Thread: cleaning a 22lr my thoughts

seen a lot on this lately so I thought id share my thoughts on the subject
then you are more then welcome to comment what you do and we will make a bit of info for people who might be having issues

personally I have a fair amount of experience with 22lr probably more than any other firearm i started shooting sporting rifle (basically small bore with a scoped rifle) competitively in the junior ranks at 14 years of age and was shooting in the club team until 23years when life took me in a deferent direction
in that time i estimate i have shot 85,000 rounds or so of match grade 22 ammo probably a lot less than some out there and even on this forum

so the old wifes tale is that you never clean a 22 barrel and while most hunters farmers and average shooters may for the most part be ok using this theory and never notice an issue for the most part if you shoot a lot and suddenly find yourself missing shots that you normally wouldn't its probably time to clean your barrel

what happens is eventually after 1000's rounds you get a carbon build up in the bore and this starts to affect accuracy
hunters wont notice till it gets really bad

target shooters will notice a lot sooner simply because they are looking to be more precise and will notice even the slightest change in the rifles performance

so when do i clean? i wait till i see a deuteration of accuracy not one bad target but several in a row.. one bad target can be coursed by a lot of things
when that is depends on the barrel could be 1000 rounds but could also be 10'000 rounds+

how do i clean my 22 barrel? i use a mild solvent such as hopes number 9 any of the 1000's of similar products a couple of wet patches wait 10 mins and a couple of dry ones do it again if required i refrain from using brushes unless i have to and even then only nylon
NEVER clean from the muzzle

I've been told it takes 1000's of rounds to get your accuracy back after cleaning is this true? absolutely not... it is 100% true that you need to refoul your barrel
but depending on your barrel this only takes between 5 and 20 rounds (normally around 10)

the other time i clean a 22 barrel is if i am switching ammo its important to start off with a clean barrel when trying new ammo because of oils or waxes on the bullets

anyway thats me and how i go about a 22lr
cheers
rambo