Barrel Seasoning

K

kujones

Kjones
I shoot rimfire silhouette. Our discussions on barrel seasoning are about the different bullet lubes used by the various manufacturers. It's OK to use different ammo if it's within the same family of manufacturer. I shoot SK Standard so can use any of the ammo that Lapua manufactures such as SK Match or Wolf but not any of the Eley brands. Eley and Lapua use different lubricants so I would have to clean the bore and re-season it before knowing how that particular ammo would shoot in my rifle. In his book The Art of Rimfire Accuracy Bill Calfee talks about barrel Seasoning and the combustion / lead ring that builds up from from shooting. I haven't read where he discusses the bullet lubricant.

How do rimfire bench resters deal with barrel seasoning and different brands of ammo?
 
You don't see a lot of changing brands of ammo during the same card in match, but it certainly can and has been done. Yes, you need to shoot a few foulers to maybe get more of the new type of lube in, but I don't believe there is significant disadvantage to do this.

We change lots on the same card from the same manufacturer all of the time. No issue there.

That being said, starting with a clean barrel is the best way to know what you are dealing with, but if nothing is shooting, you try everything you can to find one that will. Your barrel should be clean between each card, so go back and forth as you want. you shoot foulers to start so it doesn't matter. If you have to do that a lot though, I would say that is more of a symptom of not having everything dialed in as it should be.
 
None. Most don't. Most don't test by shooting groups either. It is about how ammo scores, not groups. You need to shoot a card to see how well ammo does.
 
In silhouette i've been told not to clean the barrel; It's a non-issue so don't do it. Maybe a couple of patches but not a brush and that's about it. Thank you, all. I'm in my second year so still facing a huge learning curve. Good Shooting!
 
22BRRF is about Cleaning !

kujones said:
In silhouette i've been told not to clean the barrel; It's a non-issue so don't do it. Maybe a couple of patches but not a brush and that's about it. Thank you, all. I'm in my second year so still facing a huge learning curve. Good Shooting!
Click to expand...

Wives ole tale ! ARA is Worst edge Scoring , .5 inch 100 ring with actually 7/16 to shoot a 100 ,hit the line and its a 50 ! I heard the same BS when I shot early on! You don`t clean in 22RFBR and you will be on the bottom looking up at every body on the line in front of you ! Most clean after every card (50-100) shots , Brushing with the drug of choice when drop six or more ! Don`t clean and your score will reflect your neglect !
 
Slick is absolutely correct!

There are some rifles that shoot best when not cleaned but very few are winners.
 
kujones,
I have less experience than some that have posted, but I do listen to those that do. One who has not posted, but has a vast amount of experience in RFBR and is also a nationally known RF smith, told me this. To back up what I am I going to say, I have tested at Lapua, twice, and have further information from the guy that I tested with in 2015, who is no longer with the company, but had been to the factory in Germany prior to my test date. I was in the booth with him when he tested two of my rifles.

It was explained to me that Lapua/SK/Wolf uses a petroleum based lube on all of their bullets. CX, Midas+, and Xact all use the same lube. SK/Wolf still uses a petroleum based lube, but it is a different formula than what is used in the 'Lapua' branded products. Eley uses a tallow/beeswax lube on their higher branded products.

IME, Lapua branded products always took longer for the barrel to 'come in' as opposed to Eley when fouling in. Now what the guy I mentioned shared with me and the rest of the story. This experienced guy, who shoots a bunch of Lapua, told me when fouling in using Lapua to shoot one or two shoots with Eley before switching to the Lapua and the barrel will come in much faster......he was right. I started doing this and the barrel came in after cleaning about twice as fast as just fouling with the Lapua. Slick Willy is 100% correct, almost all RFBR shooters clean the bore in between cards. 'Fouling in' the barrel happens on every card shot.

