Fouled vs clean bore for hunting

A shooting friend of mine, who is a F Class National Champion, told me that she would never clean her barrel if she could. Unfortunately, dirty barrels are anathema to Hubby, so he sneaks off and cleans the thing.

“Honey are you cleaning my barrel again?” :o

She says that she clearly sees a tightening of the group at 1000 yards as the barrel fouls.

I am a compulsive barrel cleaner and I can say with a moderately worn barrel, I have seen the group move as the barrel fouls. With a new Krieger, I could not tell if the offset was due to the clean barrel, my position, or the wind. But it was not much. I believe as barrels wear you see more movement as the barrel fouls.
 
Playing Hookey:

I never have thought about clean vs fouled for hunting. After thinking about it I must go with fouled. During the twenty years that I hunt deer and antelope I always checked my zero the day before the season opened. I hunted without cleaning my rifles. I got my deer and antelope every year.

Semper Fi.

Gunnery Sergeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired
 
Has anyone ever tested the clean vs fouled shots,,,

I really don't know how much difference it would make.
But it seems like it would be easy to test.

Shoot some number of shots at normal hunting distance,,,
Clean the bore after each shot and see what group and POA you actually get.

Then shoot that same number of shots (or more),,,
And see how the group and POA shifts.

I'm not a consistent enough shot to test it,,,
But surely some of you marksmen out there could.

I would be very interested to read how it comes out.

Aarond

.
 
If I didn't mention before, I live in Michigan and it's often damp. Therefore I keep my centerfire rifles clean, and lightly oiled. I run a oil patch followed by a dry one. I can be assured I will not get rust in the bore this way.
 
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