To clean or not to clean...a .22lr?

B

Big Caliber

New member
40-sum years ago, my folks got me a Nylon 66 for Xmas. The ol' man insisted when we got back from our desert plinking expeditions that I clean my rifle B4 I do anything else. And so I did. In the last couple o' years I've picked up a Ruger 10-22 & a Mark III. Both shoot great. Bought a brick of cheappie 22's (from "big green") that were just filthy to shoot. After only 20 rounds in the pistol I found I was spraying all over the target (25yds.) offhand and from a rest. So I run a patch w/ some Hoppe's and a dry patch and get respectable groups for about 20 rounds or so. Then the pattern repeats. I didn't put any through the 10-22. Question: I'm now hearing that taint a good idea. Really shouldn't clean a .22lr that often, the barrel will fall off:rolleyes: . I clean everything else I shoot though I am getting tighter groups with a "dirty 308". Will a small bore really wear out quicker than a big bore given the same number of rounds fired just because I clean it? The logic escapes me.
 
Buy yourself a boresnake in .22 caliber and use it to clean the bore of your .22's. The thing that does the most damage to the fine rifling of your .22's bore is the cleaning rod itself rubbing against the rifling. The boresnake remedies this problem. Also makes cleaning a snap. 3 or 4 passes and it's done.
 
You can cause undue wear by excessive and/or rough cleaning. Cleaning done right won't wear on a bore. If you decide to clean after every shooting session, that's up to you. Some people do, others don't.

I'd switch to a different ammo that isn't so filthy and shoots better through the gun.
 
clean that .22

--By "big green", I guess means Remington. Looks like a lot of their newer .22 ammo has been causing grief. They are dirty and not as reliable as it should be. Cleaning done right won't hurt.
--Another problem has been storing loaded .22"s where oil left in the bore settles into a chambered round, saturating it. The Remington cases aren't particularly moisture-proof. So after a good cleaning try to wipe the bore fairly dry.
 
Big Caliber

You say you have been cleaning .22's for forty years.You answered your own question. They have not worn out yet. Have they?

I have been cleaning both .22 target pistols and rifles for over 60 years and they still have not worn out.
 
I clean my .22 every time I shoot it but I only clean the barrel after a thosand rounds or so.
I think it shoots better with some lead in the pipe , but that could all be in my head too.
 
I run tests on all my guns, meaning i keep them clean for a break in period, 50 rounds or so. Then i shoot at a target and see how long they keep grouping. Not all barrels are the same in any cal., some seem to keep there groups better if dirty, to a point (and ) then there is the barrel that wont shoot at all if it is not clean all the time. If i'm putting them away for awhile i'll clean them, and lightly oil them. Just something i've noticed, not all barrels are created the same and each has it own way of shooting!
 
I think it was on rimfirecentral.com that a guy tested accuracy starting with a clean barrel and going for I don't remember how many hundred or thousand rounds. He found the gun got more accurate after the first however-many shots and pretty much stayed that way for the duration of the test.

I just clean the action, chamber, and wipe the crown down after shooting. The bores stay pretty clean just shooting lead.
 
I shoot alot of silhoutte and have found that my ruger 10/22 will not achieve its best accuracy for about 20-30rds after I clean the bore and I've drilled a hole in the rear of the reciever so i can clean it from the rear without removing the barrel.
 
A hard steel rod will wear more than alot of soft lead bullets going thru the bore! I still clean mine alot as it is often that there is a long period between range visits for them. I like to at least clean up the breach face on the Ruger and get the black crud off of that. Try something besides that dirty ammo and you may not need to clean very often. Some folks just shoot and shoot for thousands of rounds and never have a problem, but the crud eventually builds up and can cause malfunctions. I am just picky about that so I clean more often. I can't bear to put a filthy gun back in the safe, but if it is dry in there it ain't gonna rust or anything.
 
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