Never Clean your Barrel?????

[MachIVshooter]

I rarely run a brush through rifle barrels. A CLP soaked patch at the end of the day, then put it away.

Modern powders burn pretty clean, so unless you're shooting lead slugs or corrosive ammo, there's no need to vigorously clean the bore.

 

[jmr40]

If soft materials couldn't wear harder ones, cutting tools would never get dull.

Nor would we have the Grand Canyon. Water is softer than rock, but given enough time it wore the rock down.

This is one of those things with an element of truth that many misunderstand. A new barrel is rough on the inside and after a few shots will smooth out and shoot more accurately. How many is a few?. That can vary from a dozen to 200 or more.

Most barrels shoot better slightly dirty. After a thorough cleaning I won't hunt with a rifle until I've fired 3-4 shots through it. Not that it is any less accurate, but the point of impact will change slightly after a thorough cleaning. Once hunting season starts I don't clean a barrel until the end. Even during the off season I wait 200-300 rounds. It doesn't hurt a thing and there is no point in wasting ammo to foul the barrel again.

Corrosive powder is another story. I don't use it, but if I did, I'd clean after each use.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

The AK's & .22's mostly stay dirty. The M-1's & M-4's get cleaned now and again--once a year or so. I do not regularly shoot corrosive ammo and would clean well if I ever did.

 

[stubbicatt]

Most of my shooting these days is with cast bullets. Typically I'll run 2 or 3 soaked patches on a jag, followed by a couple dry patches, each time I shoot them. Lead is a lot easier on a bore than jacketed, and a lot easier to clean up after.

I read years ago Kart Barrels(?) recommended only cleaning the chambers of their 45 ACP match barrels.

I find it good therapy to clean 'em before I put them in the safe.

 

[W.E.G.]

You can go a LONG time not cleaning a high quality stainless barrel on a rifle shooting modern ammo, and kept otherwise clean from environmental fouling and debris.

Non-stainless barrels need to be protected from rust.

Lubrication of other critical moving parts is... well, critical.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

If soft materials couldn't wear harder ones, cutting tools would never get dull.

I don't think anyone said that soft materials can't wear harder ones. Conversely, the fact that softer materials can wear harder materials over time isn't evidence that cleaning your barrel regularly, using the proper equipment and technique will erode your barrel in a lifetime.

In any given session of shooting you have dozens to hundreds of pieces of copper, lead and other metal traveling down the barrel of your firearm at near the speed of sound or multiples of the speed of sound. Just like cutting tools, barrels biggest enemy is heat and there is an extreme amount of friction induced heat with every round fired. A single bullet traveling down your barrel causes more damage to the barrel than hundreds of not thousands of lubricated patches applied using the proper equipment ever will.

You can debate all you want, clean or not clean to your contentment, even debate that accuracy is best obtained with a fouled barrel (true in many cases) but you cannot convince me without scientific evidence that the act of cleaning my barrel regularly will erode it in 2 lifetimes, all things remaining equal.

 

[Mman]

You don't have to clean your apartment if you don't want either. Nor your car. Plenty of dirty cars drive just fine. Plenty of slobs will eagerly say cleaning is optional and they are right. I choose to keep my house clean and my car clean and guns clean and my other things clean because it is just better to keep things clean and in order. If someone says they don't need to clean they are right. Doesn't mean that cleaning is unnecessary or has no benefit. How dirty is too dirty? Up to you. Cleanliness reflects well on a person in many intangible ways that add up to an overall impression.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

You don't have to clean your apartment if you don't want either. Nor your car. Plenty of dirty cars drive just fine. Plenty of slobs will eagerly say cleaning is optional and they are right. I choose to keep my house clean and my car clean and guns clean and my other things clean because it is just better to keep things clean and in order. If someone says they don't need to clean they are right. Doesn't mean that cleaning is unnecessary or has no benefit. How dirty is too dirty? Up to you. Cleanliness reflects well on a person in many intangible ways that add up to an overall impression.

Sure, but doesn't vacuuming the floor just wear it out prematurely? Washing your car is just causing the paint to peel off and wiping your backside is just asking for hemorrhoids. Just think about how abrasive that nasty toilet paper is.

 

[eldon519]

Colorado, see post #16 regarding softer materials.

