Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns So, how often do you clean your .22 pistols?

To test my "seasoning" theory for yourself, try this:

Gather up four or five kinds of ammo. Pick a couple different brands, some bare lead, some copper-washed, and of both standard and high-velocity.

Shoot three ten-shot groups at 50 yards from a solid rest with each ammo type, but don't clean between. What you almost certainly will see is that those three groups will get progressively smaller from first to last, then go big again as soon as you change ammo types.

Now take a box of your favorite ammo and shoot a ten-shot group, clean, shoot another group, clean an then shoot three more ten shot groups without cleaning. You'll be amazed to see that the three groups after cleaning are large, but the last two (without cleaning between) get quickly tight. And they'll stay that way unless you clean or switch ammo again!

I've run that test series many times with different ammo types and in different guns. The pattern seldom changes. It not only shows that my "seasoning" ideas are sound, but that shooting only a few shots of ammo to see what your gun might like is futile.

Rocky I agree on the seasoning theory. I learned about it from Don Geraci who probably has set more ARG rimfire benchrest records than about anyone I know of. He taught me that when you swap ammos that it will take 10 to 20 rounds for things to settle down and for groups to come back. He also taught me to never clean the entire bore, as it can take sometimes hundreds of rounds for the barrel to reseason well enough for rimfire benchrest. I can not give any eveidence anecdotal or not as to the correctness of his methods, just what I was taught. It apparently works pretty well for him, but the only type of differing between rounds is going to brands of match ammo. That may be the difference between yalls processes.