Rifle cleaning question - How & when?

[Underdog]

It could be that the extra friction increases pressure!

 

My friend...the bore when coated in bullet lube in this case your 22 is protected. It has been known for a long time that smokeless fuels do not cause rusting or other forms of corrosion. All corrosive primers are a thing of the past now....the known culprit for barrel damage. Even black powder was not as bad as folk think for causing rust compared to corrosive priming mix!

 

It is your choice of course sir but my 22's don't get cleaned very often with exception to being caught out in heavy rain. I do not use a moddie and like very much seeing the crud ring building up around the muzzle. A crud ring that is formed by each bullet wiping the bore of excess bullet lube....a protective film of which is left behind.

 

U.

[kent]

An interesting test - lets you know what happens with your gun. I do the same with mine and find it takes 20-25 to fully settle into zero. I recon I could still take all the single shots from that 20-25 and add them up to 1/2" though at 50yds. What I really find is I cannot get I want at around 100 yds without a cleaned and then "shot conditioned barrel", I also use SK subs BTW (great rounds). To be fair "almost" any ammo can produce 1/2-3/4" at worst at 50yds in mine if the wind is kind and I haven't OD'd on the coffee.

Mixing ammo can be the death of real accuracy in my .22 (some will blend, some won't)

[dadioles]

Hi Kent

 

I am pleased to hear that you also like SK Subs.

 

One snippet of information that I came across is that Eley match grade ammunition is generally regarded amongst the benchrest target shooting community as the most accurate. It seems that in the case of .22lr, the primer is a major contributor to the overall power of a round and the success of Eley is largely down to their unique and patented means of loading that primer. Apparently SK (Lapua) have licensed that process from Eley and it may be one of the reasons we are happy with that ammunition.

 

The rimfire accuracy fanatics also seem quite obsessive about cleaning their barrels and talk about removing carbon buildup in the "Leade" area.

 

I did not know what this was, but do now.

 

"At the junction of the chamber and bore, the throat is the parallel area immediately in front of the case mouth. This is where the exposed part of the bullet sits just prior to firing. Just ahead of the throat is the leade, a tapered area where the throat diameter reduces down to the groove diameter and onwards to the bore diameter. When the rifle is fired, the bullet impacts the leade and is squeezed down in diameter and into the shape of the grooves. In new barrels, the throat and leade have often quite rough surfaces as a result of the rotary motion of the chamber cutter, known as the reamer, which has been used to create them. The marks are radial which is at right angles to the bullet movement. This can be very detrimental to accuracy and needs to be smoothed or polished out so as not to damage or upset to bullets movement and to allow a consistent force to apply all around the bullet whilst it is being squeezed down in diameter. If the throat and leade are not polished through a proper running in procedure the bullet may either be damaged or end up tilting slightly as it is forced into the bore resulting in uneven flight of the bullet once it has left the barrel and a wide dispersion of the shots."