"I inspect every barrel taken off and every new barrel before it is shipped with a bore scope and I will tell you all that I see far more barrels ruined by cleaning rods than I see worn out from normal wear and tear."
-the late Gale McMillan, premium barrel maker amongst other skills

 

[MachIVshooter]

but you cannot convince me without scientific evidence that the act of cleaning my barrel regularly will erode it in 2 lifetimes, all things remaining equal.

It's not barrel erosion that's the problem resulting from cleaning; it's crown damage. Can be mitigated greatly or even eliminated by using proper tools and techniques, but how many guys can you think of who just grab a rod and ram it in from the muzzle? That rod dragging against the crown is the kind of damage Gale McMillan is referring to.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

It's not barrel erosion that's the problem resulting from cleaning; it's crown damage. Can be mitigated greatly or even eliminated by using proper tools and techniques, but how many guys can you think of who just grab a rod and ram it in from the muzzle? That rod dragging against the crown is the kind of damage Gale McMillan is referring to.

Fair enough. I guess what is always a little strange to me though is that the people making these comments are firearms enthusiasts. Using a firearm improperly can result in serious injury or death. Yet, the same folks are not advocating that we should stop shooting because if done wrong it can be disastrous. They instead (rightly) advocate that knuckleheads should learn how to the tool (firearm) properly. Yet, using a cleaning kit improperly may potentially damage the crown (which is generally fixable) so, everyone is better of not doing it. Why not just advocate that if you are going to do it, learn how, and do it right.

If used a toilet brush and Comet to brush my teeth, I'd probably mess them up (and have some seriously bad breath), but dentists don't use that as evidence of why people shouldn't brush their teeth.

 

[AStone]

Sure, but doesn't vacuuming the floor just wear it out prematurely?

No. But the grit, sand and metal on a dirty floor may.

This thread has one thing going for it right now: it's more entertaining than Faceplant.

For the record, I clean my guns fairly often -- have for decades - and enjoy doing so.
I learn something every time I do. And stay familiar with its insides.

And you know what? I like clean sheets, too. And showers.

 

[justin22885]

i think i'll stick to cleaning the barrel every time i shoot.. gives me a good excuse to experience the awesome smell of gun cleaning solvent

 

[taliv]

i shoot a lot, but i really just shoot 3 guns: my social carbine, my daily carry pistol, and my match rifle.

for the first two, i would never shoot them and clean them and then just hope they worked after i just disassembled and reassembled them. for the last one, it's basically useless unless i foul the bore back in.

so when i do clean, i do so at the beginning of my trip to the range, then i shoot them, and then it goes back in the holster. i'm always going to shoot a few rounds after i clean to make sure it functions, so it's not really possible for me to have a perfectly clean gun. given that, what are we really talking about?

i reject the comparison of a fouled bore to the mold and bacteria colonies in a week old stack of empty pizza boxes in some college dorm. we aren't talking about cleaning 'dirt' out of firearms, or cleaning them because of body odor or something. we are talking about mostly inert copper and powder fouling, unlike the solvents used to remove it. it doesn't hurt it to stay in there, and for consistency in precision shooting, it actually helps a lot. it's not like if you leave a little powder fouling in the barrel and come back a month later and there will be a ton of powder fouling all over the gun.

btw, how many of you clean your car every time you use it? my guess is most people use their car about 4-6x per day and clean once / week. so 35 uses per cleaning?

 

[AStone]

I haven't owned a car in over five years.

I still enjoy cleaning my guns, gently, no rods on the crowns.

And when I own a car/truck, I change the oil regularly.
Not every time I drive it. But every few months.

Just like I clean my guns.

But not cleaning your guns is fine, too. What ever floats your boat.

 

[ColoradoMinuteMan]

i shoot a lot, but i really just shoot 3 guns: my social carbine, my daily carry pistol, and my match rifle.

for the first two, i would never shoot them and clean them and then just hope they worked after i just disassembled and reassembled them. for the last one, it's basically useless unless i foul the bore back in.

so when i do clean, i do so at the beginning of my trip to the range, then i shoot them, and then it goes back in the holster. i'm always going to shoot a few rounds after i clean to make sure it functions, so it's not really possible for me to have a perfectly clean gun. given that, what are we really talking about?

i reject the comparison of a fouled bore to the mold and bacteria colonies in a week old stack of empty pizza boxes in some college dorm. we aren't talking about cleaning 'dirt' out of firearms, or cleaning them because of body odor or something. we are talking about mostly inert copper and powder fouling, unlike the solvents used to remove it. it doesn't hurt it to stay in there, and for consistency in precision shooting, it actually helps a lot. it's not like if you leave a little powder fouling in the barrel and come back a month later and there will be a ton of powder fouling all over the gun.

btw, how many of you clean your car every time you use it? my guess is most people use their car about 4-6x per day and clean once / week. so 35 uses per cleaning?

