cleaning and sighting in for load work ups

H

Heavy Hauler

Inactive
I hope this is in the right place.

What are your ideas for cleaning your rifle during sight in while working up loads? I have been reading more and more that you should try to get the coppering of your barrel to an equilibrium state, where the excess is pushed out by the exiting bullet. so your bore stays as consistent as it can be. and only cleaning when ballistics are affected.

I understand this concept, however, while doing load work ups would you risk having your bore become too "dirty" and throw your group sizes off which in turn, would make the load development data flawed? I would hate to write off a good load because of the bore coppering from a previous load.
 
This will open up a bag of worms. I clean after 25 rounds all the time. As long as your using the same brand of powder. Time your shots, after cleaning dry patch a few times. Some barrels need a foul shot & to heat up, after that, settle back and get back to work. Works for me.
 
I clean my barrels about twice a year or if accuracy starts to fall off whichever comes first. It really depends on the barrel. Some are good for 200-400 rounds before accuracy degrades. Some less than 100.

If the barrel is shooting well with a proven load then your load work ups should be meaningful. If proven loads are not shooting up to par then it is time to clean.
 
If you want to have all the loads on a level field, run 2 wet Hoppes patches through followed by 3 dry patches between each series of shots. Assuming you're not going crazy with the number of test rounds(3-5 per load), you should be able to fire 6-8 loads(or more) before needing to fully clean and start with another series. I don't remember needing to load/shoot more than 4-5 charge levels to determine a max while recording the group sizes.
 
I usually clean at about 20-25 rounds. I had a stainless Ruger 77 in 220 Swift that really needed it after 20 rounds.
 
Depends entirely on the rifle but in my experience those rifles that shoot the same clean or dirty are the minority - most shoot to a different POI when dirty vs clean. Therefore, I'm a believer in the "fouling shots" method of bench shooting.
 
In my experience and opinion cleaning your barrel is in most cases detrimental to accuracy. Especially if the person is using improper technique when cleaning the barrel.

My rifles all shoot better when they are fouled and have some copper in them. If I was to strip the copper out it will take 5-10 rounds before they start "acting right" I was once a believer in clean after every time you shoot, but after talking with a local custom rifle builder and testing the theory myself the cleaning rod has stayed in the closet.
 
After many years and several different personal theories on cleaning and when to do it, I now do just what jmr40 does. That is, clean as needed. Depends on the rifle as to when that is, and if a fellow can't tell when it needs cleaning, well just clean every now and then.

If you are a hunter that shoots 10 times per year, clean it before deer season starts and run two fouler rounds through it, let the barrel cool and shoot twice to check your scope POI.

If you shoot hundreds of times per year, or more, you already know what to do.
 
See I told you, l treat my barrel the same way as I want my arteries, with nothing sticking to the walls. Hoppe's for the barrel & alcohol for the arteries. Hope I Helped.
 
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