Cleaning the barrel

D

DaRealViper

Guest
How often do you clean your barrels after each match, so many rounds, each target, or other?
 
After every relay............A wise man once said to me;), if you are not cleaning, your not winning........

Marcos
 
Most all serious BR shooters, during a match, clean after each target.
I doubt if you will find a barrel that will stay in competitive tune for over 20-25 rounds at best.
 
After...

Between the 100yd and 200yd matches. After approx. 40-45 rounds. I personally find in my case, cleaning after each relay to be unnecessary. Sure saves a lot of fouling shots.

virg
 
I let the barrel tell me when it wants to be cleaned since they are all different. I have had barrels that wanted to be cleaned every 20 shots and some that would go 60 or 70.
 
Reason for asking is my groups go bad after 7-10 rounds. I load to a pressure level much lower than most and use a dirty powder. Trying to determine if fouling or barrel heat is the main contributing factor.
 
DaRealViper said:
Reason for asking is my groups go bad after 7-10
rounds. I load to a pressure level much lower than most and use a dirty
powder. Trying to determine if fouling or barrel heat is the main
contributing factor.
Click to expand...
Barrels vary somewhat depending on several factors, some brands clean easier
than others, some solvents clean quicker and easier than others, some
powders are cleaner, etc.

Also, as a barrel is shot many times it becomes harder to clean as it
erodes.

Generally, two or three wet patches, 8-12 strokes with a good bronze brush,
2-3 wet patches, the 2-3 dry patches. Then use an after-clean lube like NAPA
LockEZ, Buchtels Graphoil, Montana Xtreme Accuracy oil, etc.

You can tell somewhat by feel on the patches and brush. Is it slick and easy
or rough?

Keeping a barrel in prime shooting condition is as important as load tuning
and the prime shooting condition is not necessarily "squeaky clean".

An important thing to do is look at the final patches. Are they still "slick-black" or do they contain smudges of grey/black? You will not get a barrel so clean as to not have some color on the final drying patches. This is why I don't like these containers some folks use to catch patches. You need to look at them, especially the last ones.

What color is the first patch after soaking and scrubbing? If it is somewhat blue-green you may be building copper in the bore. Use some Sweets 7.62 or Barnes Cooper Remover or the like. As a barrel ages it will copper more and easier. If you do not have one of these, use Shooters Choice, Montana Xtreme, Hoppes #9, Hoppes #9 Copper remover, etc. and let the barrel soak overnight. Here you are looking for the blue-green patch that shows you still have some copper.

Many barrels do shoot better with a slight copper wash, if you can control the buildup and not let the copper get to lumping (need a bore scope here).

I'd guess that if your groups are going south after 7-10 shots, you either are not getting the barrel clean enough or it is getting close to being shot out.
 
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