How to clean out your target rifle?

[freezingpenguin]

Hi everyone, new to the forum
I was wondering what the general method is of cleaning out a target rifle (I have a KK500)?

I've heard from people not to use solvent (hoppes) and from some to use it?
How often and what do you guys use to clean your target rifles? Also do you apply oil after you clean it out? And if you do apply oil, how do you clean out your oil just before you shoot the next time? With solvent or just a dry patch?

Thanks

[Tim S]

Hi and welcome,

Opinions vary quite a bit on the best way to clean barrels, not just because shooters have their pet methods, but also because barrels can vary in the cleanliness needed for best accuracy; some shoot best if scrubbed each time, and others will tolerate a lot of fouling. I do see more winning shooters cleaning nowadays than not cleaning, there are still some whose barrels look like a tar pit on the inside, but I think they are in a minority.

You won't harm your barrel with a general powder solvent like Hoppe's no 9; while strong ammonia-heavy copper solvents can etch steel, these aren't needed for a smallbore. Nor will you harm the barrel with a bronze brush. In fact cleaning with correct kit and careful technique is not just harmless, but can preserve the accurate lifespan. Although .22 ammunition has been non-corrosive since the 1950s, the powder residue will attract moisture, and the primer residue becomes abrasive when it cools. If left in situ the powder fouling can cause rust, and the primer residue accelerates accuracy-degrading wear. Lead can also accumulate, especially at the sharp edges of the newly-cut throat, and at rough worn spots, and leat begets lead. It is quite common for barrels to need a few fouling shots after being cleaned with a bronze brush and solvent, but this isn't a sign of damage, it's just that the barrel is a little too clean, and the friction between the bare bore and bullet is affecting acceleration; once the bore is greased, your groups go back to normal. Find a frequency and intensity that delivers acceptable accuracy and that requires an acceptable number of fouling shots in YOUR barrel. This might be dry patches after shooting, and a thorough clean every 200 to remove lead and hardened crud from the grooves, or a slighly deeper clean each time with wet patches and a thorough clean a little less often at every thousand, or something else.

Personally, I clean after shooting, each and every time. I find my barrels don't need lots of fouling shots, and I want to remove the primer residue before it hardens. I push a patch through the bore, wet with solvent (I use Ed's Red, a homebrew, but Hoppe's or Bore Tech RF Blend etc are fine) to remove the chunky fouling. Then I push a solvent-wet bronze brush through three times (or more after a long shoot, say a double English match). If I have time, I'll let the solvent sit in the bore for 10-15 min, then I swab out the bore with solvent-wet patches, until these show no grey staining. Finally I dry the bore with clean dry patches. I don't specifically oil the bore to prevent corrosion, as my solvent is oil-based and my storage isn't damp or humid, but if I did, I'd have to remove the oil with dry patches before shooting. Never shoot an oily barrel; oil does not compress, and you risk bulging your barrel.

Do use good quality kit, it's safer on the barrel and lasts longer anyway. I would only recommend a single piece spring-steel cleaning rod. I like coated Dewey rods. Others like bare polished steel. Both are good, and are stong enought not to bow during use, which is essential as touching the bore can damage the rifling over time. I won't use multi-section brass or aluminium rods. The sections rarely line up, the joints can trap grit, and the metals are potentially more abrasive than steel. Always use a rod guide specific to your action, these align the rod with the bore, and support it to reduce the chance of bowing and contact. The guide also keeps some oil out of the action and trigger.

I'm not a huge fan of boresnakes. These are useful for a quick clean, but if you can use a rod and patches do so. Boresnakes are also only good for one pass, before needing a wash, because after that the rope is embedded with fouling, the stuff you wanted out of the bore. You also have to ensure that the cord does not touch the muzzle crown as you pull. Damage to the Crown can impair accuracy. I suggest wiping away any residue from the muzzle after shooting.

Other than the bore, I like to wipe over the bolt and breech too. These collect crud, which if allowed to accumulated eventually hinders smooth loading and good ignition (.22 accuracy is sensitive to ignition). I wipe then over with a lightly oiled cloth (gun oil, or ordinary multi-purpose oil is enough). I scrub the bolt face and claws with an old toothbrush, the cheaper the better - you want stiff bristles, and scrape the nooks and crannies in the action with a dental pick (wooden toothpicks are OK). Exterior metal work is wiped with an oily cloth to prevent corrosion.