Like a lot of threads it turns into some sort of binary debate. "If you don't clean your gun every time, you are a maggot infested dirt bag" vs. "cleaning your barrel causes puppies to go blind." Everyone has their reasons for doing what they do. Do what works for you and your circumstances.

 

[Gtscotty]

Not cleaning your barrel every time you shoot is indicative of ogre-esq hygiene and gross character flaws... This thread is a gem.

I clean my rifle barrels down to the steel every couple hundred rounds, my pistol barrels whenever I feel like it, and my rimfire barrels never. May the lord have mercy on my soul.

 

[Turftech1]

This thread has already taught me a lot.

Thanks for all the replies. It sounds like even those who regularly clean don't often use a brush, just a patch with solvent, some patches to dry, then oil to protect.

I am thinking I'll save my brushes for my rifles that shoot the corrosive stuff, and even then, not every time.

I also always clean from the breech end, to avoid crown damage. I was taught that when I first got into shooting.

 

[JohnKSa]

Rimfire bores get cleaned only rarely. Unless the bore is rough, it shouldn't foul much at all. When I do clean I don't use a brush.

Centerfire rifles generally get cleaned after every range session with a few exceptions. A bore brush will be employed, but not aggressively. Most of the cleaning is done with patches and solvent.

ANY firearm shot with corrosive ammo gets cleaned immediately, aggressively and thoroughly.

 

[rcmodel]

Never clean your barrel??

BS!

My late father was a combat vet in WWII, and taught me at a very young age, if you shoot it you clean it.

My military training in the 1960's taught me the same thing.

I very seldom ever clean .22 RF barrels.
I clean small bore high-velocity varmint rifle barrels quite frequently, as they are more prone to excessive copper jacket fouling.

A few years ago, my Dentest, who is in the 'never clean' crowd, ask me to help him sort out his 7mm Mag browning.

He had missed three antelope in a row on a very expensive guided hunt.

I found the bore almost soldered shut with copper jacket fouling.

After three days of cleaning with copper solvent?
And long strips of copper peeling loose from the rifling.

Groups went from 6" plus, to under 1" at 100 yards!!

Never clean a barrel??
BS!

rc

 

[jerkface11]

If the bore had been meant to be clean it wouldn't shoot better fouled.

 

[rcmodel]

Using the same logic.
If the barrel had been meant to be rusty, it would have been rusty.

All kinds of bad corrosion can take place under copper jacket fouling.

And you will never know it until it's to late to do anything about it.

 

[Delmar]

I clean my center fire rifles after every trip to the range, using a good one piece rod and a bore guide without fail. The bore gets solvent to remove powder fouling only.
The copper stays unless accuracy is falling off. A clean nylon brush works well along with soaked patches, followed up with a couple of dry patches, an oily patch and then one final dry patch to remove the excess.

I stopped using Sweets and other ammonia based copper removers and went to Bore Tech Eliminator. It does no harm to barrel steel if left in and attacks copper very well.

 

[gotigers]

I clean my ARs after every match. That is 250-350 rounds with practice before the match. My heavy barrel bolt .308 gets it after 500 rounds or so.

 

[Bart B.]

If you ever go to a rifle match and notice the winners and record setters cleaning their barrels a lot, your may have something to think about.

I've seen onlookers cringe at a smallbore match watching Olympic team members push bronze brushes and wet patches back and forth in their rimfire barrels. Same thing at the High Power Nationals as all those centerfire barrels are scrubbed often the same way. Every 50 to 100 shots or so; sometimes more often depending on the ammo and barrels used. They can detect a 1/4 MOA accuracy falloff as the bore gets fouled too much with powder and bullet residue left in it.

Centerfire or rimfire, clean barrels shoot more accurate than dirty ones. However, if you cannot tell the difference, then of course, you won't think cleaning is necessary. Such folks usually don't understand why. I used to be one of them decades ago.