How often to clean the barrel?

[a0cake]

For those about to claim that there's no way a rod or brush can damage a steel barrel that's designed to shoot a hot copper coated slug at 3,000 FPS while withstanding blah blah blah degrees Fahrenheit...I invite you to read some of these quotes from some of the best barrel makers in the world.

From Krieger

"Q: Can you damage a barrel during cleaning?

A: ABSOLOUTLY. Damage is possible in many ways including but not limited to the following: · By not using a bore guide. Use a bore guide whenever possible to prevent damage to the throat of the rifling and nicks and scratches to the bore. Always clean from the breech end whenever possible. · Damage to the crown from the cleaning rod. This is the most frequent cleaning damage we see. · Never mix your solvents either in a bottle or in the barrel. You never know how the solvents are going to react with each other or to the steel. You can also damage a barrel from simply over cleaning (cleaning more often than needed) and by the over/improper use of abbrasive cleaners"

From Noveske

"When cleaning, the brush or jag should only travel through the barrel from the breech to the muzzle, the same as the
path of the bullet. Do not ever pull a brush or jag back through the crown of the barrel"

From Bartlein

Always push the brush, Breech to Muzzle. Remove the brush before pulling your rod back through! NEVER pull the brush back over the crown. More damage to a good barrel is done from cleaning than actual shooting. The first to suffer is the crown. The crown is the last thing the bullet touches when it leaves the gun. Any damage here affects accuracy no matter what.


Anybody here think they know more about barrels than these guys???

Sources:

http://www.bartleinbarrels.com/BreakInCleaning.htm
http://www.kriegerbarrels.com/FAQ-c1246-wp3352.htm
http://noveskerifleworks.com/impdf/barrelcare.pdf

[MOA]

never seen a barrel damaged from pulling the brush back thru. My question is how could you tell? The soft brass brush has damages the hard steel of the crown. My barrel and crown are painted and I cant tell that there is any uneven wear from pulling it back thru. I am NOT saying its not happening. Not saying that at all. I am saying I have to clean the factory barrel on my rifle, a stockish Remington 700 Sendero in 300wm, every 100 rounds of so due to groups opening up. I atribute it to the factory bore being rough, but it still shots 1/2 MOA out to 300 or so.
I do plan to replace the barrel soon, its got about 2000 rounds thru it and I want to go to a 22" Broughton 5c with a slightly heavier contour.

[anthony1]

Ive tried all methods, clean alot to never. My best advice after years of shooting is to just basically wipe off/out the crown and chamber with clp after shooting also maybe spray down the action with clp and wipe off. Whole process should take 1-2 min. Leave the bore alone. Unless you start noticing your groups opening up dont even worry about it.

[Buck1122]

If you hate cleaning and accuracy is not suffering then I would suggest a couple options.

1. Bore snake it with a bit of copper and powder solvent on it.
2, Blast the barrel and lugs with Gun Scrubber and then take a single patch and run it down the barrel with a light coat of CLP, Mobil One, or Kroil.....then use a dry mop to dry it up.

Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes and your barrel will be pretty darn close to 100% clean and accuracy should return to normal (if it was off a bit in the first place).

Personally, I give all my weapons a minimal cleaning after each time I shoot more than 50 rounds. Othwerwise, the heat generated will bake carbon and copper deposits on making them that much harder to get out. So, I just spend a couple minutes and get rid of most of it while I can .

Happy shooting.

[Littlelebowski]

I've never seen a barrel damaged by cleaning. I'm sure some idiot has done this... but I have never seen an example.

I clean the crap out of my precision barrel EVERY time I shoot. I can tell you for sure that thing hasn't suffered.

There's plenty of pics of damaged crowns floating around. Check 6mmbr.com

[John_Burns]

I would recommend a thorough barrel cleaning every 300 rounds on a real precision type AR.

Owning a bore scope makes one much less worried about “bore damage” or “crown damage” from shall we say vigorous back and forth bore scrubbing with a bronze brush and some pretty aggressive carbon removers.

Most guys without access to a boresccope simply are guessing on the cleaning issue.

[Dano5326]

cleaning impedes range time.. wasteful


If you have variances in grouping you've cooked the barrel, have deposits of crap, or are an inconsistent shooter (really who the hell actually gets paid to shoot several times a week).. which takes a lot more investment than most individuals can pay for. Shoot more, theorize less.

[John_Burns]

cleaning impedes range time.. wasteful


If you have variances in grouping you've cooked the barrel, have deposits of crap, or are an inconsistent shooter (really who the hell actually gets paid to shoot several times a week).. which takes a lot more investment than most individuals can pay for. Shoot more, theorize less.

For what it is worth I do get paid to shoot several times a week.

[Littlelebowski]

cleaning impedes range time.. wasteful


If you have variances in grouping you've cooked the barrel, have deposits of crap, or are an inconsistent shooter (really who the hell actually gets paid to shoot several times a week).. which takes a lot more investment than most individuals can pay for. Shoot more, theorize less.

Bears repeating.....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[John_Burns]

Well I guess we have different opinions on cleaning schedules but I do base mine on having done more than a little precision long range shooting.

If interested you could throw my name with the term long range shooting into google. You might find my opinion is based way more on shooting and is pretty lite in the theoretical.

Waiting to clean until accuracy has fallen off might be fine if your precision rifle is a range toy. If your precision rifle has a job to do then deferring maintenance means at some your rife will not be up to the task and the way you will find out is through a failure to hit something that you wanted to hit.