Stainless Steel Bore Cleaning

[cavman]

I have a Ruger SS .22 Hunter and after a great day and many boxes spent, I now need to give it its first cleaning.
Looking around for cleaning information on the internet, I came across the kleen-bore.com website.

There, on their .22 SS bore for sale page, they have the following warning: "As with all stainless steel brushes, use extreme care to avoid bore damage."

Firstly, should one clean SS bores with only SS bore brushes? Or is the phosho-bronze brush equally appropriate.

If SS only, what is the extreme care that kleen-bore recommends?

Thanks

[jeepmor]

I would only use the phosphor-bronze brushes, would not want to damage your bore. Stainless as a gun material can take stronger solvents all over the gun for cleaning, whereas some of the stout ones will remove bluing on blued guns.

I would stay away from stainless brushes all together just to be safe.

Hope this helps.

jeepmor

[dfariswheel]

Stick with bronze or synthetic brushes.

Stainless brushes are more aggressive and can damage the bore.

Stainless brushes are mostly for pro gunsmith use on bores so badly neglected, you literally have nothing to loose.

[cavman]

Great advice. I will heed it.
Appreciate your help.

[HSMITH]

Don't clean the bore on your 22. Just one dry patch, and a lightly oiled patch, then put it up. It will shoot better dirty.

[cavman]

HSMITH the first sentence directly addresses the .22 question, and seems possible. The second, however, seems as a joke. Are you serious. Dirty shoots better?

I wrote asking the question because I don't know the answer. So I can't tell a little kidding if there is any, from a straight answer.

Now I am more confused than I was before. I am in that predicament where "a little learning is a dangerous thing" and can't easily tell truth from fiction.

I had never heard about not cleaning being good. Only the repeated mantra of cleaner is better.

Thanks for any further replies

[pauli]

there's a lot of voodoo involved with 22s for some reason. a lot of it is crap, and a lot of it has some apparently truth behind it.

personally, i've settled on not bothering with the bores on 22s unless there is actual fouling, or it's a gun i know needs to have the chamber cleaned regularly (like my p22). the actions and the exteriors need more cleaning than that, but the bores... eh. don't worry about them. bullets don't care about soot in the bore, just real fouling.

it's also been suggested that excessive cleaning is worse for small caliber bores than excessive shooting. i'm somewhat skeptical, but heck, not cleaning the bore is less work for me, and fewer tiny patches to cut.

[dfariswheel]

The "dirty bore" idea is really more of a "fouled bore".
Back when I was really into small bore rifle match shooting, it was taken as a matter of faith that a clean bore would shoot to a different zero than a bore that had had a shot fired down it.

For this reason, before the match we'd all fire a round into the back stop as a "fouling shot".

There is truth to this, and many people will fire a fouling round from any match rifle before shooting for record.

Since modern .22 ammo is not corrosive, and shots very clean, many people don't bother cleaning a bore unless it's going to be put away for a time, or is in a particularly damp environment.

I used to shoot a match weekend, then run an oily patch down the bore simply to protect it from rust until the next match.

Once the season was over, then I'd give it a good brush and solvent cleaning.

All this is based on having a .22 that doesn't lead up or foul badly.

If you have a .22 that leads up, you WILL have to clean the bore just to keep the lead from building up and either degrading accuracy, or getting so heavy it's dangerous.

Remember, the idea is NOT to neglect your rifle bore and let it get ruined, it's to prevent excess wear from unnecessary cleaning.

You still have to clean the action to prevent carbon fouling from building up.

So, if you have a good barrel that doesn't lead up, you can just run an oily patch down the bore to protect it, and wipe it out with a dry patch before shooting it.

If you live in a dry environment, you MAY be able to just store the rifle in a dry place, and not have to do anything, except check from time to time.

[JohnKSa]

I don't clean my rimfire bores until accuracy falls off. Depending on the ammo and the gun, that usually takes 500 to 1,000 rounds or more.

I rarely use any kind of a brush on a rimfire bore, certainly not a stainless steel brush. Patches are usually sufficient.

[HSMITH]

My 22's ALL shoot better with fouled bores than they do with clean bores.

Oil the bore to prevent rust, then one or two dry patches to dry the barrel before shooting. Within a few shots the bore will 'settle' from the oil, and shoot as well as it can.

When I deep clean 22 bores it can take up to 25 shots for the barrel to settle in, and it gets better and better in minute amounts for several hundred rounds. It levels off at that point and doesn't change as long as it doesn't lead up. Thousands and thousands of rounds later performance is still as good as it is going to get provided the bore didn't lead up.

I see the same thing in lead bullet centerfire guns too, from 38 special to 8mm Mauser or 45-70.

[cavman]

Thanks for the strong anectdotal evidence. I will choose at this time to continue to shoot and do the minimal patch cleaning and pay attention to the accuracy rather than default bore deep clean every time.

In addition "the works" will be given a more thorough cleaning, however.

Appreciate all assistance in this matter of cleaning a SS .22

Tim