TargetTalk

This probably falls under the heading "newb question" but I'll ask anyway...

I'll admit, while shooting is great fun, I'm not such a fan of the cleaning. Granted, there's relatively little cleaning involved after firing 10 rounds of .22 match but still...anything to facilitate quick cleaning is a win in my book.

So I'm considering refinishing a TOZ-35 with a treatment like Robar's NP3 but I'm a bit concerned it made adversely affect the pistol. I don't know if NP3 is really intended for pistol with such tight tolerances.

(Plus, I imagine a 'chrome' TOZ-35 with swanky Rink grips would be cool...)

But seriously, if anyone has some expertise or experience in this area, I'd appreciate it.

IMHO---You do not need to clean a 22 very often. When I was shooting rifle I would clean the barrel about once every 3-6 months. I cleaned the bolt often. With my Toz I clean the falling block more often than I clean the rest. Still shoots really good scores for me.

I have never been very good at cleaning often...now when I shoot my 45 I clean it right away to avoid lead build up and to ensure the money I spent to make sure it would shoot tight groups was not wasted.

hope that helps.

A chrome TOZ would be cool!
I'm a cleaner. My Hammerli 162 gets cleaned after every match. It's easy to do from the breech end with a coated rod through the hole in the grip.
When I was shooting smallbore prone, I would clean after every 40 shot match. Most of us did. I was also aware that more bores were worn out by cleaning than by shooting them out.
I used to clean the rifle of a friend who shot with me in the 4 position indoor league. He went 7 years without cleaning before I insisted it get cleaned. There was so much gunk on the bolt face and barrel breech, I don't know how it didn't misfire. He wasn't good enough to tell any difference in accuracy.
Good luck with the chrome!
Ben

I clean my Pardini FP after a match - takes 5 minutes. I use a 25 cal bronze brush, with the last 1/2" bent at a right angle, to clean the chamber then pull a patch or two to remove debris. A few passes with a toothbrush to clean the bolt face and extractor. Wipe with an oily rag. Once a year (500-1000 rounds) I will pull the bolt, lube various pins, and clean the barrel with solvent and patches.

I think you are asking for trouble if you plate the barrel and chamber. And there is no need to plate the trigger mechanism which accumulates very little debris. Perhaps plating the falling block. I have hard chrome plating on several of my pistols and it is great for reducing wear on moving parts like slides, revolver cylinders, etc, but I think it does little to reduce cleaning.

I've seen pics of Uwe Potteck using a chrome plated TOZ 35. If you can find his adress somewhere (may be on schuetzenbund.de, as he was national team member for a long time) he'd probably tell you how much of that TOZ actually is chromed - but it sure looks cool.