I started shooting ARA bench rest this year in the factory class with my CZ 457 MTR and I clean the barrel after every card I shoot so, per my bore scope, I don't get a carbon buildup, but I do get a cold bore/clean bore flyer for the first few rounds on every card I shoot. So I shoot the sighter target to both warm the barrel/chamber and to lay a layer of lube in the barrel and after 5 or 6 shots I'm able to start shooting at the targets. I develop a rhythm of shooting every so often at the target, or if the conditions change, I'll shoot at the sighters to keep the barrel temps the same until conditions are back to where I want to shoot the targets again.
Years ago I used to shoot black powder cartridge rifles and learned that you've got to keep the fowling soft if you want to shoot accurately. Since I think that .22 rimfire has a lot of similarities to that of black powder rifles, I've begun to incorporate some of my black powder experience with my rimfire shooting.
The rules in ARA specifically state that I can't do anything to the lube of the bullets, but it say's nothing about what I can do to the barrel. I've begun to experiment with lubing the bore of the barrel after I clean it. I use SPG lube, which is what I used to lube my black powder lead bullets' with and I believe it contains bee's wax and lanolin, among other natural things, but it stays rather hard and sticky even in the hotter temperatures. After cleaning the barrel, I rub some SPG lube into a patch and run this patch back and forth in the clean barrel several times until I can feel a consistent resistance throughout the bore. When I start to shoot again, my first few shots at a target are at the sighter, but I've noticed that while I may get a flyer, ( a little high and left), with the first shot, it's not as far outside of the group as it was before I began conditioning the bore with SPG. Many times I may not get a flyer at all, or if I do it's only this first flyer and the rest of the shots are in the group. So based on my experiments, I've incorporated the SPG patch as part of my cleaning regime.
Last week I very lightly rubbed some SPG on the driving bands of a few bullets and got an exceptional group with the first 5 rounds. I then let the rifle sit for awhile while I lubed up some more rounds and shot again but these groups were as good so I stopped the experiment. As I said, the rule state I can't shoot a modified bullet so I won't do it, but it does have me wondering if the .22 rimfire round needs better lubrication to help it's accuracy? I clean the bore after every 30-50 shots and there is no carbon build up in the bore or chamber. I've been shooting a particularly good lot of SK Rifle match that I have but I am running out of them. I was able to pick up a couple of bricks of Tenex (one brick rated at 1056 fps and the other at 1070 fps) and in testing both of these lots, the rifle should be able to be competitive, and I should have enough to last me the rest of the season. If we were living in normal times, I'd send the rifle off to be lot tested.
I'm shooting my rifle off of a Bald Eagle front rest and a rabbit ear rear bag, free recoil. The only contact I have with the rifle is my thumb and trigger finger pinching the trigger. I also use the SPG lube on the leather of the both rests and a little on the stock as the SPG is a little sticky, and I crank the ears on the front rest bag down on the stock so there is no recoil to speak of. I'm doing all of this to keep things consistent with my equipment. Since I think .22 rimfire shares some similarities to black powder cartridge rifles, the SPG lube I use is made of natural products. I wouldn't want to use made-made lubes as its been shown to have negative effects with black powder fouling. I clean the bore with Ballistol.
At this point, I feel my equipment is good and the biggest area of improvement I can make to improve my scores is in my wind calling ability.
