How far do you go with cleaning?

Hi all

Just got back into hunting after a good 12-13 years away from it all. Bought a T3 Stainless and on my first trip out in very wet conditions had a red hind come back for a second look after I spooked her from the track, came within 10-15ft but she legged it a second time as I tried to chamber a round all stealth like! Was so stoked to have an animal so close on my first trip after so long!
Anyway the point to my post, how far do you guys go with cleaning your favourite shooting iron? As there is a fair bit of space between the barrel and the stock I removed the stock to dry and oil everything, but I understand that by doing so you can throw away the previous hard work sighting in? What do you do? Let it risk rusting or sight it in again after every clean?
Also while going over it I noticed that the scope rail bolt protrudes into the area where the bolt lugs rotate, is that a problem? I guess the lugs of the bolt don't actually touch the chamber lug recess walls otherwise it would be grinding or should I get it looked at?
Sorry guys if these are obvious questions but like I said just finding my feet with it all again.

Cheers

Love your handle mate. Can't help you with the last part of your post as I am as technical as the hole in a doughnut but there are plenty of knowledgeable techo types on here that will. I can give you my take on cleaning which is a wipe down to remove all dirt and debris and then a pull through until the barrel is clean and then a finish off with Rem Oil on a wipe cloth is all I have ever done for any of my rifles.

Your right, taking your rifle apart can affect your zero. I only take my rifle apart after a particularly wet trip. Next time you have the rifle apart give the hidden bits a spray with WD-40, let it dry before you put it back together. I did this on my blued Rem 700. Bits that hadn't been sprayed had some surface rust, the bits I had sprayed had none. Don't spray it on the trigger area, bolt as it can gum things up after awhile.
On a few makes the scope rail bolt does enter the bolt lug area, if it is not touching the bolt you will be fine, you'll know if it is touching the bolt.

Didn't no that removing stock could affect it's zero , what about if it's glass bedded ?

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Originally Posted by Munsey

Didn't no that removing stock could affect it's zero , what about if it's glass bedded ?

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Done well, a bedding job should allow disassembly of the stock from action and reassembly without significant POI change.

Pull it apart !! Clean it with a oily rag and put it back together -it must have a floating barrel or yes it could disturb your zero.Run a piece of paper from the barrel end down the channel toward the action and you'll soon know if its floating or sitting against the stock which will possibly cause a moving zero anyway.Barrel cleaning , just get some carbon remover and get that crap out and leave the copper -your a hunter and don't shoot enough to clog the thing and I believe the barrels are not to bad on the Tikkas so you should be able to put hundreds of rounds down range without to much zero movement

If it's glass bedded it can still be affected, but usually not as much. The best way is to pillar bed and use a torque wrench to do up the screws.

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Originally Posted by stug

If it's glass bedded it can still be affected, but usually not as much. The best way is to pillar bed and use a torque wrench to do up the screws.

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While bedding is by far the best thing to do it is normally the barrel touching the stock that causes movement not the movement of the whole rifle in the stock-that would actually matter as its one piece!

compressor dose the trick. just blow the water out of every recess. then spray crc lanolin down into it.
then wipe off what you can see.
gotta love synthetic stocks.
my wood stocked rifles I am much more carefull with.
one thing i have learned that seems really stupid but works like a charm is that mud on scope lenses can be easily washed off with the shower nozzel so that no scratches are caused to your optics.

And you found this out by showering with your rifle?? :D

With my blued walnut rifle it gets a oily patch down the barrel every outing regardless of shots fired and the same patch over exterior metal.
If its fired a few il run a oiled patch(tight) down it till it comes out clean.
around 50 to 80 rounds il use a solvent to remove any copper/carbon.

If you use a good quality protectant oil on the exterior and keep it maintained you dont need to panic about removing the stock to oil under there. It will rust on the top from your sweat or just from oil being rubbed off and damp conditions.
I really only pull my stock off if something is obviously jammed between barrel and stock or after the roar when the whole bloody thing is full of "bush dust" or a week long trip of rain etc.

Rechecking zero its never bang on but always within an inch of where it should be.

I clean after every shoot. Brass brush with boretech, let it sit for 1/2hr then oily patches (4x2") until basically clean on a parker hale type jag. I'm probably a little obsessive when it comes to cleaning though.

My zero almost never moves when i take the gun apart and put it together but i do torque the screws with a wheeler fat wrench. You could grease the underside of the barrel so you don't have to pull it apart after a wet outing.

I was recently talking to a guy that I shot with in the 1960,s. He was a profesional shooter and went on to meat shooting then live dear recovery.
The subject came up of rifle cleaning. He went on to talk about his favourite rifle which was a .222 BSA Hunter. In those days he had never heard of copper fouling and he only ever put a pull through with some Youngs 303 oil on it through the barrel if it had been particularly wet. That rifle went on to shoot over 5000 deer and chamios as well as the odd thar at an average of 1.7 rounds per animal. As he was prepared to shoot out to 300yds plus if necesary then the accuracy was not to much affected by what we would call today an inadequate cleaning procedure.