Iām a precision rifle guy and have been for fun and business for a good many years. In the case of a new to me rifle I will do what you are attempting to get back down to a ānothing but steelā barrel before I start breaking it in again.
This is where I depart from normal gun culture. I DO NOT clean my rifle barrels after they have been shot and zeroād UNTIL the accuracy of the rifle becomes unacceptable which to me is approaching 1 MOA (Minute of Angle) or 1.047" @ 100 yards or 10.47" at 1000 yards (OK I fibbed if my rifles get near 3/4 MOA they get cleaned the math is just easier at 1 MOA). How long does it take to get to that level? Well, my precision 30-06 gets cleaned after about 1000 rounds, my precision 308ās get it at about 1200 rounds. My 300WMās usually the barrel is gone before it needs cleaned. For the bigger guns like 408ās, 416ās and 375ās itās north of 750 to 1K rounds.
Here is the reason why and maybe this has happened to you. You scrub up your shooty stick and go to the range.
You get all hunkered down and squeeeeeeze the trigger BANG! 4" high and right. You think to yourself āI must have jerked the trigger.ā You squeeeeze the trigger again, BANG. 2" Low but centered. This will continue on for at least a box of ammo and longer if you started playing with the scope knobs. FINALLY the thing begins to settle down and you are getting rounds pretty close to where you had it the last time you were at the range. Long about 50 rounds into it you are making one hole groups right where they are supposed to be. You are thinking āMan Iām out of practice and just needed to warm up.ā
Now that you are all pleased with yourself and your rifle again you take it home and clean it. The next day you get lucky and get to go back to the range felling good that your trigger finger is right and you KNOW your rifle is sighted in.
Re read the paragraph before the last one, as this is what you will experience, AGAIN.
Why you ask? Because you scrubbed (incompletely) the copper PLATING that you put into the gun the day before and because somebody told you to, you put OIL in the barrel. Oil is a fluid and even if you wipe it out it is still there (unless you squirted brake cleaner down the bore which is a really bad idea unless you are trying to really clean the gun) you canāt evenly compress a fluid, by most accounts you cant compress a fluid at all. So until you burn off the oil and start laying down NEW copper plating which fills in all the little nooks and crannies in the steel your accuracy will suffer. As the copper lays down the accuracy will tighten up usually around 30 - 50 rounds.
As long as you are shooting modern ammunition with current powder and primers your bore will not rust, copper does not rust but it does oxidize so if you leave it for a year or so it might be a good idea to send a few rounds down range (or into the dirt) before you get serious with it. The most important shot out of a rifle is the FIRST one. The most telling thing about your rifle is the LAST shot. If you donāt screw with the bore, your last and first will be in the same place. Clean it and there is no telling WHERE that next round will go. I know that concept is a big pill to swallow but if you have back to back range days, TRY it, Iām sure you will be pleased with the results.
@Craig6 Iāve been experiencing the inaccuracy issue with my 7mm-08. I had it sighted in real good. I could cover three consecutive shots with a quarter at 100 yards. For a hunting rifle, I was happy with it. Went home, cleaned it. A few weeks later, I went back to the range. I couldnāt get any consistency out of the rifle. I will have to try what you suggested and I will keep it in mind when I go to sight in this new rifle I got.
Thanks.
@CDW15 IMHO handloading is the ONLY way to get all the performance out of your rifle and itās MUCH cheaper once you get set up and running. Iām at the point where I make money every time I make a round.
So I stopped at my local gun shop and talked to them about the copper in my barrel. They recommended me a few different cleaners that they have had good luck with. So here is what I picked up:
Pro Shot Products Copper Solvent IV
-G96 Complete Gun Treatment
I also bought a nylon brush for the copper treatment.
I got home and cleaned my 30-06 as instructed on the back of the bottle and Iāll be honest, I donāt think I have ever seen a cleaner barrel. To look down the bore, the rifling is very clear and you can clearly tell it is clean. I know that what I got probably isnāt as good as what was recommended, however, I am very happy with the results I got. I no longer get blue or green patches coming out the barrel with cleaner.
Thanks, that is a decent and a bit overly simplistic explanation of getting the copper out. One thing it fails to mention and I talk about in my second post is that the fouling will be in layers where you will have powder fouling layered in with the copper fouling and that is where the time is spent, the slow process (if done right) of getting those layers out and going back and forth between copper and powder solvents with lots of brushing in between.
Target ammo is no different than regular ammo both of them go down the tube at a fairly good rate of speed pushed by powder. So you will get carbon (powder) fouling as well as copper fouling from the boolit itself. Depending on the boolit type some match rounds will actually lay down MORE copper than standard ball or hunting rounds as they are made for different purposes. On a related but off topic note I have noticed that different boolit manufacturerās can negatively affect your accuracy if you are switching between the two. In my case I run Berger and Hornady boolits almost exclusively but I did try some Sierra boolits a couple times and it was like I have just cleaned the barrel after about 30 rounds the gun started grouping the Sierraās ānormallyā. Switching back to my loads it took 20 or so rounds to get it back in.
You posted a link to pistol ammo and while this topic is about rifles the principle remains the same. When I discovered the magic of not cleaning the bore I built a āHard Ballā 1911 competition pistol, meaning that it was set up to use full house 45 ACP Match rounds and was fed a constant diet of TZZ Match. Other than cleaning the slide and frame I NEVER cleaned the bore except for prior to shooting it the first time. I traded the gun for something when it had north of 10,000 rounds through it and it would still shoot more accurately than I could hold it and I was a fair good shot back in the day.
Thank for the update. I forgot to update this thread after taking the 30-06 to the range. I can get a 3 shot group to be covered by a quarter. I am really impressed and happy with this rifle. I appreciate everyoneās input on this subject.
Well if Dawn is good enough to clean the ass of a baby duck covered in oil then itās good enough for a gun. I imagine that drying it would be the biggest challenge.
I have never really gotten gown in the weeds with the 5.56. I make GP ammo that seems to work fairly well for my purposes and just stuff a 55 or 62gr on top. The match loads above were for my 30-06 comp gun (Winchester M-70 built by GAP) that I drive out to a mile and hit 1K with boring regularity. Iāve noted similar results in my 308 platforms (AR-10 & Win M-70) when swapping boolits, I almost exclusively use 178gr A-Max in 308 unless Iām using 118LR.
