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Hi there... ok, don't get me wrong, I keep a very clean rifle(s), however just having bought a tikka varmint 223, I find it shoots clean at 1.5inchs at 100m, and after 15 or so shots it tightens up to .3 to. 5 moa.
So my question to the team is, should I leave this rifle semi dirty or fouled( after the 15 or so rounds through it) to have the best accuracy the next time I make a shot with it?
Apologies if this has been covered off elsewhere, I couldn't find any link.
New rifle or new to you? If new it will settle down with a bit more use I expect.
In short yes leave it fouled, (most rifles shoot better fouled). Be sure to leave a light layer of oil in the bore when you store it to prevent rust and obviously a dry patch pulled through before you next fire it.
No I bought it used from someone I know. It wouldn't have seen 50 rounds through it I'd say. So no copper solvent?
Not unless accuracy starts decreasing
With a hunting rifle where the first shot lands on a clean barrel is the important thing to me.
Probably need to understand your cleaning method before saying too much. But for sure don’t store your rifle over winter or any length of time with out a decent clean to remove carbon fouling (bronze brush then hoppes and repeat as needed) and then put some gun oil thru it before putting away. Otherwise you risk pitting and corrosion in bore.
You can semi clean where your clean off some of the carbon allowing the oil to get to more steel in the barrel but not superclean to where it wont shoot well.
I run a couple of heading rods in my safe 24/7 works bloody well holding the moisture back
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You see this is itQuote:
Originally Posted by tetawa
I've been interested in this now for 40yrs, I really don't care about anything but that first shot
Rabbits to Moose [not that I've been moose hunting] but if lets say your out varminting and your rifle throws the first shot out of a clean barrel an inch, inch and a half away from the group, whats the use of that at 400 yrds.
Keep your rifle dirty "They" say... well I'm not sure about that either
I've had rifles that throw the first clean shot out of the group, I just haven't had them very long.
Thanks all this is interesting. I guess perhaps I was thinking is, is it ok to keep your barrel fouled for that spot on first shot, vs any damage fouling may produce...
I hope I've framed that up as well as it sounds in my mind lol
I can see what you are saying, Guess my answer is, no I don't like storing a dirty barrel
Other opinions may differ.
Guess it depends on your cleaning regieme and what you call dirty. From new my workhorse 223 has only got a pull through with hoppes 9 on it if not used for a day or two and occasionally a boresnake or bronze brush. I have never specifically cleaned for carbon or copper and the round count is over 4000. The bore looks greyish even after "cleaning" and occasionally a copper streak shows so thats when the brush comes out.
I guess the barrels in equilibrium as it shoots a consistent poi.
I used to shoot target 22 and remember that if you cleaned the bore it could take 50 or more rounds before it settled down again.
That's sounds spot on. I'll take that advice. Thanks all!Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty Henry
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.
Attachment 100380
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.
I brought a tikka t3x chambered In 300 win mag, I took it to the range to dial it in at 200 yards. Started sending rounds down range and the first 10 were flyers all over the place, wasn't till about the 20th the group tightened up to1moa at 200yards which I was more then happy with.
Got it back home thought I'd to it a favour and give a a good cleaning and ended up removing the copper fouling from the barrel, decided to take it back to the range to check it with a different load and hello she's flying all over the place again till it gobbled up another 20 rounds and same again back to 1 moa at 200 yards. Now I just use a solvent that removes powder residue, only to ensure the corrosive component is taken care of and only clean the copper fouling out when accuracy starts to drop away.
Lesson learnt is copper equilibrium in the barrel is very important to accuracy.
The following vid is from a guy that does a heck of a lot of extreme long range precision shooting and explains the importance of fouling etc.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_KRUAv3Byp4
Great link. Lays it out in detail. Thank you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnus
I run my rifles the same way LT does.
I am lucky with 2 barrels that shoot POA cold and clean from the get go.
I have one that takes between 5 and 10 to settle.
Cold and clean is slower than fouled in all my barrels but it is usually predictable.
I only clean when I see accuracy wain or between 100-150 rounds.
Always clean and oil before storing for long periods. Never store with suppressors on.
A lot of people overclean their firearms.
Every rod or pull thru down that barrel is decreasing the life of it. I rather the projectiles do it.
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You’ll get as many differebt answers to this age old conundrum as there are leaves in the forest.
As already mentioned, every rifle is different. So do, some don’t, some sometimes do...
After a big session on the hill (e.g. goats) I’ll clean the rifle. But I always shoot a fouler shot through a clean barrel, before you get going on the next hunt. I keep a bunch of fouler rounds and will shoot one into the garden at home if needs be. I have one rifle that is awful on a cold clean barrel but a laser as soon as it is fouled, and for that reason alone I’ll never sell it.
Copper is the least of your problems, though it is the obvious one. Carbon fouling is what does the real damage to accuracy
