Art Eatman
Moderator In Memoriam
I dunno, but I think it was Remington who first came out with "Luballoy" .22 bullets. Anyhow, there's some sort of wax or hard grease on them that does put a very, very thin coating in the barrel. This coating does act as a rust inhibitor.
Low pressure, low temperature, soft bullets: The monkey-motion parts will wear out long before a barrel gives up. But I've seen more old .22s hurt from dry-firing than from any sort of wear from shooting, overall.
If I shoot just a few rounds with a centerfire, and plan on shooting again within a few days, I've never bothered with any cleaning. If it will be a more lengthy period, I'll run an oily patch through the barrel. Now, the caveat here is that it's a weather function. In humid or rainy weather, I check stuff fairly often, inside and out, whether or not I've been shooting. Hunt season in Terlingua? Well, the humidity sometimes gets all the way up to 15% or 20%. Summer is the rainy season...
Art
Low pressure, low temperature, soft bullets: The monkey-motion parts will wear out long before a barrel gives up. But I've seen more old .22s hurt from dry-firing than from any sort of wear from shooting, overall.
If I shoot just a few rounds with a centerfire, and plan on shooting again within a few days, I've never bothered with any cleaning. If it will be a more lengthy period, I'll run an oily patch through the barrel. Now, the caveat here is that it's a weather function. In humid or rainy weather, I check stuff fairly often, inside and out, whether or not I've been shooting. Hunt season in Terlingua? Well, the humidity sometimes gets all the way up to 15% or 20%. Summer is the rainy season...
Art