Now, flash ahead to December 2017 and I am in the booth at Lapua again. We are testing 2 rifles. I keep track of round count when testing and tell the testing guy to stop, I need to clean the bore. I do and the rifle needs around 10-12 shots to 'come back in'. I have some Eley red box in my kit and next time we need to foul in I stop him and give him a couple of rounds of Eley, have him shoot them first and the barrel fouls in with only four shots of Lapua. This has been my experience time and time again with fouling a clean bore in when shooting Lapua, which I shoot quite a bit of these days. I always shoot at least one fouler of Eley first and the barrel gets right much sooner when fouling is completed with Lapua.

When shooting Eley, only about five shots gets the barrel back in after it has been cleaned. For most sanctioned RFBR shooters, carbon/lead ring is not an issue as we clean after every card. If said ring developed in one of my rifles, I would change my cleaning method, but it hasn't. Cleaning methods are a whole different can of worms and you will find as many opinions about that as you will anything else involving rifles.

Hope this helps answer your question.
 
doclu60 said:
kujones,


It was explained to me that Lapua/SK/Wolf uses a petroleum based lube on all of their bullets. CX, Midas+, and Xact all use the same lube. SK/Wolf still uses a petroleum based lube, but it is a different formula than what is used in the 'Lapua' branded products. Eley uses a tallow/beeswax lube on their higher branded products.

IME, Lapua branded products always took longer for the barrel to 'come in' as opposed to Eley when fouling in. Now what the guy I mentioned shared with me and the rest of the story. This experienced guy, who shoots a bunch of Lapua, told me when fouling in using Lapua to shoot one or two shoots with Eley before switching to the Lapua and the barrel will come in much faster......he was right. I started doing this and the barrel came in after cleaning about twice as fast as just fouling with the Lapua. Slick Willy is 100% correct, almost all RFBR shooters clean the bore in between cards. 'Fouling in' the barrel happens on every card shot.

Now, flash ahead to December 2017 and I am in the booth at Lapua again. We are testing 2 rifles. I keep track of round count when testing and tell the testing guy to stop, I need to clean the bore. I do and the rifle needs around 10-12 shots to 'come back in'. I have some Eley red box in my kit and next time we need to foul in I stop him and give him a couple of rounds of Eley, have him shoot them first and the barrel fouls in with only four shots of Lapua. This has been my experience time and time again with fouling a clean bore in when shooting Lapua, which I shoot quite a bit of these days. I always shoot at least one fouler of Eley first and the barrel gets right much sooner when fouling is completed with Lapua

Hope this helps answer your question.
Click to expand...

An interesting factoid.
Back in the days when the prevailing ammo used was gold box Lapua M or L, many top shooters always began by running 4-5 " heaters" using ELEY.
 
tim said:
An interesting factoid.
Back in the days when the prevailing ammo used was gold box Lapua M or L, many top shooters always began by running 4-5 " heaters" using ELEY.
Click to expand...

Well here's another interesting factoid Tim. I learned that trick from Brian Voelker and Brian shoots a bunch of Lapua. He also finds, buys, and kicks our butts in Iowa, both IR and ARA, using older ammo he finds....from where, I don't know.

Currently he is shooting old Lapua Gold box, but I have no idea if it is M or L. Different bullet OD between the two, if I remember correctly. .223 and .224 maybe? I also believe Lapua was using a wax based lube at that time?

The Eley trick still works with the current production Lapua.

Thanks for chiming in. I always enjoy your opinions when I come to this forum. Brutally honest, and based on years of experience. Kind of like Voelker, who I shoot with 2-3 times a month during the summer, and who has mentored me on many things RFBR.
 
tim said:
Thanks......trying to work on the "brutally" componant:p
Click to expand...

Tim,
Please don't work on that too hard. It's part of the charm, say, the conviction of your years.

I shot ARA with Voelker yesterday and today......same thing, brutal honesty. Typed in a forum and in person is different if the source is not known. If the source is known, both relate to the same outcome, new knowleadge to score better.

With all due respect sir, don't change a thing.
 
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