Bill_Rights
Member
I am in agreement with the respondents who say that a bore need not be so clean that a patch comes through lily white. And the same folks, usually, point out that the gun shoots tighter groups once a clean bore gets a few rounds through it. I would go a step farther and state (assert or guess, actually) that even just the film of oil left on the surface of the bore, whether the underlying bore is clean to bare metal or not, disrupts accuracy. The oil needs to be burned off or turned to "char" coating the inside of the bore for the bore to be in its "normal" (best shooting) state. Or not. The burned residue from the gun powder will provide the same "char", or better.
You also hear about the folks who haven't swabbed their bore(s) for years, and the firearm shoots just fine.
Look, the MAIN THING is that the bore does not have abrasive particles on its surface. By abrasive, I mean the hardness of the debris must be near to or greater than the hardness of the gun steel of the bore. If there are abrasive particles on the bore, the passing bullet can drag them along and scratch the finish of the bore steel. Nothing in gun powder residue, or even in unburned gun powder, or even even in the bullet is anywhere near hard enough to scratch the barrel.
On the other hand, dust from a dirt road or plowed field certainly contains abrasive particles, like SiO2 (quartz) or even harder minerals. Sometimes even random dust from indoor room air could have abrasive particles, if nothing else those "tracked in" from outdoors. True, most dust is non-abrasive. But some is abrasive. This is the main reason we keep guns in gun cabinets - to keep dust out of the bore and receiver mechanisms.
THEREFORE, it pays to drag a damp patch through any bore that may have dust in it, BEFORE SHOOTING. Or even DURING SHOOTING, if you are in a dusty environment. You decide when the bore may have been exposed to dust and what a dusty environment is. That's all. That's it. That's all you need to do. [NOTE: This all assume that there are no chemically corrosive agents present, like corrosive primers, corrosive gun powder or salt water.]
By the way, many of the most damaging abrasive particles are clear, translucent or nearly white (like quartz, most feldspars, glass, beach sand, many minerals and many ceramics). Often substances which have a distinct color in bulk form (clay --> orange) will look nearly white in fine-particulate form. This means that a dragged-through patch will not appear "dirty", as in grey or black. Nevertheless, the potentially-damaging particles will have been dragged out with the patch(es). So there is an element of BLIND FAITH here. You do the patch pull procedure because it is known to work, and you do it (sometimes) even when you're not sure it's needed, to be on the safe side. [This is not totally blind faith - you could get a microscope and actually see the abrasive particles, but it is not worth it, normally.]
The other factor is rust. We know that residues from modern gun powder and primers do not promote rust formation, even if stored for a long time in humid conditions. I think, in fact, these residues inhibit rust formation. However, there are hundreds of types of alien particles that do promote rust, some of which would not cause damage as abrasive particles. Dried salt water spray is an example.
So this is why we clean a gun AFTER taking it out into the field or shooting it. If not for that, it would be better to always, ONLY "clean" your gun BEFORE shooting it. (In fact, I will do a quick one-pull wipe of the bore BEFORE shooting a gun if it has been handled or stored out of the gun cabinet for any length of time, EVEN IF IT HAS NOT BEEN SHOT.)
Then we could get into the perennial controversy of whether the oil film left behind after a typical cleaning procedure actually PREVENTS RUST. The evidence seems mixed, but I venture a guess that the well-burned powder residue left from shooting prevents rust better than most films of most oils. Which is another reason NOT to clean out all of this powder residue, because then you get the rust-protection of both it and the oil.
You also hear about the folks who haven't swabbed their bore(s) for years, and the firearm shoots just fine.
Look, the MAIN THING is that the bore does not have abrasive particles on its surface. By abrasive, I mean the hardness of the debris must be near to or greater than the hardness of the gun steel of the bore. If there are abrasive particles on the bore, the passing bullet can drag them along and scratch the finish of the bore steel. Nothing in gun powder residue, or even in unburned gun powder, or even even in the bullet is anywhere near hard enough to scratch the barrel.
On the other hand, dust from a dirt road or plowed field certainly contains abrasive particles, like SiO2 (quartz) or even harder minerals. Sometimes even random dust from indoor room air could have abrasive particles, if nothing else those "tracked in" from outdoors. True, most dust is non-abrasive. But some is abrasive. This is the main reason we keep guns in gun cabinets - to keep dust out of the bore and receiver mechanisms.
THEREFORE, it pays to drag a damp patch through any bore that may have dust in it, BEFORE SHOOTING. Or even DURING SHOOTING, if you are in a dusty environment. You decide when the bore may have been exposed to dust and what a dusty environment is. That's all. That's it. That's all you need to do. [NOTE: This all assume that there are no chemically corrosive agents present, like corrosive primers, corrosive gun powder or salt water.]
By the way, many of the most damaging abrasive particles are clear, translucent or nearly white (like quartz, most feldspars, glass, beach sand, many minerals and many ceramics). Often substances which have a distinct color in bulk form (clay --> orange) will look nearly white in fine-particulate form. This means that a dragged-through patch will not appear "dirty", as in grey or black. Nevertheless, the potentially-damaging particles will have been dragged out with the patch(es). So there is an element of BLIND FAITH here. You do the patch pull procedure because it is known to work, and you do it (sometimes) even when you're not sure it's needed, to be on the safe side. [This is not totally blind faith - you could get a microscope and actually see the abrasive particles, but it is not worth it, normally.]
The other factor is rust. We know that residues from modern gun powder and primers do not promote rust formation, even if stored for a long time in humid conditions. I think, in fact, these residues inhibit rust formation. However, there are hundreds of types of alien particles that do promote rust, some of which would not cause damage as abrasive particles. Dried salt water spray is an example.
So this is why we clean a gun AFTER taking it out into the field or shooting it. If not for that, it would be better to always, ONLY "clean" your gun BEFORE shooting it. (In fact, I will do a quick one-pull wipe of the bore BEFORE shooting a gun if it has been handled or stored out of the gun cabinet for any length of time, EVEN IF IT HAS NOT BEEN SHOT.)
Then we could get into the perennial controversy of whether the oil film left behind after a typical cleaning procedure actually PREVENTS RUST. The evidence seems mixed, but I venture a guess that the well-burned powder residue left from shooting prevents rust better than most films of most oils. Which is another reason NOT to clean out all of this powder residue, because then you get the rust-protection of both it and the oil.