22lr rifle cleaning method

Double K said:
For fun 22 shooters need only pull a bore snake through your barrel after every outing.
A couple of points though, some rifles will take about 15 shots to settle in after even a minor cleaning and put shots where the zero is, don't clean it the night before a squirrel hunt you may miss some longer shots.
I've personally never experienced it but have seen pictures of barrel with a lead ring ahead of the chamber that is extremely detrimental to accuracy. Look down your barrel with a scope occasionally if you know someone that has one.
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That lead ring you mention reminds me of the decades old standard 22 rimfire position shooters have used to indicate a barrel is at the end of its life.

The throat of a new barrel will appear shiny bright all the way around a clock face. As the abrasive glass frit in the primer tends to settle in the bore at its bottom mostly at 6 o'clock, every successive shot adds to it. When about 10,000 rounds are shot, enough frit has roughed up the lands and grooves in the throat that it appears dark from 5 o'clock clockwise to 7 o'clock. Around 20,000 rounds, it's dark from 4 to 8 o'clock. When it's dark from 3 to 9 at 30,000 or so rounds, the bore bottom half is dark for a half inch or more down the barrel.

Shots at 50 yards are going a little off call. At 100 yards, more off call. Time to rebarrel or set it back an inch or more. Then its like a new barrel.
 
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I had the barrel on a 541-T set back twice before the damage went 2-3" forward, the action was getting pretty loose at that point as well. I lived in the country then and shot a couple boxes every day the weather permitted at silhouettes.
 
Jut clean lightly-couple wet o nes and same w/ dry. BUT watch for the donut juist ahead of the bullet in 22LR. How do you know?? I dont?? Use a good brass or bistle brush on the first 4" whn doing the above and you will be good.

How often-on my 22 BR gun(s) after about 500-600 rounds. How do I know-I dont..
 
22 rimfire match ammo made after 1980 is not nearly as accurate as it was earlier.

All of the 100 yard prone scoped open records shot before then still stand.

Same for most of the 50 yard ones.
 
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Most 22rf match shooters...at the least, swab the chamber with an oily Q-Tip, after each shooting session; because of the chance that salty sweat gets on the cartridges from handling.
 
More bores are damaged by cleaning than by shooting. That goes double for rimfires!

I'm very careful with all my bores. I NEVER clean from the muzzle end, except for handguns that I can't clean from the breech.

One stroke with a bronze brush, if it won't clean with just patches, and I NEVER draw a brush back through the muzzle, but remove it before withdrawing the cleaning rod.

Cleaning patches are jettsoned at the muzzle of all my rifles and the rod stopped soon after. One stroke and in the trash. A trash barrel is kept under the muzzle-end of my cleaning station to catch patches.

JP
 
Dewey one piece rod that's coated, delrin custom made bore guide for 40xr, Montana Extreme rimfire solvent and nylon brushes. As others have mentioned being careful and going slow is essential to preventing damage.
This image is downsized click on it for a better look.
 
Hawg said:
No one should be cleaning lead from a 22lr barrel, because the lead of a bullet should never touch the metal of your barrel.
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Really?
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Yes.

If the bullet is covered in wax how would the lead of the bullet stick to the steel of the barrel?

I've cleaned lead from a rimfire pistol barrel twice, but it's abnormal and in that instance was likely due to ammunition with lead that was too soft or some sort of burr that caught something. In both cases it was a new barrel.

I'm not a fanatic about which sort of rod is used or opposed to use of brushes, but the idea that a good barrel and good ammunition will leave a person scrubbing lead off the interior of his barrel is contrary to my experience.
 
I might be wrong about this but just about everything I've read about shooting 22's indoors says that they put lead out in the air in front of the gun as well as in the bullet trap where bullet hits and comes apart.
If there lead coming out the barrel that would seem to indicate contact.
 
My two experiences in cleaning lead out of pistol barrels left no doubt about what I was removing. The cleaning rod was wider than the lead congestion, and when it started to move it came out in long, shiny strands of soft lead. I would be surprised if that is part of anyone's normal cleaning.

If you've a bullet splashing apart against a backstop, there is a lead exposure at that point. If you've minor aerosolized lead from the base of a bullet being heated by burning powder, there is a lead exposure at that point.

If you've a wax lubricated bullet, how is lead sticking to the interior of your barrel?
 
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So I think I figured out a few things as well as what I am going to do.

