do you clean your 22lr?

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My Kimber CC has the beadblast finish so even a wipe down is occasional; I do not bother with the bore because accuracy is superb and has not changed. I do not care for my .22 like my centerfires, it has not been my experience that the rimfire needs it. I do baby my Kimber .22 but only with handling to avoid dings/ dents - maintenance is few/ far between, it just does not seem to need it. Good shooting.
 
I have had two professional gunsmiths tell me not to clean a .22 or .17HMR bore until/unless the groups started opening up. All my life I have cleaned any gun after shooting. It has been hard for me to do, but I stopped cleaning my .17 over a year ago. Groups are still very tight. I will do the same with my .22s as I shoot them. It's all a matter of what you want to do with your own guns.
 
ohihunter2014 said:
I have a cheapo savage mark 2 22lr non accu trigger standard barrel I got a good deal on and could never get the dang thing to shoot worth a crap so I changed scopes and same thing so this week I decided to put a better quality bushnell 3-9 on it and see what it would do. The barrel was filthy from popping pop cans but ive always heard don't clean a 22lr. Well I cleaned mine really good the other day and set out to shoot today at 50yards with agluilla, federal auto match and Remington thunderbolts. Every shot I fired was spread like buckshot. I'm talking like 2-3'' groups and I almost said screw it and went home until I decided to fire another federal auto match group and they started tightening up and then I switched to aguilla yellow box and man I could stack 5rds in a quarter at 50yards.

Mind you, this gun is non accu trigger and has like a 6lbs trigger and its wearing a centerfire scope so parallax might be off a bit. I moved to 25yards to see how zero would change cause its a squirrel/coon gun and they now all touched with aguilla. IDK how moving closer shrunk the groups but ill take it.

After firing about 30rds every group with thunderbolts, federal and aguilla held minute of squirrel head at 50yards. I guess it is true that 22's need to be dirty and we should never clean them! :)
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You keep thinking that......your gunsmith will laugh all the way to bank. Yes, rifles will shoot better with a little barrel fouling; competitiive shooters and snipers have known this for years. Cumulative action fouling, particularly with a semi-auto, will eventually result in FTF or FTE.

Perhaps the thread title should have barrels add to the end.
 
ohihunter 2014 wrote:
...ive [sic] always heard don't clean a 22lr....
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Where did you hear that?

And why did you unquestioningly accept it?

There's no such thing as a self-cleaning rifle. The M-16 was (at least for a time) claimed to be one, but bitter experience on the field of combat proved that to be false. All rifles need to be cleaned periodically. And if you're having problems with a rifle, regular cleaning should be considered mandatory to eliminate dirt and fouling as a potential source of the problem.
 
And environment plays a big roll in how much cleaning you need to do. Ive read that some folks foul there muzzys before season starts then only do a full cleaning when season ends...im assuming thats a couple weeks for most of yall. If you tried that here your gun would be non loadable by day 2 or 3, and completely seized in a week.

While not nearly as bad ive seen .22s that just sat in the corner and were shot once in a while, be so badly gummed and rusted they wouldnt cycle. Ive also seen .22s used for pig hunting ruined in short order by lack of cleaning. Luckily most everyone i know has a 10/22 or marlin bolt so they are cheap to repair or replace.
 
Some folks claim that they never clean a .22. But that's not my style..... Every time I shoot a gun it gets cleaned. Perhaps my Uncle Sam had something to do with instilling that into my head. However; with .22's I just run a couple patches wet with Hoppe's #9 through the bore and let it sit awhile. Repeat this two or three times and follow up with some dry patches and call it good. Haven't had a bore brush in a 22 rimfire barrel in years. So far everything is problem free. I think the Hoppe's works well on the powder fouling and what little if any leading occurs. With a rimfire I don't have to deal with copper fouling from jacketed centerfire bullets that have a lot more velocity and a lot more propensity to create metal fouling.
 
I've bought several .22 LR semiautomatics cheap that had problems. Detailed cleaned them and they run fine now. I do oil them and use an Otis ripcord with a little solvent every now and then when firing those.
 
hdwhit said:
Where did you hear that?

And why did you unquestioningly accept it?

There's no such thing as a self-cleaning rifle. The M-16 was (at least for a time) claimed to be one, but bitter experience on the field of combat proved that to be false. All rifles need to be cleaned periodically. And if you're having problems with a rifle, regular cleaning should be considered mandatory to eliminate dirt and fouling as a potential source of the problem.
Click to expand...
ive been told that for many years don't clean them like a centerfire rifle or use a brush cause the barrel material is softer and will mess it up. I took it apart after about 500rds and bore brushed it 5 times and about 20 patches until clean and it shot like buckshot until about 20-30rds and then nickle groups with thunderbolts.
 
