There are a lot of outstanding replies. My OCD cleaning behaviors are shaped by my experience of living next to the salt water in Florida. This is my Dad's car, and boat.
Corrosion is unbelievable next to salt water. Everything rusts, deteriorates, and falls apart rapidly. Items must be cleaned, painted, oiled and even then, they must be re inspected for corrosion. The insulation on electrical wiring crumbled, fiberglass surfaces turned into white dust.
So, my bias is to keep my firearms clean, and that includes the barrel. I know that the deposits put down by 22lr bullets is waxy, but that wax will have imbedded in it powder residue, which attracts and holds water, and then there is primer residue. Primers are made of a mixture of components
Thankfully the chlorate primers are not used in 22lr anymore, but I am going to claim that some of the by products of combustion of these compounds will react with humidity and cause corrosion. I have cleaned a few very old 22 lr’s which were never cleaned out till I pushed a cleaning rod down the tube, and the interiors were black and pitted. I do not trust bullet lube mixed with primer residue for long term storage.
By the way, that primer residue can be very heavily erosive. I have one BSA MKIII, purchased it from Eddy the original owner.
Eddy said it had less than 650 rounds through the tube, and that it developed an “Eley ring”. Well, it was hard to see, but there is a ring forward of the chamber. The primer compounds back then had a lot of “glass” as a frictionator, and that stuff would erode the barrel forward of the chamber. I have a very high mileage Anschutz barrel, which came on a stipped action, and it has a very noticeable ring in front of the chamber. I would be curious to know if the 200,000 round Rem M37 has a ring in front of the chamber.
I do believe the story of the 200,000 round Rem M37, and I sat across from a small bore prone shooter in the Shooter’s Mess at Camp Perry who claimed he had 600,000 to 700,000 rounds through the barrel of his rifle. He had been shooting the same rifle since the 1970’s. Those sort of round counts are unusual, two shooters I know claim their barrels lasted 65,000 rounds and then they noticed the occasional flyer. Barrels do wear, especially in front of the chamber with highly erosive ammunition. I asked the Lapua ammunition tester in Mesa AZ about high mileage 22lr’s, and he had lot tested ammunition in them. He said those guns were “loose”, and did not shoot as well as “tight” rifles. I can believe that. Kenyon sold the service of threading Anschutz replacement barrels, and Anschutz receivers, which would make the assembly mechanically tighter. Anschutz barrels are pressed and pinned into the receivers, and I think other brands do that too.
I have asked older shooters who “never” cleaned their barrels, and was told they cleaned their barrel when the barrel told them to do so. They would see things on target they did not like and then cleaned their barrel. But, these never cleaners are rare on the ground today. At the regional’s I attend, I regularly see three former National Champions taking their rifles to their truck, putting the rifle in a rest, and cleaning the barrel after every match. I see a lot of frequent barrel cleaning. Can’t say that the guys who pack up their rifles and go home are cleaning the things, but both of these ex National Champions regularly clean their barrels at the end of every day
One of these guys damaged the barrel of his rifle when he was a teenager. The gunsmith who rebarreled the rifle looked down the tube and saw evidence of cleaning rod damage. I have never seen a competitor clean their barrel without having a bore guide inserted in the receiver. It think it is good practice on match barrels to use a bore guide and keep the rod from rubbing the throat of the barrel.
I will clean my barrel on the second day of a four day match, primarily to keep the chamber clean. My BSA rifles are finicky about clean chambers, the round will not extract positively from a dirty chamber, and I keep a bent 22lr brush on the mat to swab the chamber when rounds don’t kick out. Dual extractor Anschutz rifles are not very finicky in this regard, but a shooter who had an early single extractor bolt, said his was.
I have noticed that the first shot from a clean and oiled barrel will print to a different location than a fouled barrel. So I blast two shots into the berm first thing with a clean barrel.
Due to my experience in youth, next to saltwater, you are never going to convince me that not cleaning a barrel or gun is desirable, and I don’t have the evidence to prove it one way or another. But I will continue to do what I do, as I don’t want rust.
