Thread: Dirty or Clean barrel?

If using your rifle a lot just use a tight dry pull through to remove loose crud. When storing up for a while do a decent clean. Your first shot after cleaning which can be an inch or two off is normally due to the minor traces of oil and solvents still in the bore acting as a lubricant and which get burnt off with the first few shots. A good gun oil can penetrate the metal and still be there after repeated dry pull throughs.

If it shoots probably just leave it. Another thing to remember is that your fouler can go in the group at 100 yards even after a clean but be 40 fps behind. If I can I'll always put a shot down my barrel before hunting.
Here you can see with the Labradar the 300 Norma is about 50 fps behind with the fouler but the other 4 are right close with each other.



Its probably a very opinionated topic regarding how much cleaning to do etc. I usually clean every 75-100 rounds or so, depending on how much copper you can see in the crown with a torch. I have never had issues with stainless barrel corroding while hunting.