Since this is about rifles, I clean semi automatic plinkers when they start to malfunction, sporter weight bolt guns get cleaned when accuracy falls off, my benchrest guns get cleaned after every match.
 
I have a tube fed bolt action marlin .22, absolutely love it except for the fact that if I don't clean it every time I shoot, I start getting empty shells stuck in the barrel when I pull the bolt back. This usually includes lots of time with a wire brush, scrubbing the heck out of it. Then it's perfectly good for another several hundred shots. But I've had other .22s that will run for forever with no problems. I guess if your gun really needs cleaning you'll know it.
 
Goneshoot'n said:
I have a tube fed bolt action marlin .22, absolutely love it except for the fact that if I don't clean it every time I shoot, I start getting empty shells stuck in the barrel when I pull the bolt back.
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Its possible your extractors arnt holding the case properly, even fouled it shouldnt be leaving them in the chamber.
 
As I said in my post that's back a ways... I have had 2 professional gunsmiths (one a Browning gunsmith and he was talking about my Buck Mark pistol) tell me to not clean the BORE unless I notice a drop in accuracy. None of them have told me not to keep an action clean!! Personally, I clean the action on semi-autos and always clean breech faces, extractors, etc. When I say I don't clean my .22 or .17 rimfires every time I shoot, I'm talking about the BORE only.
 
I have shot rimfire benchrest for a good while. Most benchrest guns won't shoot good with a freshly cleaned bore. Those guns need fouling shots to start grouping. The number of fouling shots seems to range from 5 to 25 with no rhyme or reason. I know some shooters whose guns that absolutely won't shoot good after cleaning. They have to shoot a box or two to get them shooting good. They generally won't clean after that until acurracy falls off again, which may be a brick or two.
 
I clean the bore of mine every few outings with a solvent patch, then dry patches, then an oil patch. They will get a bore brush maybe every 10 outings?.?. Exteriors get wiped down every time I touch the gun, I don't like rusty fingerprints etched into them...
 
I generally do not clean my 22LR guns. But, I have several that do not get shot very often and I try to put them up clean. Doesn't happen very often though.
 
When testing, you need to start fresh each change in ammo. You don't want lube from one brand giving you a false results when shooting something else right afterwards. Clean when changing lot numbers. Then condition the barrel with 10 fouling shots before shooing for group at 50 yds. Do use wind flags.

Clean and oil well, before putting in long term storage.
 
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243winxb said:
When testing, you need to start fresh each change in ammo. You don't want lube from one brand giving you a false results when shooting something else right afterwards. Clean when changing lot numbers. Then condition the barrel with 10 fouling shots before shooing for group at 50 yds. Do use wind flags.
Click to expand...

Yes to all that and more when I am shooting a benchrest gun and quality ammo.... No, to most of it if I am shooting a plinker with cheap ammo.
 
I shoot smallbore, and 50m prone. I'll see if I can find the article, but in short, treat your .22 barrel just like you would any other good precision barrel. Yes it will shoot better after a bit of break in, but accuracy will drop off after a certain point. Testing will allow you to find out what the break in period is for your barrel, and what the accuracy window your barrel is. If you need peak performance then ensure you are in that window. For competition, the recommended procedure prior to a match, was to fully clean the barrel, then fire the appropriate number of fouling shots to ensure you were in the barrels accuracy window.

-Jenrick
 
My buddy aquired a Remington Speed master .22 from his Grandfather who bought it new in the '60s and swore it had NEVER been cleaned.
The round count had to be in the tens of thousands when it finally seized up. I spent a couple hours soaking it in Hoppes, touched up the bluing and a few drops of oil later it was running like a German train.
On the other hand, my Mossberg 377 Plinkster will give up the ghost with less than 200 down the pipe. I only keep it for sentimental reasons, lol.
You're mileage may vary......
 
We have a Remington 550 that my grandfather bought new in the 50s. Four generations have shot the crap out of it. I can't speak for it's entire life, but can attest to over 40 years of it. The gun never had the bore cleaned in that 40+ and I doubt if it ever has. My grandfather never owned a gun cleaning kit nor gun oil. If it started jamming, he would spray it with whatever was handy... WD-40, 3 in 1, motor oil, brake cleaner, ect. and go on with life. The old gun has ridden hundreds of miles in a farm truck or on a tractor, killed everything under the sun, and provided hours of entertainment to kids. It is rusty and beat up, but somehow still works. Is it benchrest accurate? Of course not, it wasn't the day it was new. It is still pop can accurate at open sight distance, though.
 
I'll degunk the actions if I'm worried about function, but I've never cleaned a .22 bore except on one CZ 455 that built up lead in the throat on tool marks and threw fliers as a result.

Nothing else has had a problem that would benefit from it.
 
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