Benchrest, my understanding is that they start with a clean barrel, shoot a few fouling shots to coat the bore with the bullet lubricant. then shoot the match, clean and start again. basically after 25-50rnds there starts to be enough carbon, wax, and lead buildup to affect the consistency in relation to match accuracy. They want to ride the barrel with as few anomalies as possible.

no cleaning, basically they are letting the imperfection of the bore be filled (not as much if any issue with match barrels) with the lead carbon and wax fouling. Once the imperfections fill it somewhat stabilizes but does not provide optimal accuracy. In all the fouling buildup is slow enough that it can take years and thousands of rounds before it causes any actual issue other than a very small loss in accuracy over time.

My thoughts I'm thinking that I will follow benchrest cleaning theory the first several times I shoot the gun to test the actual accuracy potential for the gun with an ammo it really likes. After that I am thinking I will run 1 lightly lubed patch down the bore after each range session just to make sure it does not rust, since it is a carbon steel barrel. I am curious to see how accuracy degrades over time. I will have to set some sort of accuracy standard whether it be a % over the guns average accuracy or a set group size at a set distance and see how long it takes to go past my standards
 
Always good to go with your gut feelings , once you run a patch after each range session and see how dirty it is ... You may want to keep going untill it's clean . Then you'll look at the bolt face , magazine if clip fed , I could go on and on . Can't go wrong with a clean firearm . What would you do if your life depended on it?
 
Shadow9
Barrel condition and who knows for sure what else effects how often one should clean a barrel.
I've had 22's that took 50 rounds to recover optimal accuracy after a good cleaning and others that took 3 shots, there seems to be no rhyme or reason it's just true and I'm not talking about walmart guns, these are high end rifles.
The only way to know for certain is to take the gun and ammunition you want to use to the range with cleaning equipment.
I take my range guns out of the stocks around November 1st when it turns cold here and really clean everything and rotate them to the back of the safe until spring.
 
For a .22LR, you can let your gun tell you when the bore needs cleaning.

After a few cleanings, you'll know what the interval looks like and you can just use that interval from then on--unless something changes.

If you are a benchrester, you might notice the gun telling you that the bore needs cleaning after maybe 50-100 rounds. If you are a more conventional target shooter or hunter, it may take 10x that long. If you are a plinker, it may be much longer.

If you are shooting a gun with a rough bore, or using poor quality ammo, or changing ammo types a lot, you may find that you need to clean a lot more often and more aggressively.

The .22 rifle I shoot the most has a very smooth bore, and with the ammo I use, I haven't been able to detect any fouling. I push a patch through it once in awhile, but not because I can tell it needs any attention. I've never touched it with a bore brush--it's just never needed anything nearly that aggressive.
 
JohnKSa said:
For a .22LR, you can let your gun tell you when the bore needs cleaning.

After a few cleanings, you'll know what the interval looks like and you can just use that interval from then on--unless something changes.

If you are a benchrester, you might notice the gun telling you that the bore needs cleaning after maybe 50-100 rounds. If you are a more conventional target shooter or hunter, it may take 10x that long. If you are a plinker, it may be much longer.

If you are shooting a gun with a rough bore, or using poor quality ammo, or changing ammo types a lot, you may find that you need to clean a lot more often and more aggressively.

The .22 rifle I shoot the most has a very smooth bore, and with the ammo I use, I haven't been able to detect any fouling. I push a patch through it once in awhile, but not because I can tell it needs any attention. I've never touched it with a bore brush--it's just never needed anything nearly that aggressive.
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Not a benchrester, just like to see how tight I can make my groups, mostly target shooting with some plinking and hunting.

The bore looks to be in excellent condition after I gave it a good cleaning, It is a ruger american rimfire that I got used. It is the compact 18in medium profile barrel. It had a bunch of carbon buildup on the crown and the bore was fouled, I'm guessing the gun stopped shooting for them.

I tested 11 different ammunitions the other day group size and chronographed. I have about 5 of those I am going to test again on a day with less wind.

Over all I am hoping to be able to regularly shoot 1MOA with good ammo, reasonable wind, and me doing my part. I was able to shoot some 0.89 to 1.25moa for most of the groups the other day with some stiff wind, I think that it's reasonable to expect from the gun.
 
Shadow9mm said:
Over all I am hoping to be able to regularly shoot 1MOA with good ammo, reasonable wind, and me doing my part.
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If you are the only person choosing the way the rifle is loaded, aimed and fired, don't you always do your part for every group?

What's different about groups you think you didn't do your part making them?
 
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