Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Load testing barrel cleaning advise

I recently had to rebarrel a Ruger 77 mark 2 223 Remingon. Unfortunately the new barrel does not like the same load as the old barrel which was sub moa. As luck would have it I just got luck and stumbled upon that load right out of the gate.

Planning on testing bullets to see what this barrel like and then adjusting load and seating depth till I get to where I want to be. Will be doing 3, 3shot groups to determine what bullet it likes. Do you feel that cleaning the barrel in-between bullet groups is a must?

Thanks
CT

Is it a factory barrel?

Yes. Cleaned if after I got it back from the Smith and have about 50 rounds down it since then. Will be cleaning it prior to starting my testing.

Some advise cleaning down to bare steel after every shot for a few rounds, then after every three shots for maybe 10-20 more shots. But barrels can vary considerably in how much they foul even without any such "break-in" shots--which often also depends on the bullet and powder.

What I tend to do these days is use a powder with a copper eliminator in its formula, and not worry about it. Have shot a couple hundred rounds through brand-new barrels with such powders, and with a bore-scope never saw more than a faint hint of copper-fouling. And the rifles shot well from the get-go.

IME some barrels take 5-10 shots or even more before showing their accuracy potential after cleaning. In a situation as you describe my approach would be to clean the barrel completely with a good copper remover, shoot 4-5 foulers then proceed with load development. Maybe not the best way but has worked for me.

I have a few smaller bore rifles that “must” be fired 2 to 4 times for the groups to “settle-in”! It seems that our “larger” bore rifles require less…..some shoot the same clean or fouled bore.

It seems that each can have it’s own personality! memtb

No need to clean if you're changing bullets. Clean the barrel if you change powders, though.

Good shootin' -Al

It works

Note the Sharp Shooter Patch Out & Accelerator on Speeds bench.

No.
Not any more.
When I was testing rifles, sometimes several at the range at a time, I skipped that practice a few times now and then and noticed it didn't have any notable effect in the measured hunting rifle accuracy. (I caliper every group)

What did make a difference was how a barrel shot when new compared to having a few hundred down the pipe as at that point improvements in accuracy were noted as a gain across the board, no matter the cartridge.

200 rounds was the magic minumim where gains were noted.

Not a writer but a smith…

Bullets copper between brands can vary and impacts the group of the next set of bullets…. SO…. Before you start remove all the copper you can.
Then…

1) Use the same brand of bullet types but different weights and find what weight the barrel likes FIRST… so the copper chemistry is the same…
After finding the weight it likes I up and down the load by .5 grains so I can find the nodes it has to make my next runs shorter…


2) Then try different bullets / and jump off the lands with the powder it liked best.

If I am switching powder or bullets. Especially bullet brands, I won't clean so to speak. But I will foul that barrel with at least 3 of the different powder or bullet before I shoot a test group.

I"ve seen swaps at close and long range, of differing powders or bullets, IE swap from one load to another, give a highly visible impact change for the first 1-2 shots. Never the 3rd so 3 is my personal rule.

as to the supposed break in, its done as I zero and test the rifle. I've had a couple I didn't and they didn't shoot worse, but both did foul more than I expected so there is that.

Wish I could junk all my current powder and buy all new powder with the copper stuff in it. Alas powder has skyrocketed like everything else, and availability isn't that great so gonna just deal with fouling as it arises.

I can say that maintaining moa and under for the 223 for sure, 500 rounds down the tube without cleaning is nothing. A buddy shot a whole season service rifle without cleaning and the rifle was still moa also. I"m not sure of his round count but I would bet it would have been 3500-5000 rounds.

Fouling on top like that should get rid of a lot of problems….

But if you have mono’s in the mix it takes longer because they embed differently.
I learned that the hard way only to have some old fart / really smart gunsmith correct me…. I’m thankful some of them are still around.

Gritters is still teaching but stopped doing work for guys, I know Charlie moved, Colemans gone…. Times have changed.