what is the cleaning regiment during the ladder test. I have never shot more than 5 rounds without cleaning my barrels. First round to fowl the barrel even for hunting. I know this may sound stupid to you veteran reloaders. Thank you for your consideration.
- Thread starter Shootlong
- Start date
Every 5 rounds, really? What cartridges? How do you get any shooting in? Let the gun tell you. For your average midsized cartridges, certainly many hundreds of rounds between cleans are possible, and probably the norm around here.
Wow, I don't even let my .22 cal go that long between cleanings . About every 50 and less.I shoot 300WMag and 300 WSM no more than five.I only shoot one in the chamber, never through a magazine. I have been a single shot shooter all my life.Target or hunting rifles , enjoy skeet and sporting clays which is a different mind set altogether.I just love the science of accuracy shooting.In the last two years have been reading all I could find on the subject of reloading and purchasing the best equipment I could find.Im not knew to shooting just reloading.
You’re likely hurting, not helping acccuracy. No justification whatsoever for cleaning that much.
At that kind of cleaning regimen, I would imagine you are doing more harm then good with that much cleaning. 3-400 rounds with non-magnums, and magnums, usually 250-300. Or usually when I run out of that particular batch of brass and I have to resize all of them is when I clean a barrel. And I usually never brush the bore either. Foaming bore cleaner and patches.
Shootlong, understand that you are asking this question on a forum where the main focus is field rifle style or F-Class competitive shooting, where an average match is 80-100 rounds per day, sometimes two days in a row, and a single timed stage might require expending 10-15 rounds in 90-120 seconds including magazine change and any required position changes. It is not a reasonable expectation to clean every 5 rounds and difficult but maybe not impossible to clean between stages.
If you only ever shoot by yourself at a square range and are just taking your time to place each shot perfectly in a group, then what you do is possible, if somewhat excessive IMO.
If you only ever shoot by yourself at a square range and are just taking your time to place each shot perfectly in a group, then what you do is possible, if somewhat excessive IMO.
I'm sorry, I thought the depot was for any reloading question. I'm still curious as to how many rounds after your clean barrel gets back to zero. I never use a brush and never exit any cleaning equipment out the muzzle.I have very expensive bore guides and rods.
No need to be sorry at all. I was just shedding light on why many of us answer that we clean at a much less frequent rate than you and to let you undersstand how the answers might vary from those you would get on a bench-rest focused forum. I am not intending to shut you down. I don't really have a good answer, as my cleaning regimen is spotty at best and infrequent, but have never really noticed any need to use fouling shots to get back to zero. But then admittedly, I'm not shooting bench-rest groups, nor am I trying to do so. I use Tipton rods and patches and only clean from the breech, but am honestly mostly concerned about keeping the receiver clean and smooth and the chamber clean for consistent results.
As such, I am probably not the best person to answer your question.
As such, I am probably not the best person to answer your question.
Over cleaning a barrel like you are doing is far more harmful than shooting it.
A lot has changed when it comes to cleaning a rifle, the idea you have to clean this often has long been debunked. The most common approach is to let the rifle tell you when it needs to be cleaned and then proceeding to a clean it when accuracy falls off or fliers appear. Let the rifle dictate the amount of cleaning not some arbitrary number of shots.
How many rounds to replace the good copper you removed is dependent on the rifle. Part of this question is why people do not clean. A fouled bore is more consistent than a recently cleaned one, some rifle might need one or two shots, others might need more.
Over Cleaning can reduce a barrel's life by a significant amount, we have seen guys ruin a 308 around 4000 rounds cleaning every 40 rounds, and here you are at 5. To contrast during the same time frame, cleaning a 308 next to this very same shooter, but every 500 to 1000 rounds our barrel lasted to 12,000 rounds maintaining 1/2 MOA Accuracy until that point.
The chemical you use will chase copper first but when not enough copper is there to be eaten it will start in on stainless steel. Metal is metal to cleaning solvents, it will gladly trade copper for steel, and you are giving it a lot more opportunities to eat. When guys are standing next to a pile of black patches 6" high saying the carbon won't come out they fail to realize that black is stainless steel of their barrel and not actually carbon. Carbon knocks out pretty darn fast, where repeatedly sticking a brush down the bore with anything on it can hurt.
When guys with very little real-world shooting experience talk about cleaning rifles in the military, understand that is a type of punishment. It's a way to keep 600 soldiers or Marines occupied so they won't get into trouble. The guys in the armory are not giving it back to you because it is actually dirty, they give it back because it's not the end of the workday. In STA we would clean them once like normal and sit them on the rack until the end of the day, the results being, they will be accepted the first time vs trying to turn them early where they won't.
Don't be an anal gun cleaner, life will be much better shooting more and cleaning less.
A lot has changed when it comes to cleaning a rifle, the idea you have to clean this often has long been debunked. The most common approach is to let the rifle tell you when it needs to be cleaned and then proceeding to a clean it when accuracy falls off or fliers appear. Let the rifle dictate the amount of cleaning not some arbitrary number of shots.
How many rounds to replace the good copper you removed is dependent on the rifle. Part of this question is why people do not clean. A fouled bore is more consistent than a recently cleaned one, some rifle might need one or two shots, others might need more.
Over Cleaning can reduce a barrel's life by a significant amount, we have seen guys ruin a 308 around 4000 rounds cleaning every 40 rounds, and here you are at 5. To contrast during the same time frame, cleaning a 308 next to this very same shooter, but every 500 to 1000 rounds our barrel lasted to 12,000 rounds maintaining 1/2 MOA Accuracy until that point.
The chemical you use will chase copper first but when not enough copper is there to be eaten it will start in on stainless steel. Metal is metal to cleaning solvents, it will gladly trade copper for steel, and you are giving it a lot more opportunities to eat. When guys are standing next to a pile of black patches 6" high saying the carbon won't come out they fail to realize that black is stainless steel of their barrel and not actually carbon. Carbon knocks out pretty darn fast, where repeatedly sticking a brush down the bore with anything on it can hurt.
When guys with very little real-world shooting experience talk about cleaning rifles in the military, understand that is a type of punishment. It's a way to keep 600 soldiers or Marines occupied so they won't get into trouble. The guys in the armory are not giving it back to you because it is actually dirty, they give it back because it's not the end of the workday. In STA we would clean them once like normal and sit them on the rack until the end of the day, the results being, they will be accepted the first time vs trying to turn them early where they won't.
Don't be an anal gun cleaner, life will be much better shooting more and cleaning less.
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