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How many shots before you clean your centrefire rifle?


njc110381
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Hi guys. I'm just interested to know how many shots you all put down your rifles before giving them a real thorough clean? The calibre in relation to the shot count would be handy too as I'd expect that to vary quite a bit.

 

Reason for asking is that I just spent ages cleaning one of mine. I think I left it a bit long but it's never been an issue at that round count in the past with other guns? Mine took me three evenings to get tidy in the end! :rolleyes:

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Every time it gets used, never stored dirty, if left for long periods it gets a patch of KROIL put through and a note attached so I don't forget.

 

Don't forget to clean the crown, chamber and locking lug recesses too.

 

Easier to maintain a level of clean than an arbitrary level of dirty, yes first shot is sometimes off but not by that much and cold barrel shots are usually off a little anyway.

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I have had a bit of an education with my .17 Hornet yesterday on this subject. I clean after every outing when I fire it normally but leaving it to soak with patchout for a couple of hours them swabbing through until the patches come out clean.

 

However accuracy went off last night so I swabbed out with patchout until clean but then gave it a few strokes with a brush to make sure. The amount of **** I got out was amazing, patchout claims patches only but going forward I think I will brush through as well to make sure I get all the **** out.

Not sure if this will fix the accuracy issue but I have a suspicion it will as everything else is fine. The .17 is a tiny bore so I have found it tends to cack up quite quickly and this was off the back of heavy use at the PW shoot.

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The 'more barrels are ruined by too much cleaning rather than too little' myth is just that.

+1

I really find it hard to see, how a bronze brush being the hardest metal used in cleaning would ruin a barrel through cleaning. The intense heat and friction from a bullet flying out of the barrel at a silly twist rate causes more wear than any cleaning methods that I know of.

 

Saying that though if I go out and shoot it just once or twice a night, I may not clean it. But then it will not be more than a couple of days till its out again.

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As a point of interest for for those who dont clean that often or find they dont need two what sort of calibres are these on? Do the smaller calibres like .17 and .204 lose accuracy faster than say .243 or is it just if you are lucky to have a non fussy barrel?

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Some interesting replies, thanks. With most of my deer guns and low intensity .22's I've found I can get 100+ down them before they start to drop off and need some love. This rifle is a .22-250. Around 40 rounds of 50gr Hornady Superformance down the barrel and it's opening up. The crud I got out of it was unreal!

 

I bore snake the carbon out after shooting but only deep copper clean when it starts to play up. I've recently got a .17 Rem too. I reckon that may behave in a similar manner!

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As a point of interest for for those who dont clean that often or find they dont need two what sort of calibres are these on? Do the smaller calibres like .17 and .204 lose accuracy faster than say .243 or is it just if you are lucky to have a non fussy barrel?

17s are a different kettle of fish, I'll get to around 30 shots and it's a complete de-copper joby. More of a carbon clean than a copper, I don't seem to get much showing at all.

Edited by Dougy
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