So how do YOU get a gun guy to try something new?

Maybe I missed something in your post. Why is it your responsibility to make him clean his guns? If he is unwilling to change why would he expect his accuracy to change.

Rimfires do shoot better fouled up to a certain amount but eventually need to be cleaned. His groups opening up shows that. Tell him to give it a good cleaning and start over.

Tell him that cleaning it will give him a chance to do a lot more shooting to get it fouled to the point it shoots well.

There isn't much you can do if he's that set in his ways other than steal his gun and clean it in protest, but that comes with its own set of issues.

Matt

The more you shoot better than he does, the more he buys lunch.

The more you shoot better than he does, the more he buys lunch.

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That's a good approach. That said more than a decade ago a friend of mine and I spent about 6 months getting the most out of .22 lr rifles and pistols with dozens of firearms, the most accurate, out to 300 yards, was a bolt action Walther that had nothing except bullets down the bore my entire lifetime and who knows how long before that (found in my Grandmothers pantry).

Pretty amazing to me but "if it ain't broke" mentality works sometimes.

If he is happy and you can beat him, you should be happy too.

Explain to him "why."

As a clean rimfire barrel is fired, it deposits lead and carbon rapidly just beyond the case mouth. As this lead ring builds the bullet alignment and fit to the throat of barrel is improved, until best accuracy is achieved. Fortunately, once that perfect fit is reached, the growth of the lead ring slows dramatically, and you have your best "window" for accuracy.

However, it does continue to grow, and once it becomes too thick, the soft lead of the little bullet can be swaged smaller than the bore diameter, and accuracy will take a nose dive.

Clean it out, shoot it until it gets dirtied up again and accuracy will come back.

Have him Google "Bill Calfee" and read up. The man's a 22lr genius.


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I happen to know a couple of olympic 50 m small-bore shooters, including several medal winners and they clean their small-bore rifles very thouroughly after each match, the fouling is done in the proofshots.

Now if you look at the accuracy they are getting and the attention to detail in all their gear, the amount of money spend on rifles and ammo, (Eley at 20 € for 50 rounds) do you realy think they would do this if they would get better results with a dirty rifle?

The one I know best advised me to use Rimfire Blend and all the products from BoreTech. http://www.boretech.com/

Should be good if your CEO is called J. Rambo

Just swap rifles to prove that it is the rifle and not the shooter. Theoretically you should shoot worse aND he should shoot better.

Second option, let the frustration build. Shooters can be a quirky bunch and after losing a few weeks make an offer to buy his clearly defective rifle dirt cheap.

Now if you look at the accuracy they are getting and the attention to detail in all their gear, the amount of money spend on rifles and ammo, (Eley at 20 € for 50 rounds) do you realy think they would do this if they would get better results with a dirty rifle?

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A match rifle shooting match ammo probably will shoot just as well clean as dirty.

That's not always true with a standard, off the shelf rifle and random ammo.

My 77/22 shoots much better dirty than clean.

tkroenlein said:

Explain to him "why."

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That approach rarely works with "gun-guys", they know it all.

Lead by example. Shoot better than him, and nonchalantly allow him to see you cleaning. Eventually he will put 2+2 together. Or he won't. My point is, you have tried explaining and it hasn't worked. Unobtrusively demonstrate without any lectures.

Convincing him to see the light is like trying to convert a staunch anti-gun person into a pro-gun person or a serious pro-gun person into an anti. It may be possible but it is highly unlikely.

Let him be, it's his gun and his shooting. Odds are you've tried to convince him and he isn't listening. Maybe he's not the only one not taking the hint.

You can lead a horse to water but you can't force it to drink. Once you offer your advice leave it be. He will either get frustrated enough to try finding a solution with his current equipment or he may buy something new and possibly sell the one that he feels isn't shooting right (maybe you can snag it for a song).