Give me your thoughts on this:
Bench rest shooters religiously clean their rifles between shooting sessions at the range, understandably because of their pursuit to limit all variables as much as possible, replicating every move so that the shooter is the least controllable factor.
I thoroughly cleaned my Rem 700 .270 after the last session and I took it out today to see how well I could do at 300 yards. The first shot from the clean barrel was 1.5 inches high (as desired) but about 2 inches to the left. The next 2 were touching, 1.5 inches high and almost dead center. Over the next 2 hours I fired a total of 19 rounds and my final 2 shots hit two balloons at 300 yards.
I wondered why I should clean the rifle. It's right on target. It's not unusual for the first shot from a clean barrel to be off target, and the "seasoning"gives a more predictable result, which is what seems to have happened here.
Now I recognize one can't leave the weapon dirty forever, but for those of us who are not bench rest shooters, how often should one clean your rifle?
Bench rest shooters religiously clean their rifles between shooting sessions at the range, understandably because of their pursuit to limit all variables as much as possible, replicating every move so that the shooter is the least controllable factor.
I thoroughly cleaned my Rem 700 .270 after the last session and I took it out today to see how well I could do at 300 yards. The first shot from the clean barrel was 1.5 inches high (as desired) but about 2 inches to the left. The next 2 were touching, 1.5 inches high and almost dead center. Over the next 2 hours I fired a total of 19 rounds and my final 2 shots hit two balloons at 300 yards.
I wondered why I should clean the rifle. It's right on target. It's not unusual for the first shot from a clean barrel to be off target, and the "seasoning"gives a more predictable result, which is what seems to have happened here.
Now I recognize one can't leave the weapon dirty forever, but for those of us who are not bench rest shooters, how often should one clean your rifle?