If your rifle has an extension tube, this needs to be cleaned too. I use a scrap of cloth, or toilet paper on a shotgun cleaning rod. If the tube is dirty, squirter some brake cleaner spray or WD40 in there first (only for an aluminium tube mind). It's a good idea to remove the tube after shooting, even if only to clean the muzzle; the muzzle will attract much more fouling with a tube, and it can be very difficult to remove if left to its own devices.

[bugman1955]

Another important point is to clean the muzzle after shooting esp. if you use a bloop tube. I just wet a patch (Pro Shot) and wipe.

[PhatMan]

freezingpenguin,

I used to 'clean' the barrels of my small-bore rifles (1955 BSA 12/15 & Izhmash Strela 3) every time I shot them with 3/4" cotton patches (Proshot) on a Dewey spike jag, moistened with BreakFree CLP. Two (2) patches and the job was called a good one.

Before shooting, two (2) clean patches to remove excess oil and I was ready to shoot.

For me, I noticed no odd changes in grouping using this procedure with these rifles, no need to 're-condition the bore', even when groups were shot from a bench.

The reason I used CLP was more for corrosion protection - I live in an old, cold and leaky Victorian house with no central heating, and a couple of hundred yards from the English Channel : carbon steel rusts while you look at it in this house !

Have fun & a good Sunday :)

Best regards

Russ

[freezingpenguin]

Wow thanks a lot guys - @Tim S, @bugman1955 and @PhatMan

[yana]

In short? I dont. ;)
I clean them every 500 shots or so. But thats more for me.
1 felt pellets comes out grey, the next is already clean.
Match barrels are well polioshed inside, hence they faul a lot less.
I dó use high quality (lubed) ammo. Lubed ammo prevents fauling even more

[Tim S]

In short? I dont. ;)
I clean them every 500 shots or so. But thats more for me.
1 felt pellets comes out grey, the next is already clean.
Match barrels are well polioshed inside, hence they faul a lot less.
I dó use high quality (lubed) ammo. Lubed ammo prevents fauling even more

Yana,

if your cleaning schedule keeps your rifles shooting accurately enough, I would not complain, but I feel I need to mention two points.

Firstly one dry felt will never clean the barrel after 500 rounds. The dry felt will push out the loose debris from the primer and some unburnt powder from the most recent shots. However, that dry patch will do nothing to remove the burnt powder residue and grease that accumulates in corners of the rifling grooves, deposits that have been almost polished by subsequent shots, let alone any lead. Cleaning with a solvent-wet felt, or a solvent-wet brush would reveal there is a lot more fouling, you just can't see it.

Secondly, the bullet lubricant only lessens lead fouling from the bullet, it does nothing to lessen the reside from the burnt powder. In fact the grease from the bullet seems to give the powder fouling something to stick to. The bullet lubricant also combines with the gritty primer reside to form a nice abrasive paste ahead of the chamber.

[TenMetrePeter]

Yana is talking about target air rifle, I am sure.

[Tim S]

Yana is talking about target air rifle, I am sure.

She may be, I hadn't thought of that, and air rifles certainly need less cleaning than smallbores. However, as the OP specifically asked about cleaning a new smallbore rifle, and all the subsequent posts relate to smallbore rifles, together with the mention of lubed ammo the mind is drawn to smallbore ammo and barrels.

It's also relevant to mention that there is a long standing belief among smallbore shooters that smallbore barrels don't need to be cleaned; some even say that smallbore ammo is self cleaning. I believe this mindset dates back to the universal adoption of fully non-corrosive loads in the 1940s and '50s. Before then many match loads were corrosive, being loaded with either a chlorate primer or a composite propellant (a blend of nitro and black powder). These loads necessitated immediate cleaning to prevent corrosion. Once this was no longer required, many shooters realised that their rifles could go for quite some time before cleaning, and still shoot. Certainly among many older club shooters here in the UK, there is a mistaken belief that if they clean their rifle the sky will fall down upon their heads.

As I wrote in my first post, how often you need to clean is up to you and your barrel. Two felts may clean the barrel enough, but the barrel will not be clean . I do realise that Yana is not writing in her native language, so nuances may be lost in translation, but I think the difference needs to be drawn for less experienced shooters like the OP.

[Modena]

For my Walther KK300 after only 25 rounds it takes at least 4 felts to be coming out clean, and the first double is positively disgusting! I use plenty of Ballystix.

