TargetTalk

how to clean a match .22 pistol barrel? specifically Morini? what kind of solvent should I use, or do I even need to use solvent?

thank you

A .22 target gun will not need cleaning very frequently. I typically clean mine perhaps once or twice during a season and then at the end of the season if I know I'm not going to shoot it again for a while. I like Break-Free CLP (cleaner/lubricant/protectant) but others prefer Hoppes #9; it's personal choice. The basic idea is to wet the bore with a patch soaked in cleaner, then let it sit for a while as you clean the rest of the gun. After it's soaked, brush the bore with a few strokes with a bronze or nylon bristle bore brush, then alternate wet and dry patches 'till they come out clean. The cleaning rod should always be inserted through the breech, not the muzzle so as to protect the crown. Never change direction of the brush while it's still in the bore.

For hard deposits of powder or carbon around the chamber or on the slide, a bronze brush (they look like toothbrushes but with bronze bristles) is usually sufficient, but occasionally, you might need a dental pick to get into a crevice. (But anytime you use a steel tool, be VERY CAREFUL.)

The last step in cleaning is to leave a VERY THIN film of oil on the gun and in the barrel, just literally a few molecules thick, only enough to protect against rust and fingerprints. If it looks oily, it's too much.

Anytime you clean a target gun, plan to fire perhaps 20 or more "fouling" shots before going to a match. It takes that before the barrel will settle down again. If you clean a gun, then go straight to a match, you're going to be really unhappy with all the flyers!

Nicole,

after reading your post about the sp new you purchased. I decided to buy one also.
I was wondering if you have noticed any change from zero after you clean the bore?
I cleaned my sp new after 700 rounds and had to change the red dot one click up and two left. is this normal?

I get varying answers from the shooters on my team who shoot the pardini about cleaning. most say they clean it when it starts to jam. I don't want to wait that long though.

Ditto on what Nicole said. I shot in an indoor smallbore league for ten years and fired thousands of rounds of 22 rimfire ammunition. You just do not need to clean a rimfire barrel very often-perhaps once or twice a season as Nocole said. It is far more important to keep the chamber area clean or else you will eventually encounter feeding problems. I used only a dry child's toothbrush to scrub the slide face and barrel breach after every match. Also keep your slide rails lubricated.

In regard to another poster's experience about a change in zero following a barrel cleaning, I don't think that is unusual. Your zero should return to normal once the clean barrel is fouled.

GaryBF wrote:Ditto on what Nicole said. I shot in an indoor smallbore league for ten years and fired thousands of rounds of 22 rimfire ammunition. You just do not need to clean a rimfire barrel very often-perhaps once or twice a season as Nocole said. It is far more important to keep the chamber area clean or else you will eventually encounter feeding problems. I used only a dry child's toothbrush to scrub the slide face and barrel breach after every match. Also keep your slide rails lubricated.

Ditto to what Gary & Nicole said, plus - I keep the chamber itself clean with a 25 cal brush bent at a right angle to leave ~ 1/2 in. that I can easily insert into the chamber. I also clean the magazines whenever i see signs of wax & fouling buildup, perhaps every 200 rounds.

loud223 wrote:after reading your post about the sp new you purchased. I decided to buy one also.
I was wondering if you have noticed any change from zero after you clean the bore?
I cleaned my sp new after 700 rounds and had to change the red dot one click up and two left. is this normal?

My experience agrees with Gary's on this point. After you first clean the gun, the shots are going to be pretty wild for a while. Don't try adjusting your sights for about 20 to 30 shots. It takes that many to foul the barrel again to where the gun will once again be accurate. What's happening is that the oil you've left in the bore during cleaning acts like a tiny bit of obstruction that affects how the bullet travels down the barrel. And because it's a fluid, it moves around from one shot to the next. Until you've gotten it all out of there with your fouling shots, the gun is simply not going to be very accurate.

Though I don't clean often, I definitely don't wait for the gun to start jamming before cleaning. I don't know why anyone would do that. Who needs the alibis! When I said I clean about once or twice a season, that probably works out to about every 15,000 rounds, I guess. (Perhaps every two or three bricks.) Cleaning at that rate, I can't even remember the last time I had a jam (except for a few jams with a brand-new magazine that just needed more use to break it in.) As others have mentioned, it is important to disassemble and clean the magazines when you do clean the gun.

Thanks,

good info from everyone. Will definitely clean less often than I have been

Lou

Can't you dry the barrel out with dry patches to get it to be accurate quicker.Maybe that's my problem for a year .My barrels wet and I'm throwing flyers all over te place. Think? Right!

darticus wrote:Can't you dry the barrel out with dry patches to get it to be accurate quicker.Maybe that's my problem for a year .My barrels wet ...!

You should always finish with dry patches and keep running them through 'till they come out basically dry, but that only takes a few patches, maybe 2 or 3 and call it done. It's not going to be 10 of them. You cannot skip the fouling shots just by using more dry patches because you just can't get the all the oil out that way and anyway, even if you could, it still wouldn't leave the bore in the same condition (with a little bit of fouling) that you need for precision shooting.

To your other point, nobody's barrel stays wet for a year, even after it's been shot a bit. If you have a gun that's just never very accurate, it's likely the gun (worn barrel, loose action, etc.) or ammo that your gun just does not like or maybe your technique.

Thought we needed some comedy today.

I think you hooked one!

FWIW, Lou Lombardi (www.falconmachining.com) tells people to never put any metal in his barrels. With each barrel he supplies a piece of weed whip line. One end is pointed, the other has been melted to form a little mushroom head/button. You thread patches onto the line and pull them through the barrel. Don't tell Lou, but I do use a brass brush to clean the chamber.

[quote="mitty"]FWIW, Lou Lombardi (www.falconmachining.com) tells people to never put any metal in his barrels. With each barrel he supplies a piece of weed whip line. One end is pointed, the other has been melted to form a little mushroom head/button. You thread patches onto the line and pull them through the barrel. Don't tell Lou, but I do use a brass brush to clean the chamber.[/quote]

George
Has Lou geared up the new shop yet? I've a 41 barrel to line if so. And still would go for the Aluminum HS barrel.

I talked to him a couple of months ago and the shop was under construction. I think he said it would be about 1,500 sf. So he could be moving in soon.

That being said, he's usually a year or two out on work and I'm sure he has some stuff sitting and waiting. He had me take all the contact info off his web site. I suppose at some point he will want it back but I'm sure there are enough people who know how to reach him that he will be buried immediately.

I do have an extra HS aluminum barrel with a black rail and a silver 1" Ultradot on it. It's in pretty good shape. I spotted it on eBay a few years ago. I have not Ransom tested it. If you're interested make me an offer. Money back guarantee, of course.