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Rifle. Cleaning

How often do you clean your center fire rifle

  • 300 rounds or less and pull the barrel to clean properly

    Votes: 2 2.4%
  • Never

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • When groups open up

    Votes: 22 26.2%
  • 20 rounds or less

    Votes: 2 2.4%
  • 20-100 rounds

    Votes: 7 8.3%
  • 100-300 rounds

    Votes: 22 26.2%
  • 300-600 rounds

    Votes: 23 27.4%
  • 690-1000 rounds

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • 1000 +

    Votes: 1 1.2%

  • Total voters
    84
I am in the 300-600 camp, but with that I let the solvent do the work: minimal amount of passes with the rod, don’t brush much, no abrasive cleaners, etc. With this method I have very little to no clean bore shift, very predictable accuracy throughout the time between cleaning and “normal“ barrel life.
 
On my match gun, I use carbon cleaner after every match, rubbing alcohol in the trigger tech and bore afterwards. Other rifles, probably 300-600 rounds.

I only clean copper when the gun tells me it needs it.
 
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Precision rifle I clean with a jag and kroil after shooting. If not that day then within a couple days.
 
You dont need a poll, the experts will tell you, and they be like....
Ohh La La.....
Screenshot_20210110-195646_Facebook.jpg
 
Fully semi automatic or the bolt ones?
If it's the semi variety, piston or gas ?
 
I clean when I’m finished shooting.
 
Couple pulls of a bore snake, a couple dry patches and a light dab of grease on the lugs every 80-100-ish rounds for bolt guns. I've played with the "get it sparkling clean" after a couple hundred rounds, but then had to shoot to get my zero to settle in. Stupid. Now my bolts stay in a partially dirty state constantly so there's no noticeable "clean barrel" zero shift for me.

For gassers same procedure + wipe down BCG every 300-500 rounds with plenty of lube along the way.

"Cleaning when my groups open up" is like changing your tires when they blow out or changing your serpentine belt after it's shredded. Cleaning should be *preventive* maintenance, not *corrective* maintenance, in my opinion.
 
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Every range trip,

I don’t go as often as I’d like and don’t want the carbon absorbing ambient moisture
 
I must admit, I probably clean wayyyy too much, but, bad habits are hard to break. I do clean after each range trip, no matter if it's 10 rnds. or 100. I just don't "brush" clean, just use patches and mops for the chamber(s), then wipe everything down. After the shooting season, then my barrel(s} get the solvent, brush and patch, treatment, with my last patch soaked in 10w-30 Mobil 1, for storage. Mac
 
ill pull pull the bolt, clean the action, and re-oil every few hundred rounds (sooner if im bored).

as far as cleaning the barrel?.....rarely if im honest....i regularly go 1000+ rounds......so long as the gun keeps shooting, i dont touch it.

my thinking is, the cleaning rod is doing more damage each time i send it down the barrel than the copper/ lead buildup does....so the less i can do that, especially when its not effecting accuracy, the better.
 
On my old 6BR, I would have to clean every 250-300 rounds due to a nasty carbon ring that would build up. Plug the end of the barrel, fill with CLR, run a nylon oversized brush on a drill in the chamber, brush out the barrel, patch out, done. Back to shooting in the .3’s in no time. My vudoo, I would clean every brick of ammo I put through it for good graces.

I’m 200 rounds into my 6.5cm barrel on my AI. I’ll probably CLR it at 300 or so. Depends on how it does. I’ll pull the barrel though when it’s time since I have that option.
 
I don’t know man, it worked great for my purposes and saw no degradation of accuracy. Have you seen it fuck with barrels?
 
ill pull pull the bolt, clean the action, and re-oil every few hundred rounds (sooner if im bored).

as far as cleaning the barrel?.....rarely if im honest....i regularly go 1000+ rounds......so long as the gun keeps shooting, i dont touch it.

my thinking is, the cleaning rod is doing more damage each time i send it down the barrel than the copper/ lead buildup does....so the less i can do that, especially when its not effecting accuracy, the better.

Pretty much the same here. Idk much about damage, someone needs to do a long term study...complete with high resoution scans of the barrel's various surfaces and accuracy testing.

But to more casual / non-competition shooters...
 
Most copper solvents will eat barrels too, if left in there. Doesn't mean they shouldn't be used. That said, I'll stick to labeled copper solvents.
 
Kind of depends upon the rifle. I’ve got a deer rifle that may only get shot half a dozen times in a year, but I won’t clean it after I‘ve confirmed the zero for the season. It gets cleaned once a year, after deer season. My match rimfire gets a bore snake pulled through it between every match, before I re-confirm zero for the next match. Centerfire rifles that get shot more frequently get cleaned more frequently according to the calendar, but less frequently by round count. 300 rounds? 500 rounds? I don’t know. They get cleaned when I get the urge to clean them. And, everyone gets cleaned at the beginning of the year- even if it is just a wet patch and a few dry patches down the bore, and even if it hasn’t been shot all year...
 
CLR won’t do a thing to stainless.
It can effect certain surface finish treatments.
 
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For the most part I'm runnin gas guns . .308 , .556 and .300 Blackout .
Wipe down chamber , bolt etc every time . Barrel gets a patch or two with oil up to 4 or 500 , then I use solvent and bronze brush .