What do you do with your gun when testing handloads for accuracy. Clean before every group or clean once before shooting then fire them all or cleaning before every group but firing a couple fouling shots before your handloads ect... what would be the best way to go about consitancy. What's the best way you found on going about this.
what do you do with your rifle when testing handloads
- Thread starter bungiex88
- Start date
Not sure why someone would start with a dirty barrel. I do not have a ritual, I normally start with a rifle that has a new scope mount, rings and scope. I will fire a round then adjust the scope, after that it depends on the number of rounds I have loaded. I clean the barrel when finished.
The range does not disallow cleaning the barrel at the range, they do not allow anyone in front of the benches. My methods and or techniques differ from most when cleaning the barrel.
F. Guffey
The range does not disallow cleaning the barrel at the range, they do not allow anyone in front of the benches. My methods and or techniques differ from most when cleaning the barrel.
F. Guffey
A well used, slick bore won't change accuracy in the span of 5 or 6 x 3 shot groups(or most likely not in 5 or 6 x 5 shot groups). If you're the kind of person who requires something like 10 shot groups, I'd clean between groups and fire 2 or 3 foulers before each string. If changing bullet brands, 2-3 wet patches followed by 2-3 dry patches between strings would be a good idea regardless of how smooth the bore is.
See the Copper fouling?
I clean when the accuracy drops off.
I clean until I can't see Copper in the bore in the last 1/4" of the muzzle with a flashlight and a magnifier.
That may take 1/2 hour of scrubbing with Flitz & Kroil or Witch's Brew and KG12 and bronze brushes and cloth patches.
pic above same as link below
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It will take 5-10 shots through a clean barrel before you start getting the true POI and best accuracy potential. No point in wasting ammo and components. I clean my barrels after hunting season. I do a lot of load testing and practice during the spring and summer. The barrels don't get touched unless accuracy starts to drop off. They get another good cleaning a few weeks prior to hunting season, but far enough away to ensure at least 1 or preferably 2 range trips to put a few rounds through the barrel before I start hunting.
If for some reason the barrel has to be cleaned, especially if the action has to come out of the stock, I won't trust it to hunt with until I get a chance to put a few shots through it. I'll use a different rifle until I can.
If for some reason the barrel has to be cleaned, especially if the action has to come out of the stock, I won't trust it to hunt with until I get a chance to put a few shots through it. I'll use a different rifle until I can.
math teacher
New member
I have a friend who did advertising for magazines such as American Rifleman who was prairie dog hunting with Bob Melik. After a lot of shooting he was about to clean his rifle when Melik asked him if his rifle's accuracy was falling off.
"No it's shooting fine.""
"Then why clean it?"
"No it's shooting fine.""
"Then why clean it?"
FrankenMauser
New member
I follow the same procedures that that particular rifle gets the rest of the year:
If it's a "clean it when it goes to crap" type of rifle, then I don't do anything differently for load testing.
If it's a "clean it after every trip" type of rifle, then I test with a clean barrel.
If it's a "clean it when the copper fouling gets too bad, but re-foul it to get back to normal" type of rifle, then I'll clean it and send 5-15 shots down range before testing.
Etc., etc....
If it's a "clean it when it goes to crap" type of rifle, then I don't do anything differently for load testing.
If it's a "clean it after every trip" type of rifle, then I test with a clean barrel.
If it's a "clean it when the copper fouling gets too bad, but re-foul it to get back to normal" type of rifle, then I'll clean it and send 5-15 shots down range before testing.
Etc., etc....
If the barrel has had at least a few dozen rounds down it already, I would clean well (but I wouldn't oil it, that is only for long term storage) and then first fire 2-3 fouling shots of anything other than what I'm testing. Then start with my shot strings; I usually fire them all without cleaning, unless I have a barrel that seems to foul quickly then I might clean between strings. Oil is not necessary at all if you're going to shoot it again; I push a dry patch down last so the bore is swabbed of any oil/cleaner.
With a heavy barrel you should be able to do 5 shots easily, but then let it cool for 5-10 minutes before my next string. Heavy barrels don't heat up as quickly but they also don't cool down as quickly so I try not to let them get too warm if I can help it.
With a heavy barrel you should be able to do 5 shots easily, but then let it cool for 5-10 minutes before my next string. Heavy barrels don't heat up as quickly but they also don't cool down as quickly so I try not to let them get too warm if I can help it.
Colorado Redneck
New member
Oil in the bore when shooting is not a good thing. If you oil the bore, run a dry patch or two down it before firing. I only oil if the gun is going to sit in the safe for a while. Then when it comes out to go shoot, a dry patch or two down the bore, and its ready to rumble.
Oil has a vapor pressure and loses it's protection for table saw tops in a few months. But is seems to protect much longer in a bore. Maybe a lack of circulation to get the oil out? Or a lack of circulation to get the water vapor in?
Getting that oil out of the bore will drastically improve the first few shots at the range.
I did not figure that out. I read it on a forum 10 or 15 years ago.
I would have thought that the first shot should get all the oil out, but... it does not.
Getting that oil out of the bore will drastically improve the first few shots at the range.
I did not figure that out. I read it on a forum 10 or 15 years ago.