[GaryD]

Bleiker recommends cleaning after every use, with intensive cleaning after 200-300 rounds with a bronze brush

[esepulveda]

I think this article must be read, regarding bore cleaning.

http://www.rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html

Saludos

-ed

[oldrifleman]

I think this article must be read, regarding bore cleaning.

http://www.rrdvegas.com/rimfire-cleaning.html

Saludos

-ed

That is what I follow for my rifles

[CTurner]

With 22 rimfire this is the hotly debated question of all time. You will get more opinions on cleaning than any other topic you could ponder. I personally subscribe to the if it is not broken do not fix it school of thought for cleaning my barrels. I do clean my actions, bolt, and the chamber of the barrel regularly but I avoid running a rod through any of my target 22 bolt guns. **Caveat I am a 3p and prone shooter and not a benchrest guy trying to eek out the last .0001 in my groups so this may vary greatly from what an active benchrest guy my advise. My reasoning behind my opinion and process is from talking to several of the old masters of the sport such as Art Cook, Larry Moore and many others. So lets dissect this step by step for specifically a 22 match bolt action target rifle. Auto loaders and sporters that consume a broader range of ammunition or ammunition with faster than 1100 FPS muzzle velocities will of course vary. All auto-loaders will need different cleaning procedures, not only due to action mechanics but also due to changes in the way barrels are chambered.

With most rimfire there are a few components at play. The reason we clean is due to the build ups through out various systems of the system that make up the fire arm. The constituents that make up this build up are lead, tin, and antimony that make up the bullets as well as the lubes used as coating along with the powder residue and primer residue from firing. A lot of primer compounds contain very fine glass particles which we know are abrasive and then all the other spent powder and fillers that some parts can be considered abrasive. Now when we fire a new round, being that we are mostly speaking about soft lead or copper washed lead that is also soft, the abrasive residue is either pushed out or embedded in the next round and it's lube, essentially lapping the barrel. yes I refer to it in a similar manner to lapping since with lapping we are talking about a poured slug with some lapping compound (abrasive) applied to polish the internal surfaces of the barrel. If the residues were more abrasive then I think we would see a much faster decline of accuracy and barrels not lasting in to the millions of rounds.

Why is cleaning a 22 rimfire target rifle barrel not as important? Well considering that most users of target grade rifles are consuming a more particular ammunition, generally a target grade of ammo made of higher quality components, you are more likely to damage the barrel of the gun via cleaning it then to just shoot it. Why is this? well many factors come to play. When cleaning we generally use a rod that is much harder than the soft lead bullet we shoot. This rod can become impregnated over time with those same abrasives that we are trying to clean out but now we have essentially created a file by lodging those particles in the rod which if we are not careful and insure we insert it true we can very easily use as a lever. Conversely if we fire another round that round is forced to concentrically exit the bore picking up the abrasive and dispersing or pushing it out in the radial path the bullet takes due to the rifling. Where as with the rod acting as a lever with abrasive going through the barrel at an angle is more likely to damage one side of the barrel. Outside of the abrasive just the rod itself, depending on how hard it is, if not inserted properly and true can be the cause of a ruined barrel. The same is true for a bore snake becoming impregnated and acting like rope saw.

Thus if you are going to clean a target rifle my opinion is that it is highly suggested to use a high quality bore guide specific to the action. I also prefer to clean breach to muzzle versus from the muzzle, reason being is that the crown and the last 2-4 inches of the barrel are the most important. Cleaning from the muzzle you are more apt to be askew on your rod or guide rubbing from one side to the other down the length of the tube.

Now that all said it is important to clean and store your rifles you just need to figure out what your rifle prefers, your environment, and what you are comfortable with. If you personally prefer to clean after every match then do so, sometimes the mental edge is enough to overcome the slight changes in accuracy or the settle in periods for some barrels. And then again there are some barrels that I have heard of that like to be spic and span clean.

For me my barrel cleaning process is to run a few copper washed rounds through the tube if I plan to store it for a period of time. After firing a few copper washed rounds, I pull the bloop tube and clean the crown and apply some wax / grease to inhibit any rust, pitting, or corrosion and then clean the action and bolt thoroughly. Throughout the shooting season I clean the action, bolt and pull the bloop tube after about 2 bricks of ammo and clean but I generally do not touch the barrel itself. I also generally do not put my first rounds out the the gun on practice or match day on paper. I generally put 5 shots of what I am going to be shooting that day down the barrel to warm it up and season it for the days shooting. If I have an extended time between shooting relays or if I decide to change ammo lot, I preform the 5 shot warm up / barrel seasoning again as a part of my personal procedure for mental comfort.