
Click to expand...

You can't just make a statement"This is what BenchRest Shooters Do"
Because there are so many different techniques.
But maybe we could come out with a list of things we don't do. But it may be a short List.
1. I have never seen a BR shooter clean his barrel with sand paper.
2. I have never seen a BR shooter clean his barrels with a chisel.

Well that's about it. I think I have seen most other things I can think of done by a BR Shooter.
Ted
 
uandc ...

upandcoming said:
I am just confused when it comes to cleaning the barrel. Some say do not drag the brush back, some say it MUST leave the barrel just slightly before it is draged back.

But what do you BR-people really do? I want to clean my HV-rifle as quick as possible and twisting on and off that brush takes some time.... :confused:

Barrel performance has its priority of course.
Click to expand...

See "C", Step 3, here: http://www.varminthunters.com/tech/sgycleaning.html Then read the whole article. :)
 
Ted:

You left one out. I have not seen a BR shooter, never clean his barrel.
Some even chant incantations and/or make voodoo signs when cleaning.
 
I have seen a benchrest shooter clean his barrel with BAB-O.
 
I think that was for the dreaded heartbreak of 'Carbon Ring'. Which as everyone knows is worse that ring around the coller, and psyriosis.
 
I have experienced

in the past, a wear mark on the bottom most lands. My Smith decided to try cutting the inside of the crown @ 45* and that eliminated the problem completely. While I think it may be good to re-crown after 500 or so, the 45* cut is a great safety net.
 
bob harrison said:
Ted:

You left one out. I have not seen a BR shooter, never clean his barrel.
Some even chant incantations and/or make voodoo signs when cleaning.
Click to expand...

It's getting closer though, some of us guys shoot the whole agg. without cleaning our 30's and last sunday my Buddy and traveling companion Herbie Llewellyn told me I was cleaning my barrel too often. He has taken to doing it only every 3 agg;s or so. And he has a much better record currently than I do so maybe he is right.
 
I am nearly as guilty

Dick Grosbier said:
It's getting closer though, some of us guys shoot the whole agg. without cleaning our 30's and last sunday my Buddy and traveling companion Herbie Llewellyn told me I was cleaning my barrel too often. He has taken to doing it only every 3 agg;s or so. And he has a much better record currently than I do so maybe he is right.
Click to expand...



I discoered a year or more ago that there was no difference in accuracy rather I cleaned after 3 papers or waited until I got home. I have been cleaning to bare metal during the week but am lately thinking that some of the e ( Irish for Crap ) lain in the machine marks, etc may not hurt anyhting to leave it there.

Now for you PPC lads, we enjoy this advantage over yees. ( sorry, me maternal gran was off the Boat )
 
Hmmmm

At New Braunfels at The Bluebonnet, I shot the last three groups of the LV 100 without cleaning my 30BR, it shot a .238 agg for 4th place.

I don't have the courage to do that with my 6PPC's, though..........jackie
 
Jackie ...

I do. Last weekend at Dietz Range I shot the smallest group for 200 yards on the last target of the match with my new Steven's made PPC. I didn't clean for the entire yardage. You'll never find out if it works or not if you don't give it a try. I've been following Gene Beggs advice ever since he recommended it to me. I've shot some of my best groups and Hunter scores without cleaning for the entire yardage. No need for only the .30 guys to prolong barrel lives and stretch bottles of Butch's Bore Shine. You went to the light turn neck in the PPC sometime ago and I suspect you did it on more than just a whim. :) Art
 
Generally speaking, BR shooters are very conservative and unwilling to change the way they been doing things for the past decaces. Any changes are very small, incremental and taken only after lengthy solitary pondering.

Now, if we could only convince our politicians to be the same way. Why in only six months we have economic stimulis, global warming taxes, national health care, government motors and probably some stuff we don't know about. All this done before congresses summer vacation.
 
"This works, and gets a premium barrel as clean as it needs to be.

Of course, after the first round, it's all right back again. Keepin mind, we don't shoot aggregates with clean barrels, we shoot aggregates with dirty barrels.........jackie"

Profound. Of course, if a fellow thinks he shoots better starting with a absolutely spotless barrel, go for it but.............. :)

I wonder how much longer a Bench Rest barrel would last if it wasn't scoured out to a fair the well every 6 or 7 shots? :confused:
 
Maybe if you 30BR guys would clean more often a 30 might actually do well at the Super Shoot?
 
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