I would have thought that the first shot should get all the oil out, but... it does not.
boondocker385
New member
So I was trained to clean my weapons as a kid and adult....but I have found with my preferred rifle (savage 110) that it is more consistent dirty. ...yet I clean it every 100 rounds or so. That usually means every month. I will then put half a dozen fouling rounds through it before load development or practice. I don't do much load development any more as I have found a couple of loads for it that are sub MOA. Funny thing is, it LOVES Remington green box just as much as my handloads although the point of impact is a little different than my hand loads
More rifles are ruined by excessive cleaning than those that are just left fouled. I clean after a range session, regardless how many rounds were fired. A bullet will always go to a different point of aim right after cleaning than when the barrel is fouled.
Modern firearms using non-corrosive components don't need to be cleaned as soon as you get home. Or at the range. If a rifle won't shoot good groups fouled, get it rebareled.
A word about cleaning. Get a good SOLID cleaning rod and spear tipped jags. Clean from the breach using a bore guide. Use tight fitting patches with caliber specific jags so you put a lot of pressure on the sides of the patches. Get a gun vise so you can use both hands to guide the cleaning rod instead of trying to to hold the rifle with one hand while trying to push the rod with the other.
Some rifles, like lever guns and autos, have to cleaned from the muzzle. Then a tapered rod guide has to be held against the muzzle to center the rod. Failure to do that will wear the rifling at the muzzle on one side.
Don't even think about one of those rope cleaners. That rope can and will pick up abrasives in the weave, then that crap gets dragged down past that precious rifling each time you clean with it.
Modern firearms using non-corrosive components don't need to be cleaned as soon as you get home. Or at the range. If a rifle won't shoot good groups fouled, get it rebareled.
A word about cleaning. Get a good SOLID cleaning rod and spear tipped jags. Clean from the breach using a bore guide. Use tight fitting patches with caliber specific jags so you put a lot of pressure on the sides of the patches. Get a gun vise so you can use both hands to guide the cleaning rod instead of trying to to hold the rifle with one hand while trying to push the rod with the other.
Some rifles, like lever guns and autos, have to cleaned from the muzzle. Then a tapered rod guide has to be held against the muzzle to center the rod. Failure to do that will wear the rifling at the muzzle on one side.
Don't even think about one of those rope cleaners. That rope can and will pick up abrasives in the weave, then that crap gets dragged down past that precious rifling each time you clean with it.
You can minimize some variation by shooting "round robin" style. Yesterday I was testing 6 different seating depths. I loaded 60 identical rounds, differing only in seating depths, ten rounds at each depth I was interested in testing.
I printed an 8 1/2" x 11" card with six small targets, one target for each of the 6 different seating depths. I shot them in sequence, one round at a time for each of the different seating depths. This requires that you carefully position the correct round in your ammo box when you're loading and label them properly so you can keep track of what's what. You need to pay attention at the range too.
I repeated cycling through the six targets until each one had five hits. In other words, rather than shoot five identical rounds in a row at target one, I shot only one round, moved to the next target and shot a round which was seated slightly longer, and so on, making sure that as I fired each round, I launched it at the correct target.
That way I ended up with a five round group on each target, but spread out over time to equalize things like wind, barrel temperature, fouling, etc. Actually, I wasn't equalizing so much as spreading possible errors evenly among the 6 test subjects, but you get the idea.
Then I switched to card #2 and did the same thing for the remaining 30 rounds. I went home with two cards, each with five shot groups for each of the 6 variables I was testing. The variations were small, but after scanning the targets, doing some careful computer scoring, and then analyzing the data in M.S. Excel (along with making several graphs), I was able to detect a clear winner.
As you might suspect, during my test the conditions changed from dead calm to a light breeze, the barrel warmed up and cooled down a number of times, and the degree of fouling changed too. Had I not used this round robin style of testing, I wouldn't have as much confidence that I properly extracted the test results I was looking for.
I printed an 8 1/2" x 11" card with six small targets, one target for each of the 6 different seating depths. I shot them in sequence, one round at a time for each of the different seating depths. This requires that you carefully position the correct round in your ammo box when you're loading and label them properly so you can keep track of what's what. You need to pay attention at the range too.
I repeated cycling through the six targets until each one had five hits. In other words, rather than shoot five identical rounds in a row at target one, I shot only one round, moved to the next target and shot a round which was seated slightly longer, and so on, making sure that as I fired each round, I launched it at the correct target.
That way I ended up with a five round group on each target, but spread out over time to equalize things like wind, barrel temperature, fouling, etc. Actually, I wasn't equalizing so much as spreading possible errors evenly among the 6 test subjects, but you get the idea.
Then I switched to card #2 and did the same thing for the remaining 30 rounds. I went home with two cards, each with five shot groups for each of the 6 variables I was testing. The variations were small, but after scanning the targets, doing some careful computer scoring, and then analyzing the data in M.S. Excel (along with making several graphs), I was able to detect a clear winner.
As you might suspect, during my test the conditions changed from dead calm to a light breeze, the barrel warmed up and cooled down a number of times, and the degree of fouling changed too. Had I not used this round robin style of testing, I wouldn't have as much confidence that I properly extracted the test results I was looking for.